Skip to content

Tools, resources, and programs for career changers πŸ‘Š

Notifications You must be signed in to change notification settings

Nickersoft/awesome-careers

Folders and files

NameName
Last commit message
Last commit date

Latest commit

Β 

History

22 Commits
Β 
Β 
Β 
Β 
Β 
Β 

Repository files navigation

Logo

Awesome

Let's face it: almost everyone hates their job. You know that life is too short to be doing something that makes you miserable, but the though of changing careers this late in the game might scare you. No one will make a bet on you, and you have no pre-existing credentials.

Here is a list of the programs, resources, and tools to help you land that dream job, regardless of where you're at now.

It is never too late.

How To Use This Guide

While most of this document is self-explanatory, to save on screen space there are a handful of emojis and short-hands I decided to use as column keys:

  • πŸ’΅ = Cost
  • πŸ• = Duration
  • πŸ“… = Time Commitment / Part-Time (PT) or Full-Time (FT) or Both (B)
  • πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» = Online / Remote-Friendly
  • 🀝 = Includes career-coaching and/or job placement

What would you like to be?


Engineering

Important: Before diving into any of the following sections, it may be beneficial to educate yourself on the barebones concepts of programming in case you have never programmed before. Generalist programming, and more specifically object-oriented programming (OOP), consists of a variety of concepts and paradigms that may be extremely foreign to those not in technical fields.

Some free courses and resources you can check out are:

iOS Engineer

Overview

iOS engineers write mobile applications for Apple products, including iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads. The software written by iOS developers may be used on a variety of operating systems, such as iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and now even macOS!

Typically, iOS engineers:

  • Code in either Swift or Objective-C, or some combination of the two
  • Build user interfaces using XCode storyboards, the Apple UIKit library, or (more recently) SwiftUI views
  • Ship new app builds to App Store Connect via tools such as Fastlane or XCode

According to Glassdoor, the base salary for an iOS engineer is ~$95,000/yr.

Free Resources

Name Description
awesome-ios Crowd-sourced list of Objective-C and Swift libraries and tools.
awesome-swift Crowd-sourced list of tools, resources, and libraries written in or built for the Swift programming language.
awesome-swiftui Crowd-sourced list of libraries, tutorials, and resources for SwiftUI.
Essential iOS Comprehensive free online book for iOS development.
F**king SwiftUI A curated list of questions and answers about SwiftUI.
Human Interface Guidelines Apple's free guide to best UI & UX practices when building Apple products.
Kavsoft Free online SwiftUI tutorials.
Ray Wenderlich Thousands of free in-depth iOS videos and tutorials.
StackOverflow Every programmer's go-to resource for Q&A.

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
DevMountain Remote iOS Development Course Strayer University $7,900 13 weeks FT βœ… ❌
How to Make an iOS App Udacity Free 3 months PT βœ… ❌
Intro to iOS App Development with Swift Udacity Free 1 month PT βœ… ❌
Intro to iOS Development BrainStation $3,250 2 months PT βœ… ❌
iOS Developer Nanodegree Udacity $399/mo 6 months PT βœ… βœ…
iOS for CS Majors CodePath Free 6 weeks PT ❌ ❌
iOS 13 & Swift 5 - The Complete iOS App Development Bootcamp Udemy $19.99 ❓ PT βœ… ❌
LearnQuest Swift 5 iOS Application Developer Specialization Coursera $79/mo 4 months PT βœ… ❌
UToronto iOS App Development with Swift Specialization Coursera $49/mo 5 months PT βœ… ❌

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
iOS Developers Slack 30k+ Popular Slack community for every kind of iOS developer.

Android Engineer

Overview

Android engineers write mobile applications for the Android operating system, which runs on a plethora of mobile devices worldwide (including Pixel, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Galaxy phones). Android makes up roughly 90% of the global mobile computing market, which makes it an incredibly lucrative field.

Typically, Android engineers:

  • Code in either Java or Kotlin, or some combination of the two
  • Build user interfaces using XML or Compose
  • Ship new app builds to the Play Store via tools such as Fastlane or Android Studio

According to Glassdoor, the base salary for an Android engineer is ~$95,000/yr.

Free Resources

Name Description
Ray Wenderlich Thousands of free in-depth Android videos and tutorials
Android Developer Docs Google's official Android documentation
StackOverflow Every programmer's go-to resource for Q&A
Essential Android Comprehensive free online book for Android development
Google CodeLabs Interactive hands-on tutorials for Android and Google SDKs
Udacity's Android Courses Udacity has partnered with Google to provide dozens of high-quality, completely free Android courses
Android Roadmap Illustrated roadmap of different technologies and tools to learn if you're aiming to become an Android developer.

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
Android Basics Nanodegree Udacity $399/mo 3 months PT βœ… βœ…
Android for CS Majors CodePath Free 6 weeks PT ❌ ❌
Android Kotlin Developer Nanodegree Udacity $399/mo 4 months PT βœ… βœ…

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
Android Unitied Slack 3k+ Slack community of Android developers sharing experience, knowledge and relevant news about Android and mobile.

Full-Stack Web Developer

Overview

A full-stack web developer is a web developer or engineer who works with both the front and back ends of a website or applicationβ€”meaning they can tackle projects that involve databases, building user-facing websites, or even work with clients during the planning phase of projects.

Full-stack web developers:

  • Code in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and one or more back end languages.
  • Specialize in a particular back end programming language, like Ruby or PHP or Python, although some, especially if they’ve been working as a developer for a while, work with more than one.
  • Build web solutions end-to-end. Startups often lust after full-stack engineers, as they can often carry the majority of the implementation for modern web platforms.

Free Resources

Name Description
Awesome Stacks Discover awesome tech stacks for building different applications and features.
Backend Developer Roadmap Illustrated roadmap of different technologies and tools to learn if you're aiming to become a backend developer.
CSS-Tricks Hundreds of easy-to-follow tutorials, guides, and walkthroughs for CSS, JavaScript, and HTML.
devhints.io Massive collection of hand-written cheat sheets for various programming languages, apps, and executables.
Entry-Level Front End Engineering Quiz Job placement quiz for entry-level frontend engineers (via TripleByte).
freeCodeCamp Over 6,000 completely free technical tutorials.
Frontend Developer Roadmap Illustrated roadmap of different technologies and tools to learn if you're aiming to become a frontend developer.
JavaScript Style Guide Airbnb's hyper-popular style guide for JavaScript best practices.
Learn Web Development Mozilla's comprehensive web development guide.
ProgrammingBooks Free online books for (almost) every coding topic.
React Roadmap Illustrated roadmap of different topics to learn if you're aiming to learn React.
Scotch.io Hundreds of free web development courses and tutorials.
StackOverflow Every programmer's go-to resource for Q&A.
The Roadmap YouTube channel featuring a range of technical tutorials, many of which touch on web-related topics.

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
Become a Web Developer CareerFoundry $6,555 4-7 months B βœ… βœ…
Berkeley Online Coding Bootcamp UC Berkeley ~$11,995 13-25 weeks B ❌ ❌
APIs and Microservices Certification freeCodeCamp Free 2-3 months PT βœ… ❌
App Academy In-Person App Academy $17,000 4 months FT ❌ βœ…
App Academy Online App Academy $20k upfront or via ISA 6 months FT βœ… βœ…
Austral Full Stack Web Development en EspaΓ±ol Specialization Coursera $39/mo 4 months PT βœ… ❌
Front-End Libraries Certification freeCodeCamp Free 2-3 months PT βœ… ❌
Full-Stack Web Dev Course Lambda School $30k upfront or via ISA 9-18 months B βœ… βœ…
Full-Stack Web Developer Nanodegree Udacity $399/mo 4 months ❓ βœ… βœ…
Responsive Web Design Certification freeCodeCamp Free 2-3 months PT βœ… ❌
Software Engineering Career Track SpringBoard $1,150/mo 6 months PT βœ… βœ…
Software Engineering Immersive CodeSmith $18,800 4 months FT ❌ βœ…
The Complete 2020 Web Development Bootcamp Udemy $16 2-4 weeks PT βœ… ❌
UST Full-Stack Web Development with React Specialization Coursera $49/mo 4 months PT βœ… ❌
Web Developer Track Bloc $7,500 8 months B βœ… βœ…

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
BabelJS Slack 9k+ Slack community for the Babel JavaScript transpiler.
dev.to DEV 500k+ A community site focused on all kinds of programming, but especially web development
devchat.dev Slack ❓ Slack community for all kinds of developers
FEDs on Slack Slack 7k+ Small, invite-only Slack community of highly qualified front-end developers.
r/javascript Reddit 1M+ All about the JavaScript programming language
r/webdev Reddit 600k+ A community dedicated to all things web development

DevOps Engineer

Overview

DevOps engineers combine an understanding of both engineering and coding to create and develop systems within a company. From creating and implementing systems software to analyzing data to improve existing ones, a DevOps Engineer increases productivity in the workplace. DevOps engineers work to balance the various aspects of a project, most of them complex issues such as programming and network building.

Typically, DevOps engineers:

  • Build in-house tooling to help streamline development and deployment
  • Scale systems infrastructure via cloud network solutions such as Kubernetes, Azure, and GKE
  • Manage cloud assets and code deploys

According to Glassdoor, the base salary of a DevOps engineer is ~$100,000/yr.

Free Resources

Name Description
A Cloud Guru Freemium DevOps courses covering Linux, Azure, AWS, and Kubernetes
devhints.io Massive collection of hand-written cheat sheets for various programming languages, apps, and executables
DevOps Roadmap Illustrated roadmap of different technologies and tools to learn if you're aiming to become a backend developer.
Linux Academy on YouTube Hundreds of DevOps-related tutorials, talks, and more
The Roadmap YouTube channel featuring a range of technical tutorials, many of which touch on DevOps-related topics.
tldr Collaborative cheatsheet for console commands

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
Architecting with Google Kubernetes Engine Specialization Coursera $49/mo 2 months PT βœ… ❌
Intro to DevOps Udacity Free 3 weeks PT βœ… ❌
Introduction to DevOps: Practices and Tools edX $465.30 7 months PT βœ… ❌
School of Cloud Computing Udacity $399/mo 4 months PT βœ… βœ…
Terraform Basics (Guided Project) Coursera Free 1-2 hours PT βœ… ❌

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
DevOps Chat Slack 19k+ A community of devops engineering sharing tips, tricks, and job ops

Machine Learning Engineer

Machine learning engineers combine an in-depth knowledge of mathematics, statistics, and engineering to implement programs that allow computers to learn completely autonomously or with little user input. An extremely young field, machine learning engineers are responsibile for some of the latest trends in tech, including self-driving vehicles, voice assistants, recommendation systems, and more.

Typically, machine learning engineers:

  • Use an expert understanding of mathematics and code to deliver the most optimal systems
  • Code using an array of cutting-edge frameworks such as PyTorch and Tensorflow
  • Deploy machine learning models in production using highly optimized pipelines

According to Indeed, the base salary of a machine learning engineer is ~$145,000/yr.

Overview

Free Resources

Name Description
Kaggle Hundreds of free-to-use public datasets and data science competitions.

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
ASU AI and Machine Learning MasterTrack Certificate Coursera $4,500 6-9 months PT βœ… ❌
Deep Learning Specialization Coursera $49/mo 4 months PT βœ… ❌
HSE Advanced Machine Learning Coursera $49/mo 10 months PT βœ… ❌
LMJU & IIITB Master of Science in Machine Learning & AI upGrad $7,499 18 months PT βœ… βœ…
MIT Professional Certificate Program in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence MIT $6,000+ 2+ weeks FT ❌ βœ…
ML Engineering Career Track SpringBoard $8,940/mo 6 months PT βœ… βœ…
School of AI Udacity $399/mo 4 months PT βœ… βœ…
Software Engineering Immersive CodeSmith $18,800 4 months FT ❌ βœ…
UWashington Machine Learning Specialization Coursera $49/mo 7 months PT βœ… ❌

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
data-scientist/spark-ml Slack ❓ An online Slack team of communication and knowledge management which focus on data science and machine learning by Apache Spark, Python Scikit-Learn, Scala Breeze, R or any other topics on big data domain.
r/learnmachinelearning Reddit 198k+ Reddit community for learning the ins-and-outs of machine learning.
r/MachineLearning Reddit 1.5M+ General machine learning forum for users to share tutorials, advice, Q&A, and more.
Machine Learning and AI Slack ❓ Silverpond's Slack community for ML and AI enthusiasts.

Data Scientist

Overview

Data scientists collect, analyze, and interpret large data sets in order to develop data-driven solutions to tackle difficult business challenges.

Typically, data scientists:

  • Analyze large sets of public data, or infer data from user patterns and behavior.
  • Extract useful information from this data to drive decision-making or fuel in-house machine learning efforts.
  • Collaborate with other engineers to obtain the data they need to work effectively.

According to Glassdoor, data scientists make a base salary of ~$115,000/yr.

Free Resources

Name Description
awesome-datascience Crowdsourced data science resources, including tools, tutorials, MOOCs, and more.
Data.gov The U.S. government's directory of publicly-available datasets.
Kaggle Hundreds of free-to-use public datasets and data science competitions.
towards data science A Medium blog focused on data science concepts, ideas, and code.

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
365 DataScience 365 DataScience $29/mo ❓ PT βœ… βœ…
UMichigan Applied Data Science with Python Specialization Coursera $49/mo 5 months PT βœ… ❌
Berkeley Online Data Analytics Boot Camp UC Berkeley ~$11,995 6 months PT βœ… ❌
DataQuest DataQuest $49/mo ❓ PT βœ… βœ…
Data Science Career Track SpringBoard $1,490/mo 6 months PT βœ… βœ…
Data Science Certificate BrainStation $3,250 2 months PT βœ… ❌
Data Science Course General Assembly $3,950 2-3 months PT ❌ ❌
Data Science Immersive General Assembly $15,950 or via ISA 2-3 months FT ❌ βœ…
Data Science Immersive Remote Bootcamp Galvanize $17,980 or via ISA 13 weeks FT βœ… βœ…
Data Science Part-Time Remote Bootcamp Galvanize $17,980 or via ISA 30 weeks PT βœ… βœ…
Data Scientist Nanodegree Udacity $399/mo 4 months PT βœ… βœ…
IBM Applied Data Science Specialization Coursera $39/mo 5 months PT βœ… ❌
IBM Data Science Fundamentals with Python and SQL Specialization Coursera $39/mo 5 months PT βœ… ❌
IBM Data Science Professional Certificate Coursera $39/mo 10 months PT βœ… ❌
IBM Introduction to Data Science Specialization Coursera $39/mo 4 months PT βœ… ❌
IIITB Master of Science in Data Science upGrad $7,499 18 months PT βœ… βœ…
JHU Advanced Statistics for Data Science Specialization Coursera $39/mo 5 months PT βœ… ❌
Master of Machine Learning and Data Science from Imperial College London Coursera Β£28,000 2 years FT βœ… ❌
MS in Data Science from CU Boulder Coursera ❓ 2 years FT βœ… ❌
Online Data Science Diploma BrainStation $15k 3 months FT βœ… ❌
UCSD Big Data Specialization Coursera $49/mo 8 months PT βœ… ❌

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
data-scientist/spark-ml Slack ❓ An online Slack team of communication and knowledge management which focus on data science and machine learning by Apache Spark, Python Scikit-Learn, Scala Breeze, R or any other topics on big data domain.
DataScience Salon Slack 1.5k+ Private Slack community for every kind of data scientist.
DataQuest Community Discourse ❓ Online forum for DataQuest students and data science enthusiasts alike.
KaggleNoobs Slack ❓ Slack community for Kaggle users of all levels, as well as data science enthusiasts.

Design

UX/UI Designer

Overview

UI (user interface) designers are responsible for presenting a product's development in a way that is attractive and convenient for users, while UX (user experience) designers are responsible for enhancing customer satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure associated with a product in a way that is attractive and convenient for users. Often used interchangable, UI design and UX design are two separate but very closely related fields. I've grouped the two under this single section for this exact reason. Typically, most designers rely on user interfaces to improve the user experience, so the two fields often go hand-in-hand.

Typically, UX/UI designers:

  • Iterate over numerous designs and wireframes before landing on an ideal design that most strongly resonates with users.
  • Prototype their designs to illustrate the intended interactions using tools such as Figma, Invision, SwiftUI or React.
  • Collaborate with engineers and PMs to weigh product requirements and technical limitations to produce the most workable design.

According to Glassdoor, the base pay for a UX/UI designer is ~$100,000/yr.

Free Resources & Tools

Name Description
awesome-ux Crowd-sourced collection of helpful tools, books, resources and more for UX designers.
Color Designer Free online tools for generating color palettes, gradients, and more.
Designed A non-profit career growth platform focused on providing equal-access to educational resources and mentors for designers across the world.
Femke van Schoonhoven Femke van Schoonhoven is a Canadian designer who publishes helpful hints, hacks, and tutorials about breaking into design on her popular YouTube channel.
HackDesign Dozens of free lessons and resources for everything from web to 3D design.
Mobbin Free collection of hundreds of mobile UI and UX design patterns to use as inspiration and research.
Refactoring UI Designed for developers, this clean-cut guide provides a collection of rules and guidelines to design visually attractive UIs.
Type Scale A visual calculator for building typographic hierarchy.
UI/UX Design Resources A massive, free collection of online design resources for UI and UX designers, assembled by BaseTemplates.
UXArchive Automatically generated database of hundreds of UX flows across dozens of mobile apps.
UXPlanet One-stop resource for everything related to user experience.
UX Collective Blog discussing all aspects of UX design.
UX Stack Exchange StackOverflow for UX designers.

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
Become a UI Designer CareerFoundry $6,555 6-10 months B βœ… βœ…
Become a UX Designer CareerFoundry $6,555 6-10 months B βœ… βœ…
Berkeley UX/UI Online Bootcamp UC Berkeley ~$11,995 ❓ PT ❌ ❌
Bloc Designer Track Bloc $1,200/mo 8 months PT βœ… βœ…
CalArts UI/UX Design Specialization Coursera $49/mo 4 months PT βœ… ❌
Certified Product Design Course Dribbble $540/mo 3 months PT βœ… βœ…
Google UX Design Professional Certificate Coursera $49/mo 6 months PT βœ… βœ…
Learn UI Design Learn UI Design ❓ ❓ PT βœ… ❌
Learn UX Design Learn UI Design ❓ ❓ PT βœ… ❌
Online User Experience Design Diploma BrainStation $15k 3 months FT βœ… ❌
User Experience Design Certificate BrainStation $3,250 1-2 months PT βœ… ❌
User Interface Design Certificate BrainStation $3,250 2 months PT βœ… ❌
UI/UX Design Career Track SpringBoard $1,299/mo 9 months PT βœ… βœ…
UX Design Career Track SpringBoard $1,299/mo 6 months PT βœ… βœ…
UX Design Course General Assembly $3,950 1-2 months PT ❌ ❌
UX Design Immersive General Assembly $14,950 2-3 months FT ❌ βœ…
UX Design Masterclass EY Design Studio $199-$499 1-2 months PT βœ… ❌
UX Designer Nanodegree Udacity $399/mo 3 months PT βœ… βœ…
Visual Design Course General Assembly $2,800 1-2 months PT ❌ ❌

Books

Title Author Rating
100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People Susan M. Weinschenk ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Designer's Art Paul Rand ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Breaking In: Over 100 Product Designers Reveal How to Build a Portfolio That Will Get You Hired Amina Horozic ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Design of Everyday Things Donald A. Norman ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited Steve Krug ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hooked: How To Build Habit-Forming Products Nir Eyal ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Layout Essentials Beth Tondreau ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Brad Kowitz ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Refactoring UI Adam Wathan, Steve Schoger ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Universal Principles of Design William Lidwell, Jill Butler, Kritina Holden ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
Behance Behance 10M+ Adobe's web platform where designers can network and showcase their portfolio.
Dribbble Dribbble 3.5M+ The insanely popular web platform where designers showcase their work, ask for feedback, look for jobs, and more.
Designer Hangout Slack ❓ Invite-only network for UX designers looking to talk shop and advance their careers.
Designer News Designer News Ltd. ❓ HackerNews for designers.
Designer Slack Slack Mixed Online directory of almost every design-focused Slack community out there.
Hexagon UX Slack 7k+ A non-profit design organization focused on women and non-binary individuals in the UX industry.
ProductTribes Slack 10k+ UX Pin's Slack community for designers, developers, and PMs alike.
Rethink N/A ❓ A design community dedicated to help experienced product design professionals navigate growth, ambiguity, and change and succeed as design leaders.
r/uxdesign Reddit 39k+ Reddit community for every kind of UX designer.

Motion Designer

Overview

Motion designers create artwork for the web, television, or film. They use visual effects, animation and other cinematic techniques to bring life to their creations.

Today, motion designers create live video content, graphics, and animation for handheld electronic devices, web programs, video games, and for smartphones and mobile platforms, including apps.

Typically, a motion designer will:

  • Use modern animation software, such as After Effects and Blender, to produce high-quality animations.
  • Collaborate with other teams and clients to determine product requirements and technical limitations.
  • Assist in the creation and brainstorming of animation storyboards and layout.

According to Celarity, the average base salary for a motion designer is ~$75,000/yr.

Free & Paid Resources

Name Description
AEUX Google's free plugin for Figma, XD & Sketch for importing designs directly into After Effects.
Animography Animated premium typefaces for After Effects.
Bodymovin Airbnb's free After Effects to Lottie exporter.
LottieFiles Thousands of free and premium Lottie animations, easily importable to After Effects via the Bodymovin plugin.
Motion Design School Hundreds of paid motion design courses and masterclasses. MDS also posts free After Effects tips-and-tricks, tutorials, and more on their YouTube Channel.
MoGraph Mentor Hundreds of free and paid courses for motion designers, ranging from beginner to advanced.
Mr. Horse A collection of paid and free animation plugins for After Effects. Home of the popular free Animation Composer plugin.
useAnimations Open-source collection of animated Lottie icons, available in Lottie JSON and as React components.

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
Advanced After Effects CC Adobe Bootcamp $1,195 2 days PT βœ… ❌
Advanced Motion Methods School of Motion $314/mo 3 hours PT βœ… ❌
After Effects Kickstart School of Motion $370/mo 2 months PT βœ… ❌
Animation Bootcamp School of Motion $349/mo 3 months PT βœ… ❌
Character Animation Bootcamp School of Motion $315/mo 3 months PT βœ… ❌
Intermediate After Effects CC Adobe Bootcamp $1,495 2 days PT βœ… ❌
Introduction to After Effects CC Adobe Bootcamp $1,495 3 days PT βœ… ❌
Illustration for Motion School of Motion $349/mo 3 months PT βœ… ❌
Motion Design 101 MoGraph Mentor Free 3 hours PT βœ… ❌
The Path to MoGraph School of Motion Free 10 days PT βœ… ❌

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
Behance Behance 10M+ Adobe's web platform where designers can network and showcase their portfolio.
Dribbble Dribbble 3.5M+ The insanely popular web platform where designers showcase their work, ask for feedback, look for jobs, and more.
MOGR MOGR ❓ Dribbble, built exclusively for motion designers.
MoGraph Meetups IRL Mixed Collection of various motion design meetup groups across the world, source by the School of Motion.
Motion Design Artists Slack Group Slack ❓ Invite-only Slack group for motion designers.

3D Designer

Overview

3D designers create still and moving images using computers, as well as 3D models of products, and manage multiple projects while adhering to deadlines.

Typically, a 3D designer will:

  • Use modern modeling software such as Blender, Maya, Cinema4D, or 3Ds Max to produce high-quality 3D renderings of products, icons, and more.
  • Manage cameras, lighting, and shadows in a three-dimensional space.
  • Export designs in a format easily integratable into software products, such as OBJ or USDZ.

According to Glassdoor, the average base pay for a 3D designer is ~$75,000/yr.

Free Resources

Name Description
3D for Designers Dozens of free high-quality, ease-to-follow tutorials for Cinema 4D & Cinema 4D Lite, made for designers.
3DTotal Free 3D design tutorials.
BlenderGuru Dozens of free high-quality, ease-to-follow tutorials and articles for the Blender 3D modeling software.
CGTrader Thousands of free and paid 3D models, plus a job board for freelance designers.
Free3D Hundreds of free and paid 3D models for every major modeling software.
GrabCAD Millions of free CAD models provided by the community.
SketchFab The premium online resource for free and paid 3D models for 3D designers.
Thingiverse Thousands of free 3D and CAD resources, provided by the community.
TurboSquid Thousands of free and paid 3D models and textures for every major modeling software.

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
Cinema 4D Ascent School of Motion $349/mo 3 months PT βœ… ❌
Cinema 4D Basecamp School of Motion $349/mo 3 months PT βœ… ❌

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
CGTalk CGTalk ❓ Forum for 3D and game designers to ask questions, showcase their work, and share knowledge.
Polycount Community Polycount ❓ Forum for 3D and game designers to ask questions, showcase their work, and share knowledge.
r/3dsmax Reddit 21k+ Reddit community for all questions, discussions, and showcases regarding the Autodesk 3Ds Max modeling software.
r/blender Reddit 321k+ Reddit community for all questions, discussions, and showcases regarding the Blender modeling software.
r/Cinema4D Reddit 67k+ Reddit community for all questions, discussions, and showcases regarding the Cinema4D modeling software.
r/Maya Reddit 39k+ Reddit community for all questions, discussions, and showcases regarding the Autodesk Maya modeling software.
r/Unity Reddit 22k+ Reddit community for all questions, discussions, and showcases regarding the Unity Real-Time Development Platform.

Business

Digital Marketer

Bootcamps, Courses, and Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
Berkeley Digital Marketing Bootcamp UC Berkeley ❓ 18 weeks PT βœ… ❌
Digital Marketing Course General Assembly $3,950 3 months PT ❌ βœ…
Digital Marketing Nanodegree Udacity $399/mo 3 months PT βœ… ❌
The Facebook Digital Marketing Certificate by USD Pathstream $2,159 4 months PT βœ… ❌

Product Manager

Overview

A product manager is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management.

Product managers:

  • Own the business strategy behind a product (both physical and digital products).
  • Specify the product's functional requirements, and generally manage the launch of features.
  • Coordinate work done by many other functions (like software engineers, data scientists, and product designers) and are ultimately responsible for the business success of the product.

According to Glassdoor, the base salary of a product manager is ~$100,000/yr

Free Resources

Name Description
awesome-product-management Crowd-sourced list of tools, articles, books, and more, all designed for PMs.
ProductSchool on YouTube Hundreds of helpful webinars and videos on product management.

Bootcamps, Courses & Certifications

Name Provider πŸ’΅ πŸ• πŸ“… πŸ‘©β€πŸ’» 🀝
Advanced Product Management Certification Product Faculty $2,950 2 months ❓ βœ… ❌
AWS Real-World Product Management Specialization Coursera $79/mo 4 months PT βœ… ❌
Complete Product Management Workshop ProductDive ~$355* 2 months PT βœ… ❌
Duke Product Management Certification Program upGrad $540/mo 6 months PT βœ… βœ…
Imperial Brand and Product Strategy Imperial College Business School Β£1,600 2 months PT βœ… ❌
Product Management Certificate BrainStation $3,250 2 months PT βœ… ❌
Product Management Certificate Cornell University ❓ ❓ PT βœ… ❌
Product Manager Certificate ProductSchool $4,199+ 5 days - 2 months B βœ… βœ…
Product Strategy Certification Northwestern University $2,600 2 months PT βœ… ❌
Product Management Course General Assembly $3,950 1-3 months ❓ ❌ ❌
Product Manager Nanodegree Udacity $399/mo 4 months ❓ βœ… βœ…
RIT MicroMasters Program in Project Management edX $810 8 months PT βœ… ❌
Ultiva Product Management Ultiva ~$300* 4 months PT βœ… βœ…
UVA Digital Product Management Specialization Coursera $79/mo 3 months PT βœ… ❌

* Converted from Nigerian Niara (NGN). May change due to conversion rate.

Books

Title Author Rating
Cracking the PM Interview Gayle Laakmann McDowell ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hooked: How To Build Habit-Forming Products Nir Eyal ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Principles of Product Management Peter Yang ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Communities

Name Platform Members Description
The Accidental Product Manager LinkedIn 30k+ A LinkedIn group for both seasoned and newbie product folks.
MindTheProduct Slack 30k+ A community of product managers talking shop.
PMAfrica Slack & WhatsApp ❓ Networking for product managers across Africa.
Product Coalition Slack 7k+ Invite-only Slack community for the Product Coalition product management blog. Membership costs $10/yr.
Product Collective Slack 30k+ Slack community for the Product Collective newsletter. You must sign up for the mailing list to receive a Slack invite.
ProductStack Slack ❓ A Slack team of product people sharing tips, tricks, and best practices in the product world.
Product Management LinkedIn 125k+ General networking forum for product managers.
ProductSchool Slack 60k+ ProductSchool's official Slack community.
ProductTribes Slack 10k+ UX Pin's Slack community for designers, developers, and PMs alike.
Women In Product Facebook 22k+ Facebook community for the international Women In Product organization.