I'm taking my first steps into the world of web development and could use some guidance from those who've traveled this path before. If you're an experienced developer, I'd love to hear about your journey into web development. How did you get started? Which resources or learning methods did you find most effective in your early days? Looking back, what advice would you give to someone just starting out?
As I navigate through this journey, I find myself faced with a plethora of learning resources, both free and paid. Recently, my trial version on Codecademy came to an end, prompting me to explore various beginner courses and e-learning platforms. However, I discovered that while the content was similar, the certificates lacked recognition from employers. Determined to proceed without breaking the bank, I decided to pivot towards free resources.
The abundance of free resources, though, left me overwhelmed. Hours slipped away as I scrolled through countless platforms, trying to find the best starting point. Despite the daunting task, I remained committed to my goal of acquiring valuable skills and knowledge in web development.
In my pursuit of structured learning, I narrowed down my focus to a few key resources:
Free Learning Platforms:
freeCodeCamp: Offering a comprehensive curriculum covering HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and beyond.
The Odin Project: With its hands-on approach, The Odin Project guids through everything from basic HTML and CSS to full-stack development.
Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) Web Docs: MDN offer reliable documentation and tutorials on web development technologies, supporting my learning journey with extensive resources.
Exploring Free Tutorials and Guides:
YouTube Tutorials: Channels like Traversy Media and The Net Ninja. I’ve settled on them for now, but I’m looking forward to hearing your recommendations
W3Schools: As a trusted source of tutorials and references, W3Schools helps me to understand more in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
I am just on my initial steps in this journey, but already want to understand waht is the best way to continue growing and learning in the field of web development. But I could use some advice on what the next steps should be. What resourses is better to use? How to built the portfolio? What is the best platform to take? Or areas of focus should I prioritize as I progress further?
Your insights and advice would mean a lot to me and other beginners embarking on this thrilling adventure. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and experiences.
Top comments (21)
You can't "learn web development", that's way too broad as a goal, and that's why you have so much resources available, and you are overwhelmed.
How does sucess looks like for you in 3 months ?
Can you define that precisely ?
The second important question is that if you learn things alone, you will get stuck and waste time at the same places than everyone else.
Who are you learning with ?
Once you have those, you can present them the goal you defined at step 1 and together you can work backwards on how to get there.
It's maybe too amtions goals, but I will try.
In three months, I aim to:
About Learning Community:
It's also very difficult to find and hope Dev.to will help me not to get stuck.
I use netlify.com to deploy my websites it's free and has a good user interface.
for mastering responsive design principles there are countless YouTube videos to watch, the same goes for interactivity with JavaScript, here are some Youtube channels that I used when I first started that are fun and are easy to understand,
web dev simplified, JavaScript Mastery.
Getting stuck with javascript and HTML as a beginner Is super common and that's why there are so many places like StackOverflow groups on discord that will gladly help you!
Happy coding!!!
When I first started the hard part was not thinking of the idea of an app or really even coding it it was the last 10% of all my projects that have been the most boring you have to fix the text and the documentation you have to have a good readme files you need to let others know what you have built that's more of the hard part as a beginner.
and also I loved computer vision but I thought there was so much of that out there that none of my stuff would be noticed but I was wrong I built lots of cool detection software that was actually not a waste of my time. 3 months later after I built what I thought was a waste of time actually got me some internships and later a job!
so if you are passionate about something just build and finish the last 10%!!
I’m going to take a slightly counter view here. Building stuff to learn is 100% NEVER a waste of time. And unless you’re trying to make something you intend on putting into the public domain (and no, I don’t consider people in charge of looking at resumes for jobs “public”), absolutely DO NOT worry about a structured readme or anything like that, it should more or less serve strictly as notes for yourself to remind you what you learned doing a particular project.
Chances are, things you do at the beginning of your journey are going to be things I can find 100 different variations of, and that’s completely ok. We all started with “hello world” at one point or another.
So yeah, just build. If it’s not a complete idea, build it anyway. Even if it’s a bad idea, build it anyway. You’ll learn just as much (sometimes more) building a bad idea than you will a good one. If nothing else, it shows you your current limits, and gives you a target for your next learning cycle. My personal GitHub account is a (mostly private) wasteland of projects I started and either hit a wall and couldn’t progress, or figured out that the path I was on wasn’t one I should pursue.
When it comes to README files, I believe it really depends on the project. If it's a project that utilizes many frameworks and requires the installation of numerous dependencies, having a comprehensive README file is crucial. This README should explain what the project does, how to install it, and how to contribute. As a junior developer, the first thing I would do is read the README file to understand how I can contribute and utilize the product effectively.
For a simple web app, the README should include instructions on what to install and how to run it. For instance, if you're creating a project using React, running npx create-react-app myapp generates a React app with a well-documented README file that provides instructions on installation and execution. It's important to include clear instructions for other users to install and run your product.
I don’t disagree…but if it’s something that’s not meant for general public use/consumption, I don’t think having an in-depth readme is all that important. From a hiring perspective, I’m not even going to look at a readme. I’m just going to dive into the code so I can get an idea of the competence level (which is 100% subjective…my gauge is almost certainly different from yours, so…) of the person I’m looking at. I’m certainly not going to pass someone over just because a project that was built in pursuit of learning a new skill doesn’t have a readme that gives me step-by-step instructions on how to do what they did.
Is being able to document your projects important? Without a doubt. Does every project need full-blown documentation? That’s up to you to decide, but for me, that answer is no.
All that said, I’m likely closer to the end of my active dev career than I am the beginning, so I usually ignore all documentation anyway. 😂
Yeah I agree👍
It's a lot. It's like drinking from a fire hose. I've been building websites since 1994 and I can tell you that it gets overwhelming. Quickly, sometimes. One of my problems, as I've aged is that my unused knowledge goes to shit pretty quickly. So I've been looking for ways to better retain knowledge, and this article by Derek Sivers was pretty enlightening -- basically, it explains how we lose knowledge and strategies for better retaining it. Worth a read.
You should always be working on pet projects never stick to one thing for very long,
that will help you retain knowledge. it will also make you a better programmer in so many ways. you should have a github full pet projects!
if your looking to get a job and the interviewer asks to see some code and you show them a github repo full of pet projects there going to know that your active and learning skills!
stick to your job but also work on pet projects.
The best advice I can give you in your situation is to find a niche in web development that interests you and hold on to it for dear life. Without the passion of being interested in what you're doing at first, it's very hard to commit long-term to learning to code.
Whether it's front-end, mobile applications, React/Vue applications, pixel-perfect CSS art, complex algorithms, or accessibility. Find a niche that sparks your interest and don't let go.
Along the way you will learn the missing parts that will complement that niche, and eventually you will either be an expert, or move on and gain additional knowledge in different technologies and fields.
Ditto on this idea. There are so many UI frameworks that come and go in an instant. You can't learn all of them. You shouldn't learn all of them. Find that niche you like, and become the expert. Whether that is Angular, React, Vue, Vanilla JavaScript, REST APIs..... doesn't matter, just stick to your guns, learn the nitty gritty details no one else knows, and just be the very best at that thing. Happy coding!
I am ready to be your learning buddy. Let's go together!
I'm interested too
Let's make it together!
What is your current task?
im currently on react and making small projects to understand the whole react structures
lets connect on discord. Shall we?
sudhasanjeevani
thats my username
Hello! A while ago I was learning The Odin Project and honestly it is a great start to understanding the basics of how the entire internet works. Remember that learning to code is just practicing and learning to program is developing the ability to solve problems.
I hope you meet your goal, however if you don't, congratulate yourself for everything you have achieved and try again.
Hey, I'm also on the same path as you so the overwhelming feelings that you have is something I totally understand! I'm currently catching up on 100Devs bootcamp but whatever platform you choose (those are definitely reputable ones!), just commit to it. Learn deeply first before widening your expertise. You can always supplement other resources, in fact, the MDN resource is a must! The ones on The Odin Project have a lot of linked resources already. By committing, you're narrowing your focus and hopefully lessening the overwhelm.
Try to not be impatient about what you want to achieve (something I need to tell myself too!). Instead, focus on the one thing you have to do each day to progress. It'll be hard to think of doing your portfolio when you don't have the fundamentals yet so try to focus on that first.
And in case of analysis paralysis in making the right decision, try not to. Make the decision right instead. :)
Best of luck!
Sounds great! Firstly, it's always refreshing to see new people on the track. Good job! I shared this with some other guys, and I think it can also be useful to you. Here's a small contribution for some of the current and most demanded roles:
Small disclosure: Not all these roles are related to development per se, but I think most of them are needed to have a big project up and running!
Software Developer
Systems Administrator
Network Engineer
Database Administrator
IT Security Specialist
Web Developer
DevOps Engineer
Data Scientist
IT Project Manager
Business Analyst
Quality Assurance Engineer
Cloud Architect
IT Support Specialist
UI/UX Designer
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Engineer
IT Consultant
IT Auditor
IT Trainer
IT Procurement Specialist
IT Risk Manager
IT Compliance Analyst
IT Operations Manager
IT Director
Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Finally, a great repository of jobs to check out for future reference: github.com/RemoteWLB/remote-jobs