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Nedo-the-angry
7y

I need help!

This is gonna be a long question/story.

I'm a Syrian based in Malaysia working as a lead web dev in a good company.

I have a friend in trouble and I want to help him.

Here's a summary:

My friend is a project manager at a gaming studio he happens to be an Iranian atheist with around 2 years of experience in the game making industry.

He worked on and delivered a couple AAA games at his current place of employment as a project manager in one of the teams that made those games.

He stood up for his team when the management was overworking team till after midnight sometimes and forcing them to work on weekends without any tangible compensations ( basically they gave them things like free lunches, movie tickets, etc).

The result of his standing up to his team was the management handing him a notice telling him that he'll be fired within 2 months due to "underperforming".

This was a month and a half ago.

He looked around in Malaysia for a job that can get him a working visa, but his niche background couldn't help.

After his termination in few weeks he can extend his stay at Malaysia for approximately 2 - 3 months.

Now the reason why I mentioned that he's an "Iranian atheist" is the fun part of this story (sarcasm), Iranian government considers him as an "infidel" and he's banned from Iran.

His Iranian passport can't get him anywhere where he can make a living.

So basically he has close to no options.

Now to where I come into all of this:

I want to help him.

I'm going to dedicate my free time for the next 2 - 3 months teaching him web development, the problem is, I don't know how to teach web development in such a short time, in fact I've never taught anyone programming from scratch.

If he can show promising results I know that I can make a case for him get him a position in the company I work for.

I already convinced him today to try and learn web development because I can tell that in Malaysia there's always demand on good web developers.

Now to my request:

how can I best teach web development to someone with no programming background ? I'm thinking about teaching him front end development, so: HTML, CSS/SASS and JavaScript. maybe react js as well if possible ( high demand is usually on React/ Angular front end developers)

Did anyone here teach programming to someone else before?

Did anyone here learn web development in such a short time?

If you've read all this... Thank you :)

undefined

halp!
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Comments
  • 0
    7y
    @1989 there's plenty of local project managers in the market, and business owners find it discouraging to hire an expat due to high costing factors.
  • 0
    7y
    @1989 some recruiters rejected him the moment he said 'gaming'
  • 1
    7y
    This is a difficult one since you'd have to practice teaching before you can be sure you're doing the right thing.

    Also depends on how much time he has (like if he has some savings to live off of without a job). Need some time to get the basics down from an online source and then you can probably talk to him about your experiences or what you think would he need to know. Even doing something like udemy would be helpful to get his feet wet quickly.

    Otherwise he should go for a non-IT job like a coffee shop or delivery just to keep the lights up, and learn in his free time.

    I'm afraid I can't be of much help otherwise but best of luck to a fellow atheist in these tough times.
  • 1
    7y
    I would suggest codecademy for the basic stuff I learnt my stuff from there and I recommend it to my students at a regular basis
  • 1
    7y
    @Nedo-the-angry I'm Malaysian, and I can say for certain there are a lot of jobs for web developers; I've gotten some good offers for interviews the past year.

    Majority of offers I received were for full-stack and devOps work.

    It's your friend ready to go all-in or is he still weighing his choices?
  • 0
    7y
    @saintograph tomorrow I'm bringing him over for our first session to see if he has some potential in this field.

    He doesn't have much options as he's running out of time.
  • 1
    7y
    @Nedo-the-angry I can sympathize because most local employers I've had have overblown egos.

    Web development with JS in one month is tough. Why not set up a Slack chatroom for him and some other ranters who wouldn't mind chipping in a few minutes every day?

    Having a supportive community might help.
  • 0
    7y
    @saintograph I wouldn't mind that actually
  • 0
    7y
    I think it's best to see how he feels about web development tomorrow before setting up anything
  • 1
    7y
    @Nedo-the-angry Keep us updated by updating this thread. I wouldn't mind helping out, if he's keen.
  • 0
    7y
    @saintograph thanks, I will
  • 2
    7y
    I believe what is best for him is to check his options with a lawyer. As far as I know he is eligible(since he's been banned from Iran) to apply for citizenship in other countries especially if he's already in that country.
  • 1
    7y
    He should try to find a job as a project manager. Why not another gaming studio ? Or serious game ? Or VR ? Or 3d in more serious industries ? Or movies ? His expertise is not JavaScript, it's about stuff that move on the screen :D
  • 5
    7y
    I'd recommend sticking to PM role as that's what he has experience on. What @saintograph said is correct that there are a lot of Web dev positions in Malaysia but there are a lot of PM positions as well. It's not easy to learn web dev in 3mos without a dev background. If you think employers would not consider expat PMs over locals, what makes you think they will consider an expat dev with no work experience over a local dev? Even a graduate trainee is easier to justify to upper mgmt, more so if your employer is an MSC status company. He would have a better chance getting a Jr PM role rather than a Jr dev role. You have to be pragmatic. I agree with @1989, lower his expectations to increase his chances of landing a job and staying in MY. Once he lands a job then he can think of moving to web dev.

    Note: Once he gets a job, during the first stage of his employment pass application he has to be outside of MY by law unless he can get a "No objection" letter from his previous employer
  • 1
    7y
    @LrdShaper That's good advice. Hopefully it all ends well for him.
  • 1
    7y
    As a couple of others have mentioned already, I too recommend Codecademy.com for the basics. For further learning I recommend checking out Udemy, although it's worth keeping in mind that most courses there aren't free (although the prices are usually good, they seem to always have "sales"). Another place to check out would be freecodecamp.org. :)
  • 3
    7y
    update: my friend asked for help from his parents, they will sponsor him to study masters in project management for the next 18 months, so he can have enough time to develop his experience and find a better job in the market.

    Thanks for all of you who provided advice,
    really appreciate it.
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