Having a good understanding of the basics is always important.
As a junior you want to quickly see a working page of the project, even if that means going over importing steps and not knowing why it works.
I have mentored many new devs at work and what I found over the years that they best relate to a more personal project. Even if it is something small in scale, most of them are proud when they achieve something using their own Css or Js snippet, although the same functionality can be put together by slapping a couple of libraries on the page.
This however is tied to how passionate you are for webdev. Like you said, skills and experience are gained by many hours, weekends or nights. For most of them this is not the case and if I spot that, then I will only teach the necessary skills for their job.
But once in a while one junior will stand out from the rest. Take that one to interviews and let them see that even for mid or senior positions, if you don't pass the basics questions about the tech then you are out of the race before the start. Or send them to interviews to find out for their own.
Might not apply to all cases, but this has been my experience so far.
Having a good understanding of the basics is always important.
As a junior you want to quickly see a working page of the project, even if that means going over importing steps and not knowing why it works.
I have mentored many new devs at work and what I found over the years that they best relate to a more personal project. Even if it is something small in scale, most of them are proud when they achieve something using their own Css or Js snippet, although the same functionality can be put together by slapping a couple of libraries on the page.
This however is tied to how passionate you are for webdev. Like you said, skills and experience are gained by many hours, weekends or nights. For most of them this is not the case and if I spot that, then I will only teach the necessary skills for their job.
But once in a while one junior will stand out from the rest. Take that one to interviews and let them see that even for mid or senior positions, if you don't pass the basics questions about the tech then you are out of the race before the start. Or send them to interviews to find out for their own.
Might not apply to all cases, but this has been my experience so far.
True, there is little better than seeing your code working and in action in real life! No matter how small...
This is a good idea. I'll definitely keep it in mind. Thanks.