Whether you’re self-taught, a Bootcamp grad, or have a college degree, when you’re a fresh-faced web developer, landing that first job can be tricky.
Getting started into programming can be very scary, and there are a lot of misconceptions out there that make people think that programming is a skill they could never learn, or that landing a job as a web developer is almost mission impossible.
The software development industry, web development, in particular, is full of amazing stories of people with no tech background who switched to development and changed their life for great.
It's a great skill to have, it will teach you to think differently, it will open the doors to a lot of job opportunities even in these times where the job market is so hurt by the economic decline, and it will also give you an amazing talent to build your own projects & companies.
A web developer is someone who utilizes a programming language to build web pages and applications.
There are three types of web developers out there:
Front-end developer
Back-end developer
Full-stack developer
Front-end developer 🚀
A front-end developer is responsible for building what you see and interact with on a web page or application.
It’s the specialist who transforms a design, an image, or an idea into the code that allows web browsers to display the website.
Back-end developer 🚀
This role is responsible for designing and building the systems that will support our front-end application.
The back-end is what makes applications work across multiple devices, or which makes it possible to store your information.
For e.g., when you click the “save” button, the back-end developer will write with code the algorithms & logic responsible for receiving your request, process it, store it in a database (if required) & send back the results so that the front-end can let you know it all went good.
Full-stack developer 🚀
This is a new term for an old role, the full-stack developer is someone who can work both, front-end and back-end tasks.
How can you become a front-end developer?
Let’s now jump into the steps that you need to become a front-end developer and land your first job.
✍ Learn HTML & CSS
In order to become a front-end developer, the first thing you need to know is a little bit about how the web works.
Have you ever wondered how your browser knows how to display items on the screen?
How to position things and using which colors?
✔ HTML
Hypertext Markup Language is a standard markup language that is known by all web browsers and it’s used to describe the content of your site.
Not so much the design of it, but the structure and content itself.
HTML works with a specific syntax of tags & nodes.
Few Free Web Development Resources For HTML / CSS From Scratch.
**FreeCodeCamp **is the best way to start.
Few Free Udemy Swag 👇
Web Development By Doing: HTML / CSS From Scratch
Foundations of Front-End Web Development
Learn HTML & CSS: How To Start Your Web Development Career
✔ CSS
Now that you know how to place content on the user’s screen we need to make it pretty and here is where CSS can help you.
CSS is a code syntax designed to describe how HTML elements will be displayed on the screen.
Top free CSS resources 👇
- W3 Schools
- CSS author
- CSS Tricks
- Free code camp
- Codrops
- Mdn web docs
It allows developers to place content in different positions on the screen, add colors, backgrounds, borders, fonts, animations, anything you need to match your design, is likely CSS supports it.
people do really amazing things with CSS, from amazing designs to art, animations
My Favorites YouTube Channels 👇
- Web Dev Simplified
- Florin Pop
- Traversy Media
- FreeCodeCamp
- The Net Ninja
Now Its Practice Time
Before jumping into the next lane, make sure you practice a lot.
You can now build static websites, make many of them, start with the basics, move into more advanced features as you get used to it. Build a personal website.
Once you’re a little more comfortable with HTML and CSS, and this is important to avoid frustrations later on, move on to JavaScript.
"Time to Learn JavaScript and change the world"
So far you have been building amazing web pages, but they couldn’t do much right?
*JavaScript * is a programming language, in fact, it’s one of the most popular programming languages today available, which has the particularity of running in web browsers, and thus it can be used for building web applications.
JavaScript allows you to interact with your HTML by handling events such as the user clicking on an element, timed events, and much more. It also allows you to dynamically change the contents of your page, meaning it has access to the “HTML,” or actually to the DOM of the page.
Learning JavaScript will be a huge step towards achieving your goal of becoming a web developer, it will likely be the hardest, so take your time with this one, it won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible, and with the huge amount of free content out there, there are no excuses.
A Simple and Effective Way to Learn and Practice JavaScript
Few Awesome Learning Platforms 👇
I have created a 100Days Roadmap To Learn HTML | CSS | JAVASCRIPT For Frontend Development for you 👇
100Days Roadmap To Learn HTML | CSS | JAVASCRIPT For Frontend Development.
🚀 Make a portfolio site
Now you have the skills it’s time to show them off.
It’s very popular among developers to showcase your skills using a portfolio website. A portfolio website is basically a collection of your best projects to showcase to employers or future customers.
🚀 Personal website
Build your own website & host it to show the world your talent. website will be an upsell of yourself, it’s the ultimate curriculum for developers, so make it to impress. One of the features on this website is a section where you will link or showcase projects.
🚀 GitHub:
GitHub is the most important open-source repository, and the home of many, many of the open applications out there. Getting an account is free, and you can start hosting your code within minutes.
Now that your portfolio is up, you need to work on your resume, and the right place to do this is on LinkedIn.
You probably already know LinkedIn, but if not, check it out. building your resume, listing projects, a killer profile description, and importantly, start networking.
🚀 Framework Time
It’s time now to step up your game and enter the world of frameworks.
A framework is a set of functions and libraries that simplify the development tasks.
Newer frameworks are sophisticated pieces of code that sometimes reinvent the way we even program web.
My personal recommendation is to go with one of the following:
- ReactJS
- Angular
- VueJS
There are no right or wrong options here, there’s a preference and perhaps conveniences depending on the type of project. But they are of the bests in 2020.
Interview prep 👇
Way to go! You are now a web developer, though you still need to get a job at it. Interviewing as a web developer is its own unique experience compared to other professions.
You will have to show your interviewers your experience, which at this point are the side projects you built along your learning journey?
You will also have to show the interviewer that you know how to code and that you have a certain knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and perhaps even of a particular framework.
Don’t be surprised if the interview contains a section where you actually have to code live a short piece of code,
Make sure you practice your skills before and you will be good to go.
Common JavaScript Questions I Used to ask in Interview.
Some of the blogs help you in your next interviews.
Top 5 Things NOT to Say in a Job Interview
Common issues you should improve in your resume
Top Interview Soft skills Questions and Answers
Final words
Tech is constantly changing, as developers working at the edge of technology.
Keeping yourself informed of the latest techniques, programming languages, etc is crucial.
You just started a life long journey, which provides amazing opportunities, enjoy it.
If you're a beginner in coding & freelancing and want to become a better developer,
here are two great courses:
If you’re a beginner at JavaScript and want to learn JavaScript e2e concepts, here’s a great course by Robin aka WellPaidGeek who is coding for 20+ years.
I highly recommend buying this course.
Here is the link if someone is interested.
by Kyle Prinsloo 👇
I highly recommend buying these courses.
If you like this you might be you are interested in my eBook as well.
I have written a book for developer growth & shared my 12+ years of experience.
Awesome feedback I received from the community. Check out the book below.
Grab the book now… ThePrimeGuide
Thanks for reading.
If you’re a regular reader, thank you, you’re a big part of the reason I’ve been able to share my life/career experiences with you.
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