Reddit Learning C As A Web Dev
by Sam Williams
47 y/o web dev here. Feels like I could have written this too. I started a web dev business to switch careers from the games industry. 21 years later I'm still stuck at my desk, staring at screens and wondering where did it all go wrong. It used to be fun. I used to enjoy getting stuck into a challenging project. Collection of my favorite web development resources for beginners and professionals alike. JacobWylie/Web-Dev-Learning-Resources. Jul 13, 2018 If you’ve got your heart set on something else, remember that starting in web development doesn’t mean you’re locked into it. You’ll learn a huge amount that you’ll be able to use to transfer across into your preferred field. When I searched for Junior Web Developer the first job listing I saw was for a Junior Front End Web Developer.
Have you ever thought about becoming a software developer or looking for a change of career? This article will give you a solid plan to get you started in software development and get you your first job!
But why be a developer?
If you’re considering becoming a developer and but aren’t sure whether it’s a good idea, here’s a few things to think about:
- There is a huge demand for developers — at the time of writing, Indeed had 37,739 job adverts for ‘developer’ in the UK and 145,640 in the US. Those numbers are only going to increase as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 17% rise between 2014 and 2024.
- The work can be very varied and interesting — as a developer you can work on a huge range of projects from e-commerce websites to computer games, from mobile apps to artificial intelligence. Almost all of the skills are transferable between each of these areas, and this means you aren’t locked into a single job.
- The work can be flexible — As most of your work is reading and writing code, all you need is a computer. This means it can be done from anywhere, at any time. There are an increasing number of remote developers who work from home or while traveling the world.
How to become a Developer
- A learning path to become full-stack web developer Hi everyone, For all those of you who are interested in learning web development or learning already. I have made a learning guide to become full-stack web developer.It contains some of the best resources on the web.
- Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Log in sign up. User account menu. My journey to becoming a web developer from scratch without a CS degree, 2 years later (and what I learned from it) Close. Posted by 3 years ago. Help Reddit App Reddit coins Reddit premium Reddit gifts Communities Top.
Being a developer requires many skills, and there are two major factors in developing a skill: effective practice and support from senior developers. You need to maximise both of these to help you become the best developer you can be. There are three good ways to make sure that you’re on a fast track to starting your developer career:
Coding Bootcamps
These are great, because they are designed to take you from little or no coding experience to job-ready in 3 months. This means lots of effective practice and tons of help from the developers running the bootcamp.
The issues that you might have with bootcamps are that they are usually 3 months of full time study and they can cost from £3,000 ($4,000) to £15,000 ($20,000). That’s a lot of money to spend, especially since you’re not earning for those 3 months.
Get a Mentor
This is the perfect situation: you start coding and have a developer act as your mentor and tutor. They could be a friend, family member, or just a developer that wants to help you out. You won’t get as much help as with a bootcamp, but having someone to turn to when you hit a roadblock is really useful. Also having someone checking in on you and making sure that you’re putting in the time can help keep you on track.
This sounds great, but getting a mentor can be hard. Not everyone knows someone who works as a developer, and it’s a lot of extra work for the mentor. If you know a developer, they may say no to being your mentor and you need to respect that.
Get a Job as a Developer
This may seem like a cheat, as you need to be able to code before you can get a job. But I’ll explain later how to get to this point without a mentor or bootcamp. When you do get your first job, you’ll suddenly have a huge advantage — you’ll be getting paid to practice coding while working with senior developers. What more could you want?
Working as a developer will also expose you to the side of development that you’ll not see while you study: the business side. This is a massive part of development, as there’s no point making a product that no-one wants, and dealing with customers is a skill that takes time to learn.
Starting a Plan
As not everyone can afford to go to a bootcamp or knows someone who’ll mentor them, I’ll give you a plan for how to get your first developer job. This is almost exactly how I went from an engineer to a developer in just 4 months.
Finding Your Job
To create a great plan, you need to have a target that you are going to hit. Our target is to get a developer job as quickly as possible. The sooner you get your first job, the sooner you get the boost of practicing coding every day, having the support of senior developers, and the bonus of getting paid.
There are a lot of ways to get into development, from data science to AI to game development, but the sector that is the easiest to get into is web development. If you’ve got your heart set on something else, remember that starting in web development doesn’t mean you’re locked into it. You’ll learn a huge amount that you’ll be able to use to transfer across into your preferred field.
When I searched for Junior Web Developer the first job listing I saw was for a Junior Front End Web Developer. The requirement are:
We can look through a few similar job adverts and find the requirements that appear often. These will likely be:
- Front end knowledge: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Ability to create responsive websites
- A portfolio demonstrating your experience and skills
- Understanding of version control
Other bonusskills might be:
- Javascript libraries: jQuery, AJAX, Bootstrap
- Debugging knowledge
Creating the Plan
Now that we know what we need to learn to meet the requirements, we can create a plan for how to learn what we need to meet them. You should try to follow this plan step by step, as it’s going to be easier to learn the later sections if you know the earlier ones.
HTML and CSS
These are the building blocks of most websites today. You need to develop a strong understanding of these if you want a chance at getting a job. Luckily, there are hundreds of free and paid resources out there which can help you learn and master these skills.
freeCodeCamp is a website that teaches you everything to do with website development, and it’s incredible. It takes you step by step through mini lessons and it’s where I learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript!
We’ll be starting with the Responsive Web Design Certification and the Basic HTML and HTML5 and Basic CSSsections. These sections introduce you to HTML and CSS, and by the end you’ll be creating forms and styling HTML with cascading variables.
To improve our CSS, we’ll complete the Applied Visual Designsection up to Create a More Complex Shape Using CSS and HTML, and then do all of Responsive Web Design andCSS Flexbox. We’re skipping some of the challenges and sections for now, as our aim is to learn what we need immediately. Those other sections are great, but not needed for now.
Now that we’ve learned to use HTML and CSS to build and style a web page, we’re going to get some effective practice by completing theResponsive Web Design Projects. These projects will use everything that you’ve learned so far to build five websites.
Version Control
Version control is a system where you save files so you can look back over time and see what you changed at what point. It’ll probably be used at every software company you ever work at, and knowing the basics is really important.
To learn how to install Git, create a GitHub account and work with Git. There is a great tutorial post An Intro to Git and GitHub. You could learn this before the HTML and CSS design projects and start using version control for these projects.
Now that you know how to use version control, try to do all of your projects in a local editor (like VS Code) and upload them to CodePen when you’re finished. Working in a local editor is how you’ll be doing it at a job, so it helps build your experience.
There are a lot of ways to use Git/version control, but you want to be able to create a GitHub repository, link that to a local folder, commit work that you’ve done, and push that up to GitHub. Once you can do this, you’ll be able to work effectively as part of a development team.
JavaScript
JavaScript is the language that powers 94.8% of websites on the internet. Thats a lot of sites! JavaScript allows you to change a static website into a fully interactive one.
To learn JavaScript we can do the Javascript Algorithms And Data Structures Certification on freeCodeCamp. Because JavaScript is such a big part of modern websites, we’re going to complete the whole of this certification. This may seem like a lot of work, but when you work as a web developer, you’ll probably spend most of your time writing JavaScript. So its important to be good at it.
Building Your Portfolio
To show off what you can do, you need to have a portfolio to show to possible employers. Luckily you will already have 10 projects — 5 HTML and CSS and 5 JavaScript. Make sure that you’ve got these all in version control and uploaded to GitHub so that other people (future employers) can have a look and see how well you work.
You can now go back to the portfolio site that you built and update it with all of your new projects. You can then use your new JavaScript skills to add interaction to the page. This could be a popup description when a user hovers over one of your projects, a slideshow of images, or even a mini-game.
The Job Search
If you’ve done everything in the plan so far, then you should meet the requirements of a lot of the junior web developer jobs. Now it’s time to apply to some jobs.
To apply to most jobs, you need a CV or résumé. So we can make a web developer CV. This should highlight your strengths without bringing added attention to how long you’ve been coding or the fact that you haven’t got any commercial experience.
Here’s the CV that I used to get my second job.
Which jobs to apply for is also important. This may seem wrong, but you should apply to jobs where you can meet 80% (or more) of the requirements. You can always point out that as a self taught developer, you will likely pick up the other requirements faster than most other people.
Of course this doesn’t mean you should apply to everyjob where you meet the requirements. Only apply to jobs that you think are interesting and that you would take if you got the offer.
Using Recruiters
Recruiters can be a powerful tool for getting your first job. They know what the company wants, often have jobs that aren’t on job boards, and they want you to get the job… that’s how they get paid.
To make sure that your CV gets into the hands of as many recruiters as possible, we need to apply to jobs on a range of sites. Start with the large sites like Indeed and Total Jobs, but try to find the smaller job sites, too.
A lot of developers talk about how awful recruiters are, but we need to make sure to utilise them. Whenever you speak to a recruiter, make sure to be respectful and polite. If they ask you about jobs that are way above or below your desired job, thank them and decline but remind them of the type of job you are looking for.
My first two jobs came from recruiters asking about a job that wasn’t suited to me, but they had another job that was perfect. Don’t give them such a hard time.
Continued Improvement
You probably won’t get an interview and job offer in the first week of applying for jobs. You might not get an interview in the first month, but this gives you time to improve.
Now that we’ve met the basic requirements, we can start adding more nice to haves into our tool kit. Now is the time to add a new tool to your tool chest. Adding more skills to your belt will make employers more likely to want you and increase your chances of getting an interview. Here are some skills to learn:
Learn a library
There are JavaScript libraries out there which can make your life much easier. One of the most popular libraries is jQuery, which helps you with DOM manipulation, object and array functions, and much more.
I would recommend learning to use jQuery, because it’s a great introduction to using libraries in JavaScript. There are loads of courses and tutorials for learning jQuery, but I still love the freeCodeCamp lesson.
Completing the HTML and CSS Lessons
Go back to the HTML and CSS lessons from freeCodeCamp and complete the rest of the lessons in Applied Visual Design, Applied Accessibility,and CSS Grid.
Advance Your CSS (optional)
If you like the design and style side of front end development, then there’s a cool Daily CSS course that gets you to make images with just CSS and HTML. These images could be a great thing to talk about at an interview.
Learn how JavaScript Works
Being able to use JavaScript is great, but understanding how it works can help you become a much better developer. It allows you to write the best possible code, as you’ll know why and how that code fixes the problem.
To get this deeper understanding of JavaScript, I highly recommend the You Don’t Know JS book series. The first two books are great for understanding the fundamentals of JavaScript. Understanding this gives you a great foundation on which you can become an even better developer. They can be accessed for FREE online or bought in hard copy.
Build Projects
Another way to improve your skills is to build projects. These can be anything, but your aim is to get practice using the tools that you are less experienced with. Not great with arrays? Create a shopping list app. A bit iffy on styling? Try to make an exact copy of a real website.
These projects should be improving your skills, so if its too easy or too difficult, stop and start a project that is at a better level.
Sometimes when you build a project, you might need to learn a completely new skill. Learning as you go can be a great way for some people to learn.
Interviews
After having applied to a bunch of jobs and continuing to improve your skills, you will hopefully be asked to an interview. This is your time to shine. There are loads of articles about how to approach the interview process, so I won’t go into too much detail here. But I will highlight what this article says:
- Know your CV
- Know about the company
- Practice your skills
- Be early, polite, and confident
- Ask Questions
- Follow up after the interview
If you follow all of this advice, then you’ll have a good chance of getting an offer. Amazing! If you don’t get an offer, then make sure to ask for feedback and use that to be better in your next interview.
Summary
If you want to become a developer, you should be aiming to get a junior web developer job ASAP so that you get the experience and support from senior developers. To get this kind of job you need to:
- learn HTML, CSS and JavaScript
- build a portfolio of small projects.
Once you’ve done this, you can start applying to jobs.
Then prepare well for your interviews and continue to build new skills while you wait for that offer.
Thanks for following my guide to becoming a developer and getting your first job. If you enjoyed it, then give it a clap and follow me for more developer tips and tricks!
This article is meant to serve as a practical guide to becoming a professional web developer. I’ve spent over 20 years writing code for the web. I work with and help developers daily. In this article, I will tell you what you should learn, when you should learn it, and where you can learn it from (usually for free). I’ll then give you advice on how to get real world experience and, most importantly, how to get paid for writing code.
Author’s Note: Due to popular demand, this article is now available as an expanded eBook that includes a special appendix that puts all the links from this article in one easy to follow list. You can get the eBook version here.
I get no direct compensation for mentioning any of the sites listed here. I just want to provide you with the best resources possible to help you get where you’re going.
Two things to keep in mind…
1. It’s okay to skip ahead.
This guide will help you no matter where you are on your journey toward becoming a professional developer. After reading this introduction, just scroll to the heading that best describes your situation and begin reading from there. If you’re just getting started, or just thinking about getting started, then follow the King’s advice from Alice in Wonderland…
“Begin at the beginning and go on until you come to the end; then stop.”
2. Quickly get a taste of everything first and then specialize.
Money is not the most important thing. You need to ❤ LOVE ❤ what you do! But you won’t know what you love until you try it.
This guide is all about helping you get familiar with as many areas of web development as possible, as quickly as possible, and then helping you specialize in the one you love. At first, you won’t master anything, you’ll just learn the basics and move to the next thing. Once you find your passion, I’ll show you how to dig deeper.
I’ve decided to learn to code. I like the web. I’m not sure where to start.
Congratulations! This is a big first step and the start of something very exciting. It can also be totally overwhelming. Don’t worry, I’m here to help.
Your first goal should be to get up to speed very quickly with the basics of all areas of web development (often called “the full stack”). You’ll go very wide in your learning, but not very deep. This is just about helping you find the area you like the best and building up some general skills across the board so that you can appreciate and handle a wide array of challenges regardless of where you end up specializing.
Learn Basic HTML
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is what controls the content and layout of what you see in your web browser. By starting there, you will give yourself a User Interface that you can use to interact with, and see the results of, your code. As you tackle more advanced languages, this will become increasingly important. You don’t want to be coding in the dark.
Here’s the HTML you need to learn about first (click the links to get a free tutorial):
I know some basic HTML
Awesome! That’s an important first step. Now you need some basic JavaScript.
Learn Basic JavaScript
JavaScript is the language of the web, all major web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE, and many more) have JavaScript support built in. Every web site or web application you’ve ever used probably has lots and lots of JavaScript code behind it. Not to mention, JavaScript is now becoming popular on other platforms as well, including servers, desktops, and devices.
For now, you just need the basics, these links will help:
I know some basic JavaScript and HTML
Fantastic! Let’s get some CSS under your belt.
Learn CSS
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It’s used to customize the look and feel of the HTML elements on your page. Follow this free tutorial from Mozilla, to get the basics, and then frequently consult CSS-Tricks to solve the most difficult CSS problems (use the search feature on the top right).
Move to the “Back End”
At this point, you’ve been exposed to what is called “front-end web development”. That is to say, you know the major languages that run in a web browser. It’s time to move to the “back end”. Which is code that runs on a server. Don’t worry you don’t need a server to learn this, your own computer will do just fine.
There are lots of backend languages, but since you’re already familiar with JavaScript, I’m going to recommend you learn to use Node JS. Node JS allows you to execute JavaScript code on a server (instead of in a browser).
In addition to Node JS, you should learn about Express and Mongo DB.
Express
Express is a library that makes it easier for Node JS to act as a web server (i.e. listen for “requests” from your web pages, and send “responses” back to your web pages).
Mongo DB
Mongo DB is a database. It allows you to store and retrieve information.
You can learn about Node JS, Express, and Mongo DB, from this excellent, free, tutorial and its sequel.
I need to choose between being a “Front End”, “Back End” or “Full Stack” Developer.
If you’ve been exposed to both ends, it’s time to make a choice. If not, please follow the advice in the previous section to fill any gaps in your knowledge.
By now, you’ve written two kinds of code. One kind has to do with user interaction. The other kind has to do with data interaction. Which kind do you prefer?
User Interaction? Congratulations, you’re a front end developer!
Data Interaction? Congratulations, you’re a back-end developer!
Both? Congratulations, you’re a full stack developer!
Mac os x 10.7.5 boot camp windows 7. Hated everything? Congratulations, becoming a web developer is not for you, be glad you figured this out now instead of wasting more time and money. Not ready to give up yet? Maybe you haven’t found a language you love yet? Try some of the other languages covered in “I want to be a backend developer”.
I want to be a Full Stack Developer
Cool. You need to read and do everything under I want to be a Front End Developer and I want to be a Back End Developer below.
I want to be a Front-End Developer and I know some basic JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
To be effective as a front-end developer, you need to master HTML, CSS, and client-side JavaScript. You’ll also need to become proficient in some important frameworks. This will give you the skills that employers and clients expect from front-end developers.
By now, you should know some basic HTML. If not, go back to Learn Basic HTML.
Learn Intermediate and Advanced HTML
Reddit Learning C As A Web Dev Login
Follow this intermediate HTML tutorial and then this advanced HTML tutorial to get you skilled up.
Learn Advanced Client-side JavaScript
To level-up your JavaScript, I highly recommend the book series, You Don’t Know JS by Kyle Simpson. The author has made the entire series available online for free at these links:
- “this & Object Prototypes”,
Along with those books, the MDN JavaScript Reference should become your best friend.
Knowing the “front-end trifecta” HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is great. But to start earning money, you’ll need to get familiar with some frameworks.
Learn jQuery
jQuery is the most popular JavaScript library of all time. Although some newer frameworks make jQuery less relevant, if you’re looking for employment, chances are jQuery will be part of the job description (and interview) for many years to come.
I recommend following the jQuery path at FreeCodeCamp to begin learning jQuery quickly and effectively. After that, go to jQuery’s official learning site to get more instruction.
You’ll also want to keep the jQuery API docs handy.
Learn a popular JS Framework
Frameworks make working with a particular language or technology easier by addressing and solving some of the biggest problems with that technology. JavaScript has seen a huge boon in the development and popularization of frameworks.
It seems like every week there’s a new JavaScript framework that is touted as the next defacto standard. You’ll have to check the job boards or do some Googling to figure out which one is the most popular for your market. A good place to check is the Hacker News hiring trends tool.
Here’s what seems to be in demand at the time of this writing:
React JS
React was created by Facebook to work with their Flux architecture. It is a JavaScript library for building interfaces. It has surged to first place recently, overtaking Angular. So start with React. There’s a good free course introducing React here.
Angular 1 and 2
Angular JS was created by Google and really took off as soon as it was introduced. Many companies invested heavily in the framework and, as you can see from the graph above, it is still very popular. Unfortunately, Google felt the need to completely re-write Angular when they built version 2. So Angular 1 and Angular 2 are almost like two completely different frameworks. If you want to call yourself an expert in Angular, as of right now, you need to learn both to be really marketable. There’s probably still a window of time, where only knowing Angular 1 is enough. But that window is closing. The majority of Angular work will be in transitioning Angular 1 code bases to Angular 2. Code School has a fun free course for Angular 1. For Angular 2, check out this free video series to learn the basics.
Ember JS
There are still quite a few jobs for people with Ember JS experience, but as you can see from the graph, it’s starting to flatline. It doesn’t have the support of a juggernaut like Google or Facebook behind it, and you’ll have your hands full with React and Angular. Still, if you’re curious, you can follow along with the official Ember JS guide.
Once you’ve chosen the framework you like best, and are reasonably familiar with it, it may be worth exploring an accompanying CSS framework. The two dominant players in CSS right now are Bootstrap and Material Design.
Bootstrap
Bootstrap was made by Twitter and is quite mature and popular. There are versions of Bootstrap for Angular, Angular 2, and React.
Material
Material is a design guideline put out by Google that is gaining traction. There are Angular and React versions of it as well. Since Angular is also put out by Google, you’ll find there’s a natural fit there.
Here are some links to get you going.
- Material UI (React)
Congratulations! You now have the key skills needed to be a Front End Developer!
I want to be a back-end developer
Excellent! The first step, is choosing a language. On the back-end, there are many languages that work, all have their strengths and weaknesses. Take a look at the following graphic, it ranks programming languages in terms of popularity. These have all been in the top 10 for a decade. The ones in green are web languages that have been getting more popular over the years.
The languages in green are where you should focus. If you don’t already know any of these, start at the top and work your way down. Stop when you find one you like, and go deep!
If you’re already familiar with a particular green language, and you like it, then focus on that one.
Java
Java is an extremely popular language and can run (almost) anywhere. It was developed by Sun Microsystems (now owned by Oracle). Java is the language used to build Android apps. It can also be used to build desktop applications and, of course, it can be used to build web applications (either as a stand-alone backend, or coupled with JSP). It’s mature, stable, and there are a ton of resources to learn Java. It’s also one of the mostly widely taught Object Oriented Programming languages in colleges and universities around the world. Here’s a free Java course for beginners, that’s quite good.
C#
C# is a language created by Microsoft to directly compete with Java. Until recently, it was not well supported on non-Microsoft systems, but that is quickly changing. Like Java, it is object oriented, and can be used to build not only Web Applications (either as a standalone backend or coupled with ASP.Net) but also for desktop apps as well. If you’re a Windows user and want a slightly more contained eco-system to program within, C# might be the way to go. Check out this free course from Microsoft Virtual Academy.
Python
Although it doesn’t have a big name company behind it like Java or C#, Python is a great language for getting things done quickly. It’s relatively easy to learn and it’s getting more and more popular each year. If you don’t love the others, this is a good language to sink your teeth in. The best place to get started is right here.
JavaScript
If you’ve been following along since the beginning, we’ve already covered JavaScript. With the advent of Node JS and the popularity of npm (the Node Package Manager), JavaScript on the server is only going to get more popular in the years to come. Well worth learning.
If you didn’t do it earlier, now is good time to learn about Node JS, Express, and Mongo DB, from this excellent, free, tutorial and its sequel.
Ruby
Ruby is an odd bird. People who love it, really, really, love it. It’s in the top 10, but it appears to be slowing in growth. The language itself is a blend between functional programming and imperative programming. I recommend trying it out, maybe you’ll become one of it’s die-hard fans. There will be lots of Ruby work for years to come. But you may want to double check the listings in your particular area to ensure that at least a few companies have been bitten by the Ruby bug.
The best place to learn Ruby is RubyMonk
What about PHP?
There’s a lot of PHP in the marketplace but, at least according to this dataset, it seems to be getting less popular. I made it yellow because I think, right now, it’s still a viable choice to build a career on. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not a fan of PHP, so maybe some personal bias has crept in here as well, but I can’t imagine that in the next 5–10 years PHP will be more valuable than JavaScript, even though it ranks higher at the moment and there will probably still be jobs out there for PHP developers.
I’ve learned a lot, but I have no real world experience.
It’s extremely difficult to get a job without any experience.
The first step is to complete one or two personal projects, to get comfortable building things from end to end.
When you start building personal projects, it’s useful to have a way to manage and publish your code. For that, you need GitHub.
GitHub
GitHub is an online source code repository built on the Git platform. It allows you to store, manage, and publish your code. If you are a developer today, you MUST have a GitHub account. You can learn more about GitHub and how to use GitHub from this “Hello World” guide and also, from this interactive tutorial about using the Git platform.
Personal Projects
Now that you’re set up with GitHub, here are a couple of personal project ideas.
- Build a simple Blog (here’s a tutorial using React and Node)
- Build a simple calendar (here’s a tutorial using C# and .Net)
Free Code Camp also has a variety of projects to try, including some front-end only ones. Here are two of my faves:
Real Experience
Next, you need real experience. Real experience means doing work for someone else. Personal projects are useful, but they’re not enough to make you competitive in the job market. There are a few avenues for gaining real experience.
1. Contribute to an Open Source Project
Thanks to the popularity of GitHub there are millions of open source projects out there with open issues (bugs) just waiting to be fixed by someone like you. Putting on your resume that you’ve contributed to some popular and well known open source projects, is a great way to establish and boost your credibility. The best resource for figuring out what projects to contribute to is Code Triage. Code Triage lets you pick your favorite project and will send you a different open issue right to your inbox every day.
2. Do Work for a Friend or Family Member
Find a friend, or a family member, who has a business and build them a web app or web site, or improve their existing one. Just make sure that you choose very carefully, you need to pick the right-sized project and the right family member so that you avoid any uncomfortable situations down the road. Ideally, it should be a project you can complete in under 90 days and a person with whom you have a very honest relationship. You shouldn’t be afraid to admit if/when things aren’t going as planned and you shouldn’t be afraid or worried about having to say “no” or telling them to “back off” on certain requests or expectations. Also, you should be sure that if either of you end up bailing for any reason, it won’t permanently damage your relationship.
3. Work for Charity/Non-Profits
A very rewarding way to gain real experience is to do some work for non-profits and/or charities. You can approach a local charity or non-profit that you feel strongly about and offer to help. You can also use the site Catch a Fire to find a project that you can help with. Finally, if you follow the program at Free Code Camp and earn all their certificates, you will gain access to non-profit projects where you can put your skills to good use.
4. Slave Labour
I confess, that’s a bit of a cheeky title for what I am about to suggest here, but in my experience, if you take this route, and then subsequently get a job or go freelance, you will look back on it as slave labour, for sure. Sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and PeoplePerHour give you an opportunity to win business, but you’ll have to keep your rates very low and accept that you are only doing this for the experience.
I have some real experience, please help me find employment.
Rule #1 — Don’t call yourself a “Web Developer”
Check this out…
What the heck is the difference between a “web developer” and a “front end” developer!? Well, about 7000$/year apparently. Seriously, when the time comes, a simple change in what you call yourself can make a big difference.
Have a strong resume
Despite all the stories you read about people doing wild and crazy things to get an employer’s attention, you still need to have a good resume. This article from Tech Republic will help you with that.
Build a portfolio website
More important than having a good resume is having a strong portfolio website. Take all the real projects you’ve done and put them on a personal home page that shows them off. This SitePoint article gives some good advice on building a portfolio site. The one other thing I would emphasize is that you should make sure to highlight how each of your projects solved a businessproblem for your client (or employer). Do that, and your portfolio site will stand head and shoulders above the rest.
Prepare for coding interviews
My previous article, How to Win the Coding Interview will help you with that.
Beef up your general interview skills
You should be prepared for more than just the coding part. This Life Hacker piece is a good roadmap to lots of valuable and important information.
Just get your foot in the door
Don’t worry about getting a job with your dream employer at your dream salary right away. Just worry about getting paid to write code for a while. Once you have some more experience under your belt, you can start to consider your next move.
I want to become a freelancer.
Being your own boss is an amazing thing, but it also comes with a ton of added pressure and complexity. The best source of information on freelancing that I have ever seen is DoubleYourFreelancing.com by Brennan Dunn. He has a series of articles that will walk you through becoming a freelancer better than anything I could ever write here. So, check them out.
Another option for freelancing, if you believe you are really good, is to join Toptal. They only accept 3% of applicants and their process is notoriously difficult, but if you get in, you’ll have access to many well paying freelance opportunities where you can work remotely.
I started down this path, but now I feel stuck.
I hear you. It’s not easy and anybody who told you it was going to be easy has either never done it, or is trying to get money out of you. If you feel stuck, here is what you can do:
Rediscover your original intent
Ask yourself, and write down why you started down this path in the first place. Is your answer still true? If yes, then why stop now? Let’s go!
Reddit Learning C As A Web Dev Test
Get Real
Now that you know more about what is really involved and what is really possible, you have a better idea of the best case scenario, the worst case scenario, and the most likely scenario of continuing. Write it all down, look at it, and realize that the “most likely scenario” is the one that will probably happen and that it’s likely closer to the “best case” than the “worst case”. You do not have to be afraid. Move forward. You can do it!
Read This!
Please don’t quit — every expert was once a beginner
If you’re like me, you have at some point in your efforts to learn programming, thrown up your hands and said: “I need…medium.freecodecamp.com
Happy coding!
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Finally, don’t forget to get to grab the expanded eBook version of this article with all the links in one easy-to-follow appendix. Click below to get it.
Free Guide to Becoming a Web Developer
This amazing free guide walks you, step-by-step, through the learning process of becoming a professional web developerfreebies.devmastery.com