The latest articles on DEV Community by Jeril Bills (@jerilbills). https://dev.to/jerilbills https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F227865%2F3cad27bd-5283-4c57-b9b1-be1e5e62e0ae.jpeg https://dev.to/jerilbills en Jeril Bills Tue, 19 Nov 2019 23:08:21 +0000 https://dev.to/jerilbills/advice-for-an-aspiring-web-developer-new-to-coding-5e6a https://dev.to/jerilbills/advice-for-an-aspiring-web-developer-new-to-coding-5e6a <p>For the past five years I've been working jobs I could easily get, which have all been in call centers, and I've mostly hated it. After quitting my most recent job, I was talking to my parents and they offered to help me out while I worked to move into a career I'd actually enjoy. So I've been learning web development on my own, and I'm really enjoying it so far. </p> <p>But my parents can't afford to support me forever, so I'm trying to find the most direct route to a job that I can while continuing to learn on my own (I don't feel ready to commit to a bootcamp or CS degree right now. I do have a college degree, but in History). </p> <p>I assume I can clear the minimum bar for front-end more quickly than back-end, so my plan is to focus on front-end right now and learn back-end stuff once I already have a job. But I'm not sure if that is a correct assumption or a good plan. If I were less concerned about time, I would learn the basics of both front-end and back-end now and pick whichever I enjoy more.</p> <p>Whether I go for front-end, back-end, or full-stack, I'm pretty sure I don't have the minimum skill set necessary to realistically find a job right now, so I'd like to know what actual web developers think are the minimum qualifications I would need before a job search would even be worth my time.</p> <p>So, I would be super grateful if anyone could give me their opinions on the following questions: </p> <ol> <li>Is my assumption correct that I can (probably) get into front-end more quickly than back-end, and if so, is it a good plan to focus first on learning the minimum necessary requirements to land a front-end job? If not, what advice do you have for choosing a specialty?</li> <li>What are the minimum hard skills I need to have and how proficient do I need to be in each of them? </li> <li>What (if any) soft-skills do you consider must-haves for entry-level developers?</li> </ol> <p>Even if you don't answer all of those questions (or even any of them), any feedback, solicited or not, would be greatly appreciated.</p> <p>Thank you!</p> beginners help webdev career