Last month I graduated highschool. 2 weeks after that I landed a job as a junior front end developer at a decent sized corporation in Toronto. Work is going good and all but I feel like I could grow so much more somewhere else. The people here are great but the amount of stupid stuff that happens is crazy. We have people who don’t know anything about UI/UX but since they’re higher-ups they’ll request design changes to our landing pages which impact conversions. Also, our website and almost all landing pages are ugly. No one seems to have a problem with it but when comparing us to the competition and just web design in 2022, our website sucks. I want to get it redesigned and start a project where we can greatly improve our presence but the amount of people and roadblocks we have to go through to do that is time draining. This is my first “real” job (my experience before was fast food). I like being a frontend developer and want to get into the big leagues ASAP. Where do I go from here? How long should I be planning to stay at this company and should I keep pushing hard for projects that would greatly improve our website? YEO ~ 1 TC ~ 70k
Get a degree in comp sci from a good university. Do some internships at fang. Leetcode. Graduate. Pass interview at fang.
CS degree should be priority number 1. You're already kicking ass out of highschool, and you'll be getting a FAANG internship in no time. As far as your current company goes, I wouldn't stress yourself too much to go outside the scope of your tasks. Definitely use your knowledge and speak up in planning/refinement meetings though. Being an active participant in design discussions will give you a fast track to a promotion. But work really should be secondary to school. Sounds retarded, but it's your easiest way into the big leagues and it will pay for itself.
Yea I think I’m just gonna save money this year while I’m working, build up experience and when I’m 19 I’ll go to school for a CS degree. Hopefully I get a FAANG internship but it’s looking good right now
Going to college is probably the easiest way to qualify for the big leagues
By using my experience as a front end developer do you think I could get into top universities? My highschool average isn’t Ivy League level but I heard they look something specific that you’re really good at.
You probably just need a top 50 school, not necessarily MIT. If Google comes to the career fair that is a good litmus test. But of course you need to get internships while you are there