Documenting My Journey From Waitress to Full Stack Web Developer:
Update 2
When I first decided to post about my journey a couple of weeks ago, I fully intended to update that journey daily, or at least every couple of days. Somehow or another a couple of weeks have come and gone, and I am just now updating my devjournal (sigh) definitely was not my intention. I am awful. [Can you tell I have commitment issues??]
Honestly I was so busy finishing up my summer semester of my computer programming degree, when I wrote my first post it was a couple of days before final exams. I'm still not sure how I managed that. Since my classes ended I have spent everyday coding at least one different website. I have coded landing pages, interactive websites, product pages, e-commerce pages, and abandoned probably 17 portfolio projects. I started out originally wanting to create my portfolio, then create different mockup websites, applications, random projects to add to my portfolio. News flash It did not happen that way. What really ended up happening was:
- Browse the web, github, codepen, dribble, for inspiration. [I've never made a portfolio before.]
- Find a few I really liked, decided I wanted my portfolio to follow the same general concept.
- Code 95% of my portfolio, and HATE it.
- Trash that portfolio, find a new direction.
- After trashing 5 different portfolio designs for the day, I'd finally move on to a random project.
- I'd create some random made up business, create a user story, draw up sitemap, and wireframe, make a website/page I was super happy with.
- Feel super confident I could now made said portfolio into something I was at least half satisfied with.
- So I'd go back to the drawing board.
- Scour the web for ideas.
- Find a bunch I was happy with.
- Only this time, I'd end up with 7 different Chrome browsers open, each one having so many tabs you can't even see when you opened another one.
- Get angry because now of course I can't find anything.
- I've ended up so far off my original task, I would then be watching random cat videos, and before I knew it 4 hours have come and gone and I have accomplished absolutely nothing.
Moral of this part of the story, I haven't made it any further in my journey to full stack web dev.
<At this point I am not even sure if I would be considered a Website Developer. Does making codepen and vs code projects that I publish to github solely for myself classify me as a "webdev?">
Someone please answer these questions for me.
- Why is it that I can come up with a concept for literally anyone else other than myself? I am able to create random business websites for people that do not exist, but my page started being hosted about 2 weeks ago and it still isn't even live.
- Is anyone else's computer files in shambles? I have made a conscience effort to keep all of my files fairly organized but somehow they ended up in shambles.
- How do you organize your files? How do you maintain said files?
- Does anyone have information they'd like to share on apache, PHP, and TypeScript in general?
- Do you feel like helping out a newbie??
- If you are a freelancer, do you have to really niche down to the types of websites you want to focus on creating?
I know I need to get the ball rolling as soon as possible, because I want to start freelancing, but that is most certainly not going to happen without getting my website going.
Has anyone heard people in WebDev talk about tutorial hell?
I suppose coding in general people get stuck there. I'm stuck in something similar, but different. I know I want to freelance, I know I want to develop and design websites/webpages. I know the things I need to do in order to achieve those things, but I start then jump around so much, I waste hours upon hours doing things that I guess could be productive if they were finished, just to realize at the end of the day I haven't even gotten halfway through step 1.
I need a mentor, a teacher, or maybe and authoritarian?
I've have looked at multiple different internships, and freelance jobs, where people are asking for really simple builds/designs. I know I could easily do them, maybe even better than what they originally envisioned. I know I would enjoy the work I am doing, and it would also help business owners, or companies. Win-Win situation right? You can't get there though if you don't take the first step. In this particular case that would have to be a portfolio right?
Why can't I finish the most basic task??
If anyone has any advice, wisdom, or guidance anything would be appreciated. If anyone has spare time and would like to help me brainstorm and come up with a plan to help me stop this extremely counterproductive habit I have somehow started within the past couple of weeks, I would be forever grateful.
Top comments (2)
IMO what's happening is normal, it is part of the process.
I remember I had not such a great time building my portfolio, I also had to find inspiration, at least design-wise. But then I thought that, at least for version 1.0 of my portfolio, it's not that important to look amazing, it has to look decent. And the most important thing is what the portfolio contains, what projects, what's the impression it gives to the users and potential clients.
I'd say the first step is to understand the fundamental programming concepts, because with their help you'll be able to find solutions to your problems. Not only that, but you'll also be able to build upon them and become better and better. I've started programming ~3 years ago, now I'm stuck at university, but I think(and I hope) I overcame the first steps, which are always the most difficult. And one lesson that I've learnt is that getting the fundamentals right is crucial. Especially if you want to become a full stack dev(this is also my goal), you can't do it without understanding how the web works and without being comfortable with JS. Thus, I'd suggest you read on these topics first:
You don't have to go into much detail, but IMO it's important to have at least a basic understanding of how these things work. This will be extremely helpful when you'll get started with Node.js(assuming you'll want to use Node.js on the backend) and you will have to start the server; if you have a basic understanding of what a server is, you find everything a bit less daunting and you'll be able to focus on what you're trying to learn or on what problem you're solving.
After that, apart from HTML, you should know a bit of CSS. With flex and grid you should be able to obtain every layout you wish and, as a web dev, this is something you'll definitely have to face. Some great resources to learn CSS from that I'm aware of: Kevin Powell and CSS Tricks.
Now onto the JS part, I'd recommend you watch at least one introductory video on it and then, there are some ways to improve on it:
As far as the portfolio is concerned, I found it very helpful to see other people reviewing portfolios, so that I make sure I won't make any notable mistakes. I'd recommend:
I'm sorry if it looks overwhelming, but you'll have to take it step by step. A friend of mine also wants to get into freelancing, but he doesn't have the patience to go over the fundamentals first, so he often struggles with problems that would be much easier to solve if some more time would've been spent on learning the fundamentals. You might feel like you're not productive, but you need to a foundation to build on. This doesn't mean that if you don't finish all the 33 concepts, you won't be able to build websites. At some point, you will become comfortable enough with the language and although you might now it very well, you'll be able to quickly find resources and learn from them.
Also, if you're looking from programming wisdom, I'd recommend this channel.
I'd like to mention that all I've shared it's just my perspective on things. It's what I've used to reach the point where I am today and I really hope you don't feel discouraged now. It's a long journey and I'm sure you can do it. If you need help, feel free to reach out.
Thank you so much for all the awesome resources.
I start my next semester of college in a couple of days, couple of IT classes, as well as Advanced C# Programming, and Advanced Python Programming *(which I am NOT looking forward too. Python and I do not get along.)
Unfortunately my college program doesn't offer the exact degree I wanted, but offers one similar too it. So I am having to learn a lot of it on my own. It is really overwhelming because there are so many different pathways, and finding one to stick with is probably the hardest part. I can't decide which one I like better, since I'm having to figure it out on my own, my resources are online, but the information you get online is based off of someone else's personal preference and any person you talk to will tell you something different. I think that has been the most difficult part.
I've just been experimenting with them all to figure out which ones work the best, and I've figured out really quickly that it depends on what exactly I'm building as to what works better. So based on the project I am doing, I will work with something different, and then for personal projects I just work with whatever I'm liking better at the moment lol.