My Work Currently
I am now working on a UX/UI project for HAX, which I am writing about in another series called: "UX/UI: Menu Fix" and can be found below if you want to follow that series. Although UX/UI is not code-heavy, I want to improve my coding skills and learn more about front-end development.
A Little Bit About Me
In May, I took on the role of a junior developer intern for HAX to help them build, develop, and test web components. A lot of the work revolves around front-end web development, which I wasn’t too familiar with. I studied basic HTML and CSS here and there, but not so much JS and never even encountered tools like frameworks, libraries, package managers, etc. One of the first tasks I had to do in the internship was to make a simple web component, which was quite overwhelming. I had to research a lot when I was creating the web component, but I slowly started grasping the basics of front-end web development.
Back to the Basics
As I mentioned, I was pretty much thrown into constructing a web component. Learning through doing is an excellent way to learn how to code, so in that aspect, I thought it was suitable to do because I had to learn fast. Consequently, I felt like I missed covering the basics since I jumped into a somewhat intermediate level using CSS frameworks, package managers, and web components right off the bat.
After reading a couple of articles online and YouTube videos, I came across freeCodeCamp, which is a non-profit organization that lets you learn to code at home. freeCodeCamp is one of the numerous fantastic resources out there that teaches you how to code.
My Goal
Since I am working on a UX/UI project, I have been doing a lot of wireframes, research, and user analysis but not a lot of coding. To be a skilled coder, you have to put the time in and practice regularly. This pertains to anything, for example, sports. As an athlete, you need to dedicate your time and discipline yourself to reach the goals you want. If you don’t practice or train for a week or so, it will probably show in your performance. This same notion applies to coding. I don’t want to lose the knowledge I learned, and in fact, I want to improve my skills so I must practice and devote my time to be a better coder. That said, yesterday, I started freeCodeCamp and completed two sections in the responsive web design class, which covered basic HTML and CSS.
I hope to continue working on freeCodeCamp to brush up on my skills and get a greater understanding of front-end web development. My goal is to complete two sections each day, and hopefully, by the end of the summer, I can be pretty proficient in coding.
Questions For You
Whether you are like me and is relatively new to this industry, or has worked with technology for years as is a code master, I would love to hear your thoughts and experience with freeCodeCamp. Tell me the resources you have utilized, such as podcasts, YouTube channels, blogs, etc. I am interested in hearing your thoughts and how you started your career or hobby, so comment them down below and let’s discuss!
Top comments (5)
In my opinion, freeCodeCamp is the best resource out there for learning to code. So many other sites and tutorials do too much hand-holding. I worked through a few of the languages on Codecademy but I'd always get 100% mastery and not know how to do anything. freeCodeCamp's curriculum can be extremely frustrating because it leaves a lot of the heavy lifting to the learner but at the end of the day, I really think that's the only way to really learn how to code. I've only used freeCodeCamp's JavaScript curriculum and I didn't go through 100% of the exercises but it definitely helped me level up my JavaScript and improve as a programmer.
I started with freeCodeCamp back in 2016 or early 2017. Got a job as a fulltime developer in September 2019.
I agree! So far I have been really enjoying freeCodeCamp's structure. I like how they give you an overview of each concept and then make you do the coding. It has also been great for practicing and reading code to be more familiar with a language.
And congrats on getting a job rather quickly, that's amazing!
I always recommend Freecodecamp to anyone asking how to learn Web Development because the best way to learn anything is actually doing it and I have not seen any platform that does this better.
FUN FACT: You can install the whole platform locally to learn and get certified without internet 🙌🙌🙌
Did not know that, is that a feature they have or do you just clone the repo?
Yes, clone the repo and the setup instructions is available at github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCa....