Jeff Lau

Front-end developer mentorship

Why having a mentor is important?

Becoming a self-taught developer is never easy. The resources we have available our limitless and daunting. It's information overload and it is hard for a newbie to navigate this landscape on your own. As a front-end developer mentor for the last few years, I've learnt that every student can benefit from a mentor no matter what kind of learning style they take. Since every student learns differently, no single course can teach everyone. Mentors apply the human touch to the process to make sure that information sticks.

What you will get from mentorship

  • A one hour call every week for 4 weeks. Including pair programming and tailored to your needs
  • Homework marked and set every week
  • A reading list of resources curated for your level
  • A private chat channel for you to contact me privately when you need an answer to a question
  • Advice for interviews for full-time or freelance jobs
  • Advice for working remotely
  • Provide you with learning accountability (How many of you have tried and failed to learn from just free resources?)
  • Help you to avoid the common pitfalls of learning to program
  • Coach you to think like a programmer (It's hard if you've never coded before)

Who am I?

I'm Jeff. I'm a self taught developer from the UK now living in Taipei, Taiwan. I'm a cryptocurrency enthusiast and have been known to fly across the world to attend conferences. When I'm not developing or teaching, I am known to spend days climbing fake plastic rocks and occasionally real ones across the globe. I enjoy yoga, travelling and could not imagine going back to the office to work. There is too many amazing things to explore in this world and programming has enabled me to discover that. Choosing when and where you work is the future and we are the first generation to be able to choose this path. Don't waste it.

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” - Muhammad Ali

Experience

  • 8 years of coding experience
  • Built websites for Rolex, Wacom and other small-medium sized companies
  • 3 years mentoring at bloc.io a leading online coding bootcamp
  • 3.5 years of 1-to-1 teaching experience

What I can teach you

  • HTML - The building block of the web
  • CSS - The paint brush of the web
  • Javascript/ES6+ - The interactive glue of the web
  • React - the defacto view framework by Facebook
  • Redux - the defactor state library by Facebook
  • Gatsby - A react based static site generator (This site is built in Gatsby!)
  • GraphQL - An API query language built by Facebook
  • Meteor - A Ruby on Rails-like back-end framework
  • Apollo - A GraphQL client
  • Node.js - A Javascript runtime - environment outside the browser
  • Ethereum Dapp development - Connecting to the Ethereum virtual computer
  • Git/Github - The version control and collaboration tool of the web

I have been coding since 2010, with experience as a mentor working at Bloc, since 2014. I have worked with dozens of students helping them change their jobs from marketers, office workers, Uber drivers to becoming full-time developers in almost every continent. I currently work as a remote freelance developer for agencies all over the world, whilst I live in Asia.

Cost

The price is $750 (USD) every 4 weeks to be paid in full before the mentorship starts. Accepting payment via bank transfer, paypal or cryptocurrency (Ether/Bitcoin/Litecoin).

Apply

Use this link to apply: https://jeff643.typeform.com/to/RiKvia

Alternatively you can email me at jeff-lau@live.com or tweet/DM me at @_jefflau if you have any questions

FAQ

What is mentorship?
Mentorship is similar to tutoring, but on top of tutoring you to become a better programmer, at the same time we are in the same industry and you can learn from my experience and mistakes. A tutor is teaching you a skill, whereas a mentor teaches you their craft.
Why does mentorship cost money?
A mentor is a kind of teacher, no one would expect a teacher to teach for free. This is a profession and good teaching deserves proper compensation, just as the skills I teach you will attract proper compensation
Who is suitable for mentorship?
Anyone that has a passion to learn to code and seriously wants to join the industry. On top of that self-drive is important as this is not a full-time class or course.
Do I need to know programming before I can be mentored?
I have experience teaching people with 0 programming experience and taking them to a level where they can be hired as a junior developer. I have also mentored students that have studied computer science and want to get into web development.
How long is the mentorship?
The mentorship periods will be for one month and can keep recurring until you or I decide that you no longer need my mentorship. I am always keeping up to date with the industry and hope to provide value wherever possible. I hope to bring to the level where I become obsolete.
Why are you mentoring people?
The best way to learn is to teach. I learn from my students everyday and it forces me to learn everything deeper to be able to explain things to someone without any experience. On top of that, I just like meeting new people and watching my students grow and change their lives.
What makes you a good mentor?
I learnt coding later in life in my 20s. I'm not a wunderkind who started programming on his commodore 64. And I did not study computer science. So if you're looking for someone that can break down the concepts that are so alien to the average human being, I've been through that process. You won't hear me use jargon and I love simple metaphors. It's a simple joy of teaching.
Additional Questions?
Email me at jeff-lau@live.com or tweet/DM me at @_jefflau