Welcome to the wonderful world of programming

Ok, my first blog post. Since I made the effort of creating this website, having some useful content wouldn’t hurt. You might want to change something in your life, to have a new career, new challenges. If you’re new to the world of programming and feeling a bit overwhelmed, I’ve been there – I am a front-end web developer, and a self-taught one.

So, front-end. Why front-end? Because it’s simply great. I remember writing my first lines of HTML & CSS. Create a button, style it, create a header, then create a whole page. What a wonderful feeling !! Granted, it was just a static web page that didn’t really do anything, but boy did it look wonderful to me. See, front-end has this craftsman feel to it that is invaluable to me. You start with a blank screen, and little by little you end up with a fully functioning website or web app that someone is going to use. Beautiful feeling.

But I’ve been told that front-end development sucks and that back-end development is way cooler

Congratulations, you’re Vuk Gavrilović. Deep down in your soul you adore JavaScript. And CSS. You just haven’t come out of the closet yet. Let’s move on to the next section.

Yes, I too want to become a front-end developer, what’s next?

There is no shortcut. For any of the fields of programming. Front-end, back-end, mobile apps, desktop apps, you name it. It’s all just hard work. You can enroll in an IT bootcamp; it can be a good option, if you can afford it. They usually last around up to 4-6 months but offer lots of content within a short timespan, so be prepared to spend much more time studying – not even the best school in the world can teach you to program in 2 or 3 or 6 months. You can also study on your own. One thing to pay attention to – it requires self-discipline, HUGE amounts of it. It’s incredibly important to establish a routine and stick to it. How much time do you need to spend studying every day? The more the better, of course, but it’s entirely up to you. If you have a 9-to-5 job, be realistic. You need to sleep, you need to rest after work a bit. You might need to commute, it’s preferable to have a social life. All of this takes time. But you’re the one who sets your priorities.

Where to find study materials

Where to start? Luckily, there are literally tons of fantastic free materials. There are great YouTube channels that offer high quality, free content. You could definitely do worse than checking out Traversy Media, Ania Kubów, Fredrik Christenson, Web Dev Simplified, Ben Awad, Wes Bos… Kudos to these awesome people. You really rock. You might want something a bit more structured. In that case you can check out platforms like Udemy. They offer affordable (usually $9.99 – $19.99 when on sale, and they have sales practically all the time), high-quality courses by authors such as the above-mentioned Brad Traversy, Stephen Grider, Maximilian Schwarzmüller, Angela Yu, Andrei Neagoie, Andrew Mead… You can check out previews of their courses, or their YouTube channels, and see whose teaching style suits you most. But you won’t go wrong with any of them. Excellent developers, top professionals, great instructors. Now, if that sounds like there is too much content out there, you’re totally right. While I recommend not limiting yourself to one single resource when it comes to studying (there is no such thing as a perfect tutorial, instructor, book, school, or bootcamp), you should also guard against spreading yourself too thin. By the way, if you like reading and studying from books, that’s awesome. I can wholeheartedly recommend authors like Kyle Simpson (author of the You Don’t Know JS 6-books series, a classic), Nicholas Zakas (The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript and Understanding ECMAScript 6, among others; wonderful, wonderful books), Dr. Axel Rauschmayer (JavaScript for impatient programmers), Douglas Crockford (JavaScript: The Good Parts and How JavaScript Works). Many of these books are even free to read online.

Can't I just jump into React and start building web apps?

No. Like I said, there is no shortcut. This is the usual path when it comes to studying to become a front-end developer: first HTML & CSS, along with things like how the internet works, how browsers work, what is HTTP. And then JavaScript. And if you’re serious in dedicating yourself to the front-end, you will most likely end up using one or more libraries or frameworks like React, Angular or Vue. But they should be icing on the cake. I can’t stress hard enough how important it is to have a good understanding of the foundations of programming. JavaScript is a powerful programming language. Probably one of the most hated and/or looked-upon programming languages. However, it has more than a fair share of quirks and oddities. Basically, something like this:

JavaScript is like a great, dear friend that can get you into embarassing situations… (It will all become clearer once you read the history of the language.) Every beginning is hard, and the same applies to programming and to JavaScript, especially if it’s your first programming language. It is of crucial importance that you first learn the theory, the stuff such as data types, coercion, truthy and falsy values, closures, objects and prototypes… More likely than not, you’ll find it boring. But bear with me, and bear with the programming fundamentals. If you follow this path, it will all eventually just click.

And then what?

Little by little, you will start creating your own static websites. And then your own web apps. You will learn about Git, an essential tool for every programmer, and about uploading your projects to platforms like GitHub. Things will become more complicated, and at the same time, more interesting and more enjoyable. But remember that when you decided to become a programmer, you have really embarked on a wonderful journey that doesn’t really have an end. You can forget about thinking that you know everything about one programming language. Programming is an incredibly dynamic field, and front-end programming even more so. Good luck, never give up, and enjoy programming !!

P.S.:

Somos lo que hacemos para cambiar lo que somos | We are what we do to change who we are (Eduardo Galeano)