Hello! I would like to say to all of my followers or anybody that this is my first post and I am nervous, anyway here we go:
As the tech field grows so do the number of people wanting to learn how to code. I know this because I myself am one of those people. I had little to no interest in coding back in high school. I learned more about it when I decided to enroll to a game development program in college. In the beginning of the program we were told we had to learn C++. I know what you're thinking, C++ is definitely not a language to dive into for any beginner who has no prior knowledge of programming. This led me to struggle tremendously in the field and put me away from ever touching code for a few years. After finding the interest in learning to code all over again I found myself infatuated with Javascript.
Some may say Javascript is a joke or that if I wanted to learn real programming to get into Python. The reality comes down to whatever language you want to learn. You do have to know the basics of HTML and CSS of course that way you go into a language knowing the basics. I myself learned that the hard way and when I came across Javascript I instantly thought " WOW this is MUCH less complex than C++ ever treated me". I guess you could say that I did not know exactly what I wanted to do when it came to coding. I noticed all the neat things you could do with Javascript. I quickly hit the books refreshing myself with CSS and HTML.
Read
Constantly reading about the language helps you expand your knowledge about it. I did the mistake of not keeping up with how Javascript kept evolving and always found reading to be a bore. I learned this the hard because I kept coding vanilla Javascript even after ES6 was picked up by many.
Problem Solving
Most of Web Development I like to say that is problem solving. If you want to do an animation or if your div just needs some padding or margin or need a flexbox it is up to you the developer to find out how to do it. Of course there is google to help, but we also run into the ever so fun bugs.
Stay interested
I have little to no developer friends and when I discuss html css or javascript when they ask they look at me confused. It is hard to code or get into coding if you do not have an interest or passion about it. An old college buddy of mine kept redoing his portfolio because he kept cancelling every portfolio he ever started on and then one day he just quit. He told me that he just did not have the passion or interest in coding any more. Which leads me to my next point.
Find an idea and follow through
Many code newbies begin a project and fall off within a certain amount of time and never come back. Some even decide to start a different project even while working on their current project. Try to stay on task and follow through until the end.
You are your own worst critic
Criticism is hard to accept and can be very nerve wracking when it comes to others. In reality what does not look good to you may look amazing to others. No matter what little change your website or application needs it may not be a big bother to others.
I hope you guys enjoyed this small read. I just felt like finally writing about something I like to talk about on here and wish to meet other like minded readers!
Top comments (4)
Great beginner advice!
Quick note that folks who think JavaScript is a joke, are a joke. Not because one language is or is not better than any other, but because language elitism makes me giggle.
Haha I have to agree. It is rather interesting to see many grown adults discuss their disagreement as to why a language trumps another. In my opinion to each their own. They all have their specialties and uses. 😁
This is where I am right now! I'm actually starting my coding journey (again) after a small break. I'm curious about coding, and it looks awesome, but I don't have a passion project to motivate me to learn. I even enlisted in an online at-your-own-pace bootcamp. As adverse as I am to being around strangers, I think the next best step would be going to meetups, meeting others that are either in my mindset or just graduated to actually coding a passion project! Either way, loved your article and am really glad you wrote and shared it👍
Thank you! As for passion , one thing I learned was about building the portfolio. If you build it, add to it, then it becomes more diverse and shows all your different skill set once finished. That’s what kept my passion going. You can only benefit from it in the long run 👍