My Tech Resources

My tech journey started when I quit my full-time role as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist in April 2022 after a decade-long of experience in biotech and healthcare. I started learning how to code in middle school but quit around high school because I had imposter syndrome and I didn't have a female mentor to encourage me to keep going. But I often thought about going back even as a lab scientist especially when I found manual processes in the lab to be replaceable with possibly a software solution. During the pandemic, I did some soul-searching and wanted to switch careers. I fell back in love with coding and wanted that as a career for the rest of my life.

Here is a comprehensive collection of resources that helped me in my journey. I'll be pointing folks to this post since I've been getting a lot of frequently asked questions.

Keep in mind that if you read someone's advice or journey, their advice might not work for you. It's the same with my resources and journey. Following my resources or journey will not be a 100% guarantee that you will land a job, but if you persevere, continue to improve, and put yourself out there, you will increase your luck and skills so you can get more opportunities to land that tech offer!

(Last reviewed/edited: May 1, 2024)

Summary of Contents

Learning resources

Guides

Portfolio ideas

Building experience

Learning and network communities

Tech women community

Resume help

DSAs and interview prep

Job search sites

Mentors

My journey

Learning resources

Before I quit my job in 2022, I weighed the pros and cons between coding boot camps and the self-taught route. Because I want to save money and have the capability to learn on my own, I decided on the self-taught route. Here are all the learning resources I used to learn web development and the coding foundations.

• Front end development (React + more) at Scrimba: https://scrimba.com/

• Zero to Mastery Academy: https://zerotomastery.io/

• Colt Steele at Udemy: https://lnkd.in/egvdc5-5

• ZTM's bucket of resources from cheat sheets, logo makers, templates, assets, playlists and more: https://zerotomastery.io/resources/

• Brian Jenney's unit testing courses: https://brianjenney.me/

• Read and practice basic to advanced JavaScript​: Eloquent JavaScript

Guides

While on my journey, I look up guides and advice to see how I can best learn and sell my brand/resume so I can get a job. You can do a Google search to see other guides and advice out there too. Don't limit yourself to these. Honestly, I probably read over 20 guides but I feel like the ones below are the most impactful.

• Raymond Gan has a gold mine of helpful advice and posts

• Frontend Developer roadmap: roadmap.sh

• The Front End Developer/Engineer Handbook 2024 at frontendmasters.com

• Free Code Camp's "How to Learn to Code & Get a Developer Job"

• ZTM's Learn to Code For Free

• Another dev's experience: How to Break Into the Tech Industry - A Guide to Job Hunting and Tech Interviews

Portfolio ideas

As a front-end engineer, I love building my portfolio and showing my creativity. Here are some resources for my inspiration. As you read through Raymond's and Bryan's advice, take them with a grain of salt because everyone's experience in breaking into tech is unique.

• Raymond Gan's take on portfolios/projects and what can help you stand out

• Bryan Yi's Medium article: 2 Projects to Get You to Your First Web Developer Job in 2023

• Arc's How to Build a Powerful Web Developer Portfolio

• Brittany Chiang's portfolio for inspiration

• Cory Hughart's portfolio for inspiration

• Denise Chandler's portfolio for inspiration

• 27 Examples of Web Developer Portfolios for Inspiration

Building experience

This is the most important section because I found the best ROI here. The experience you get from here can go directly into your resume and if you're playing the numbers game and applying to so many posts, you want to ensure your resume is loaded with impactful roles and projects.

• Don't know how to start building your experience? Check out Cultivated Culture's "No Experience, No Problem" course to learn the framework in breaking into a new field ($197, a nice investment but not required)

• Find volunteer/unpaid internships via LinkedIn jobs (using "web developer internship" as a search and "internship" as experience level)

• Join the Code for America's Community Fellowship program

• Volunteer and develop LA's local initiatives through Hack for LA (formerly Code for America's Coding Brigade I was a part of)

• Open Source Guides: How to Contribute to Open Source

• Compete in Hackathons via DevPost

Learning and networking communities

It's tough being a self-taught dev. I was often by myself and I had nobody to turn to if I needed help or had questions. Fear not: the tech community has a lot of groups out there ready to help out. Check out these communities.

• Scrimba community: Discord, live events, town halls, YouTube streams

• ZTM community: over 431,000 total members

• Taro community: https://www.jointaro.com/ (Junior engineer forum)

• DevelopThis, offering post-bootcamp support to graduates: Discord

• Brian Jenney's community: https://brianjenney.me/

• ADPList for accessible mentorship

• Formation is a fellowship program to help all levels practice DSAs through group and pair programming and get coaching

• Find mentors on Codementor to get help (varying $15-60/session) in debugging or tutoring. It can be used as the very last option but I found a lot of value in getting help from developers directly on-demand.

Tech women community

Being a woman in the tech industry can be lonely sometimes because you'd often end up being the "only woman" or non-binary person in the group. Finding a community that understands your position is crucial for your growth and mental health.

• Tech Ladies®: founding membership, live virtual chats, networking, jobs

• Unfortunately, Women Who Code just announced its closure in April 2024 but I have a long separate list of organizations supporting women in tech here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/organizations-supporting-women-tech-vanessa-vun-ugjnc/

• Frontend Queens

Resume help

Having an impactful resume at first glance will either put you in the "YES" pile or the "NO" pile. Aim to be at least in the "YES" pile right away by utilizing strategies and advice here:

• Resume worded (AI-powered to grade your resume): https://lnkd.in/ePEAc9Qn

• Use the XYZ Formula on your resume: Inc. Article

• Career coach/resume help: Laura Holt, https://eightlm.com/

DSAs and interview prep

Often you hear about the dreaded "DSAs" and Leetcode you need to prepare for, but those are usually required when applying to big tech/MAANG companies. If you apply for mid-sized or smaller companies, you might not need to prep for these types of interviews. Just do your research on the company and how you can prepare for them. You can also ask the recruiter what the technical interview will be like. But if you need to practice DSAs, check these out:

• Google's Interview Warmup

• Tech Interview Handbook: "Software Engineer Interviews: Everything you need to prepare"

• LeetCode: https://leetcode.com/

• NeetCode (video explanation and solutions): https://neetcode.io/

• Interview Cake: https://www.interviewcake.com/

Job search sites

Most of my job search happened on LinkedIn but if it feels like a dry desert of opportunities, check out other sites below:

• LinkedIn (Tech Boolean searches, Another article)

• Good old Indeed

• YCombinator: Startup Jobs

• Wellfound (fka AngelList): Where startups and job seekers connect

• Otta: Recommended for you

• Diversify Tech Job Board: Software Development

• Climatebase: Jobs in climate solutions

• JustRemote: Developer Jobs

• Remote.co: Remote Front-End Developer Jobs

• GetIntoTech.io: Entry-Level Coding and Tech Jobs

• RemoteOk.com: Remote Engineer Jobs

• WeWorkRemotely.com: Front-End Programming Jobs

Mentors

Sometimes we need 1:1 consultation or direct help from coaches. Here are some mentors who I found to be awesome and have helped me along the way!

• Brian Jenney

• Alexander Lee

• Vincent Ng

• Tricia Leach (ADPList)

• Skye Nguyen (ADPList)

• 🌻 Anna Miller

My Journey

Last but not least, I've talked about my journey to tech in these podcasts if you rather listen then browse through my posts or this page to figure out what I've done.

• Self-Taught Devs E22 - Pivoting Your Strategy with Vanessa Vun (Spotify)

• Scrimba - From Lab Coat to Code: Vanessa's Path from Lab Scientist to Developing Lab Software (Spotify)

• CodeNewbie S25E3 - Self-Taught Coding Stories of a Former Lab Scientist (Spotify)

• Develop Yourself #130 - From Lab Scientist to Software Engineer at 35: Vanessa Vun Shares A Unique Strategy for Changing Careers (Spotify)

• Self-Taught Devs E68 - Starting your first Software Engineer position with Vanessa Vun (Spotify)