freecodecamp_freeCodeCamp如何帮助我找到工作并改变生活

freecodecamp

by Adham El Banhawy

由Adham El Banhawy

freeCodeCamp如何帮助我找到工作并改变生活 (How freeCodeCamp helped me get a job and turn my life around)

I was a just another happy college student, double majoring in Computer Science and Economics at a university in Egypt.

我只是另一个快乐的大学生，在埃及的一所大学攻读计算机科学和经济学双学位。

I had fallen in love with programming after taking a few C++ classes.

在学习了一些C ++类之后，我爱上了编程。

I will never forget writing my first for loop and having it execute on screen without errors on the first try. I will never forget my professor telling me that I have good coding skills, and great potential if I keep it up.

我永远不会忘记编写我的第一个for循环，并让它在屏幕上执行，并且第一次尝试不会出错。 我将永远不会忘记我的教授告诉我，我具有良好的编码能力，而且如果我坚持下去，他将具有巨大的潜力。

Coding just made sense. Creating something and watching it come to life is the most rewarding experience that I have ever had in academia.

编码才有意义。 创造事物并观看它变为现实，这是我在学术界有过的最有意义的经历。

But due to political unrest at the time, I had to leave Egypt in 2013 and study abroad. I ended up in University of California Riverside, where I chose to continue my degree in Economics because it would allow me to graduate in shorter amount of time, and cost my family less money.

但是由于当时的政治动荡，我不得不在2013年离开埃及去国外学习。 我最后去了加州大学河滨分校，在那里我选择继续攻读经济学学位，因为这样可以让我在更短的时间内毕业，并减少家人的钱。

I thought I’d keep coding as a hobby on the side, and maybe get a job as a developer later on. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this mistake would cost me dearly.

我以为我会一直将编码作为一种业余爱好，也许以后再找一份开发人员的工作。 当时我没有意识到，但是这个错误会让我付出沉重的代价。

在加利福尼亚州破产 (Broke in California)

After a string of mediocre professors, I came to hate economics. I no longer found the subject interesting at all.

经过一连串平庸的教授，我开始讨厌经济学。 我不再觉得这个话题很有趣。

I had no idea what I was going to do with a degree in Economics, and no work experience after I graduated. It turned out as legal foreign student, I had the right to work for a year. But there was a catch: I could only work in a job that was related to my field of study (economics).

我不知道我要获得经济学学位该怎么办，毕业后也没有工作经验。 原来是合法的外国学生，我有权工作一年。 但是有一个陷阱：我只能从事与我的研究领域(经济学)相关的工作。

So I couldn’t even work as developer intern no matter how good I was!

因此，无论我多么出色，我什至都无法担任开发人员实习生！

That crushed me. I had been learning web development on my own — HTML, CSS, and even experimenting with Ruby on Rails. (All this was before Quincy Larson had even created freeCodeCamp.)

那让我很沮丧。 我一直在自己学习Web开发-HTML，CSS，甚至尝试Ruby on Rails。 (所有这些都在Quincy Larson甚至还没有创建freeCodeCamp之前。)

I had to bite the bullet. I got a job as life insurance agent at a Fortune 100 company. After two months of unpaid training, they let me go on my first day of work after the manager found out that I would not be able to work for more than 1 year without sponsoring. I had told them all about this potential issue in advance, but the company apparently had an internal miscommunication.

我不得不硬着头皮。 我在《财富》 100强公司中担任人寿保险代理人的工作。 经过两个月的无偿培训，在经理发现我没有赞助的情况下，我无法工作超过一年，他们让我开始了第一天的工作 。 我已经事先告知他们所有有关此潜在问题的信息，但是该公司显然存在内部误解。

I was stuck in an apartment lease, and had to pay rent from my parents’ savings.

我被困在公寓租赁中，不得不从父母的积蓄中支付租金。

Over the next 6 months, I desperately hunted for jobs and practiced coding all I could. I got better at coding, but job hunting in California was terrible.

在接下来的6个月中，我拼命寻找工作，并尽我所能编码。 我在编码方面做得更好，但是在加利福尼亚求职却很糟糕。

I finally relocated to Austin, Texas to work there as a business analyst and market researcher. I moved there after a discussion with the CEO himself, who said he understood my circumstances and that I would need sponsorship of my visa soon. We agreed and my situation seemed to be resolved.

我终于搬到德克萨斯州奥斯汀市，在那里担任业务分析师和市场研究员。 在与首席执行官本人讨论之后，我搬到了那里。首席执行官说，他了解我的情况，因此我需要尽快赞助我的签证。 我们同意了，我的情况似乎已经解决。

I did a good job there. I was quickly promoted to a Project Coordinator thanks to my coding knowledge, and got to work with both the marketing team and the technical team.

我在那里做得很好。 凭借我的编码知识，我很快被提升为项目协调员，并与营销团队和技术团队一起工作。

I took part in some QA testing and scrum meetings. Seeing and working with real developers reminded me of how much I loved software development. But actually working in software development as an Economics major on a visa was a distant dream. So I tried to convince myself that maybe I could grow into a project management position, and find a way to be passionate about it someday.

我参加了一些质量检查测试和Scrum会议。 看到并与真正的开发人员一起工作使我想起了我对软件开发的热爱。 但是实际上是获得签证的经济学专业的软件开发工作是一个遥不可及的梦想。 因此，我试图说服自己，也许我可以成长为项目管理职位，并找到一种对某天充满热情的方法。

严重文书错误 (A Grave Clerical Error)

I worked with that company for 8 months before I was notified that my work visa was not accepted. Apparently, the HR department had taken too long and submitted my visa paperwork later than the government required.

我在那家公司工作了8个月，然后才被告知我的工作签证未被接受。 显然，人事部门花了太长时间，并且比政府要求晚了提交我的签证文件。

Even though I had this brief period of income stability, I was never really happy. I felt like a robot doing random tasks dictated by others in a small office. Sure, I had amazing coworkers and a great boss, but I did not like where I was in life.

即使我有短暂的收入稳定期，我也从未真正感到高兴。 我感觉就像一个机器人在一个小型办公室里执行其他人规定的随机任务。 当然，我有很棒的同事和出色的老板，但我不喜欢自己的生活。

It seemed pointless. I had periods of depression that I never experienced before. I would curl up in bed and flat-out cry.

似乎毫无意义。 我经历过前所未有的沮丧时期。 我会curl缩在床上，全力以赴。

I convinced myself that maybe it was a hormonal imbalance because of an unhealthy diet or something else.

我说服自己，也许是由于饮食不健康或其他原因引起的荷尔蒙失调。

Anyway, the point is, I was screwed all over again. And now I faced a choice:

无论如何，关键是，我又被搞砸了。 现在我面临一个选择：

1. pack my stuff and go back to Egypt, where I would have to wait a year before serving in the military for 2 years. (All young men living in Egypt have to serve in the military.)
   收拾好东西回到埃及，在那里我必须等一年才能在军队服役2年。 (住在埃及的所有年轻人都必须在军队中服役。)
2. pursue another degree so I could legally stay in the US as a student.
   继续攻读另一个学位，以便我可以合法地留在美国学习。

After much persuasion from my family, I decided to stay and go to graduate school in Minnesota.

在家人的劝说下，我决定留下去明尼苏达州读研究生。

Why Minnesota? My mother knew a person who had an accounting firm there, who also persuaded me to come over and work in his firm as an accountant. He convinced me to enroll in any school for just one or two quarters while I worked for him and he promised to get me the work visa.

为什么选择明尼苏达州？ 我的母亲认识一个人，那里有一家会计师事务所，还说服我过来在他的会计师事务所工作。 当我为他工作时，他说服我在任何一所学校上学仅一刻钟，他答应拿给我工作签证。

At this point, I really had no choice. Either go back to unemployment and war in the desert, or stay in the US and hope for a better future. So I packed my stuff and relocated yet again to Minnesota.

在这一点上，我真的别无选择。 要么回到失业和沙漠战争中去，要么留在美国，希望有一个更好的未来。 所以我收拾好东西，再次搬到明尼苏达州。

I got into a random private school, and it was so late in the year that the only degree program still accepting students was called “Organizational Industrial Psychology.”

我走进一所随机的私立学校，直到这一年下半年，唯一仍接受学生的学位课程被称为“组织工业心理学”。

I waited for the accounting firm guy to keep his promise of a job at his CPA firm.

我等待会计公司的那个人履行他在CPA公司工作的承诺。

He didn’t.

他没有。

I was yet again stuck in a degree program in which I had no interest. I was running out of money. So I took a job as a warehouse worker so I could afford to pay my rent.

我再一次陷入了对自己毫无兴趣的学位课程中。 我没钱了。 所以我做了一个仓库工人的工作，所以我负担得起房租。

I had to get up everyday at 6 am and drive through snow blizzards, so I could work a minimum wage job packaging products. Then I went to classes at night and pretended to be interested while the university took my money — just so I could continue to stay in the US legally while I tried to figure out what to do.

我必须每天早上6点起床，开车经过暴风雪，所以我可以工作最低工资的包装产品。 然后，我晚上去上课，假装对大学有兴趣而对我有兴趣-以便我可以继续合法地留在美国，同时我试图弄清楚该怎么做。

I was living alone. I knew no one. And I could not make friends. It was almost Christmas, and I had hit complete rock bottom. Extreme depression was a daily companion. My primary goal each day was to keep myself from becoming suicidal.

我一个人住。 我不认识 而且我不能交朋友。 快到圣诞节了，我已经跌破了谷底。 极度沮丧是每天的伴侣。 我每天的主要目标是避免自杀。

freeCodeCamp进行救援 (freeCodeCamp to the Rescue)

I started freeCodeCamp.org in winter of 2016. I don’t remember how I found out about it.

我于2016年冬天启动freeCodeCamp.org 。我不记得如何找到它。

After spending a small fortune on American universities, I was extremely skeptical. I read about the certificates they had, and heard about the quality of the program. “All that for free? There has to be a catch. There is always a catch.”

在花了一点钱在美国大学之后，我非常怀疑。 我阅读了有关他们拥有的证书的信息，并了解了程序的质量。 所有这些都是免费的吗？ 必须有一个陷阱。 总是有一个陷阱 。”

Well I checked it out, and it turns out there was a catch. It wasn’t that you had to pay money. Money couldn’t help you here. The catch was you had to make time to work through progressively harder coding challenges.

好吧，我检查了一下，结果发现有一个陷阱。 不是您必须付钱。 钱在这里帮不了你。 问题是您必须花时间来应对越来越困难的编码挑战。

Well, I was completely fine with that!

好吧，我对此完全满意！

Once I started doing the challenges, I was once again reminded of the potential my computer science professor had said he’d seen in me. I was reminded of what I wanted to become in life. And I was immediately hooked.

一旦开始应对挑战，我就再次被我的计算机科学教授说过的潜能想起。 让我想起了我想要成为生活中的什么。 我立刻被迷上了。

I had already taught myself some basic HTML and CSS, and had a vague understanding of some Computer Science concepts. freeCodeCamp was the perfect refresher, and a practice tool to get better. I take all my knowledge and build stuff with it!

我已经教了一些基本HTML和CSS，并对一些计算机科学概念有模糊的理解。 freeCodeCamp是完美的复习课程，并且是一种不断完善的练习工具。 我会全力以赴，并用它来构建东西！

I started doing the challenges, and I remember at one point I had a streak longer than 30 days. This was the best distraction from my depression and my collapsing life. And it was the only thing in the world giving me any kind of joy.

我开始进行挑战，记得有一次我连续超过30天。 这是我沮丧和生活崩溃的最佳分散方式。 这是世界上唯一给我带来任何快乐的东西。

通过Web开发人员工作回到学校 (Back to School with A Web Developer Job)

Slowly but surely, doing the challenges and projects on freeCodeCamp started to give me a confidence boost and build up my morale. Just trying to solve those algorithms and problems on freeCodeCamp encouraged me to solve my own life problems — namely, the being-at-rock-bottom problem.

慢慢地但可以肯定的是，在freeCodeCamp上进行的挑战和项目开始使我信心增强，鼓舞了我的士气。 仅仅尝试解决freeCodeCamp上的那些算法和问题，就鼓励了我解决自己的生活问题，即根本问题。

So I started breaking down my problem to see how I could tackle them:

因此，我开始分解我的问题，看看如何解决它们：

• What do I really want in life? Happiness

  我一生中真正想要什么？ 幸福

• What makes me happy? Coding

  是什么让我开心？ 编码

• How can I code for a living? Become a developer

  我该如何谋生？ 成为开发人员

• How can I legally become a developer? (remember I am an alien, not even an immigrant) Get a CS degree

  我如何合法成为开发商？ (请记住我是外国人，甚至不是移民) 获得CS学位

So I decided to apply for the Computer Science undergraduate program at the University Of Minnesota in the Twin Cities.

因此，我决定在双城的明尼苏达大学申请计算机科学本科课程。

I went to the director of admissions and explain to her my situation. Luckily, I had not missed their deadlines and she assured me I would get in easily because of all my previous coursework, including the CS courses I took back in Egypt.

我去了招生主任，向她解释了我的情况。 幸运的是，我没有错过他们的截止日期，她向我保证，由于我以前的所有课程，包括我在埃及修读的CS课程，我都会轻松上手。

This was it. I was betting all my cards on that final chance. This was the biggest risk I had ever taken, and frankly the only life decision I made without influence from family or friends.

就是这样 我把所有的牌都押在了最后的机会上。 这是我曾经承担的最大风险，坦率地说，这是我在不受家人或朋友影响的情况下做出的唯一人生决定。

While I was waiting to hear back about my admission, I started looking for jobs available at the university. There was an internship opening for a web developer position that involved managing all the university’s websites and analytics. It required knowledge in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Node.js — all of which I had worked and — thanks to freeCodeCamp — had a portfolio of projects to prove it.

在等待回音的同时，我开始寻找大学里的工作。 有一个网络开发人员职位实习期，涉及管理大学的所有网站和分析。 它需要HTML，CSS，JavaScript和Node.js方面的知识-我曾经工作过，并且都感谢freeCodeCamp-有大量项目来证明这一点。

Just before Christmas Eve, I received an acceptance letter from the computer science department. But I still had no answer from my job application. In order for all of this to work out, I needed that job to pay my rent, because I had to leave my warehouse job before school started.

在圣诞节前夕，我收到了计算机科学系的录取通知书。 但是我的求职申请仍然没有答案。 为了解决所有问题，我需要这份工作来支付房租，因为我必须在开学之前离开仓库工作。

Two weeks after classes started, I got a call from the project manager at the University Relations office where I had applied for the position. She asked me to come in for an interview at the beginning of February.

开课两周后，我接到大学关系办公室项目经理的电话，我在那儿申请了该职位。 她要求我在2月初参加面试。

I went for my first ever interview. It was with the project manager and a senior web developer from the office. They asked me questions about my previous work experience, which had never directly involved web development. But they had seen my portfolio, and asked me some questions about Node.js and JavaScript. I managed to solve all of them. I don’t remember what they were, but they weren’t too hard, and were meant to check whether I had basic web dev knowledge.

我去了第一次面试。 当时是项目经理和办公室的高级Web开发人员。 他们问我有关我以前的工作经历的问题，这些工作从未直接涉及Web开发。 但是他们看到了我的投资组合，并向我询问了有关Node.js和JavaScript的一些问题。 我设法解决了所有这些问题。 我不记得它们是什么，但是它们并不难，旨在检查我是否具有基本的Web开发知识。

Considering that my entire life was on the line, I was pretty confident and relaxed. I think I made a good impression.

考虑到我的一生都在排队，我感到非常自信和放松。 我觉得我印象很好。

A few days later the project manager called and asked me to start working the following week.

几天后，项目经理打电话给我，要求我在下周开始工作。

实习，学位，freeCodeCamp (The Internship, The Degree, The freeCodeCamp)

Holy crap a computer science degree is intense. There is little-to-no coding, and a whole lot of math and pseudo code. Granted they did teach me C during my first semester, but that was just to compile it into assembly language, then translate it back and forth.

废话计算机科学学位很激烈。 几乎没有编码，并且有很多数学和伪代码。 当然，他们确实在我的第一学期教过我C，但这只是将其编译为汇编语言，然后来回翻译它。

But I found some of the complicated math and deep logic actually useful, and had some applications in web development. Like using a matrix representation of a grid system to move CSS elements in the DOM, and to create custom effects. Or using known proof methods to solve complicated algorithms. But it is HARD and being a full time student made it impossible for me to continue doing freeCodeCamp.

但是我发现一些复杂的数学和深度逻辑实际上很有用，并且在Web开发中有一些应用程序。 就像使用网格系统的矩阵表示在DOM中移动CSS元素并创建自定义效果一样。 或使用已知的证明方法来解决复杂的算法。 但这是艰巨的，成为一名全日制学生使我无法继续从事freeCodeCamp。

The web developer internship on the other hand, was part-time 20 hours/week. I’d go from class to work and from work to class. I got to actually use the web development fundamentals that freeCodeCamp taught me at work, and I still had to learn other web dev tools like Sass, Gulp, GitHub, and working with Linux servers.

另一方面，Web开发人员的实习时间是每周20小时。 我会上课去上班，下班去上班。 我必须实际使用freeCodeCamp在工作中教给我的Web开发基础知识，但我仍然必须学习其他Web开发工具，例如Sass，Gulp，GitHub和使用Linux服务器。

Even though as an on-campus employee I’m getting paid minimum wage, this experience is invaluable and is exactly what I need. I LOVE what I’m doing and I LOVE going to work. I might have had the Imposter Syndrome at the beginning, but I was so determined to get better. I’ve come a long way since February.

即使作为一名校内员工，我的薪水是最低的，但这种经验非常宝贵，而这正是我所需要的。 我喜欢自己在做什么，也喜欢上班。 一开始我可能患有冒名顶替综合症，但我下定决心要变得更好。 自二月份以来，我已经走了很长一段路。

Now that I don’t have school in the summer, I still work at the university, but I also went back to finish the freeCodeCamp projects and challenges, and am trying to learn React in my free time.

现在我夏天不在上学，我仍然在大学里工作，但我也回去完成了freeCodeCamp项目和挑战，并尝试在业余时间学习React。

Oh, and along the way, I met my first girlfriend. We’ve decided to get married after graduation. I’ve also made a lot of good friends, and have a game plan for once in my life.

哦，一路上，我遇到了我的第一个女友。 我们决定毕业后结婚。 我也结识了很多好朋友，并且一生中都有一次游戏计划。

I am working my ass off to become the best software engineer I can be so I can apply to an internship at the Big Four tech companies by the end of this year.

我正在努力成为最好的软件工程师，以便在今年年底之前申请在四大科技公司的实习机会。

Even though I’m struggling financially now worse than ever, I have overcome my depression and have become a confident, fast-learning developer. I know for sure that I am on the right path, that I just need to keep doing what I love, and eventually I’ll be successful and happy.

即使我现在在财务上的挣扎比以往任何时候都更糟，但我还是克服了沮丧，成为了一个自信，快速学习的开发人员。 我肯定知道自己走在正确的道路上，只需要继续做自己喜欢做的​​事，最终我就会成功和快乐。

向前进 (Moving forward)

The journey of becoming a developer is not easy. I have to thank Quincy Larson and all of the freeCodeCamp community for putting me on the right track. They helped me turn my life around when I had lost all hope.

成为开发人员的过程并不容易。 我要感谢昆西· 拉尔森 ( Quincy Larson)和所有freeCodeCamp社区，使我走上了正确的道路。 当我失去所有希望时，他们帮助我改变了生活。

This is definitely not the end of the road. The journey doesn’t stop once you get the job.

这绝对不是路的尽头。 一旦找到工作，旅程就不会停止。

I hope the takeaway for anyone who read this far is to do what you love, no matter what the odds are. Don’t force yourself to do anything you’re not passionate about, because it can be a major cause of depression.

我希望无论阅读者有多大的努力，对于所有读过这篇文章的人来说，外卖都是做自己喜欢的事情。 不要强迫自己做自己不热衷的事情，因为这可能是导致抑郁的主要原因。

Keep on coding and have fun doing it!

继续编码并尽享乐趣！

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-freecodecamp-helped-me-get-a-job-and-turn-my-life-around-5ffe807085cf/

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