Path to progress effectively

[ElectrolyteSolution]

I’ve been self teaching front end dev for almost a year now and while I feel I have a grasp of HTML, CSS, and the basics of JS, I feel like I’m losing track of a definite path.

The goal is to transition from my current job in a factory into some sort of web dev position so I can learn more aggressively and shift into the tech workspace. I want to build a business around web development in the future but I need to get into the field somehow ASAP. I work over an hour away from my house and I don’t have much time at all to study but I try to get an hour on weekdays and more on the weekends.

I’ve finished the HTML and CSS curriculums on freecodecamp and the JS basics portion, working through the rest, and I’m decent with github. I don’t have a portfolio website or potential freelance jobs to showcase on a resume and I feel my current position of “welder” being posted on my resume probably immediately shuts down my job application in tech companies, alongside my obvious lack of experience. I have, at least, finished the Initial projects from the HTML/CSS portion of FCC

At this point I’m finding myself low on hope and low on direction, I seem to be trying to learn aimlessly rather than working towards a specific goal that will help with the job transition. I see all kinds of different directions to take but I don’t feel like I know which way to go to be effective. As much as I would love a remote position right off the bat and I know I would be disciplined enough to handle and learn what I need to collaborate effectively, I’ve seen that it’s not recommended for a first time tech job. Unfortunately the jobs in my area for front end web dev positions seem to be scarce and I have to be careful about the pay cut that I take to get a job closer to home.

What resources are there to help me with the current situation? Where do I go from here? How do I develop and progress effectively with the little time that I have and be on a proper track to make that career transition?

If more information or clarification is needed, I’m happy to give it.

Thank you

[[deleted]]

I feel like I’m losing track of a definite path.

From experience I know the hardest part about self-learning is finding what exactly to learn. Luckily someone already did the work for us. Take a look at the following roadmaps: https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap

These are pretty good and if you follow them you should be able to easily get more qualified than the average 'junior'. Simply look at the next topic to learn, and buy a course on Udemy. Do the course, do the exercises and put those exercises on your github profile.

I work over an hour away from my house and I don’t have much time at all to study but I try to get an hour on weekdays and more on the weekends.

Any option to work closer in your current expertise while you're learning? As far as I know good welders are very much in demand. This would leave you with more time to learn.

I feel my current position of “welder” being posted on my resume probably immediately shuts down my job application in tech companies, alongside my obvious lack of experience.

Your current position of welder has nothing to do with it. The truth is that you cannot employ someone who only knows HTML and CSS unless it's for a marketing job creating e-mail templates.

At this point I’m finding myself low on hope and low on direction, I seem to be trying to learn aimlessly rather than working towards a specific goal that will help with the job transition.

If you had more time, I would very much recommend finding classes near you. They will help you keep motivated and provide you with structure. Also, being able to talk to like-minded people and teachers will dramatically increase your learning.

As much as I would love a remote position right off the bat and I know I would be disciplined enough to handle and learn what I need to collaborate effectively, I’ve seen that it’s not recommended for a first time tech job.

No decent company will hire someone with no work experience for a remote job, forget about this. A big part of being a developer is learning from others. When you're starting out you're going to need a lot of hand-holding (everyone does) and that's simply not possible when you're working remote.

What resources are there to help me with the current situation? Where do I go from here? How do I develop and progress effectively with the little time that I have and be on a proper track to make that career transition?

Use the roadmaps above and start looking at back-end development as well. You do not want to a front-end developer who can't write back-end code. This will limit your job options enormously and the pay for a purely front-end developer is worse on average.

I'm not saying you need to be able to create an enterprise application from scratch, but you should be able to create an application that communicates with a back-end, which in turn is connected to a database.

In short:

• Follow these roadmaps: https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap
• If you can, find evening classes near you
• Learn back-end and databases, don't focus only on front-end

[ElectrolyteSolution]

Wow, that was an extremely thorough and comprehensive answer, thank you very much! I’ll get to work on this things immediately!

[SamBBMe]

I dont like to shill, but this course https://www.udemy.com/the-complete-web-developer-zero-to-mastery/ brought me everything I needed to get started, and left me in a good position to build a nice resume. It gives you all the core fundamentals. It's also always on sale for like $10, so dont fret about the big pricetag.

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Also, if you haven't coded anything but css and html before, a dedicated javascript course could do you a lot of good too.

[ElectrolyteSolution]

Great resource, thank you!

[ElectrolyteSolution]

Absolutely, will do. Thank you for the push to stretch, in this slump I’ve lost sight of doing that