3 Things To Avoid When Becoming a Web Developer

If you're trying to become a web developer and you feel like you're stuck, like you can't get enough contracts, the price people are willing to pay is too low. Or if things are just going too slowly

In this video I’ve got three brand new things for you that you absolutely must avoid on the journey to becoming a web developer. These are things that I've done myself, and I see people who have reached out to me do over the last six years every single day. I hope that by sharing these lessons with you, I can help you avoid some of these mistakes and save you months of trial and error. So you're able to get this area of your life handled forever.

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So mistake number one, the first thing I'd like to share with you is rampant among developers. It's called the imposter syndrome, which is the opposite of the Dunning Kruger effect. Some developers fall into the Dunning Kruger category. They think they're better than they actually are. More often than not, they fall into the imposter syndrome category, however, where they believe they don't know what they're doing. While in reality, they're good enough to do a project or at least to figure it out as they go along.

Most developers are perfectionists and have amazing attention to detail. However, you shouldn't allow these qualities to prevent you from getting started. Now, here's the harsh truth, you'll need to start before you're 100% ready to become a freelance developer or a developer in general, people spend years and thousands of dollars to learn the basics, waiting for that one magical time when they're going to be 100%. Ready, 100% qualified and when it's 100%, certain everything is going to work. None of these things are possible. What is possible is to learn in the most efficient way possible. And that is to learn by doing guest projects now. And learn as you go along.

Creation is never pretty. And when you're learning it is never perfect. Get used to this and get used to feeling inadequate. Even senior developers with seven years of experience encounter new problems daily and still have to learn how to solve them. As a junior, you're learning how to solve basic problems. And that is okay, there's no need to look for permission to start.

So the second thing to avoid is waiting for a perfect lead generation process. People reach out to me and ask me but how do I get that first project if I'm just starting out? I don't have anything to show them. I don't have any experience. I don't have a track record of success. How do I get the lead anyway? What you're dealing with is three factors. Factor one is money to spend on lead generation. Factor two is proof which improves your ability to get leads in. Factor three is more ways of getting leads if you have one, but not all three. Getting contracts is still going to be difficult. If you have all three you can build an amazing, successful business or freelancing period early on, you can get proved by building your own projects and getting some cheaper 1000 are projects that you do for clients as a trial.

Later on, you'll be able to leverage experience proof and volume and quality of leads to select the best contracts for yourself. The key is to start early and start at the speed and quality that you can deliver then move up as you learn. Don't wait to start. Don't wait till everything is perfect. Since again, there's no such thing.

The third mistake is controversial. So allow me to be honest for a moment, it's not a good idea to work on projects for people who don't have their stuff together. Often it happens that a developer gets a contract only to find out the client or employer has no idea what they're doing with debriefing or requirements, inexperienced and broke buyers of projects have unrealistic expectations and keep asking for more work for free never agree to this, the best solution is to go for more experienced buyers. People who may not be super technical, but have a real business or capital backing them up. 1000 or above projects are more likely to be a pre-selection criteria for quality clients.

So let's talk about how to get these projects. I've created a playlist on exactly how to do this. Here's the link and also the description to the first video. Click right here to learn how to get these contracts. So you'll really want to nail a relatively simple way to get leads through a platform like Upwork using the process in the video I'm linking to right here.

Feel free to drop any questions in the comments. I often reply in person to the best comments.