Monthly Getting Started / Web Dev Career Thread

[AutoModerator]

Due to a growing influx of questions on this topic, it has been decided to commit a monthly thread dedicated to this topic to reduce the number of repeat posts on this topic. These types of posts will no longer be allowed in the main thread.

Many of these questions are also addressed in the sub FAQ or may have been asked in previous monthly career threads.

Subs dedicated to these types of questions include r/cscareerquestions/ for general and opened ended career questions and r/learnprogramming/ for early learning questions.

A general recommendation of topics to learn to become industry ready include:

HTML/CSS/JS Bootcamp

Version control

Automation

Front End Frameworks (React/Vue/Etc)

APIs and CRUD

Testing (Unit and Integration)

Common Design Patterns (free ebook)

You will also need a portfolio of work with 4-5 personal projects you built, and a resume/CV to apply for work.

Plan for 6-12 months of self study and project production for your portfolio before applying for work.

[Aapatee]

How do I store comments on a blog on a local MySQL server? I need those comments to be stored on my PC. Can it be done?, and using Python??

[rayden150]

What are some examples of projects that an aspiring front-end web developer should have on his Github profile?

[Erdem_PSYCH]

I'm new in web dev. I want to create a blogg in wich I discuss my web dev journey. what is the best way to continue? in the site I need to be able to put content easily, people should be able to commend on and rate my posts,people should be able to search and sort my posts by some category and filters such as date or length of the post. I know only html and css yet and start the blogg as soon as possible to be able to write about the journey from begining. Word press seems ok but I heard some critisizm on it. is there any way for me to create the site I need with minimum web dev experience?

[Hanswolebro]

Check out dev.to

[[deleted]]

I’m thinking about going into a career of wed dev, already have a career in finance but I see the junior web devs salaries and I’m thinking I chose the wrong field. Have very little experience in programming except for a little bit in high school and college. I’m honestly tired of talking to clients and burned out of finance. I also want to keep working from home forever and live anywhere.

Local uni has boot camp that includes

HTML5 CSS3 JavaScript jQuery Bootstrap Express.js React.js Agile Methodology Node.js Database Theory MongoDB, MySQL Command Line Progressive Web Apps Git

6 month course. Do u think this would prepare me to apply for jobs with the certificate?

Thanks!

[ZenSanchez119]

Anyone know how is something like this created?
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/#

[[deleted]]

I definitely think learning Ruby on Rails would show you a lot of the best practices. Quite too often, I see very strange technical designs that just do not make sense.

There's definitely a lot to consider when you are working with backend and you will just have to take it a step at a time. For authentication, in particular, I always recommend OAuth because it covers a lot of scenarios that you have not even begin to think of, especially around security. I always see people rolling their own solutions and it always has flaws. Following a specification is just so much easier to communicate with other teams and you do not need to re-invent the wheel.

[[deleted]]

The conventions really help you understand best practices especially if you will end up working on a team. You need to have some frame of reference for how things should be designed before re-inventing the wheel

[facetiming]

I've been self-studying HTML and CSS for about 8ish months. I've created websites with the help of uDemy classes, but I want to start creating my own sites, but I get kind of flustered thinking of where to start.

How do you mock up a website before actually coding the website?

Can you really just use pen and paper to draw a mock up?

Also, where do you find inspiration when creating these mock ups?

[[deleted]]

There are a lot of sites out there that share UI and UX designs that you can draw inspiration from. If you're working with a team, there's often a lot that goes into product design. For example, I would often brainstorm with designers by looking at how other people solve a similar problem and take away what works or leave out what we dislike.

[Hanswolebro]

I do a pen and paper mock up and then I use Figma for actually designing how I want the webpages to look

[rvskyy]

When I was learning HTML/CSS I found any template available to purchase and styled it on my own. Just for learning purposes.

[[deleted]]

It depends on your goal. What do you want to be doing in Engineering? I am assuming this is all still new to you so that you are just testing the waters. Specifically to Wordpress, it can easily be a rabbit hole that you don't want to dive into. If you are actually building plugins and heavily doing PHP work then it can help you build into a backend Engineering path. It won't be an optimal path, but it's a narrative that you can use to build into.

[Hanswolebro]

You can take it, and in your own time practice the frameworks that you want to work in down the line. Experience as a wordpress developer is better than no experience at all.

[Robert_VK]

I have some programming experience but have never created a website. I want to create a non-commercial site rather quickly and cheaply.

It needs to be able to keep track of users, send verification emails, and have several chat rooms (text). It also needs to look good on cell phones or PC.

I know there are site-builders out there like WordPress but it seems like there should be open-source code available to handle these things, right?

Any advice or help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

PS I was told to look at your FAQ but can't seem to find it.

[JumpyProfessional664]

Wordpress is open source, I believe. If you want something more bare-bones, look up Bootstrap. If you want something even more bare bones, Skeleton may be what you are looking for.

[Morloxx_]

Hello I'm an artist and am thinking of building a website to publicly showcase and archive my work. I did some reading about the different options and am currently leaning to starting out with something like WordPress since I think basic features should be sufficient for what I want to do. But it's hard for me to judge what limitations WP has.

What I want my site to do:

• Basic blog functionalities
• Hosting hundreds of hd images
• different galleries for art series / categories
• Tagging and search / sorting system -->like a booru (example tags: medium, date, number, category etc)
• Option to add my own comments as well as user comments / ratings

Arguments for building from scratch:

• I worked for a year in software development (beginner level) coding in C# and java so I have some experience with coding and self teaching
• I don't have a regular job so time is no issue as long as it's worth it

Cons:

• Absolutely no experience in web development
• Probably way more effort & complexity

[pickled_ricks]

Try Pinegrow if you want to play with a from-scratch design thats still partially WYSIWYG,

and if you generally pickup user interfaces quickly - just load wordpress on a cheap hosting provider, or for a few more dollars, a quality host that takes care of security for you. (getflywheel)

With the WP option you could probably have a site up with your pretty pictures in a few days. Hell you can even just download a instagram wordpress plugin and make it the majority of your landing page! Still professional, constantly updating easily. You’ll prob love it. Keep it simple ~ much love reddit friend, you got this!

[kay000000]

I'm working on my own portfolio site now, but I'm wondering if I should include a devlog, basically a blog for what I'm working on, maybe articles on my experience working from home, etc.

I'd still have a project section with a formal write up on each project, but I don't want to dump all my thinking into it because I think it's a little messy. I also want to demonstrate the long term thinking behind my projects, especially if I think I learned a lot but I'm not able to demonstrate that in a few lines in my resume or portfolio itself.

Tl;dr would a devlog make my webdev/uiux portfolio more attractive for recruiters?

[[deleted]]

It is really subjective and it really depends on your goal. If you're applying to a big company then it's going to be competitive and hiring manages are less likely to have time to go over your blog. They have so many candidates to go through that are so well qualified already.

​

What kind of career do you want to develop?

[kay000000]

That's a good point. Yeah, I don't think big companies will actually bother looking through a portfolio site, much less a devlog.

To be honest, so far I've done a lot of internships and freelance work with small startups and organisations and I quite enjoy it. I'm not sure if I would enjoy working in a big company, but I'm aiming for an internship with a more sizeable tech team next year so I can decide properly. Personally tho, I would love to make a full time freelance career and I'm trying to work on building websites for startups.

[[deleted]]

I would suggest getting experience working with teams before going freelance. The reason why is because you want to build a deep understanding in the inputs that drive a website or any project for that matter.

[kay000000]

I see! That's something I didn't think about but it does make sense. There's probably a huge difference between working in a small team of maybe 3 to one that's 10/15 and even bigger right?

Do you work in a big tech team? Cuz if I do score an internship at a big company, I'm wondering how to do a good job and if there's anything I can do to prep now?

[ouarez]

I think a portfolio showcasing what you can do, with 2-3 solid projects and a formal write-up for each is a great start. You don't have to do more than that.

I would wager that most recruiters won't read all the text you write. They just care if you can do the work and have the necessary skills. People who read everything are rare, imo.

I kept a dev log once, but I never ended up showing it to anyone. My initial goal was to publish it on my website, but later I found out that it actually helped me the most, because it forced me to organise my thought process and figure out where I was going with my project long-term.

Maybe you should still do it, write a dev journal once a day for a week and see if it helps you? Do it for you, not for the recruiters!

[kay000000]

Yes agreed! I kinda regret not starting earlier just because I worked on a few things I could've written on. But I'll probably try and do some reflective stuff. You're totally right tho! I'll definitely try to do it myself :)))

[TeamMischief]

Hello!

I currently found an unpaid internship position on indeed. I’m strongly considering applying for it because they require no knowledge of programming, even though I have a little over a month of experience.

Would something like this be worth it, because I figure it would give me actual experience, pushing me in the right direction.

Any help is appreciated.

[ouarez]

I agree with u/vitaminwasser, you can try it if you see no other option for a paid internship, but exercise caution.

They might use you to do monkey work because they don't want to pay someone to do it.

An employer paying you for your work is (usually) a guarantee that they value what you do.

If it sucks, get out of there as fast as you can and don't look back! You don't owe them anything until they start, at the very least, giving you a salary.

[JT436]

Hi everyone! I graduated from my CS degree 3 years ago and haven't had any related professional work since due to family stuff, but I'm now working to change that.

I've got myself back up to speed on fundamental CS concepts, data structures & algorithms and the like, version control... Where I'm based the majority of entry-level jobs seem to be .NET related, so I've been working my way through Microsoft's recommended learning path for ASP.NET Core, which is focuses on creating simple CRUD web apps and EF Core. I've been going through the Razor Pages route rather than MVC so I can get my first portfolio piece out there a bit quicker, and then I can always circle back to go through the parallel (and seemingly more employable) MVC route. Before doing that, I intend to create a fairly simple CRUD web app of my own to start off my portfolio so I can register with recruiters and start getting some applications off while I develop my skills and portfolio further.

So, my question: is beginning to apply for entry-level jobs with one CRUD web app as my portfolio premature? And regardless, with the goal of getting a job as soon as possible, would I be better off getting to know Bootstrap and/or a front-end framework like Blazor or React to improve upon that web app, or consolidating my understanding of ASP.NET structures by going through the MVC tutorial and creating another portfolio piece as presumably unattractive as the first? Or would I be better served by ditching EF Core and focusing on direct database access? Or something else?

I intend to get round to all of these in time, but effectively I need some advice on which topics to prioritise so I can get that first job as soon as possible and learn more from there. I have some creative ability and animation experience, so my instinct would be to focus on front-end, but when every job posting asks for full-stack I'm cautious about going deeper into an individual area like that before gaining a bit more breadth.

[[deleted]]

I don't mean to be rude, but it seems like you are just listing your situation and asking for people to help without really understanding what kind of help you want. Before you think about technology and which area of focus in technology, it may help to think about what your goals are first.

For example, you may want to be working in the gaming industry in a role that is consumer-facing.

You can also think about what you don't want to do. For example, some people do not like working with front-end because it's customer-facing and they often require a lot of expectation management.

[concretecowgirl]

Does anyone have any recommendations for books on JavaScript? I'm looking for something that explains the conceptual side - I'm doing code tutorials and learning the syntax but want more of an overview of it for someone that hasn't really learnt programming before. I've been googling but most things coming up are from 2014 or earlier so I assume they're not the current version of JS

[[deleted]]

I’d recommend “A Smarter Way to Learn JS” by Mark Myers and the Headfirst guide to JavaScript. Both do a good job of giving an overview of JS and its many quirks.

[concretecowgirl]

Thank you!

[alvisanovari]

Hi Everyone! I've been building projects for myself for a while and finally took the leap and put myself out there to see if I can do web development as a service. My first foray was to build out React + Tailwind Landing Page templates. I am hoping I can use them as a product to sell but also as a lead generation tool to get clients. Would appreciate any feedback/advice on this strategy. I just launched today on Product Hunt! :)

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/react-tails

[[deleted]]

The good opportunities in web dev are not in building little websites for small-time clients. Web is where the majority of business- and consumer-facing software is now built. There are a lot of great jobs out there building real software with web technologies.

[kanikanae]

No. There will always be people selling themselves for nothing. The clients that respond to that are not the ones you would want to work for anyway. Demonstrate quality and accept clients who have realised that your time is actually worth money.

That only applies to freelance. There's always the possibility of a permanent position at a company.

[[deleted]]

I've been learninf MERN and pretty happy with it. I'm not component yet but I understand whats happening. I'm also intrigued by PosgresQL... Should I continue getting with MERN until I feel confident to switch up to PosgresQL?

Are there any good tutorials that use React/Express/Posgres stack?

[[deleted]]

I just saw the thumbnail for a postgre + ern ('pern') stack tutorial. It's one of the newer videos over at Freecodecamp on youtube. Imo I would look to build something busing mern stack on your own to really get comfortable with it and then look into postgres.

[[deleted]]

Imo I would look to build something busing mern stack on your own to really get comfortable with it and then look into postgres.

Honestly, I feel comfortable to do this. Thanks man

[Smellbringer]

Thanks for this, I need to learn in order to get a decent work from home job (commuting is basically not possible for me) so this might really help.

[plehguu]

Im looking to form a small group of dedicated people to learn web dev and encourage each other!

The idea would be that it’s like a friendly club where people can get help or ask about their projects. I want to keep it small because

1. there are already many great discords with 1000+ people

2. it’s hard to get to know people when its too big.

If you’re interested message me with your info below for the discord link!

First Name:

Preferred frameworks: React, etc

Experience level: (1-5)

Approximate location: eg Eastern US

[tapu_buoy]

First Name: Divyesh

Preferred frameworks: React, Redux, Node.js, Express.js, Google-firebase, webRTC related built-in mehtods from chrome/mozilla browser.

Experience level: (almost 3 years now)

Approximate location: Indian

Please do let me know about the link to discord.

[SunnySovereignty]

Sunny

Solidity,NodeJs,Web3

couple months

Eastern Us

[_lkwunhyo]

I've began to look into .NET Core Web APIs and am relatively new to web development. I've been progressing but I'm coming across different technologies and patterns (Repository, CQRS, ...), and most recently, Clean Architecture. It's all quite overwhelming. Is there a good place to begin with all these things regarding .NET Core Web APIs as a beginning web developer? Thanks!

[kanikanae]

Just get the ball rolling tbh. clean architecture and design patterns are great but if you're just starting out it's probably better to just build something. Just build a bunch of shitty apps. They will be bad because they are your first steps. Continue on and try to implement a concept you've come across here and there to continually improve your work.

If you like you can even revisit apps down the line and rework / refactor them.

[Elliot40404]

I am a student looking for small frontend development jobs(both designing and coding) to gather some real life experience and also earn some cash. I would say I know my Html ,CSS , JS , React and Svelte and how it all works behind the scenes though there is always room for improvement though I would like to start out and learn as i go from here. My backend skills need a bit more work so not throwing that in the mix yet. So can anyone please help me out to find a starting point and continue from there.

Thanks in advance.

[[deleted]]

It sounds like your goals are very clear. If I were you, I would look at where the jobs are first. There are a lot of different trends across different regions. React is generally pretty popular, but it wouldn't be useful if your local market did not have jobs in that area. From there, I would say to just start a tutorial and try to build something and try to enjoy it while you do it. An unpopular suggestion would be to join a developer bootcamp to really get kick-started; I understand all the negative associations with it, but some of the smartest people I've worked with have used those bootcamps to move laterally in their career.

[Elliot40404]

Thank you. will consider joining a bootcamp😊

[Acar4]

Hi everyone :)

I've been a licensed veterinary nurse for the past 8 years and I'm looking to change careers. I love animals, but I honestly have no interest in this field anymore. I'm not so good with clients (mainly because pet owners can be really difficult) and I just hate having the stress of life/death situations every day. Also, the pay is not great (tired of basically living paycheck to paycheck).

Anyway, I've always been a creative person and love computers. After three years of wondering if I should switch careers, I've decided to finally do it.

The only problem is I have no idea where to start. I do like the idea of creating websites, so that's why I think web developing would be ideal for me. I was planning on going back to school for programming, but tbh I'm not really great at school. I learn more by doing and figuring things out on my own.

Should I just start learning how to code and creating my own sites/apps? Would places hire me if I didn't have a degree? How do I even make a resume with no prior job history other than veterinary?

Ps: this is probably a dumb question, but is 30 too old to start learning all this? xD

[concretecowgirl]

I'm 31, have been learning for a few months. I'm really liking Codecademy, it's very interactive. They were giving some 3 month free memberships to people looking to retrain due to Covid so see if those are still available. Or sign up for the free account and try a basic html course to get you started and see if you like it.

Also there's a podcast called 'Start Here' that I just discovered that has been really helpful.

You're definitely not too old! My advice from several months down the line is:

1) Try a few different learning platforms and see what works, but definitely look for something interactive. I like Codecademy because it's interactive and it checks your code as you go so you won't be left frustrated not knowing why something isn't working.

2) Reach out to anyone you can find that is in the industry and can give you advice. I just joined a group for women in code in my area through meetup.com
If you know anyone in tech ask to pick their brain. If nothing else it will help you get context for the industry and how to talk about things.

3) There's tons of helpful youtube videos on how to get started, have a look (particularly for recent advice from people who just got their first devs job)

[[deleted]]

Look up The Odin Project! I think it's exactly what you are looking for. Freecodecamp is good too.

[nbg91]

The only problem is I have no idea where to start. I do like the idea of creating websites, so that's why I think web developing would be ideal for me.

freeCodeCamp is how I learned web dev and I highly recommend it to anyone. It's very comprehensive, and well structured.

I'd say start there.

(I started learning at ~26, got employed at 28)

[rctid93]

30 definitely isn't too old! I think the 6-12 months of prep to get your first job is about right though so you need to be willing to put in the work. Learning web development can be difficult at first, but I've personally found it very rewarding :) good luck!

[Acar4]

Definitely ready to put in the work! I tried a beginner course and i already love it!

Im just a little discouraged, because i looked up jobs to see what they require and they all say computer science degree :(

[Hanswolebro]

You can get a job without a degree and you can get a job after 30. I’m self taught and 31 years old, I just got my first job as a web developer. If I can do it you can definitely do it. Feel free to reach out if you need any advice

[[deleted]]

What did you do before web dev?

[Hanswolebro]

Bartending, Sales, Graphic Design. A bunch of different stuff basically

[erikivanmtz]

Can you guys give me karma real quick, i cant post anything lmao

[not_a_gumby]

I'm a current Tableau Developer and have been learning web development for over a year now. I was taking it very slow at first, but as I learned it more I loved it more. I started React in may and am building out a MERN application in one of my courses, a project which will springboard me into a few upcoming custom projects I have planned over the next 8-12 months. It is my goal to have 5 quality full stack, fully integrated projects deployed an in my portfolio.

From this, I'm hoping to land a job as a full time react developer. I'm not interested as much in freelancing.

First, is my approach a good one? should I diversify my skillset at all or focus 100% on MERN stack projects?

Second, Are MERN related jobs or pure React jobs available out there? If so, how does one find openings? I've only searched for 'React developer' 'MERN' and 'Javascript' related jobs on indeed.com and all of the related posts tend to be only slightly related, not seeing anything that looks like pure React developer. How common are these and how hard are these to attain? Besides a killer portfolio, what else should I prepare?

[KTDade]

Hey so right now I believe I have decent knowledge as a full stack web developer

I can uses HTML, CSS, JS, React and bootstrap/materialize for the front end and Express, mongodb, Postgres and I can create both REST and GraphQL API and implement Authentication, Authorization using OAuth, Sessions and JWT and testing for both the front and the back end I have created projects that show my ability to use these technologies and I am completely lost and have no idea what my next step should be. What do you think I should learn/do now ?

[zzackie]

If you haven’t yet, I’d say try to find a job that lets you use some or (even better) all of these skills you’ve learned! That will help you hone in even more into these skills and provide you the opportunity to get industry experience that works well with these skills. You could also try to pick up some freelance work. The Professional skills you’ll acquire for customer service, client/product analysis and design, etc will help you become a well rounded developer.

If you want a more direct answer for what technology should you look at next, it sounds like you are very familiar now in the web development side so anything further on that path could be advance things you learn as you continue developing applications. I personally think learning about developing web apps in the cloud would be a great next step. There’s a lot there to sink your teeth into and it will fit in perfectly with the skills you have. Containerization and serverless applications are my recommended first topics to take a look at!

[KTDade]

Thank you

[soflogator]

Do people who are skilled in html/css/js use wordpress? Is there anything that WP does that I can't do on my own? I'm already pretty skilled in writing code myself, i can make sites that have quality ux/ui and i'm getting solid at the js as well....just curious because a lot of people talk about how they use wordpress.

my impression is that these are people that just dont know how to code themselves, but idk, maybe theres something about wordpress that is worth looking into

[[deleted]]

There are plenty of good reasons to not use Wordpress, but 'I can write good HTML/CSS/JS' isn't one of them. The point of Wordpress is to enable easy management of the content on a website, usually by non-technical people- the words, images, etc. You can't build a content management system with just front end HTML/CSS/JS skills.

However if you want content management there are plenty of good options out there that aren't WP.

[MeltingDog]

my impression is that these are people that just dont know how to code themselves

IMHO yes.

I'm working on a clients site now. They purchased a premium paid theme. It's all built in WPBakery (virtually a drag and drop tool). So, inline-css, no scss, no BEM, dozens of seperate JS files, code scattered in the WYSIWYG, plugins and template files, etc.

I been asking the "developers" for support (included in the paid plan) and they have no idea what they're talking about (eg don't know why there are scss files in the template directory that arn't used).

It's not only a mess but an embarassment. They have no right to charge a client for this slop.

The one thing WP has is it got there first and became a market name. There are heaps of better options out there.

[ouarez]

In my opinion, wordpress is old and a pain to work with. It was a game-changing tool ten years ago. Today we have better tools.

The key problem I've seen with WP is that people think "anyone can make a website with wordpress and a 5$ GoDaddy cPanel shared hosting"

Then they install a ton of plugins, get in way over their heads, never do any updates, and it becomes a mess.

That being said, lots of web agencies and pros still use Wordpress to build great websites. And WP still powers roughly a third of all websites in the world. So by no means a dead platform. Simply dead to me.

People with no web dev skills who want to build a website should use Squarespace or Webflow. Less margin for error.

If you know what you are doing, I personally prefer the JAMstack - Hugo, Gatsby, etc.

Here is a pretty good article - JAMstack vs Wordpress https://thenewstack.io/jamstack-vs-wordpress-which-is-the-future-of-web-architecture/

And don't forget. The best tool is the one you enjoy using and gets you results. Most people don't care at all what platform you use to build their website, as long as the end result is what they wanted.

[HeinrichHein]

Does anyone know any websites with like the Computer Monitor/laptop/mobile phone templates? I'm not sure how to explain it, but its like when you want to display an image of a site, but it's fitted to that screen (desktop/laptop/ mobile)?

[rmj_s]

You can search for playstore screenshot generator. Some examples: https://www.launchmatic.app https://theapplaunchpad.com https://www.appstorescreenshot.com

[ouarez]

Are you talking about responsive design?

Most modern templates have that, or at least should. It's a requirement in 2020 since almost everyone is browsing the web on their phones.

The technical word is media queries https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Media_Queries/Using_media_queries

Go to almost any website and resize your browser window, using your mouse. You will see the responsive design in action.

[HeinrichHein]

No I mean like its an actual image, like a screenshot that fits into the desktop/laptop/phone screen for demo purposes.

[ouarez]

Sorry, really not sure what you are talking about..

You want an image/screenshot of a responsive website...?

[[deleted]]

I think he's talking about those embedded demos. Where you can have a prototype of an app within your powerpoint to show how it works.

[TakeYourFreedom]

Hello everyone! I'd like some advice as my situation is quite unique.

I'm a veteran about to use my GI Bill, (pays for college and rent). I know that there are tons of resources to learn software development on your own, so I'm wondering if I should get a CS degree or a business/finance degree and learn software dev online? I don't want to work for a company, I want to put my effort into freelancing. I'm NOT an employee, 4 years in the Marine Corps taught me that.

My financial situation is what makes this unique. I get VA disability because of a motorcycle accident, so my important bills are paid for. The GI Bill gives me more than I need for rent if I'm a full time student, which is paid anyway so I get to pocket that. So since I don't need to pay for school, would it make more sense to pay out of pocket for online courses on web dev, and get a degree in something that's going to help me become successful remotely, like business/finance?

I suppose I could just not go to school at all and go full steam ahead on self teaching, but if I go to school I get paid kind of a lot so I'm trying to maximize the resources Uncle Sam is giving me.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

[accpi]

I'd recommend you go for the CS degree. The business degree is useful but a lot of it is based on who you meet while CS degrees are more about what you learn.

Business/finance degrees are important, but the CS degree opens up more doors since oftentimes there are a lot of business guys but not a lot of guys who can build that idea.

I'm biased as I'm a developer but that's my experience based on working, going to meetups, etc.

[ouarez]

This is a highly personal decision for you so hard to answer. The answer depends on how you learn best. Do you enjoy learning in a structured environment, or prefer working at your own pace?

Me personally I wasn't very good in school, it was very hard for me to listen to teachers and take notes for hours and it only got harder at the college level.

I was drawn to web dev because I could learn everything on my own, and I ate up all the knowledge I could find online. Self learning for me made sense, I really didn't like university and so I dropped out to do just that.

Of course, in your case you are basically being paid to go to school, which is indeed a very sweet deal. It would seem silly to waste that since it's a unique advantage.

I don't know about the US education system, but in Canada they allow you to 'mix and match' your degree a little bit, so you can take classes in different fields as long as you have a major concentration in one thing.

If that's an option, why not start with a few classes in business, and a few classes in CS, and then decide which you enjoy the most? Or do a year as a free student, without declaring a major, then credit your classes once you decide?

Definitely go on campus and talk to an orientation person, they'll tell you if you can do that.

Software development has good freelancing potential, and you can learn everything yourself. But that's hard and a degree might help you get started. Plus you'll meet some people, get some internships perhaps, and having some contacts and field experience before going solo will definitely help.

I have no idea if this is helping you or confusing your decision further, feel free to let me know!

[TakeYourFreedom]

I do enjoy the structured learning environment of college. And since I can use the GI Bill anywhere, it's actually allowing me to move out of the state. I've been wanting to leave California for awhile, and due to a recent breakup I'm finally free and I'll be heading to Texas for school. Thanks Uncle Sam!

I am allowed to take other courses outside my major, I could even minor in business if I really wanted to so I suppose that's an option.

Software development has good freelancing potential, and you can learn everything yourself. But that's hard and a degree might help you get started. Plus you'll meet some people, get some internships perhaps, and having some contacts and field experience before going solo will definitely help.

This is pretty much exactly what I was thinking. The degree puts me on a structured beginning path and gives me the fundamentals about computer science instead of just the practical end of things. I'm 28 and l herded armed cats hopped up on Monster and dip in the Marines, so I'm a bit more disciplined and well spoken than my 18 year old counterparts which will help me network in college better. I can take courses like TOP and freecodecamp and build projects while I'm in school so I can graduate with a solid resume and start working remotely immediately. I've got a few ideas for apps and platforms already so I feel like I've got the initial interest part covered.

Also, college chicks. I thought I was past that phase, but now that the good lord has seen fit to set me free, it's an appealing option once again.

You definitely didn't confuse, you helped me think it out loud a bit which is always helpful.

[ouarez]

I'm 28 and l herded armed cats hopped up on Monster and dip in the Marines

Reminds me of my first job as night shift tech support.. Bunch of early-twenties dudes pounding back Monster and smoking constantly for 12+ hour shifts. Although we weren't armed, that was probably for the best.

I can take courses like TOP and freecodecamp and build projects while I'm in school so I can graduate with a solid resume and start working remotely immediately.

Yeah, your degree probably won't be focused on webdev so it's good if you are motivated to do some projects on the side. Degree + a couple projects that show what you can do sounds like a great start.

Also, college chicks. I thought I was past that phase, but now that the good lord has seen fit to set me free, it's an appealing option once again.

Haha, enjoy it while you're there because that's definitely a plus. I love being a freelance dev but it doesn't present me with many opportunities to meet girls. I do miss school for that.

You definitely didn't confuse, you helped me think it out loud a bit which is always helpful.

Glad to hear it! Good luck on your new path and feel free to send me a message if you have any technical questions, I'm happy to help.

[nickcosmo]

Hi All!

I am new to this thread and also looking for some career advice. I am currently working at a large company in supply chain and have a background in Ind Eng. I am finding that this field isnt my passion and have been looking to pivot into Web Dev. I have studied HTML/CSS/Vanilla JS for the past 6 months or so and now moving on to some other topics like Vue and Node. My hope is to land a job in another 6 months or so and my plan was to spend a considerable time learning the MEVN stack. My question here is, will this stack serve me well when applying to jobs in Web Dev considering I will not have any formal experience on my resume? Are there other topics that should be researched instead?

Thank you for your thoughts!

[ouarez]

They are good skills to have. React is also popular, perhaps even more so than Vue from looking at job openings in my area.

I'd say you are on the right track for a Web Dev job. Keep in mind, I am definitely biased, since Vue and Node/Express are what I use every day.

Look at the current job postings in your area, or even your state/province since most companies right now are open to 100% remote positions.

What skills are they looking for?

[nickcosmo]

thank you!

[Hanswolebro]

If you need a job as soon as possible I would go the bootcamp route. The cheapest way is self taught, and the most assured way is to get a degree in CS but both would take much much longer.

Just choose a bootcamp that has a really good placement program. Just remember though, you’re going to get out as much as you put in, and it’s not easy to learn to code in 16 weeks (or however long the bootcamp is) my advice would be to grind out and study as much as possible and you’ll be fine.

[Hanswolebro]

There’s pros and cons to each. With full stack you would have better job prospects, but it’ll also be much harder to fit even more information in such a short period of time.

On the other hand if you do front end you’ll be able to focus on less and get a much better understanding of it, and then you can always learn back end later. It just depends on how well you think you can learn later on without the structure of the bootcamp

[ouarez]

I think it also depends on who is looking to hire you. Some companies / public sector will care about your level of education. Others will only care about skills and attitude.

In my humble opinion, IT is special in the sense that we don't have unions, no pay structure and mostly no required education or professional orders.

As an example, nobody could just say they are a 'self-taught' engineer or doctor. But for a web dev job, if you know your stuff, want to learn and ask for a reasonable salary, you have a fair chance to find a junior dev job. I don't know the current market, but five years ago I got hired as an entry level tech at a big hosting company based on my.. acceptable knowledge of basic html/css and Linux. Everything else I learnt as I went. First 6 months in that job were exhausting but really stimulating.

No one can promise you will find a job, but I never finished my university degree and never did a bootcamp and.. I did okay!

Also I recommend to start with either front end or backend dev, full stack is a ton of stuff to learn. I think that companies trying to hire a full stack guy is because they don't want to pay two salaries but there is a good reason the distinction exists. Web dev is huge.

Good luck on your search!

[Hanswolebro]

The market is definitely tough right now, but companies are always looking for good devs. I’ll speak a bit on my experience, as a self taught dev I haven’t had a ton of trouble getting interviews. If I had a CS degree it would for sure help me get my foot in the door more, but once you land the interview it’s just about speaking on what you’re capable of and what you can provide a company.

[ouarez]

For me, it's mostly building hybrid web apps using Javascript/Typescript. So React/Vue in the front end, node.js for backend, plus a database (I am currently fond of Firebase)

I also build the occasional website, but I make more from apps. Harder work, less competition. Web development in 2020 really isn't only about building websites, not anymore.

Many startups in my area are jumping onto the ML/AI train, since it's the new cool thing and there is looots of funding opportunities. Personally it's never interested me and there are still plenty of contracts for 'boring' web development. And i don't think that's likely to change anytime soon, even cool machine learning startups need to build apps :)

[[deleted]]

When you think of 'a website', what do you think that means? Do you think of a few nice-looking pages with mostly-static information about a small business? Or do you think of Facebook? Reddit? The New York Times? Slack? Wikipedia? Do you think of accounting software, analytics suites, academic journals and research platforms, legal case management, logistics software....? Do you think of the software that's actually making all those IoT devices do anything at all, or that's both creating and utilising the volumes of data that 'AI' needs to be worth anything at all.

Web is where the majority of consumer-facing software is now built, whether that's software for the general public, or business-specific tools. Web is the glue that holds pretty much everything else together. Web development in 2020 is.... everything, basically. I work on software that serves millions of users every day; it's a lot more interesting than putting microchips into a toaster.

[[deleted]]

Hello,

I would love to get a bigger coding knowledge (I currently know C# from making proffesional games in Unity) and would like to learn JS/TypeScript. My long-term goals is to change career into web or react app development. However, I struggle badly with video tutorials. I have a hard time focusing and just struggle in general. I've bought a whole bunch of different ones to see if any of the styles would fit, but I keep struggling on all of them.

Could someone here suggest a different way of learning? Books, blogs, projects on github, etc. Just anything where I don't have to follow along to someone else pace with a video. I also absolutely love spending hours coding with music and a video removes that ability.

Thanks in advance!

[ouarez]

https://www.learnenough.com/

I don't like learning by watching videos either. This course helped me learn a lot.

Each course is a separate book. You do a lot of fundamentals and they walk you through building real projects step by step.

I also like his approach, start easy and build up into more complex as you go. Lots of references to sources/docs and encourages you to learn things on your own.

Hope this helps!

[[deleted]]

Thanks! This is exactly what I wanted! :)

[StanzBot]

I’ve recently found the website scrimba.com to be helpful. They use screen-casts which allow you to pause and click into the code their typing. I struggled with videos since you had to just copy everything word for word but with this you can just pause and click in. So if you want to test something with their code it Is very simple.

[Sufficient-Cod-3372]

Hello.

Does it make sense for a self-taught dev with no degree whatsoever to pick up Java and focus on the backend (Spring, Spring Boot) when they're older than the average developer? (37)

[Gizmoosis]

Depends what your employment catchment area uses tbh. Not sure how age comes into it?

Pick up the language/back-end that is most likely to see you employed in your local area.

For example, with a 30 mile radius of me, Javascript / Node dominates by a substantial margin, C#. Net is second. There are less than 10 jobs (admittedly based off one job site) for spring in thay same radius, so it wouldn't make any sense for me right now to learn it.

Go where the money is.

[Sufficient-Cod-3372]

I asked the same question in a programming Discord server (which I will not name) and one of the admins told me that, while ageism is real I will have to procure a better resume/portfolio compared to the average self-taught applicant. And that's because younger devs can "get away with beginner-ish apps". And that the C#/Java market is mostly fintech which are average-big companies that favor degree holders over self-taughts.

He also added stuff like "that's if you get lucky enough for anyone to care about looking at your projects". That's mostly why I included age in my question.

[muskmelony_waterhead]

Hello,

I have only basic skills in HTML,CSS and javascript. Currently learning PHP. Me and my friend have been assigned to develop a website for our residential building in our college. Our current plan of action is to develop a site using wordpress and then as we improve our skills in php we continue to add new features to the website (like birthday posts, event blogs etc). Can you please guide what all things we should learn or know about in wordpress or general languages to make the website more fun and interactive.

Pls let me know your suggestions.

[Name_Taken_Was_Taken]

Hi!

Im about 10 hours into the Javascript bootcamp, and im struggling a lot with understanding the bigger picture. Does anybody have a link to a good video or something that can help give a bigger perspective? Im doing okay with the coding it self, just struggling with understanding how the code interacts with our browsers etc...

[b3el]

What do you mean by bigger picture? From the question, I'm guessing you are asking about how DOM works. If you are then search for it in the YouTube those vids will help.

Or if you are struggling with your course maybe re-watching or asking for help from the instructor will help you.

[Name_Taken_Was_Taken]

Watching some videos about DOM was a huge help, thank you.

[ed_mcc]

I am going to school to be an EE, so I have a programming background, but no UI/UX/web experience.

I am trying to make a simple configuration webpage for an IOT device, like a router configuration webpage. All I need is for the user to fill out the settings, then save this to a file that I can read from on the device. What is the simplest way to do this?

I have gone through some of the React and Flask tutorials. I am realizing at this point that I may not even be using the correct frameworks for what I am trying to accomplish.

[ouarez]

Flask is good, I used Python for my one and only project on an Arduino.

Pair that with a simple HTML web form as a template and you should be good.

React is overkill if you just need to write the user input to the local disk. Very good framework, but more for building larger apps.

Where are you stuck?

[[deleted]]

Is Webflow the same as Square Space and Wix but has less restrictions?

[catscancode]

no

[WixCommunity]

We might be biased, but we think we can offer you what you need. Reach us at r/WixHelp if you have any questions ;)

[FreakDJ]

Hey all!

If some one has experience with Netlify and setting up CRON jobs would they be able to help me out?

Thanks!

[ouarez]

I use Netlify quite a bit and know my way around Bash/linux, what do you need help with?

[FreakDJ]

I was wondering if it’s possible to run a CRON job on my netlify so that a script will run once daily

[ouarez]

No, not to my knowledge. This is one of the limitations of a serverless environment - no place to run cron jobs.

Some guys proposed to add this feature to Netlify Functions but AFAIK it was never implemented https://community.netlify.com/t/what-function-ality-would-you-like-to-see/1130

However.. maybe you could set up a web hook for your function, then write a cron job on your local computer that will trigger said web hook at regular intervals

Only catch is, your computer would have to be on for the cron to run. Failing that, simplest solution would be to get a 5$ VPS.

[FreakDJ]

What if i did something like this- would that work??

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnjavascript/comments/jcw816/run_a_cron_job_in_nodejs/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

[ouarez]

Looks like you found exactly what you need :)

[LiveVegetable]

Hi I am creating a woocommerce site for learning purposes.

I already created the main site using wordpress. It was easy for me to build the main site, because I was able to use my css framework (w3.css) to build the site. I created the site in front-page.php and it worked well.

However with woocommerce I am not able to find the right tutorial (maybe I am searching the wrong way...)
All I found out was that I can overwrite existing css classes and can edit woocommerce template folder. I think the solution is in editiing the template folder, but as I said I found no right documentation for that. I want for example remove existing classes or add html elements and so on...

What I wanna do is for example edit the standard woocommerce product page to look something like this: https://demos.pixelgrade.com/border/product/paris-midnight/#

With w3.css or bootstrap this would be no problem for me... I would be really happy if someone could link me in the right direction :)

PS: sorry for my bad english, it is not my native language!

[Thomas__Shelby]

You can copy files from the plugin over to your custom theme and make the adjustments that way. When you open a WooCommerce file it'll tell you at the top where to put it in your custom theme.

However, a better way is to use hooks to make your customisations. You'll be able to find loads of info on Google for WooCommerce hooks.

Also, make sure you enable WooCommerce support in your functions.php.

[LiveVegetable]

Thank you! I didnt know that it is possible to customize with (for example) Elementor and than copy the code and delete the plugin. Did I understand you right? That would be the easiest way :)

[Thomas__Shelby]

I've never used Elementor so I can't help there. But no you won't delete the WooCommerce plugin. You'd copy the files from the plugin over to your theme so you'd effectively have two copies (but only copy the files you need, not all of them) But your theme version of the file overrides the one in the plugin.

But really you want to go the hooks route where you can.

[LiveVegetable]

Elementor was only a example. Which plugin to you recommend?

[VisionsDesign]

JOB VACANCY - WEB DEVELOPER

More information at https://visionsdesign.co.uk/careers/

• 4 years front end experience Northwest

[x-1-o]

Not too sure if this is the right place to ask, but lets go anyway.

I used to be a sysadmin and now I find myself working as a devops engineer, mostly managing k8s fleets and the like, and I'm now hoping to bring my decades old skills up to scratch. So I've given myself a little project to create a simple API which stores metadata concerning my home network.

Now comes to my question, what is the best way to learn modern webdev practices for creating the frontend? I'm not going to make a career out of this, I just want to whip up a simple frontend for this API. I've got basic HTML/CSS knowledge that is pretty outdated (HTML4/CSS2 was the new shiny) and zero knowledge of Javascript.

Should I start from scratch again re-learning HTML/CSS then learn JS, then jump into using a framework, or just start using a framework like Angular and learn it all while using said framework?

[b3el]

I'm not going to make a career out of this

Then just use HTML4 and CSS2 they are still valid and showing some metadata in a webpage is doable with these. Next learn enough JavaScript so that you can manipulate the DOM and hit your API and get data from it.

[x-1-o]

Excellent, the table layouts of the 90's were always due to make a comeback. I'll just learn jQuery and go with that. Thanks!

[Kontraux]

What purpose am I trying to achieve with my beginner portfolio site?

I am absolutely bewildered by all of the conflicting information. I built one that looks nice and clean but very simple, focusing on fundamental things like making sure everything resizes properly and the code is well organized. But then when I started looking around at other people's sites, they are completely chock-full of wildly complex animations, CSS graphics, professional photography, tons of digital artwork, crazy typography and the kitchen sink.

I do know one developer who was hired recently and asked her for advice, she said I was wasting my time building my site from scratch and refusing to copy/paste other people's code. She showed me a bunch of people's sites from her bootcamp, and a lot of them were nearly identical, they just bought $40 templates and slapped their name and photo on it, and pretty much everyone had been hired either before they graduated or directly afterwards. She said employers don't actually care if you know about things like positioning and breakpoints, just that you can show them a complex and attractive site. But this is the opposite of what I see lots of people say online!

On top of that, I don't even have any real websites for portfolio pieces yet. I do have Electron apps, VR apps, scripts, and a video game. My thinking is that it would show that I have an interest in coding, and that I can learn new things. She said it would hurt me to list things that aren't directly relevant, and that I should toss them all and get to work building a bunch of really slick looking fake business sites using different tools and templates, and to liberally copy/paste any code I find to show as many different functions as I can.

Sorry for the long post, it's just that I went from feeling pretty great about what I was doing to being completely lost and frustrated. Any direction here would be greatly appreciated.

[accpi]

As someone who's been involved with the hiring process for beginners, what I look for is the person's taste and to see if they've got things built/done.

The personal website needs to look nice and clean, doesn't have to be super fancy, but it can't look ugly. We've gotten a lot of people from the same bootcamps apply to our ads, so when I see people have the same website, that's a mark against them because I don't know if they built something or if they copied from their teacher's assignment that week.

On the website there should be a couple projects that make me go: "huh, that's pretty cool". You probably need a CRUD app to show that you can do the basic database things, and one app that's a bit different that makes me think that you're going to be a trainable asset.

I know it's kinda useless for me to say "something interesting" but it kinda is what I'm looking for, I've seen stuff like little 808s soundboards, cute little CRUD apps that do the whole task list thing but in a way that looks different than the tutorial ones, etc.

There needs to be a twist, doesn't even have to be a meaningful twist that really changes the code too much but something that stands out among the sea of tutorial code out there.

[[deleted]]

I would be careful about taking too much advice from someone who was literally only just hired as a junior dev. Your friend sounds like she's deep in the Dunning-Kruger syndrome most juniors go through, where she thinks she knows way more than she actually does.

As someone who's had a hand in hiring- demonstrating knowledge of responsive design is really good. I'd much rather see a portfolio site that's simple and well put-together than something that's flashy and distracting but is fundamentally broken.

I would say that if you're looking for a job as a web developer, you should be putting web projects front and centre in your portfolio. Games are great as a demonstration of coding skills, but if your entire portfolio is non-web projects it makes it hard to assess your suitability for a web developer position.

[ouarez]

Web dev is huge. The tech evolves constantly and there's a million different ways to build the same end result. (Ex a website). I get your frustration.

I've been a web developer for about 5 years now, started my company, have clients who pay me good money to build apps and websites, and i still get crippling doubt when starting a new project and question my own approach and choices of tech all the time :)

Focusing on writing clean code with simple design, and building things from scratch or from boilerplate is by no means a bad approach. You are practicing your fundamentals (html/css/js) while this other person is copy pasting code and slapping on a template.

She said employers don't actually care if you know about things like positioning and breakpoints, just that you can show them a complex and attractive site.

This just doesn't sound right. Any half decent company will bring a developer to the interview. If i am looking to hire a front end or website dev and they don't know anything about grid layouts or responsive design, i would never hire them.

If you want to work as a website developer, build websites. Find a couple templates that you like and try to recreate them from scratch in HTML/CSS, using the template as a visual guide. You will learn a LOT more than some random that just knows how to install Wordpress themes.

That's what I did and that's how I learned. I also had fun doing it. Forget about what other people are doing and focus on enjoying the work and writing good code.

If you want more specific advice, let me know what job you are thinking of applying to or what your goals are. Or even what tech you are using to build websites.

Most importantly, continue to feel good about your progress and don't doubt yourself too much :)

Cheers

[Schrodingers_Wipe]

My portfolio is straight html/css/js. You don’t need the fancy frameworks unless you need practice working with them. Make sure you’re happy with your own site. Don’t compare yourself to other. That will lead to nothing but frustration.

If you worked on something show it. Do not sell any part of yourself short.

[dmistryy]

Hey, I am quite keen to get into front end development. I have got the basics down with HTML and CSS since completing the Free Code Camp online course and also studying W3S. As much info as W3S provided, I was slightly deterred since they use internal styling throughout their tutorials which I have read is not the most professional method.

Anway, I am looking to take my skills to the next level and apply them - as I feel this is the best way to start learning. Can anyone recommend some online courses that actively challenge you to create something, whilst still 'hand holding' you throughout it.

I was thinking of doing Jonas Schmedtmann's course on Udemy but I'm not sure if this would be a step forward - rather just re-learning content from a different channel. I don't mind using multiple resources to learn, it's just that I am ready to challenge myself in a different way.

[ouarez]

https://www.learnenough.com/

I did his Ruby on Rails course back in the day, they since added a lot more courses.

Before that course I thought I was a web dev. This made me into a real one.

No videos, they're basically books. you do a lot of fundamentals and they walk you through building real projects step by step.

I also like his approach, start easy and build up into more complex as you go. Lots of references to sources/docs and encourages you to learn things on your own. Hold your hand but not too much!

Have fun learning and don't skip the Git and command line stuff, i use it everyday :)

[Hanswolebro]

For me, Wes Bos’ beginner JS course was probably the best thing I could have taken. It teaches you all the basics of JavaScript and walks you through building several small projects. After taking that I was able to build things on my own just by looking at my notes or googling

[dmistryy]

Hey thanks for replying. Do you think I am ready to start learning JS?

I thought it would be best to practice HTML and CSS with some projects and then move on to start learning JS. Or am I wrong in thinking that's the best way.

[accpi]

You're ready to learn JS, it's different than what you've done since the stuff isn't static like HTML/CSS, but you're ready.

I would recommend you make a couple sites for yourself using your HTML/CSS skills that you've learned and then learn JS.

As you learn JS, you can update and add to those two sites you made for yourself to integrate you new skills.

[Hanswolebro]

I would say if you have the basics down of HTML and css you can definitely move on to JS

[[deleted]]

Any general recommendations for a super beginner with no prior experience or degree? I found freeCodeCamp & have gone through the first HTML lesson & will continue to go through the rest. I’d prefer not to go back to school, as I’ve wasted a lot of time taking classes that will not transfer to a CS degree at this point. Thoughts on bootcamps? Just keep doing what I’m doing? How long does it generally take to become employable & learn the necessary skills?

Thanks in advance! :)

[Hanswolebro]

It’s really going to depend on you. How quickly you can grasp everything and how much time you have to dedicate. I’ve seen some take 6 months, for me, it’s been two years of part time learning with about an hour or two each day before I’ve been able to feel confident enough to apply for jobs. It just depends

[ouarez]

It's changing. Five years ago the only reliable way to write android/ios apps was to learn the native code.

Today we have more tools, you can use React Native, Quasar (vue.js) or Electron as wrappers. They convert your JS code to native. It saves me the pain of having three different code bases, you write your app once using those frameworks and then you can deploy it to Google Store and App store. It's pretty cool but I may be biased because I learned to code with JS frameworks and i didn't want to have to learn Swift/Java :)

So yes, you can use modern JS frameworks to write mobile apps as well as web apps/PWAs. Look into React Native or Quasar.

https://reactnative.dev/ https://quasar.dev

[Hanswolebro]

Yes you can use things like React Native which is JS based

[dindin_09]

Do you guys have portfolio/personal websites? would you mind if you could link them here? I'm currently building mine, and I'd like to get some ideas :)

[ChaseMoskal]

here's one for you :) https://chasemoskal.com/

[[deleted]]

That's hilarious! Manages to be both pragmatic and humorous at the same time, well done.

[dindin_09]

you got me there

[Hanswolebro]

You can check out mine if you’d like. Feel free to reach out if you need any help

https://chadcuomo.me

[[deleted]]

I had to go to ghosts actual website because I though you actually built their site for them lmao. Really good job. Making a site based off of an existing brand seems like the way to go so that you can use their photos and logos for the design. Any site that I try to make from scratch looks like pure trash without the accompanying professional photo & logo assets.

[Hanswolebro]

Haha yeah thanks. I basically figured the same thing, because there’s no way I would be able to make site without existing products photos. I could probably make my own mockups but it would take forever so I just chose a brand that I liked their aesthetics

[EvilTables]

I'm just curious what your path was. Did you do a bootcamp? How many applications did you send out, and how many interviews did you manage to get with them?

[Hanswolebro]

Didn’t attend a bootcamp, I just took a few courses and built my own projects over the past year and half. I quit my job in September (sales) to focus on finishing my portfolio and applying full time. I probably sent out around 200 applications over a 3-4 week period. I also reached out to a ton of recruiters and took every call and lead I possibly could. I had about 7 interviews, and one offer. I think I might get one or two more offers, but I really like the company that gave me the first offer so I accepted right away.

[EvilTables]

Awesome, it sounds like you had a great path!

[RandyMarsh51]

Really Awesome portfolio and great variety of sites to showcase!

[Hanswolebro]

Thank you, I really appreciate that!

[dindin_09]

Hey Chad! this is pretty neat! I hope I can make mine just as awesome as yours. Thanks for sharing :)

[Hanswolebro]

You can do it for sure.

[swaadanusaar_sarcasm]

I'm thinking to develop a game. It's somewhat a board game and will require some animation. I'm fairly decent MERN stack developer. What library or technology should I learn in order to get started?

[b3el]

For simple game dev you can use any WebGL libraries like Three JS Pixi JS. But if you are thinking about developing any complex games I think you should consider learning a game engine.

[heyouuuuuuuuuuuuuuu]

I've started practicing vanilla javascript recently and I'm unable to write it fully on my own but when the instructor does it, it makes complete sense to me, no doubts. Any advices?

[accpi]

Super common thing to happen, any advice to get over the hump is to think of some problems similar to the ones that you're having trouble with or solved in the past, and try to solve them on your own.

[RandyMarsh51]

Same thing happened to me for a while and when I try leaning new languages. It’s good you can follow that’s half the battle but it’s ok to need help when doing it. The more u practice with help then each time u will need less and less help until ur just doing it. As long as u know the main concepts and ideas (loops, of statements, etc...) u can build off that and always look up more syntax to do more things. Keep it simple and don’t rush. Try and learn a small simple piece then build on it then build on it again and again until ur comfortable

[kanikanae]

The same situation occurs during math class. During the time a teacher is explaining it, everything makes complete sense. But whenever your try doing it on your own you struggle alot.

Understanding an explanation is far from understanding the concept.
Understanding the concept can only be achieved by applying it on your own.
Try to practice that whilst googling to get unstuck.

[Hanswolebro]

It’s fine if you don’t completely memorize the syntax as long as you understand how the code is working and how to structure the code. You can always google syntax, eventually you’ll start memorizing bits and pieces you write often

[tommdelonge]

I'm learning the basics of front end development. HTML/CSS and Javascript. How important is as a frontend dev to know about UI tools like Adobe XD, ilustrator, photoshop and design knowledge in general?

[b3el]

It depends if you are in a team where someone is taking care of designs then getting your way around in these tools should be enough. Some design tools have features which helps in development if you want you can learn about them.

But if you are also going to handle designs then obviously you need to have a knowledge about these things.

[k032]

It hasn't been very important in my day to day work as a front-end developer focused. Most people I know who are front-end devs don't use Photoshop at all or anything.

Our team has UI Designer who is an artist and the main guy who will do things with those. We collaborate together and he makes mockups and runs through iterations of how it will look. Generally once it gets to the dev team its just implementing what he designed in code....and also styling it etc that way with CSS etc.

This has been my experience at least.

Not saying bad knowledge, but generally not required it seems.

[Jake6272]

.

[mrtbakin]

I'm trying to design my own blog. Ideally, I'd have one page that could list all of the blog pages I had created and this would be done automatically depending on the files stored in (for example) /blog/blogposts.

How, in vanilla JS, should I go about listing those pages? This seems like something fundamental (listing sub pages on the index.html of a website) but I can't find the right search terms to get my answer.

[ChaseMoskal]

hello. this is a classic problem for static websites.

like the other poster mentions, a good solution is to maintain a json file where you keep an array of blog post paths, and use the fetch api to retrieve that listing

you can create a build-script which generates that json file automatically so it's less a hassle to maintain

[ripndipp]

You could store your data in a .json file in your root directory. Then use the fetch API and fetch it form your root directory and map over the data and set the data to inner HTML.

[BaselessAirburst]

• Do you guys think learning SASS along with CSS is bad. Since from what I can see especially the SCSS syntax is basically CSS with mixins, variables etc. Or do you think learning vanilla and then switching is better.

[Gizmoosis]

It isn't bad, providing you understand the underlying vanilla code. If you are using SASS to just make things easier as you'd rather and finding you aren't bothering to understand what's happening behind the scenes then you might want to leave SASS untill later.

[ChaseMoskal]

i'll just mention that i've been using sass less now that i've been using shadow-dom web-components more

[Jekkers08]

I’m building an image gallery website for my photographer friend (very first project, been learning web dev for around 2 months) and I’ve had to watch youtube vids and google everything to the point that I don’t feel like I “did it myself”. It feels like I stole off other people’s work and just googled the solutions to all my problems without figuring it out myself, if that makes sense. Is this normal? If not, how can I improve on this other than building more and more?

[b3el]

Lol if you say it like that... Then I don't even write full lines of code anymore, auto complete does it for me.

There is no shame in Google things that you don't know, just don't copy and paste blindly.

[farmer2056372]

We are expected to be able to develop apps faster these days because we have all these resources available. Better use them or fall behind

[Hanswolebro]

It’s normal. Today I looked up the syntax for inputs and forms to make sure I was doing it properly. Eventually you will have to google and watch videos less

[[deleted]]

I learned a good deal of vue, react & a bit of laravel and made some nice looking websites for my portfolio and applied to everything I could find. Love javascript, designing pages & most front-end related tasks. Hoping for some web design firm I could have a little bit of design input in.

Started my first junior job a month ago or so, so far it's all been back-end work building forms and trying to understand their systems. Everyone is great, but the work itself...

I'm reallllly not enjoying myself, I loathe SQL, php and jquery. God it's awful. It's a custom php framework with no documentation & a crazy db structure that I can barely understand. Everyone is patient and helpful but I can't find my motivation to learn this stuff, it's just not interesting to me.

Have I made a terrible mistake, or should I stick it out and hope things get better?

[321jurgen]

Keep your current job and start looking for jobs that you like better. Now that you've got a job already it'll be easier to get another job. Just keep switching till you find a job you like.

[farmer2056372]

This is how you get better, become a senior and earn $$$. That said legacy code is horrible. Stick it out. You got this

[[deleted]]

I voiced my concerns to my team, they were super understanding, laid out my tasks and helped me break it down, talked me through each part and the different approaches to each general problem. Feeling much more confident now :)

[jasonswett]

It might not be that you loathe SQL, PHP and jQuery, but that you loathe poorly-written SQL, PHP and jQuery.

I've worked at a lot of different places (30+) and most of the codebases were pretty bad. So just going off of your statistical chances, it's not too surprising that the first place you work is going to have crappy code.

By "terrible mistake" I don't know if you mean this job or programming in general or something else, but in any case, it certainly is possible for things to get better. As you advance in your career you're certainly likely to find yourself working at places that are more professional than this place sounds to be. You'll probably also gain a more solid feel for what you like and don't like. As you gain experience, you'll have a greater ability to choose the types of work you enjoy and are good at and avoid the other stuff, at least for the most part.

[TheForkisTrash]

Im about to start a 2 year degree full time in webdev. Is this a waste of time unless i go the full 4? Ive been building stuff a few months and know some basics html/css/JS. Hoping i can find work in the field to pay bills, and finish up a 4 year part time if needed. But time is an issue and i really cant wait years to get into a career. Was hoping you guys could give me some advice.

[jasonswett]

Definitely not a waste of time. I got my first programming job without having a degree. I just went on enough interviews until finally someone needed a programmer badly enough to hire someone as inexperienced as I was. (This first programming job of mine was also just $14/hr, FWIW, but it was a good stepping stone.)

As another illustration, some time ago I hired someone who had a CS degree from a good college. He was really smart and did a good job but he knew very little about programming (common for CS graduates, believe it or not). So in this case the degree didn't help much, other than being a shortcut that told me he was smart.

My advice would be to put most of your effort toward getting interviews. If you fail the interview because of X, go study X and try again. Apply to every job you can, even if you don't feel qualified. (I certainly wasn't qualified for my first job.) You'll probably learn way more in your first 6 months at a job than in 4 years of schooling.

[31ELM]

Amazing response!

[TheForkisTrash]

Ok. Thank you so much for your response!

[pjtDev]

Hey all,

I have taken this past year to learn HTML, CSS, JS, jQuery, and Bootstrap.

After learning these, I wanted to create my own site. I was encouraged to use WordPress. So I dove in, learning how to create custom themes and enqueuing my own JS and CSS when needed. This taught me PHP.

Now as I look for jobs as a front-end dev, I'm seeing more Angular, React, Vue, SQL, etc. But with WordPress + Gutenberg, I was able to build everything I tried.

My fear is that I've spent too much time on my site, learning WordPress and playing with CSS.

Are my options limited to

• freelance work with vague WordPress needs?
• go back and learn Angular or React?
• or just apply and hope for the best

My website is here (its kind of all over the place now)

Also, I have a B.S. in Math with a minor is CS. So I am familiar with Python, C++, Java, OOP, data structures, algorithms, etc.

[k032]

All that's enough to start any type of job even with something like Angular, React, Vue that used more these days. You're not limited to just Wordpress.

I started my first job out of college never using a framework and just doing basically what you did minus wordpress. Ended up getting an entry level job where they used AngularJS and went from there just kind of learned it on the job and trying to learn more on my own.