As a self-taught web developer, I started my career by looking for advice on what to learn on internet forums.
My first programming language was Perl.
Back then, Perl and PHP were all the rage. And I picked Perl because others had recommended it.
You can imagine that wasn't the best choice, but it made perfect sense at the time.
The problem was I used the news to plan my career. Because I could've made better use of that time.
Here's how I would do that now if I were looking to start a career in web development.
First, I'd do some market research by looking at the various job boards. I'd then make a list of all the languages and frameworks that hire junior developers.
That would be the first step.
Then, I'd pick one language or framework with the highest potential and set a goal to learn it.
But I wouldn't learn everything.
Instead, I'd learn the 20% that would get me a job at a company where I could continue learning.
I picked 20% because of the Pareto principle (or the 80/20 rule).
Finally, I'd try to spend the least amount of time possible in this learning phase. Because the more time you spend learning, the more time you're not getting paid.
The quickest (and cheapest) way to learn is to either enroll in a Bootcamp or find a 1-on-1 coach. And if those options sound expensive, you're not factoring in your time.
If you want to know how much your time costs, look up a junior salary and see how much they make per hour.
I hope this helps. And if you want to read the full guide, check out the link below.
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