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Tuesday April 21, 2020 | Filip Kunjadić - Ćulibrk
How to become a web developer – a beginners guide
Lately, many people are deciding to change their professions and become a web developer. And I understand them. But getting started can be quite daunting! That is why I have decided to write a small guide on how to become a developer.
Before we begin it is important to know what developer actually does. Usually, our job is to write code (but there are different "types" of codes and we will get back to that) but it is not all. We often have to communicate our ideas to our clients or team leaders in order to assure that we are all on the same page and going in the right direction.
Make sure you really want this, or at least you are ready to give it a go!
This would be the first step in the right direction and this would include some changes in your life. If you are not used to sitting in front of the computer - you better get used to it. Because you will have to do it a lot. Besides sitting in front of the computer, get ready for some frustration. This is a common thing, especially when you are learning something new. So, do not get discouraged! Keep your goals in front of you and don't stop until you reach them!
Everything that is executed in your browser is considered a FRONTEND (HTML, CSS, JS) and every technology that is executed on a server is considered to be a BACKEND (PHP, JAVA, C#).
And during these couple of weeks keep this in your mind.
WEEK 1:
Start from basics and work your way up, do not go another way!
Usually, people get started with something like JavaScript because they saw an awesome ad or heard that there are a lot of good positions open for JS developers. But that is the wrong way - trust me. JS shouldn't be a starting point! And do not take this the wrong way, I've got nothing against JS! The same rule would apply for some other technology and many frameworks like Laravel or Ruby on Rails.
I would always recommend starting with HTML and CSS. Simple as that. And as always you need to learn it somehow. There are many videos on youtube that you may find useful but I would always recommend going to Udemy They have thousands of courses and you can easily search for HTML + CSS. But keep in mind - try to avoid React, Angular and other technologies - my advice would be to introduce them later.
WEEK 2:
Ok, I have learned basics of HTML and CSS - where to now?
The next step would be to introduce some light JS and slowly progress toward a more complicated code development. And here you can find useful JS courses. Please, keep in mind - it may become rough from time to time but just keep coding and everything will fit into its own place eventually.
WEEK 3/4:
I know everything and I can make anything! Well... I wouldn't be so confident!
You have noticed that you didn't have to install anything special besides your IDE or text editor and everything was working perfectly in your browser. That is because everything up until this point was considered to be "FRONTEND Development".
Now that you have basic skills for some frontend development it is time to go further. It is time to introduce you to some backend technology. For starters, I would recommend PHP or JAVA (do not confuse this with JavaScript these are two completely different technologies).
Here are some useful PHP lessons that you could take a look into. Beware that your only goal at this moment is to familiarize yourself with different technologies and not to master them.
In this part of your journey, you should get into some "pickle" with setting up your server for your backend projects. As always my advice is to look up help on StackOverflow or simple google what you need (and get be guided towards StackOverflow anyway because 90% of the time your answer would be there). And of course, you can always search Udemy for Apache or Nginx courses.
This is the crucial week, now you should start to understand how the web works when it comes to servers, technologies and many other interesting things. I will write a separate blog post about "HOW WEB WORKS" so you can get all the information in one, place. Stay tuned for it!
WEEK 5/6:
Yes, I think I know what is going on right now. But do you?
After you have seen some technologies and found out how they actually work now its time to introduce you to some Frameworks. I would recommend starting with Laravel if you have had PHP as your backend language. It is a great framework and you can develop your app with it pretty quickly. Also, there are Laravel courses on Udemy as well in case you need them! For some front end frameworks, I would suggest React or Angular - depending on your preferences.
After you have played with some frontend and backend frameworks it is time for a real test.
WEEK 7:
Portfolio test!
After all your hard work it is time to decide if you want to be a developer. If the answer is YES it is time to build your own portfolio website! I would recommend buying a domain from Namecheap.com and for choosing the domain the fits your needs you cand find useful advice here.
Why am I recommending Udemy? It is simple, great prices, great teachers, QA, help boards and many more things! I have been using it for quite some time now and I am 8 years into coding know - and I always find something new and interesting to learn.
When we are on the topic of Udemy - I must use this opportunity to say thanks to Maximilian Schwarzmüller for awesome React Native course on Udemy! It is a pleasure to watch your courses and learn from them! Thank you!