How I Went from Digital Marketing to Web Development in 2 Years
Learning to code so that you can land a job in tech can feel daunting. That’s why we’re sharing inspiring stories from Codecademy’s community — to show how people like you (yes, you!) can embark on a learning journey and end up with a totally new career. We hope these stories serve as a reminder that there’s no single path to a more fulfilling work life.
Today’s learner story is from Will Fisher, a 28-year-old Web Developer living in North East England. Read more stories from Codecademy learners here— and be sure to share your story here.
Why I chose to learn to code
“I had an interest coding it for a little while. I was doing SEO work and digital marketing, and it was okay. We had 2 developers at the company leave, and I saw it as a pretty good opportunity to move on a little bit more. My employer had a subscription to the Codecademy platform. I hopped on, did a couple of intro courses like HTML and CSS just to help me in the transition.
Then I started on with the Front-End Engineer career path and progressed further. I found that I was obsessed with coding and I wanted to drive on and make a successful career from it.”
How I made time to learn
“I work hybrid, so on the days that I work from home, I either get up a little bit earlier and do it for an hour or on an evening after I finish work. I spent a lot of evenings just chipping away at the courses.
It took me about 2 years to complete the career path — and it was all in my own time. It’s just finding the time around my own schedule and around my work schedule to fit it in and set it as a priority.”
How my employer supported upskilling
“We’re a company that does quite a lot of different things, and the digital side is only a small part of it. My manager asked me if I wanted to move into a [Web Developer] role. He said, ‘We’ve got this Codecademy account. I want you to put a bit of time and learn the basics so that we can get you up and going.’ It was a simple switch rather than having to go through an entire interview process.
Then we brought on a more Senior Developer. They’ve been very supportive throughout the course, and I’ve kept them up to date with what I’ve been doing. Now that I’ve finished the career path, I am trying to push for some bigger projects where I can stretch my legs a little and put into practice the work I’ve been doing at home on the course. They’ve been very supportive and have encouraged me to complete it.”
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How I transferred skills from previous roles
“With SEO, you’re still working with websites, and my background in SEO has given me a deeper understanding than another developer might have without that experience. When I’m building websites, I know what needs to be done to make them SEO-friendly and accessible, something a developer who came straight into the role might need to take extra time to learn. It’s another valuable skill in my tool belt.”
How mentorship shaped my learning
“I’ve been speaking to a Senior Developer because we car share to work. He’s got quite a senior background building software with PHP and JavaScript. When we’re in the vehicle together, I talk to him about some ideas of software that I want to start building.”
What I wish I knew before I started learning
“What surprised me about coding is how much there is to it. I remember going through a course and thinking, I’ve managed to do this bit quite quickly — and that was after about 2 months. Once I finished the course, I thought I’d be up and running. As soon as I finished, I realized I needed to go back through everything because I had covered so much.
After getting comfortable, I saw I needed to learn backend, databases, maybe even a different language. There’s just so much to it, and you never feel comfortable knowing everything. But if you get the fundamentals down, there’s always something new to learn, and that’s quite exciting. It’s not going to get stale or boring.”
What advice I’d give other learners
“It’s a very rewarding experience going through the process of putting in the hours and starting to piece stuff together, especially when you start doing your own projects and coming up with your own ideas for software and programs. Putting your skills into practice and seeing everything work is quite self-satisfying.”
