Are you new to coding? 💻 Here's a list of 5 essential skills you should learn before getting your first job.

Knowing how to find the info you need (aka Googling)

Could you ensure you know how to find help online when you get stuck? Usually, adding "example" or "StackOverflow" to your search query brings you better results. Try to use the entire error message you get in your console. If you see some codes or numbers in the error message, use it too. For example, "TypeError: Assignment to constant variable StackOverflow".

Parsing JSON data

JSON is nothing else than a data representation format. Your programs are only helpful with data. The rule of thumb for API Content-Type is JSON. Please ensure you can get to the first element of the array in the nested object. 🔗Web Dev Simplified has a great video on JSON

Working with version control (git and GitHub)

When you develop a small application alone, you know exactly what is changing, and you can be sure no one else will break your code. When you get your first job, you will start working on a larger codebase with others. Code changes 1000% more often, and there will be some chaos. The remedy for this chaos is version control; most companies use git and GitHub. The good news is that you only need to learn 5–8 short commands. 🔗Programming with Mosh has made a free course on youtube.

Familiarising yourself with your code editor and its tools

According to the StackOverflow survey, most people use VSCode nowadays, and it's a great choice. You can use whatever editor you want, but if you're a beginner joining a project with some linter and formatting configs, you must ensure you can configure them in your editor too. ESlint and Prettier are the most popular formatter and linter for JavaScript devs. You can research your language tooling and start using linting and formatting as soon as possible in your project. 🔗TraversyMedia video on VScode, Prettier and ESlint setup.

Creating at least one tiny project from scratch

This will give you a lot. You'll get a big picture of what is relevant in application development. You'll need to solve all the problems you'll encounter on your own , which will give you the best learning effects! Suppose you can use all the tips from above and create a little app or website that uses weather API and displays the current weather for a given location, put it on GitHub and deploy it online. In that case, you can start applying for junior positions. 🔗Tutorial to make a similar app in JavaScript by Web Dev Simplified