Thread by @threehourcoffee

👋 Hi, I'm Marie. I used to work in advertising/branding, but during COVID taught myself how to code. In 1yr, I learned enough to launch my own SaaS product. Still learning every day, but hoping this can inspire others who are looking to make a career change. It is possible 🧵👇

It won't be for everybody but if you're on the fence about switching careers or learning to code, I'd definitely recommend exploring. You don't need to quit your day job straight away, you can just dabble to see if you like it. The important thing though is to dabble every day.

I learned by doing a short course on Udemy and then supplementing that with a ton of YouTube videos. My biggest recommendation is to figure out your learning style. This was my 2nd attempt - the first time I tried by reading programming books and failed b/c I'm just not a reader

In terms of figuring out which programming language to choose, it was determined by my end goal, which was wanting to make stuff for the web. With that goal in mind, I then asked developer friends what they'd recommend and the answer (in my case) was #javascript

What are some good resources for learning javascript? There are so many and we're lucky to live in a time where people share (often for free) their knowledge. I started with @jonasschmedtman html/css/javascript courses on @udemy ...

...then to learn from more practical or project-based examples my go-to YouTube channels are: @traversymedia @wesbos @developedbyed @DevSimplified @leighchalliday @academind_real

In terms of my tech stack...I LOVE front-end development so have chosen to focus on that and take a #jamstack approach. So I use javascript/React and mostly deploy to @Netlify. That said I had to learn some backend stuff ie node.js/express to handle things like payments

For design and styling, I typically use @sketch which I find so much easier than Photoshop (bear in mind I'm a self-taught designer).

In terms of getting paying customers, a lot of people ask how to do this. First of all, my business is far from successful. There are so many ups and downs - some days there are 0 new paid customers and other days there's an influx. Secondly...

...it's a very difficult question to answer as there is never just one way to do this. My advice would be to learn by reading other people's case-studies, and taking away the fundamentals from it vs the step-by-step instructions...

...there's a lot of market dynamics & context that is just not transferrable from one business to the next which makes step-by-step instructions dangerous. And honestly a lot of it just luck & timing. A good place to find and read case studies is on @IndieHackers.

To wrap up, I definitely don't have all the answers, so take from this what you will. For me, taking the plunge & switching careers was a lot about having 'no regrets'. That said, I was fortunate & lucky to be in a position to do so, so always do what is best for you. Good luck!