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hey guys Yan here coding with.com so in

2018 it took me over a year to go from

mechanical engineering to finally making

enough money as a Shopify developer to

pursue that full-time if I had to do the

same thing today like after talking to

thousands of aspiring developers through

my YouTube channel after working with

over 3,000 students in our boot camp and

yeah we're probably talking 8 to 10,000

working hours in this ecosystem over the

last 5 years I could probably do the

same thing in like 6 to 12 week weeks of

focused efforts starting from absolute

scratch now in today's video I want to

share the exact five steps with you that

I would take and this going to be no

fluff no BS no fillers minimal editing

yeah this is just for people who care

about execution at this point and want

to get results so if that's you awesome

hope you find that helpful and let's

Dive Right In okay so then the first

thing we need is at least some technical

Foundation this is assuming you also

don't know how to code and for the first

two weeks for the entire first two weeks

I would only work on my HTML and CSS

skills and try to get as much practice

as I can yeah you can follow along with

the crash course follow along with some

tutorials and then quickly transition to

building portfolio worthy projects what

does portfolio worthy mean it means that

you build projects that look if they

could be real projects or real websites

so we're talking landing pages blog

layouts login forms mobile responsive

designs because future clients and

future employers they will check you out

and they want to know if you're the

right person for the job yeah so you

might as well show them projects that

look similar to what you will be working

on if that makes sense and that's

already going to be it for the first

step just two weeks of focused efforts

learning HTML and CSS and building as

many demo projects as you can all right

then off to step two here would spend

another two full weeks only learning

about Shopify and you can start with the

platform itself so I would try to build

some good-looking e-commerce websites

with like stock photos explore different

themes also make sure I understand the

backend settings like how to add

products collections um text and

shipping settings Google analytics then

maybe also explore a few thirdparty apps

for the most common use cases such as

reviews or multilanguage sites and the

real Beauty here is that Shopify is a

low code platform means you can already

build fully functional e-commerce

websites without even writing a single

line of code now I will also say it

definitely became a bit harder to find

work just offering store setups than it

was let's say in 2018 um just because it

is becoming more competitive more people

are entering the space but

conservatively I would say you have one

or two years left to position yourself

um my prediction is the whole ecosystem

is Shifting up Market different topic

for a different video but point being

here is you still have time left it's

not unlimited though and yeah the best

timing to get started would have been 10

years ago second best timing is now so

just be mindful of that now once you got

a basic understanding of the platform

you can also start to look into theme

files and try to use the HTML and CSS

skills that you acquired beforehand to

make simple customizations or build

simple sections because that will

already put you ahead of the people

without any coding experience and of

course you also want to save all these

projects because you can add them to

your portfolio later on okay now

speaking of that portfolio step three

now it's time to build that and you

really don't want to over complicate

this coming up with the initial version

shouldn't take you more than a few days

um to speed things up I would be using

web flow and a nice template yeah you

don't want to build this from scratch

and I can also give you a few tips here

it's extremely important that this looks

professional so you can put your

portfolio next to a few others that you

can find and then see how they compare

or yeah ideally have it reviewed by

someone

then you also want to show who you are

so upload a professional image of

yourself or even better a cover letter

video and if you're not comfortable

doing that if you're not comfortable

showing yourself it's usually a mindset

problem but you got to stand behind the

services that you offer yeah this is the

message you subconsciously convey if you

show yourself right I'm showing myself

here I stand behind what I say I take

responsibility and it immediately helps

to build trust with strangers um

especially if you don't have reviews or

testimonials to show then obviously you

also want to showcase the work you're

capable of doing so this is where you

add all the demo projects we've been

previously building and just make sure

like super common mistake don't send

people away from your website so you

don't want to send them to a code pen or

even worse to like a GitHub repository

clients do not know how to read this so

rather take screenshots write about the

project and present it in the way that

you want and then lastly at an easy way

to get in touch with you ideally an

embedded contact form and you should be

good to go all right now at this point

you have spent four four and a half

weeks on everything we've covered so far

and believe it or not now it's time to

find the first paid job now what type of

job is this going to be the answer is

just anything as long as you see a

slight chance that you will be able to

complete this project or research the

solution along the way as long as you

get paid at least a little bit as long

as you can add that project to your

portfolio and as long as you can get a

review or testimonial it really doesn't

matter what it is whether it's a website

setup a small bug fix building a new

section helping to integrate a third

party app like any job will help you to

build momentum and get more traction and

the first paid job is also such an

important my mil Stone mentally now what

do you have to do in order to get that

first paid job the answer is whatever it

takes so I would start by contacting

every person I know and just ask them

whether they know someone who needs help

with their website yeah start with

contacts in your phone then I would also

contact everyone I'm connected with on

social media yeah probably adds a couple

more contacts to your list then you can

also create a freelancing profile on one

platform I would just focus on one in

the beginning and then do as much

Outreach as the platform allows you per

day and you can also connect with 10 to

20 people in the space per day that

could either be on LinkedIn that could

be answering questions on forums or in

Facebook groups yeah just try to engage

in the space and I promise you if you do

that 4 hours every morning for let's say

the next two to four weeks you will have

your first paid projects guaranteed and

the rest of the day you can either work

on these projects or continue improving

your your skills by learning JavaScript

especially the JavaScript part is

something a lot of beginners struggle

with but at the same time a great way to

set yourself apart as a more advanced

freelancer and right now I'm actually

working on a new dedicated training just

for that for intermediate developers in

that position but there will be several

weeks down the line and also the amount

of people who can join that initially

will be extremely limited but if that's

still interesting you can leave me your

email in one of the links in the

description and I will contact you at as

soon as I can provide more details

either way now we're 6 to 8 weeks into

the process and you have an okay

technical Foundation you have a

portfolio that looks good and most

important you have the first paid

projects under your bed and that means

you're now a real paid developer awesome

and this gets us to the last step

full-time freelancing or finding

full-time positions so this is the part

way transition to full-time salaries and

if you prefer being a full-time

freelancer you basically just repeat the

steps from before work on more projects

get more reviews and raise your hourly

rates you can relatively quickly go up

to 50 an hour $50 USD an hour and then

few months down the line maybe to 80 90

100 120 is usually we at caps and people

rather rather switch to fixed price

projects um but yeah pricing strategies

is a super deep rabbit hole on its own

deserves the video on its own but if you

on the other hand rather prefer

full-time employment you can also try to

apply for junior positions at agencies

because unlike other beginners you have

learned all these skills in a completely

self-motivated environment and you

already worked on paid projects means

the market already proved your skills to

be valuable and you know a little bit

about client communication which is a

big advantage over most beginners so if

you ever face this Paradox where you

can't get a job without experience but

also can't get experience without a job

this is exactly how you break out all

right and this is it this is how you get

started these have been my yeah close to

10,000 working hours boiled down into an

8 minute video you can have it for free

and I really hope this was helpful I

thought at the end I would leave you

with a small Outlook because from here

you really have all opportunities so

what we observe with our boot camp

graduates is that they either stay

Freelancers and work on more projects

some of them like to work and travel and

only work as much as they need others

have scaled into agencies hired people

because they had too many projects

others have applied for full-time jobs

in agencies as I mentioned and some

stayed because they like the working

environment and others have moved on

even looked for jobs outside the shop of

a ecosystem um because after you've

worked let's say one or two years as a

front end developer in an agency you can

apply pretty much everywhere so yeah you

have all the opportunities in the world

literally at your fingertips and I

really hope this was helpful I hope you

can make it and always remember if you

push it it moves that's physics and yeah

if you need more help I'm sure you're

smart enough to find ways to contact me

otherwise have an amazing rest of your

day I'll catch you in the next one bye

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