Hey there, my name is Pratik. During this pandemic, I got an opportunity to do an internship as a web developer, and it was the first-ever real-world project I have ever worked on. We developed events hosting website(like Fandango) using Angular & firebase and here are 8 things I learned which I would like to share with you all.
(ps. This is the first article I have ever written, so if you find any mistakes or if you got any tips please do let me know in the comments below.)
So let's get started without wasting any more time.
1. Set deadlines
No matter whether you are working alone or in a team this tip will always come in handy. Having a fixed deadline automatically makes us more focused than we would normally be.
Being a big procrastinator myself I can assure you, if you set deadlines you will be at least 30-40% more productive and get things done faster.
2. Do your research
Doing research on frameworks/technologies and choosing the right tech stack is by far the most important part of the app/software development process, if you do this wrong you will spend a lot of time finding workarounds to solve the simplest tasks that you would easily solve using any other framework (or without even a framework).
3. Save work without fail
Like I said earlier being a procrastinator I always try to avoid doing things. While I was working on the project I used to upload my code on GitHub every 2-3 days instead of keeping it up-to-date daily, and one day the unfortunate happened WINDOWS CRASHED..... completely. Tried all the things but couldn't recover the data. But fortunately, I had uploaded my code early in the morning so I didn't lose my code. But it was a good lesson that no matter what happens just UPLOAD YOUR DAMN CODE DAILY !!
4. " FAILURE is the first step towards SUCCESS "
When I finally start working on the project I came to realized that I was making so silly mistakes they are so small and silly that I start doubting myself. Have I even learned anything in the past few months? How can I develop a whole app if I can't even remember these small things? so on and so forth. But I want to tell you that IT'S COMPLETELY OKAY TO MAKE MISTAKES, but once you grow past those there no stopping you.
(I have uploaded my first ever Youtube video do check it out Click me)
5. Smart work is better than Hard work
I am guilty of searching "How to center div" (for at least 5 times) it was when I just started web developing, but still that feeling of NOT knowing how to simply center a div is heartbreaking. When you are new to programming there will be time when you will spend 50-60% of your time reading(and copying) code from Stack overflow and other similar sites and again it is 100% okay to do it, you are not alone.
You should always TRY to solve problems on your own when you are new to programming and keep GOOGLE the last resort it will help you to remember the syntax of that particular language, but I think its okay to copy basic boilerplate code because it's not about how much code you write yourself rather it's about getting the job done in less time
6. Communication is the key
This is yet another important thing that can potentially save a lot of time-solving your queries and errors. You can reach out to people online on GitHub, etc. people in the developer community are so great they will definitely help.
7. Take short breaks
Coding is nothing but problems solving and it needs a lot of brainpower, after a while even if the problem is simple you might not be able to solve it because your brain is tired and it needs some rest, it's not about just getting tired but taking short breaks can also increase your productivity and get things done quickly.
8. “What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean." — Sir Isaac Newton
I think no matter how much you know about programming there is something that you still don't know, programming is a never-ending learning process and the only way to move forward is to keep learning and improving.
Thank you so much for reading my first ever article, do let me know what you think and share your first experience in the comments below.
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Oldest comments (2)
Your writing is really good and impressive...
I am also a self taught web developer looking for a project where I can practice my skills... Please let me know if you can help
Thanks
Thank you. And sure I will.