Jd Richards

I spent over 25 years in my former profession and had quite a successful career in terms of employment. Unfortunately, my career was quite physical and I was injured on the job and could no longer continue in that particular career. I've heard the same story from quite a few Treehouse students, which has been encouraging. I've always had an interest in computers and dabbled a little bit about 12 years ago with some web design as well as computer networking getting my ComptiaA+ & then MCSE Certifications. However, I ended up having to go back to my original career.

After my injury I knew I needed to find a non-physical way to earn a living. That's when I decided to go back to school and really invest myself in front end web development and design. Originally, I wanted to go to a hard core trade school or boot camp where the students tend to be motivated and you learn a lot and are challenged by the community and the standards are up to date and your skills improve pretty quickly. However, I couldn't afford it and with the way the job market seems to be these days, I'd noticed that unless you are freelancing, degrees are often required rather than certificates.

I am depending on Treehouse to learn to be a real Front End Developer by teaching me the up-to-date standards and techniques that are used in today's market.

So I decided to attend an "accredited" college, that I could afford, to pursue a major in web development. Feeling I would be behind, I wanted to spend several months before college getting up to speed so I could keep up with the other students. I began reading books etc. and trying to learn HTML5 & CSS3 which had all changed since I had dabbled in the old HTML with tables etc.

Treehouse enters the picture

One night I was watching one of my favorite shows for inspiration, Foundation, with Kevin Rose who I've watched since the days of Screensavers and on through Diggnation. On this particular episode, he was interviewing Ryan Carson. Ryan mentioned Treehouse and his concept of starting a school that was able to teach anyone to program. I immediately signed up for it and began to learn. HTML5, CSS, grid design, responsive design concepts, wire framing etc.

Relevant up-to-date skills

I want to be a decent front end web developer & designer with a competence in the back end as well, but the college that I am attending does not help me move in this direction. They don't have a proper, up to date curriculum for it. So I am depending on the college to get a degree in computer science, and I am depending on Treehouse to learn to be a real Front End Developer by teaching me the up-to-date standards and techniques that are used in today's market.

How I use Treehouse

First of all the tutorials have helped me immensely and still do. But beyond that, some days my brain needs a rest or I am feeling a little uninspired or overwhelmed, and the bonus content such as the interviews, the demonstrations of the workflow, etc. get me inspired and revved up to keep going forward. And then on top of that and this was an unexpected bonus, the community from the Community has turned out to be a place where I go to a lot.

Everyone is so motivated which I thrive on (which is not the case in my college unfortunately), and if I have a question either one of the Treehouse team or one of the students in the Community has a resource or an answer to lead me in the right direction. This is the stuff that keeps me excited and wanting to learn more. It's overwhelming because there is so much to learn… but I enjoy a good challenge, it's a nice form of adrenaline for me. While there is a lot I still don't know how to do technically, I now understand concepts of other technologies that I want to learn and how they fit together.