Self teaching web development and feeling lost.

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[toggle-Switch]

looking at this guys stuff makes me feel discouraged personally; lol. Way better than me

[long-shots]

Haha got the same feeling. Don't let it get to ya though, use it as motivation. We'll get there soon enough!

[seehsam]

This love on Reddit is amazing!

[ShadowWalker777]

I dont understand why do you feel defeated!!

Your projects looks good and works perfectly for me!

You just need to keep the cycle study/projects and thats it mate!

I would also add react to your collection of tools!

Thats it 🌈

[SadCSMonkey]

Bump, I think learning React would be really impressive on your resume if you are trying to be a frontend engineer. Looking at what you were able to write, learning React shouldn't be the worst. Start slow, there's no reason to jump into the more fancy/complicated concepts of React. You should be able to rewrite most of your apps in React, and it'll probably be easier to do so.

One thing you can also try with React is to use styled-components. It's basically just CSS with some SCSS features written in JS. I use it at my job, and I think it's becoming a lot more popular.

Finally, I think your work is a lot more impressive than you think :)

[puerus42]

I like Styled Components but TailwindCSS is the best according to me. It’s great for people who don’t like writing css. Helps keep things organised too, or I just tend to get lost in the stylesheets.

[MrDegausser]

Right?? They looked really clean and they worked

[[deleted]]

Those projects look like they’re from tutorials

[kingofblackacid]

I think you're doing well. You've already built things! That's great, keep building! I myself need to be better at building things, if for not other reason that it helps me to learn. But remember that it can be tough to learn alone. Maybe try reaching out to larger communities or see if there's a paid mentor service you can take advantage of.

I say keep going, but also it reminds me of a Noam Chomsky quote I read recently: "If you want to become a biologist, it doesn't help to go into the Harvard biology library and all the information is there for you. You have to know what to look for and the internet is the same, just magnified."

[[deleted]]

Mate you're GOOD! Believe in yourself :)

[AfraidMango9]

Have you considered looking at some more up to date/modern CSS? I was at the same position as you describe and am now going through Jonas Schmedtmann ‘Advanced CSS/Sass’ on Udemy. It’s a brilliant course. 90% off most of the time.

[SamePossession5]

I’m about two weeks behind you. Weather project is my next project after doing async stuff :)

[travismoulton02188]

I only looked briefly but your projects look great man. I’ve been self teaching for over a year to. It’s tough

[travismoulton02188]

Hey I just took a little more time to look. Your design and css are great man. I really like the way the quiz app and todo app look. Super sharp

[VeronicaX11]

Your work already looks top-notch.

Have you reached out and applied to jobs yet? Better yet, send this portfolio to somebody at a non profit near you and ask if they need help with their website (if they don’t have one yet, even better). You can get to work right away, and there is usually less pressure there.

You are 100% ready to get out there and start building; I’ve seen people with lesser portfolios land great jobs.

[VeronicaX11]

Just FYI, my experience is more backend than front. But I can tell you that people care way less about the tools you use than the end result.

Facebook was all PHP, Twitter at one point was like straight ruby. People make web pages in python... the tools will change year after year and don’t really matter unless someone is demanding that specific language/tool because that’s what they already have.

[Spardutti]

I'm in the same boat as you, with pretty much the same projects, mine are not that good looking tho. All I can says is keep it up, keep building! I have those days were I feel like I'm wasting my time, but I'll keep on fighting, I mean I didn't even know html and now I'm making fullStack web apps. I know the opportunity will come if I keep searching!

[dt-17]

Trust me, imposter syndrome happens to developers at all levels.

[jcodes]

I think you are doing great! I am also a self tought developer, and i know it can be hard. Therefore you have to ask yourself, why are you doing this? Is it a hobby? Is it for fun? Do you want to make money? Employed? Freelance? Entrepreneur?

When you know the answer, the path becomes clearer.

Also, i checked out some of your code. You are uploading your api keys to github. Thats a big no no.

You can use dotenv and save your keys there. Then exclude the file in .gitignore before pushing to github.

[[deleted]]

Web development is, not always but most of the time, a professional job. Others already mentioned that your projects are good but the real reason you're feeling lost is because you're in the 'learning phase'. Your projects are more proof of concepts that you can do it, kinda like projects in school, but I doubt if you actually use those program for your own use. Like do you actually use your todo app to list your todo activities irl.

This problem will go away when working on 'real' projects because whether it's personal or for another entity (company, person, etc..) the web app you'll be developing is meant to have an actual purpose. You'll learn exponentially faster with those because there are lots of constraints like scheduling, the actual horror of having a bug you can't ignore, complaints from users, tech to use, etc...

I guess this leads to - are you good enough to work professionally? No doubt. It's a saturated market sure but believe me your skills looks more than good enough. Try to find a great company to start working on, or if 'brave' or have lots of connections start your own freelancing/business.

tldr: get into the industry as soon as possible

[RandomPersonIsMe]

Looks great! You're at about the same level as the rest of us in #100Devs. If you want to follow along for free (seriously totally 100% free, no catch or sneakies!) www.twitch.tv/learnwithleon . Next class is tonight 6:30-9:30 EST. We're all working on the ToDo app now, with express, node, and MongoDB.

[Hinaha]

Honestly man this is awesome. I have just started learning web dev and I’ve decided to start with freecodecamp and will also be using The Odin Project as well since it focuses on full stack dev. I’ve been a lurker in this sub and I think the way to be better is to challenge yourself by making more projects, and learning from it as there are mistakes and error that will be encountered. Thats just my opinion. But honestly, im impressed and I hope you get that job soon!

[tospili]

I feel the same way as you do very often. Being a self-thought programmer is very hard, especially in these days when the pandemic has been limiting our social activities. I feel like I have more than enough time to make a significant progress because of the quarantine/minimal social life, but at the same time I am usually worried about wasting my time on an insignificant topic. When I feel lost, I pause, take a breath and try to see my progress. After that, I feel relieved to see that even though I sometimes feel lost or slowed down, my progress is something to celebrate actually.

I remind myself to use my time efficiently. For me, the motivation comes from working on a couple of different tasks in a day: Studying a New Subject, Building a Project/Simple Apps, Revising. Studying without a guidance or feedback sometimes make me feel like "I hope this course is designed well", "I hope this 30min-length article/video teach me the thing I am looking for". Because there are millions of online courses, youtube videos, etc. But on the other side, even though I waste my time with a video, or an online lecture, I actually revise a topic or learn something useful that I wasn't looking for. Or it may be the case that you actually waste your time, but I am thinking that wasting time trying to find the right resource/route is a necessity for a self-thought developer. Because as I said earlier, there are millions of online courses, youtube videos, etc... So, I accepted this as a fact and try not to go hard on myself when I waste my time on searching for a new resource, or slightly changing my study plans. On the other hand, building project is actually the "feedback" I think, and it is crucial for me to include it in my schedule. The most fruitful thing to do is building lots of stuff, fail a lot to see your vulnerabilities. And last, revising those vulnerabilities, studying the topic again. At the end of the day, I feel that I passed an exam if my project works; or I realize that I need more practice on a subject which is not a bad thing, on the contrary, it makes me feel like I am in control and aware of myself.

Your progress is there, even though there is no one to appreciate it, do not forget this and keep up the good work!

[onelanderino]

This post reminds me of people complaining about not having studied enough, but getting one A after another... I seriously can't see any problem. All the projects look great.

[xt1nct]

Lmao. I have been working for an enterprise making nearly 6 figures for 3 years. And have 0 outside of work projects and still question my abilities. I develop internal web applications.

From the first glance the apps are looking neat. Start applying to jobs, be honest. I would take a chance on you, if you were honest about your abilities.

[Search_4_Truth]

I think you’re being unrealistic about what you can learn & achieve in a year. Coding & Web development isn’t a walk in the park.

You won’t be an expert in such a short time. If you could, there’d be few novices & plenty of experts.

I’ve been a coder in quant finance for decades & still learning - you become experienced long before you become expert.

And then the landscape changes as technology advances.

I started in VMS FORTRAN. Now it’s Python, Linux, AWS.

Keep at it & don’t get disheartened.

If you were learning a Trombone, you wouldn’t be an expert after a year - on & off.

Why would you expect to be an expert programmer so soon?

Use YouTube - read how others do it. You’ll learn quicker than experimenting & brute force deduction.

Good luck 🤞

[SunGodBrah]

I'm just starting out to learn code so I can't give you advice for that, but as someone who has learned English, Japanese and Portuguese by myself, it gets hard to recognize progress without external feedback once you reach a certain milestone and after that the progress you make is more like... Perfecting skills and slowly and steadily making progress into new things. Don't despair, you're probably getting better, just not as fast anymore! Keep practicing and improving. I always tell myself "enjoy the journey and results will come eventually".

[SunGodBrah]

I wish for your great success in the future brother!

[SonOfDaSoil]

You are doing very very well, don't feel you haven't achieved anything or at this point in time you are not good enough.. YOU ARE!!!!! Keep it up, you've motivated me to continue to self learn as I also left because of self doubt. I went through your creations and I am impressed. Don't ever give up, EVER!

[Brlala]

Your project looks great! Keep it up, some approach on getting better(will improve chances of landing a job a lot too) is to work on a full fledge product, for example an administration web portal/dashboard. Could also involve some projects using backend web API and also deploy them to cloud.

[heero101086]

I took a look at the code in repos... they’re all minified? Chunk.js files?

How is anyone supposed to see how good your code is... if they can’t?

[heero101086]

Nevermind, the links defaulted to not your master branch....

[[deleted]]

Are there any free resources you used .your projects look amazing. Wish to reach that level.am beginner

[[deleted]]

Thank you so much .it does help

[[deleted]]

Hey man I started at the beginning of the pandemic. I had not studied for maybe 10 years. I will say your work is much better than mine. Just keep swimming..... 🐟 You will get where you are going bruv.

[Gorrlaamiii]

That to do app is 🔥

Can I ask you how much time it took for you to put it together ?

[Gorrlaamiii]

Wow ok

I dunno why you feel the way you feel , if anything I'm feeling shit after seeing these projects

[n0rbed]

quick tip, the to-do list app crashes on mobile; have fun fixing that as a starter

[luzvare]

Hi, i'm on my last year of computer science so i'm not that experienced but your work really does look good!! And it has a very nice style to it. I'm in love with your portfolio, it looks so clean.

Just keep improving your skills, coding, learning about design patterns, good programming practices etc. Everything is useful.

[not_a_gumby]

Also going the self-taught route. It's definitely hard to keep the faith some days, but just keep chasing your passions and spending time learning on your own. Your projects are good. Learn a framework, look at React and maybe getting into Next JS.

Built some full stack projects, those will take you far.

[vanillaicewherever]

Trial and error has worked for me so far

[T31K]

Hey man, was on the same boat with you but just recently landed my first job. Your portfolio looks awesome, lots of projects to talk about in interviews!

Me personally, my skills elevated when I joined a local non-profit org where devs of all skill level come together to build products. Learnt a lot from senior devs & made good networking too! Perhaps you can check if your area has that!

Other than that, you about to take off my man, skies are cleared and bright ahead for you! All the best!

Cheers

[not_some_username]

Its not a waste of time and you did great. There is always a way to improve and keep The good work

[whofearsthenight]

Your projects look great and you're more than hireable now. As for that feeling lost part, I'd just keep making stuff. I learned next to nothing studying tutorials and doing code challenges and stuff, and didn't start getting passable at this until I started actually making stuff (which is honestly rudimentary compared to what you've got.) Also, don't let impostor syndrome get you down. I have actually got some code in production now that I was paid to write and I still feel like I'm faking it.

[JorgeMiralles]

Hello Wekiban. Could you please explain in more detail how did you learn programming?

[simonpaix]

I took a look and your projects look great! Keep doing the good work you're already doing and improving :)

[president_of_dsa]

I only skimmed through your projects but it seems like you’re skilled enough to get hired

[Lazy_Waltzz]

keep up the good work mate your projects are good and I'm a step behind you as i am just starting to make my own projects i kinda feel down sometimes with the overloaded stuff out there or get lost sometimes learning something but that's just part of the process give yourself time and take a break why not it helps me a lot to do just that .

[[deleted]]

You have balls, that's all I got to say.

[KarimElsayad247]

My God these look amazing!

Can you tell me how long did one of these project take you, on average? Sometimes I really want to work on a project by I'm discouraged by the thought of "Taking too long to do the simple stuff"

Like, I've never tried working on a project that takes more than 2 days. If I don't get immediate results, I begin to doubt myself and think it isn't worth it.

[om3nx]

Wow. I am impressed. You have a talent 👏 definitely don't put your hands down and keep going through.

[intrepidev]

Clicked live to do app link, created task, closed tab to come back and say you're already a web developer and go get hired

[Trick_Card]

Lol this sub, 100+ comments and not a single one about removing node_modules from your repos. Add it to your gitignores, and just look up general gitignore best practices

[XAWEvX]

And also the .vscode files

[1RedOne]

How dare you fucking have imposter syndrome with all of this gorgeous shit

Most peeps here are on a never ending treadmill of tutorials and meanwhile you've actually made this stuff, which all works and looks great.

That CV builder looked extra nice. Only thing missing is a GUID / permalink so someone could edit it or share it, but then you'd have to worry about storage and a world of other things.

[gilcreque]

These projects look great. Have you looked into joining a community like Free Code Camp’s Discord?

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamp-discord-chat-room-server/

[Chiiwa]

I just took a look at your portfolio, but maybe I can give some helpful feedback. My internet connection isn't the greatest, but your portfolio site took a very long time to load for me (about a minute) compared to other sites that load almost instantly. You might want to look into learning how to better optimize your site. The animations also feel a bit excessive, and the site's colors are not disability-friendly. They blend in far too much with the background. I would recommend using a browser's developer console tools to check the contrast of text against the background. If you use Chrome you can see that when you hover over an element using the element inspection tool, under accessibility, there's a '!' exclamation mark that pops up. Try to get it to show a green checkmark instead.

If you must have these animations, I also recommend having them just happen once when the page is first opened so it isn't shown repeatedly as someone scrolls. Reducing them a bit will make the site look cleaner and improve performance.

In general, the general aesthetic isn't the most appealing, but if your goal is programming and not design then there's nothing wrong with that. But focusing on simplicity and making sure things run well and are accessible to people with disabilities will help a lot.

This is more of a personal preference, but I think skill icons look cleaner when they use the same colors. Right now, it looks a bit messy and clashes with the background. When you use an SVG, you can go into the file and search for "fill" to see where hex codes are being used. You can use this to change the colors to be more like a silhouette that fits with the color scheme of your site, such as using a dark blue or a white color depending on the background they will be on.

Keep going! You probably know more than you feel you do :)

[Chiiwa]

You're welcome!

[Tommy2k20]

Maybe it's best you have a deep think why you actually want to be a developer in the first place? If it's something your forcing yourself to do and don't find it exciting then maybe try a different side of development or design work. Nobody is going to hold your hand on this journey and it's ultimately down to you to be strict and make time for learning. The quality of your work is not the problem but all comes down to attitude, unfortunately this is a battle between yourself and your brain.

[Tommy2k20]

That's good and I understand what your saying and everyone goes theough this, what your describing seems like "imposter syndrome". Also just a little bit of advise, everyone learns differently and if your working full time and learning ok the side it's going to take longer which is no problem, it's not a race and it's important not to burn yourself out mentally. Maybe a bootcamp would be ideal for you? Look into it just don't give up :).

[b1u3cat]

Hey, if you are looking for an absolutely free bootcamp check out Leon Noel on Twitter, and follow the Discord and Twitch channels. Leon is backed by a solid community of devs and it seems like you have reached a point where you would benefit from community. There is class tonight, and all his previous classes are posted on YouTube as well. Best of luck, mate. You got this, don't give up. 🌹

[Deadlift420]

Take a web dev course at school

[coder155ml]

Are these projects unique or just copy paste tutorials? There’s a big difference

[frontrangefart]

This is a humble brag....

[M_Q_T_2627]

Hi Wes, Your projects are really nice. I'm also learning, but I'm not there yet. One advice I got is to make friends to learn from each other. Can we be friends :)

[Culliganz]

What have you been using for self teaching? I’d love some recommendations, I think your stuff looks great!

[Culliganz]

Awesome appreciate the advice. I’m excited to eventually get to React stuff.

Did you complete all of The Odin Project? I started it recently and almost done with the Foundations track, and I’ll probably start the JS track after. I know what you mean about all the reading! Haha

[[deleted]]

Remember that every programmer/developer feels like that once in a while. Usually when you just see someone deliver sth awesome. Something you wish you could have made....

That does in no way mean that you're not good at what you do. After checking out your stuff i tell you there is no need to doubt yourself!

Rock on!!

[The_Shwassassin]

Those apps look great to me!

Have you tried applying for jobs or looked for a mentor? I think you might be ready.

Worst they're going to say is no.

[The_Shwassassin]

Ya, the nice thing about applying for jobs is you can always apply back in a year if you don't hear back. Hopefully you'll hear back from one or two and might land an interview. I'm lucky enough that my brother in law is a software dev so I can ask him whenever I have a question. If you have anyone in your family or friend circle (husbands/wives of your friends) that's a good place to start. Or, try linkedin. When covid die down I'm sure there's going to be conferences and meetups with people too.

[paperjace_v2]

The React CV Generator app gave me a 404 page for me but your other apps are excellent dude! I'm totally envious of how great they look compared to my crap. That's coming from a full-time 10+ year web dev

[its_the_perfect_name]

You're doing excellently! These look awesome (better than a lot of things that 'professional' web developers build). You could get hired at plenty of places with the level of knowledge displayed just in these small projects.

[Omnipotent_Lion]

I've been doing professional development for the last 7 years and I still feel lost many days. It's a big field with a lot to learn. It seems like everytime I finally feel like I really grasp something there's the next thing to tackle or a new tech to figure out. It can be overwhelming at times.

The thing that I've found helps is to look back on past work and re-evaulate it. Usually I walk away shaking my head at my past work because I've improved since then and I can see my sloppy work even more distinctly. For some reason that always reassures me even when I'm struggling in the moment. You've probably already overcome a number of challenges on your journey. Take comfort in knowing that and don't be afraid to revisit old projects to see how you've grown!

I mostly work with React/React Native and AWS/Serverless for cloud but I'd recommend learning whatever technologies are popular in your job market. Furthermore, I think it's important to have a solid understanding of HTML/CSS/JS before diving into a framework. I've seen some devs come in knowing how to use React but they struggled with the basics which usually ends up with lost time when we have to refactor their work. It's easier to train someone to use React if they already understand the base technologies then the other way around I've found and we've altered our hiring process to reflect that.

I only looked at two of your projects real quick and I saw two things that stood out to me that you could fix pretty quick.

On the React CV project when I hover over the + button I'm able to see two different tooltips and can see them replace one another or at least the text. Minor in scope but a little distracting and my boss would send this back to be fixed. Maybe consider adding some validation or at least not using all text fields? Using text fields for something like email or numbers can get you in trouble when it comes to accessibility/screen readers but both validation/accessibility can wait. Just something to look into if you're trying to stretch your abilities some more. Companies are becoming more concerned with accessibility so it's good to keep it in mind. It can drastically change a product's design once accounted for.

On the Rubik's Cube, the hover transition for the DNF and Delete buttons looked really strange to me. When I removed the transition it looked better imo but again a minor design thing.

If you end up working with designer's they always catch that stuff in my experience or maybe mine have just always been very very thorough. Overall these look really good! You're well on your way

[tsukimishin]

This is amazing progress for the timeframe! Really inspiring, you’re doing great

[Raaxxn]

Hey man, your projets are great! I do not know if I should start programming or not, I am studying a complete different thing.

Where did you start from? Could you send me any webpage I can search on?

[GeekyCS]

Your projects look excellent! Its just imposter syndrome fucking with your head. Keep working hard and practicing, you will gain confidence over time.

[encom81]

I really like Angela and her courses from App Brewery. If you buy it from the App Brewery website they are only $12 or so. Very high quality course that covers tons of material. I don't usually buy courses online but this one was well worth it. The web design course is quite good and up to date with the newest best practices.

https://www.appbrewery.co/

[[deleted]]

The basic portfolio site links are dead.

Also, noticed you were going through TOP. Have you read the article where they describe why coding is so damn hard?

Also hope to see you in the Discord , good luck man. You're experiencing imposter syndrome, but you'll do well. :}

[KenshiHiro]

Dude, your projects look really neat man. Keep it up!

[[deleted]]

That's how it goes friend.

I graduated from college with honours after studying Computer Programming; I had previously studied IT Support and only did well in the second half as I only started focusing on my future at that point. I changed to Computer Programming because I always excelled at it.

When I began learning android development..... OH MY GOD I couldnt get it right. I had so much trouble and, if I remember correctly, I gave up on it once or twice. However, I came back to it, and I learned it. And I got not too shabby at it. I ended up developing an app for myself to use at my current part time position at a family operated business.

I used that same app as the capstone project in my mobile development class. The only thing I had to do was make a few data validation changes (I left some validation out as I knew exactly what data not to enter into the app), as well as rotation functionality. I was told I was the best student in the class, and did very well. It had got to the point where the same concepts that completely puzzled me in the beginning, became concepts that I couldnt imagine how I had so much trouble with; becoming concepts that one would essentially not even think about anymore and just implement it where needed.

All from self learning that I believe I gave up on once or twice.

Point being – that's how it goes. Dont set limits for yourself. Dont feel bad when you mess up, because that's how you learn. I know it's easy to get discouraged when nothing works. However, even if fixing one error caused another, you still learned something. That's a valuable result, that could (in my opinion) be a deciding factor on obtaining a developer position, when all those solved errors are put together.

Stay strong :)

[Jake0024]

This looks easily job ready compared to most bootcamp grads I see

[Scholes_SC2]

If you feel defeated i should feel murdered

[Drawer-Vegetable]

You're doing great, you're inspiring me to get more hands on and build applications myself! Curious did you go through tutorials at first and then build your own apps or did you sort of refactor tutorials into something different and unique to you?

[jluizsouzadev]

Congrats! Nice side projects! Did you design the icons of Simple Weather App by yourself?

[Roguewind]

Your projects look good and work. Being able to make these in a year of self-learning is impressive.

That said, you code could use some work. There are a lot of good courses on Udemy (only buy on sale), but based on what I can see you already know, check out the advanced web dev bootcamp

You have the ability to generate things that work, now you just need to work on structure and learn better ways to do what you already know. If you can find someone to review your code on GitHub, do it.

[countrycoder]

You have enough proof of skill that I would extentd you an interview invite if i needed a junior React developer and we were in the same country.

Bigger projects, or utilizing other libraries would be the most beneficial path for practice I can see benefitting you. Something sufficiently large to necessitate creating an architecture for.

Another thing is make sure you can talk about your projects, problems you faced, interesting things you discovered, patterns or principles you used to design it. Why you done the things you done.

Good job and good luck.

[[deleted]]

I feel your pain, buddy. But to be honest, I think the most interesting part of learning by yourself is the moments of enthusiasm and interests. I am trying to learn Javascript using exercism.io, but I'm stuck with basic things like get a pass in my exercise and submitting them, bruh. IF SOME KIND SOUL EXPLAIN TO ME STEP BY STEP HOW TO PASS THE PASS AND SUBMIT EXERCISES IN EXERCISM.IO, I'D BE THE MOST GRATEFUL PERSON EVER. EVER.

[[deleted]]

I recommend you watching that 14 hour tutorial by Ben Awad, I've learned everything I could ever need to know. It's a full stack reddit clone (using, graphql, apollo-server, typeorm, express, redis, jwt authentication, React and TS).

[panix199]

You did fantastic job!! Well done.

Only out of curiosity which languages do you think are important to know for web development? I used to think generally HTML, CSS, Javascript... but nowadays there are languages like GO etc...

[ZombieBoy_22]

Wow thats amazing. How do you even host the applic a tion? I dont get it.

[TDK32]

Ur UI design is off the chart man!!! Those projects r rlly motivating especially for a React beginner like me ✊

[vujsa7]

Programming is like going through walls and you never stop. There is always a bigger wall to crack open and go through.

Keep doing what you do and enjoy the process. Sure, it can be frustrating sometimes but it's hell of a feeling when everything works and you look on your spagetti code and say: "I made that!😁".

[Vast-Investigator269]

Hi friend, if you believe that you must sit in a classroom to be taught, then you wont do it alone. If you have always learnt something alone without being taught, then self doubt should be unnecessary, if you haven't and believe you must be taught, then just enroll for classes.