I took a bit of a personal break between my last post and this one, but now that I'm a bit back in the saddle, I wanted to give a little update as to what I've been working on since I last blogged at the end of May. For those of you who read my last update, you'll know I've been working my way through Responsive Web Design certification from FreeCodeCamp (FCC). In the past two weeks, I've completed all of the lessons and two of the five capstone projects.
I also had a fun career advice chat with a new friend from WomenWhoCode and watched most of this video from RealToughCandy that reviews a bunch of different coding bootcamps.
I've made a lot of good progress over the past several weeks. A lot of the lessons I went through felt familiar, but staring at a blank CodePen screen and trying to remember everything I'd learned had me feeling a little like this:
After having gone through most of this self-paced certification, I think I definitely need to explore bootcamp options that offer a more guided approach. Having someone further along to lead me through the process seems a lot more necessary than I first anticipated. Something like Udacity or Treehouse looks appealing, but I haven't decided which I'll choose yet.
In the meantime, here are my first two completed projects! The code is messy and they're not perfect, but I'm really proud of the progress I've made so far. You can click on the screenshots below to view the full CodePen.
And, for posterity, my task log:
| Day | Tasks Completed | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | FCC: Applied Visual Design | 1hr 30min |
| 3 | FCC: Applied Accessibility | 44min |
| 4 | FCC: Responsive Web Design Principles, CSS Flexbox, CSS Grid, Tribute Page Challenge | 1hr 59min |
| 5 | Work on Tribute Page & Survey Form Challenges | 6hr 53min |
| 6 | Work on Tribute Page & Survey Form | 31min |
| 7 | Work on Tribute Page | 40min |
| 8 | Finish on Tribute Page & Survey Form, Start Product Landing Page Challenge | 4hr 20min |
Until next time, friends!
Oldest comments (6)
Instructions unclear....I requested IT assistance from Richmond, and he never stopped by...
I love the creativity in the IT support form. I'm sure you tried to think of ways to further align the more pesky input types (selects, radios, etc.) to your design. That can be tough without replacing them entirely with your own custom input components.
Honestly, looking at your couple projects shows me the potential on past projects that I wasted by trying to take them too seriously.
Writing code is often only going to be as fun as it is when you write it for the pure enjoyment of seeing your own work flicker on the screen (speaking from the perspective of an enterprise developer, that is).
Keep working hard and please share more of your progress along the way!
Thanks! Yeah, I tried to fiddle with custom radios and checkboxes, but I couldn’t get it to work, so I figured what I had was good enough for now.
As a hobbyist, I’ve definitely always coded from a place of fun/enjoyment, so it’ll be interesting to see how I fare in a job setting where some of the creative aspects might be restricted.
Thanks for reading!
Keep it up!
Thanks!
Hi Caitlin! I personally took the Udacity Nanodegree a few years ago(their syllabus has updated a lot since) and it got me my first dev job. There are probably some overlapping from what you have learned in the FreeCodeCamp but they do offer a more structured and comprehensive syllabus. And their support is quite good IMO.
If you are looking for some fun JavaScript projects, do check out Wesbos's JavaScript30 which you can get your hands dirty and build a bunch of interesting things. And it is FREE.
Keep it up and don't hesitate to ask questions here. Good luck!! 💪
Oh wow that's great to know!! It's so hard to know if the programs you're picking are worth it, so I'm glad to hear Udacity worked out for you.
And I will check out that Javascript program for sure!