DEV Community: Aaron Dunphy

Do you need a Degree to be a Web Developer in 2022?

Aaron Dunphy — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 12:32:05 +0000

No, thanks for reading.

Joking aside, you do not need a degree to be a web developer for the majority of jobs out there. There will be a few that want a web developer / software engineer with a degree in computer science or related field but more often than not, most companies will be looking at your skills that you can showcase as part of a portfolio than a degree paper that says you attended for 3 years.

I have a degree in web development

I actually have a degree in Web Technologies but only because I had no idea what I wanted to do when leaving school/college. I originally went to University studying Multimedia as I liked using photoshop but once I discovered web development in my first year I switched degrees and never looked back. Would I do the same in hind-sight? No.

With hindsight I wouldn't have spent the time/money to get a University degree

Before going to University (2012) I never really knew web development existed, let alone it could be a career funnily enough. If I were thinking about getting into web development now there is no way I would go to University (unless I wanted to get into academia or wanted to live that student life). The takeaway I got from University was that I had a portfolio and this is what helped me land a job straight out of University and not a degree certificate saying I attended for 3 years. My advice to you reading this and my previous self would be to either self teach and build a portfolio or go to a bootcamp and build a portfolio.

Self teach + build portfolio

If you don't really have the money or time to attend a bootcamp then self teaching is a great way to get into web development. You will need to be self motivated, disciplined and ready to work hard as this isn't the easiest approach. To be able to land a job I would recommend you need to learn the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, JavaScript (also an understanding of frameworks like React or Vue.js). Don’t try and fast track/skip this part, it is so crucial to really understand what is going on and why as it will help interview better and lead to faster growth in the long run. Once you understand the basics you should create your own personal website and create multiple different projects showcasing you know how to use HTML, CSS, JavaScript as this will really help you land that first job.

Bootcamp + build portfolio

If you have the money or are open to financing then a bootcamp is an absolute no brainer in my opinion. Most of these bootcamps are structured to help you land your first job and often have connections to get you interviews. This is the route I would take if I knew I wanted to be a web developer today as once you complete the bootcamp you will have gained technical experience, built projects and worked within a team environment. These are super valuable skills when you're looking for your first job in web development. A bootcamp will be there to give you support so you overcome the important obstacles early on, quicker.

Summary

You do not need a degree to become a Web Developer, it can help but there are more time and cost effective ways such as self teaching or attending a bootcamp. In my opinion the best way to become a Web Developer in 2022 is to invest in a bootcamp and after 3-6 months you will be able to land your first junior developer position.

If you are looking to start a career in Web Development or are a Junior Developer looking for a mentor, feel free to reach out via socials and I will help you achieve your goals by using my experience to help guide you.

My Top 5 Tech Podcasts 2020

Aaron Dunphy — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Syntax

Hosted by Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski. Syntax is a great listen if you're interested in full stack development / javascript as they always have some great tips and conversations. Also their intro is the best out there.

The Laravel Podcast

Hosted by Matt Stauffer. The Laravel Podcast is amazing if you want to hear from some really interesting people from the Laravel community such as Jeffrey Way, Marcel Pociot and Jonathan Reinink.

Twenty Percent Time

Hosted by Tighten Co. I've found the Twenty Percent Time podcast great for topics around your dev job such as being organised and imposter syndrome.

Full Stack Radio

Hosted by Adam Wathan. Adam's podcast Full Stack Radio is really insightful to listen to if you're interested in building your own software products as you get to hear first hand from guest speakers on certain topics.

The Laravel Snippet

Hosted by Taylor Otwell. From the creator of Laravel, The Laravel Snippet is a quick and easy podcast to listen to if you want to hear from him on what he and the team at Laravel are working on lately and his views on certain topics.

What are your favourite podcasts?

How to Setup Quick SSH Access

Aaron Dunphy — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 20:59:45 +0000

In this article you will learn how you can set up a quick and easy way to SSH onto any server without needing to remember the user or IP address. This will work by running a command similar to:

ssh server_name

Machine Setup

Check if your machine already has a public SSH key generated:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

If you see “No such file or directory” then generate a SSH key otherwise skip this step (click enter at all prompts):

ssh-keygen

Edit the SSH config file to setup quick SSH access to a server from your local machine:

sudo nano ~/.ssh/config

Ensure all hosts use key chain is at the top of the file:

Host *
     UseKeyChain yes

Then you can insert as many host references as you would like. Insert the following (changing the server_name, ip_address and server_user):

Host server_name
     HostName ip_address
     User server_user
     IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
     IdentitiesOnly yes

Copy your machine's ssh public key:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Server Setup

Add your machine's SSH public key to the server's authorized_keys file (you will need to SSH onto the server with ssh user@ip first):

sudo nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

You can then ssh on via

ssh server_name

How to Deploy a Laravel Application on a Fresh Install of Debian 10

Aaron Dunphy — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 18:57:21 +0000

Create a new user so we are not using root

adduser admin
usermod -aG sudo admin
su admin

Install Apache

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

Install PHP7.3

Add PHP7.3 repository

sudo apt install lsb-release apt-transport-https ca-certificates
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/php.gpg https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg
sudo echo "deb https://packages.sury.org/php/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/php7.3.list

Then install

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php7.3

Verify PHP was installed correctly

php -v

Install common PHP extensions

sudo apt install php7.3-cli php7.3-fpm php7.3-json php7.3-pdo php7.3-mysql php7.3-zip php7.3-gd  php7.3-mbstring php7.3-curl php7.3-xml php7.3-bcmath php7.3-json php7.3-zip

If you need any other extensions, you can install with

sudo apt install php7.3-<entension-name>

Install MariaDB

sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client

Then secure the database, set a strong password, remove anonymous user, disable remote login for root and remove test database

sudo mysql_secure_installation

You can now connect to MariaDB

mysql -u root -p

Set up Virtual Host

Create the directory of where your application will live (replace "example.com" with your domain)

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/public

Create a dummy holding page so we can test the virtual host configuration has worked

sudo nano /var/www/example.com/public/index.html

Then insert and save

<html>
    <head>
        <title>Example.com!</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>Hello World</h1>
    </body>
</html>

Create a name based virtual host configuration file to allow Apache to serve it

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

Then insert and save (replace all refences of example.com with your own domain)

<VirtualHost *:80>

ServerAdmin example@me.com
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/public

<Directory /var/www/example.com>
    AllowOverride all
    Require all granted
</Directory>

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com_access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Now let's enable the configuration file with Apache

sudo a2ensite example.com

Restart Apache for the configuration file to kick in

sudo service apache2 restart

As long as your domain is pointing to your server's IP address, you should now be able to see the dummy html file we added earlier by going to your domain e.g - http://example.com

Clone your Laravel app with Git

Install Git

sudo apt install git

Generate a ssh key for your server to communicate with GitHub

ssh-keygen

Copy your server's SSH public key and add it to your GitHub's repository deploy keys which can be found under the repository settings (I would suggest not enabling write access)

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Change directory to your domain

cd /var/www/example.com

Delete the public directory from one of the previous instructions above so it is completely empty

sudo rm -rf public/

Update the directory so it is owned by the admin user but accessible by apache

sudo chown -R server-user:www-data /var/www/example.com/

Clone your repository with ssh (you can get this from your repository on GitHub)

git clone git@github.com:<YourUserName>/<YourRepository>.git .

Update file/directory ownerships again after cloning and also ensure apache can read/write to the storage and cache.

sudo chown -R server-user:www-data /var/www/example.com/
find /var/www/example.com/ -type f -exec chmod 664 {} \;    
find /var/www/example.com/ -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \;
chgrp -R www-data storage bootstrap/cache
chmod -R ug+rwx storage bootstrap/cache

Install composer

Following their official docs

php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"
php -r "if (hash_file('sha384', 'composer-setup.php') === '48e3236262b34d30969dca3c37281b3b4bbe3221bda826ac6a9a62d6444cdb0dcd0615698a5cbe587c3f0fe57a54d8f5') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"
php composer-setup.php
php -r "unlink('composer-setup.php');"

Then move it so it can be accessed globally

sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Install dependencies from within your application folder

cd /var/www/example.com
composer install

Install npm

sudo apt install npm

Install dependencies and run tasks from within your application folder

cd /var/www/example.com
npm install
npm run dev

Create database

Connect to MariaDB

mysql -u root -p

Create database

create database my_db_name;

Happy Deploying!