Kemp - No Degree, No Problem

This book is dedicated to my amazing wife who supported, encouraged and sacrificedso that I could chase my dream. I Love You.
Also to David Bock who despite being a partner at a very busy and successful softwaredevelopment company: "Code Sherpas" still took the time to reach out and help ayoung guy who needed a mentor and take me under his wing, teach me the ropesabout Ruby on Rails and Software in general. David, thank you.

No one is an island, and NO one makes it on their own. I am not the exception to thatrule. IN fact I would say I needed more help than most since I was coming from such atotally different background than software in general. All the people listed are onlynames to you but to me they are hours spent learning together and asking questionsand figuring out problems. Without them I wouldn't be hired and I certainly wouldn't bewriting this book.
First and foremost I want to thank the good Lord for keeping me safe while shoeingthousands of horses over the past 7.5 years and letting me get out of that dangerouscareer path and into a MUCH safer one. I came out with only having broken a couplefingers and getting kicked about 20 times in my career. I am very grateful to have nothad more serious injuries.

To my wife, I could not have studied as much as I did for 9 months without her havingto take more than her fair share of taking care of my 2 little boys. She watched themwhile I was out either working or studying. You are the perfect mate for me :-)

To David Bock for always being "available" to me and not saying no even if it meantmeeting early in the morning to work out DNS issues and meet quickly for coffee. Davidwas and is the perfect example of what a mentor should be like and a greatambassador for Ruby on Rails and the whole software community in general. Withouthim taking the time and effort baby stepping me through problems and explainingcomplex concepts in a simple way, I would not have gotten as far as I did. I only hopethat whoever reads this book can find a mentor half as good as mine was.

The whole "Code Sherpa" team really took me under their wings and made me feelwelcomed. They helped me out when at Meetup groups and all around were nice to a"noob". I admire not only the teams abilities but also their kindness to newup-in-comers in the field.

Thanks to Arlington Ruby for being such a great place to come and learn every 2 weeks.Jim Gay, Chris Sexton, and Sean Marcia. You guys always do a really amazing job ofteaching/helping new Ruby guys/girls feel welcomed into the group.

Thanks also to NovaRUG for hosting an awesome Meetup group and hosting"Coderetreat" last year. Gray Herter does a great job helping everyone feel welcomed.Andrew Wagner who used to co-host the group and, has since moved on, was supernice in helping me get my first machine set up right for Git and how to do a 'git clone'.Jason Wieringa, an awesome guy and great developer who helped me many a lateSunday afternoon at Panera answering all my annoying "noob" questions. Jason has areally neat skill of being able to break a large problem into smaller more easy tomanage/comprehend sub sets of problems.

Richard Lewis of Wales who helped me with the remake of the
www.wellspringlawn.com site I made. He not only is a really skilled talented developer,he also took many hours of his time to EXPLAIN stuff to me and encourage me to askquestions. He helped me not worry if some developers are mean when you askbeginner "noob" questions. I've never been to Wales but I hope to one day and nowhave at least one friend there. :-)

Kalimar Maia, I am SOOO glad we got lost together in the wrong building and made aconnection while riding up and down elevators looking for the right place. I am sograteful for him meeting with me for coffee which eventually led to me getting hired atan awesome company. ZipList! Thanks Kalimar!

Matthew Gallagher and Colin Macdonald of Arlington Code Shop a cool Meetup groupin Arlington. Matt showed me some many cool things I had NO CLUE about like: "WhyJavascript can be hacked easily" and things like: "How to make a magnetic rails gun".Colin showed me so many things like how to "grep" something and how everything isvirtual e-file, even operating systems!. He didn't quite convert me to Python or Linuxbut I learned that I want to be a true software "craftsman" and not just an averagedeveloper.

The Whole ZipList team which would be too long to mention everyone, just suffice it tosay that I am having an awesome time learning from such a great bunch of people.ZipList really does have an development team!

I know, I know.I didn't mention EVERYBODY!.if I did, we would have no book, onlya list of thank yous which I don't think most people would enjoy. However there areabout 1,000 more peeps who helped me out in some way shape or form and I thank

DEDICATION
THANK YOUS AND SHOUT OUTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
OVERVIEW
Whats the Goal?
MY STORY
SECTION ONE
The secret that most college students dont know about
Why you can beat out college students
5 reasons why a company will hire you
SECTION TWO
What do I have to know, What should I learn?
3 easiest and most common ways to get hired
How to know which language to pick
SECTION THREE
Must have skills
Roadmap Overview
SECTION FOUR
Street Cred
Introverts
Learning Timeline
Networking
Blogging
Resources
SECTION FIVE
The Roadmap
Resources
Final Thoughts

It would be ludicrous to think you could be become a full fledged "software developer'in 8 months. Here's the deal, I'll show you how to get STARTED in a career as a softwaredeveloper.