In 2021 I earned my first NFTs for completing a couple of Buildspace projects (Mint your own NFT collection & Intro to web3). Back then they were offering project-based learning on a handful of web3 topics. Since then they have evolved into Nights & Weekends, a platform that gives creators 6 weeks to build their idea with a demo day and IRL meetup at the end, as well as a budding IRL school for builders.
After enrolling in Nights & Weekends Season 2 & having to drop out for personal reasons I feel a personal obligation to make Season 4 a success. My goal for N&W S4 is multi-faceted, but ultimately I want to create a portfolio worth sharing, land an entry-level job in tech, and share the process that got me there; from chef to full-time web developer. This process will vary for everyone, especially since I'm starting from the middle, but I think it's important to document & share for people like me: the 30-something, father of 3 under 4, career line cook (or whoever) who has decided they want to make a change.
Step one for me is to continue what I've been building towards. I have had a solid foundation in HTML & CSS for years and I've done some lower-level CS courses exposing me to C, Python and Java. I've been messing around with JavaScript since 2020, and am currently focused on getting better at JavaScript and learning more React as well as Node.js. My focus will be to become more proficient in development using the MERN stack. This is how I intend on building 86bacon, a platform to enable cooks to get bigger raises.
As of right now, 86bacon is a landing page with a sign-up form for the waitlist; in 6 weeks 86bacon will be a place where cooks can share location & experience-specific salary data & leverage that data to negotiate bigger raises & find higher-paying jobs. Line cooks are underpaid all over the world, and what's worse is that they are commonly instructed not to discuss their wages. This unhealthy practice is keeping good cooks from earning fair pay & 86bacon will serve as a platform for users to anonymously empower each other to earn more.
Step two of this goal will be creating the "If You Can Cook, You Can Code" program. The entire reason for my learning & building in public is to amass notes, resources, project ideas and content to help curate a roadmap for the people I mentioned previously: the people like me, the industry people. This project may be separate from the scope of my buildspace project, but ultimately I want to lay out a roadmap for other career changers. I will continue to post updates here weekly. <3