Let me tell you working nights and trying to code during the day is hard work! Also learning about CSS and Javascript hurt my 4 hours sleep brain so much. But I kept going and going, its what I want! So I pushed through and made myself take the tests that come with the course.

So attempt one:

1. HTML 4.01 - Pass
2. CSS - Pass
3. Javascript - Fail

Damn! To pass the course I needed to get all three as a pass in one test. Man, I found Javascript really tough, I didn't understand the basics and couldn't quite get my head around it. But still, we marched on, 10 pm starting work, finishing at 7 am, then home for four hours sleep and then hitting the books. To say I felt like a zombie was an understatement but test two was just around the corner and I needed to get it right this time.

Attempt two:

1. HTML 4.01 - Pass
2. CSS - Fail
3. Javascript - Pass

Oh, come on! I mean seriously this was a setback. I spent so much time working on javascript I had managed to completely neglect CSS and HTML. I mean I knew most of HTML due to my old days but CSS was new to me and I did need to make sure I worked on both. Now there was a silver lining to all this, my portfolio was growing as I built and built again. So I booked test three and off I went! But this time I quit my job and went for it! Normal sleep and normal hours.

Attempt three:

1. HTML 4.01 - Pass
2. CSS - Pass
3. Javascript - Pass

BOOM! I had done it, after 4 months of daily coding I had passed the tests I needed to get some paperwork to say I can do the job I love so much. So now I'm a web developer! The doors will open and the jobs will flood in, 20k a year straight off the bat and I'll be rich! Rich, I tell ya! Errrrmmmm no, not quite. 6 weeks to get a job, that's how long it took to get a junior role. That role went like this:

• Take pre-built template
• Change city name and address details
• Save the files
• Repeat

That was my role and I managed to stay in that role for over a year, day after day the same rinse and repeat process whilst trying to refactor code here and there to keep it interesting. My role and career were nothing like Neo in the matrix but it was a start and still to this day I'm so proud of the was I handled getting to this point.