On Sunday I made my first post here about my decision to become a blockchain developer. I heard blockchain developers, like solidity smart contract developers can get paid $150/hr or $155,000/yr on the average, and I was like, I want that.

It was a decision that felt both exciting and scary at the same time. I'm going through a roller coaster of emotions daily, as in the header image lol

But this post is not as much about my emotions, as it is about my plan. How do I go from 0 knowledge of anything about blockchain development to getting paid as a blockchain developer?

There is a huge opportunity gap there to fill.

I need a plan to get there. So I'll be moving from the end-goal of landing a job as a blockchain developer, backwards, to my current situation, not knowing anything about the topic to bridge the gap.

First, I wanted to set somewhat realistic goals and expectations. So I searched on google "average blockchain developer salary" and found this article:

Average blockcain developer salary

And here is a graph from that article:

The dark blue bar is the average income of a blockchain developer, $155K/yr.

Left to that, the tallest bar, is $125K/yr, is the 25th percentile.

The lowest significant block at the left is 74-94K per year. The bars lower than that are insignificant outliers.

At this place in my life, I'd be jumping in joy to land a full-time job in blockchain development for $75K or more.

But how? How do I land my first job? That's the critical question.

I mean, I know there are some tutorials online that I can follow and learn some basic skills required for those jobs. But are they enough to directly land a job?

I google "how to land your first job as a blockchain developer" and watch some videos to learn some of the best practices to increase my chances of getting a good job. Watched some YouTube Videos and basic ideas are:

• Develop your portfolio on GitHub as you go through your training. Once you can share publicly your sample codes, that is a great way to build credibility about your capabilities.

• Don't be scared to apply for Junior jobs for companies that advertise that they are hiring for senior developer jobs wanting 2-5 years of experience. A lot of times, they may still hire junior developers.

• You may also freelance for small little projects. You can make a little bit of money and build your portfolio at the same time.

• Network with people in the industry, online and offline. Many times, someone you know may refer you to a recruiter or a company who is hiring. Who you know is as important as what you know.

That's all well and good, once I have some training and skills. So, now what do I need to learn to become a blockchain developer? A few searches and watching several videos, I eventually come up with this course, which seems ideal from the description:

Solidity, Blockchain, and Smart Contract Course – Beginner to Expert Python Tutorial

Simply judging by the course contents, this seems to cover a lot of the most in-demand skills all in one place:

⭐️ Course Contents ⭐ ⌨️ (00:00:00) Introduction ⌨️ (00:06:33) Lesson 0: Welcome To Blockchain ⌨️ (01:31:00) Lesson 1: Welcome to Remix! Simple Storage ⌨️ (02:09:32) Lesson 2: Storage Factory ⌨️ (02:26:35) Lesson 3: Fund Me ⌨️ (03:26:48) Lesson 4: Web3.py Simple Storage ⌨️ (04:27:55) Lesson 5: Brownie Simple Storage ⌨️ (05:06:34) Lesson 6: Brownie Fund Me ⌨️ (06:11:38) Lesson 7: SmartContract Lottery ⌨️ (08:21:02) Lesson 8: Chainlink Mix ⌨️ (08:23:25) Lesson 9: ERC20s, EIPs, and Token Standards ⌨️ (08:34:53) Lesson 10: Defi & Aave ⌨️ (09:50:20) Lesson 11: NFTs ⌨️ (11:49:15) Lesson 12: Upgrades ⌨️ (12:48:06) Lesson 13: Full Stack Defi ⌨️ (16:14:16) Closing and Summary

I have no idea about how to do any of this right now, but I see many of those same titles in job descriptions in this space.

However, this course requires python knowledge. So I need some other course to learn python. A bit of search, I find this course, seems to be the most popular online and free python course:

Python for everybody

This course also seems like a comprehensive python course, judging by its contents:

So, this is a course I can start from scratch. And that concludes my planning process.

To summarize:

• I'll go through the python for everyone and then solidity-blockchain course, and add samples of my code to GitHub to build a portfolio, as fast as I can.

• I'll document my progress here, as a major part of my online networking channel, connect with like-minded people in the industry. Who knows, maybe one of them will become my future employer.

• After I finish these two major courses, I'll start actively applying for jobs. Full time, part-time, freelance, anything paid that I can get.

• Keep learning, keep making blog posts here, keep connecting with others, every day (or almost everyday, I'm only human)

• Share my hashnode blog posts at other places too, like fb twitter Linkedin.

I think so far as far as plans go, I have a pretty good plan.

Oh, and this planning-research part took most of my time on Monday. That, and a half-day migraine.

Only today I could spend some serious time to study.

So far, I could complete the 7th lesson, strings. Next lesson is the files.

What I do really like about this course is that, Chuck teaches the programming concepts behind the code too, in addition to the syntax and the flow etc. It is perfect for anyone with 0 programming background.

I think this week I will be able to complete the Python tutorial, next week, the blockchain course, and after that, I can start job hunting.

I don't have a job or any other obligation, so I can work on this plan full time.

I wonder how fast can I land my first job, and how much can I earn?

I guess there's only one way to find out. I'll have to try and see what happens.

What do you guys think? Do I have a good plan? Would you change anything to make it even better?

I'm always open to some constructive feedback.