How I did it - 25yo $200k+ Self Taught & Self Employed Developer (Recorded 2020)

2020 Recorded Video - My journey through software development as a career and business.
Message me on Linkedin for free career help 👉 / terrell-gentry
My Journey...
① - video #1 on channel: Self taught (on the job) Full stack Javascript developer. Joined a high-tech ecom startup as 9th employee. I no life'd it as the CTO's right hand man to help grow it to around 40+ employees in 2 years. Helped lead engineering, hiring and proj. management efforts at 20yo.
② - Left dev job and then started 2 companies, one was a Shopify development firm with some partners and the other a music tech startup. At the firm I lead the development division and my team helped publicly traded companies and many small businesses with custom Shopify apps and themes. I did this for just 2 years until I left the firm because of founder differences.
👉 ③ THIS VIDEO - During 2020, I lead a dev teams for various unicorn tech startups and am super thankful I got to learn so much at the time. Again, put head down and worked hard to earn various public recommendations from execs at these tech unicorns (in product, engineering, etc.)
④ - I decided to settle down on the client work and take a director role building/leading a new growth department at different startup altogether. Again a high-tech ecom startup that had bootstrapped to low-8 figures annual rev. Company was doing $70m+ per year from a combination of various company wide efforts and the new growth department I had built in under 2years.
⑤ - NOW (2024): Running an AI dev shop and WORKING my way to the top. NEVER, letting my success get me too comfortable
When I started I had no degree, no CS background and was told I was a failure, repeatedly. I got that head of marketing/ecom role (growth) when people told me I wasn't a marketer. This story was not to brag. It was to inspire and motivate through showing whats possible!
P.S. f**k the lies we are told holding us back about titles and requirements needed! 🚀

[@terrell-gentry]

Message me on Linkedin for free career help 🚀 www.linkedin.com/in/terrell-gentry My Journey👇(READ MORE) ① - Video #1 on channel: Self taught (on the job) Full stack Javascript developer. Joined a high-tech ecom startup as 9th employee. I no life'd it as the CTO's right hand man to help grow it to around 40+ employees in 2 years. Helped lead engineering, hiring and proj. management efforts at 20yo. ② - Left dev job and then started 2 companies, one was a Shopify development firm with some partners and the other a music tech startup. At the firm I lead the development division and my team helped publicly traded companies and many small businesses with custom Shopify apps and themes. I did this for just 2 years until I left the firm because of founder differences. 👉 ③ THIS VIDEO - During 2020, I lead a dev teams for various unicorn tech startups and am super thankful I got to learn so much at the time. Again, put head down and worked hard to earn various public recommendations from execs at these tech unicorns (in product, engineering, etc.) ④ - I decided to settle down on the client work and take a director role building/leading a new growth department at different startup altogether. Again a high-tech ecom startup that had bootstrapped to low-8 figures annual rev. Company was doing $70m+ per year from a combination of various company wide efforts and the new growth department I had built in under 2years. ⑤ - NOW (2024): Running an AI dev shop and WORKING my way to the top. NEVER, letting any success get me too comfortable When I started I had no degree, no CS background and was told I was a failure, repeatedly. I got that head of marketing/ecom role (growth) when people told me I wasn't a marketer. This story was not to brag. It was to inspire and motivate through showing whats possible! P.S. f**k the lies we are told holding us back about titles and requirements needed! 🚀

[@Proxy1337-q5l]

I'm 21 also starting my journey.(4months) I've learned Python and i am currently doing a boot camp to get familiar with html css bootstrap java jquery nodejs ejs and some sql database stuff. Just gathering general knowledge. Good to see you doing well hopefully ill be there one day too.

[@terrell-gentry]

Let's gooo! Study, Practice, Repeat 🚀

[@madhatter2744]

skip ejs and jquery and go straight to a frontend framework with typescript and thank me later

[@TSF15152]

I just finished my bootcamp I’m trying to find a job I have my own idea for an app that nobody has yet implemented but I need the capital to build it. Learning C++ Swift and PHP atm

[@rkumarv]

the man the myth the legend!

[@terrell-gentry]

Just on the journey brotha, thanks for the support!!

[@CaptainDouchie]

2020 when the tech market was booming and easy to get into though

[@terrell-gentry]

True! It's all supply and demand. Become in high demand. What if i told you we all 1-of-1 by default but we choose to copy others instead? :)

[@youssefhachicha-nj6wf]

I am 21 i have 2years of professional experience in mobile dev and it seem impossible for me to get a remote job since i am not from the usa nor europe, maybe i can send u my cv and take a look at it, honestly at this point i gave up i sent over 1000 applications

[@terrell-gentry]

Ghost jobs a the number 1 enemy and you need to be applying to real jobs or using AI to combat this. 80%+ of listings are ghost jobs unfortunately

[@Divyv520]

Hey Terrel , very good video ! I was wondering if I can help you with more Quality Editing in your videos and make Highly Engaging Thumbnails which will help your videos to get more views and engagement . Please let me know what do you think ?

[@terrell-gentry]

No thanks, i checked your channel and saw no example work. Also, i go by the motto of give before you ask. It's how i've grown so fast as a dev 🙂

[@Rkbhaikicomedy]

Why bro after 4 years ....do you busy...or anything happens

[@terrell-gentry]

Just documenting my journey as I think it can help many others 🙂

[@franklin_johnson01]

Windows 10 ? Its approaching EOL

[@terrell-gentry]

hahaha yep

[@Lennycowans]

🐐🐐🐐

[@terrell-gentry]

💪

[@az-zm4ji]

why is your linkedin ui so old

[@terrell-gentry]

This was recorded in 2020 as the title says

[@beancoffee]

25yr old and recorded in 2020, so he's 29 now? also the market was totally different back then, i don't think it'll work today like it did that time.

[@terrell-gentry]

Don't compete in "the market", compete in a high demand segment. Markets arn't fair where you get to choose what is in demand. Yes right now its the same for me. Why? Because i'm in AI

[@terrell-gentry]

Early 2020 everyone was being fired. I even got let go from a large consulting contract meant to be much longer term. But then I checked my LinkedIn and saw my skills were needed since businesses HAD TODO ECOM or they would die. I could sell delivery solutions using Shopify to restaurant's and so many big tech firms reached out to me during that time. Ecom skills sold like hot cakes.. and so does AI right now..

[@onedev02]

cool bro, will there be any more videos recorded this year?)

[@terrell-gentry]

@@onedev02 Yesir 🚀