Are you a newbie developer confused on where to begin your learning journey? Search no more!!! This post will serve as a guide through your learning journey to landing your first job as a developer.
How the internet works: Learn and understand how the internet works. Understand hosting, Domain Name Servers (DNS), HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the browser, etc. Having a good understanding of what happens behind the scene after you hit the
Enterbutton on Google Search and how the web content is fetched and displayed on the browser will help you alot in your learning journey.Basic Development Tools: Just like every profession, developers have tools that makes it easy to practice our profession. The next skills to master are these tools which includes an Integrated Development Environment (IDE - this is where you write your code. The most popular IDE is Visual Studio Code), Terminal (This is a text-based interface you can type commands. Some popular terminals are power shell, git bash, zsh, etc), and Design Tools such as figma.
HTML: HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the building block of the web. It is very easy to learn. Learn about the different tags, forms and validation, accessibility, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and best practices.
CSS: CSS means Cascading Style Sheet. Learn the basics, grid, flex box, css properties, media query, viewports, fluid widths, transitions and animation. Also learn some CSS frameworks such as Bootstrap, TailwindCSS, they make the job much easier.
JavaScript: Learn it's basic syntax, Document Object Manipulation (DOM), Fetch API, ES6+, debugging, events, primitives, async/await, promises, etc. JavaScipt is the main language for the web. You have to dedicate more time here to understand its concept and build some basic projects applying all the skills you have learnt so far. Some projects I recommend are clones of popular website (HTML and CSS), Todo App, Weather App that consumes a third party weather API. I also advice you learn TypeScript at this point.
JavaScript Frameworks: Mordern web development today has been made easy, thanks to frameworks. The next step after learning JavaScript and TypeScript is to learn a JavaScript framework. The framework I recommend is React.js which is more of a library than a framework.
Tools: Just as we have frameworks that make web development easier, we also have tools that makes the process more seamless. At this point, I suggest you learn some tools like Git and Github (for code versioning, storage and sharing), Redux (for state management), Webpack (for code bundling), NPM or yarn (for package management), linters (ESLint) and formatters (prettier)
Backend: If you plan on becoming a fullstack developer, then learning about backend development is the next goal. There are so many languages and frameworks for backend developement. I advice you make some research and readup some docs before deciding on a language and framework to use. I recommend NodeJS with ExpressJS as a framework. This is because they are much easier to learn based on the fact that it's simply JavaScript on the backend. Learn about authentication and authorization, REST API, GraphQL API, API versioning, databases and security. Also learn about databases and the different use cases. The most common databases to learn are PostgreSQl and MongoDB.
Deployment: The next thing to learn is how to take your projects from development to production. For production, you need to learn about logging, monitoring, web servers, continuous integration and continuous deployment tools.
Soft Skills: Finally, some soft skills are necessary to help you land and remain in a developer role. Some of these soft skills are Teamwork, Communication, Leadership, Problem Solving, Adaptability, and Attention to details.
Also learn how to write test (at least learn how to add unit test to your projects).
In conclusion, web development has become so vast that many beginners are confused on where to even begin. You will never feel ready nor good enough but if you can apply all the skills listed here to build about three projects, that's enough to get you started. I hope you find this guide helpful.
Happy coding!!!
Top comments (24)
hii mam after learning full stack what steps i should do for gaining experience
I advise you to build and deploy real-world projects. This shows practical experience, even if it's not from a professional job. Aim for 2 to 3 solid projects and add them to your resume as experience, especially if they solve real-life problems.
Project ideas: A task manager, A blog platform where you document your learning journey
Also, try to contribute to open source, even if it's a small fix or improvement. It shows you're capable of collaborating with others in a real development environment.
You can apply to Internships and junior roles after this.
thanks ,how i make project like watch utube tutorial or build by myself
I would advice you do more of research when building projects.
Let's say you want to build a blog site, don't watch youtube video(s) and build except you are still learning fundamentals. If you have gotten a good amount of experience on how to start building a project, then start.
You start by breaking the features out and planning based on priority. Example: For the blogging site, you need to create the category before the post because category is a child to a post. Else, you would go back to edit the post (which is not bad but if you plan properly, it will be more straight forward).
As you build, you research as you get stuck. It will take more time but will build your strength more and you will understand every part of the project.
But if you watch videos and build, you don't fully understand some decisions the developer made and if asked to redo it, you might need the video(s) as a guide again.
In the end, everyone has their learning style and how best they learn. If videos gives you in-depth and clearer understanding when building, why not.
thanks i build some of project like task manager ,instaclone(backend like like ,comments ,post) ,twitter clone(fronted) these are i can make by myself i learn from video bt main thing i want to build confidence over my fear show myself that i can as (nontech) it is feel like shitt so for what i should do for build confidence
also mam i also targeted outreachy august
That's a solid plan. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you need any support or have questions along the way.
so what should i do to overcome this fear
You are on the right track by building projects and wanting to grow.
Fear is normal, we all feel it, but confidence comes with consistent action.
For me, writing scares me a lot. I can be on one content for over 2 months (that's how bad). But this year, I challenged myself and I have been consistent.
I suggest you keep building (start small, but aim for completion). Ship projects (even imperfect ones) to GitHub and publish some live.
After each project, learn and understand the process. If you can, write about it. Then pick up a more difficult project and start the cycle.
Share your work on LinkedIn, Twitter (X), it helps you feel seen and accountable.
Ask questions and don't stay stuck alone for long. Reaching out (like you just did) is applauding.
Join communities too (I will check and share some later). Being around others learning too helps you feel less alone and more inspired.
Finally, as you are still building yourself, I advice you use less AI tools. AI tools are awesome but best to boost productivity and not skill. For now you are building your skill, you don't need short cuts. When you have mastered your skills, you can then use AI tools to speed up development process. Because you fully understand the process and know exactly what you are doing.
so u mean i start contribution on github or something else
Yes, build projects and push to your GitHub account. If you don't know how to do it, you can search for youtube videos on beginners guide on GitHub
thanks for your time mam
u r also developer how do you make project or also what do u currently doing how u get there i am excited about story
Yes, I am a developer. I recently shared a glimpse of my tech journey here - dev.to/dinakajoy/not-starting-over...
The advice I shared earlier is the same approach I follow. The tech industry is constantly evolving, and we, as developers, must evolve too. There is no such thing as a "master", we are all learning and growing.
Currently, I am focusing on integrating AI into backend projects. While I am a full-stack developer, I have decided to hone in on backend + AI integration. I research, build, write, and teach, all while pushing myself to learn more every day.
by yourself
mam do you ever contributing open source
Yes I do. I contribute to the OCaml community.
I plan to evolve and contribute to AI/ML and Python projects also
for outreachy i also want to learn contribution and contributed in some project so it,s need deep knowledge or ...
That's good. I started my open source journey with Outreachy as well
can u tell me ur experience did u reached u contribution phase
For some reason, I did not get notified about this.
Yea, I made it to the last phase. I am an Outreachy alumni - may 2021.
I was also a mentor for 2022 and 2024 rounds
wow mam it,s amazing i will be really enjoyable to teach people
hello mam how are you hows ur day i was about to talk to you bt i deem that u must have a lot work
Let's connect via linkedin and chat - linkedin.com/in/dinakajoy