How to level-up as a self-taught developer?

New
jelecode

New

jelecode
Jan 27, 2021 5 Comments

I'm a full stack developer with nearly 2 years of experience with no degree beyond an associates. I currently lead a very small team, and work in a small startup in the midwest. I see Blind TC's and balk at my paltry 50k/yr without benefits. I understand I lack a lot of experience, but even I know how underpaid I may be.

How can a self taught developer level up his skillsets and move to better paying positions? How does one in a much smaller city and non-tech hub network effectively to navigate to higher TC?

I understand enough I think to realize how astronomically little I may actually know in this field. Funnily enough, I've been, for better or (more probably worse), forced to be in a senior level of position in a small team since the start of my tech career, so I heavily lack mentorship or a large team of other developers to work with, so I often am forced to "make things" and "make things work", and I'm often successful with this, but I heavily struggle to know if what I do is "right", if this makes sense.

Clean Code
The Pragmatic Programmer
Algorithm Design Manual
Designing Data Intensive Applications
Cracking the Coding Interview
MIT's OpenCourseWare 6.006 Introduction to Algorithms
MIT's OpenCourseWare 6.851Advanced Data Structures

The above is my list that I've been going through along with leetcode, but I think I still struggle with easy's on leetcode, so I clearly have major work to do there.

If not, what else am I missing? What other resources would be recommended for someone like me? I'm not necessarily looking for 250k+ TC or anything...but 100k+ in the midwest would be a pretty substantial QOL shift for me.

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TOP 5 Comments
  • Boeing
    f63Ero8

    Go to company page Boeing

    f63Ero8
    Leetcode. Nobody in tech I don’t think cares that you don’t have a degree but it will make it harder to get interviews
    Jan 27, 2021 1
    • New
      jelecode

      New

      jelecode
      OP
      That's encouraging to hear! I'll keep grinding it out!
      Jan 27, 2021
  • SAP
    Kduo32

    Go to company page SAP

    Kduo32
    Your reading list looks ok. Algorithms, data structures and math are crucial. Prepare to prove the efficiency of your solutions.
    Jan 27, 2021 2
    • New
      jelecode

      New

      jelecode
      OP
      Prove it how? With Big O?
      Jan 27, 2021
    • SAP
      Kduo32

      Go to company page SAP

      Kduo32
      Yes, for example how to prove how many elements will be examined in a binary tree/divide and conquer algorithm
      Jan 27, 2021