I have gone through many tutorials especially from Udemy and FCC and learned HTML, CSS, JS and Bootstrap.
One thing I always read online from web developers and real life web developers; is to build a career as a web developer, you need to start building your own projects. So that became my plan; but what I did was not make projects completely by myself (except for a few), instead I watched code along videos (which are quite popular in Udemy courses).
So please tell me, am I doing the right thing?
If what I am doing is not right or even if not, what is it that I really should be doing to make a career as a web developer?
Code-along videos might be helpful when youâre starting out, but you should try to move away from them as soon as you can. Do more of the FCC projects instead, where youâre encouraged to write your own code from scratch.
Later when youâre more familiar with writing code from scratch, it might make more sense to return to the code-along video courses. Being able to anticipate the line of code that an instructor is going to write next is a good point to get to.
The thing is, I have a lot of pressure from University studies the reason I canât work on my own projects. Hence I go into code along tutorials to at least be involved with web stuff instead of forgetting it all.
And yes, I am able to anticipate the line of code before the instructor types it.
Code along videos and tutorials can be helpful, but they donât help with what I think is the hardest coding skill - seeing a problem and designing a solution.
In the end, there is no substitute for building new code. I get that life and school get busy, but you will want to get to the point where you are doing projects on your own.
I would add up the time you are using for code along videos and tutorials and try to build something instead. Take an idea and break it into a bunch of little pieces that you can do in the same time you would spend watching a video.
Coding along with a video can be helpful, but really the best way you can learn what youâre doing and how to do it is to do projects yourself. Getting stuck and then solving the problem yourself does wonders for knowing how it works. I would say that sticking with videos is safe for learning the basics, but you need to launch yourself off the deep end and take the step of doing something yourself. Of course, itâs always fine to look for help if you run into a roadblock. If you try to find a solution to an issue but canât figure it out and need to find more resources on it, chances are youâll understand whatever their solution is better after youâve thought about how to solve it yourself for a while.
Itâs fine to not know everything youâre doing! Moving away from using videos does not mean straight up throwing all help away, weâre always learning. Also, itâs good to remember you donât need to finish a project in one sitting. Just start something, anything, find a project concept online if you donât have an idea and just do a bit of it at a time. I like making to-do lists with my code and just finding a fun section to work on for a few minutes if I donât have hours to do something big.
This got slightly off topic, maybe, but tldr; just do it!
Also, @ your newest comment: Start a project anyway. You donât need to have a whole skillset for everything before making your own things. Learn as you develop your project.
Personally, Iâm a C guy, so I recommend backend down to the chip!
Seriously though, if you have an idea, start making pieces. Once you have some parts in play, then you will know what other skills or technology you will need to learn. Youâll probably never know everything you need to know to do a project out in the wild - the new pieces are part of the fun and excitement!
Thank you so much @JeremyLT and @ranjit-ao for your advice!!
This really helped a lot!! <3 <3
Now my main question, when do I learn react?
I really really feel a strong urge to dive into it
You seem enthusiastic about learning react, nothingâs stopping you. Go for it, assuming you know some js for context
Itâs good youâve been working on smaller projects. Try combining knowledge that seems very simple/that youâre proficient in with newer concepts that youâre learning. Doesnât matter if what youâre writing is incredibly useful or beautiful all the time, I like just messing around with whatever Iâd learned that day to make funny output as long as Iâm practicing and writing code, then will try to make something cool once I actually remember the syntax of functions etc.
Code-along videos are fine, as long as you understand what youâre typing in, or at least will understand it very shortly after. Iâve been programming for decades, and I still watch tutorial videos on new topics. A code-along that leaves you confused as to what youâre doing is one you shouldnât bother with. A good tutorial is one you leave not needing to view another tutorial on the subject.
I mean it is kind of mainstream in these days to call it a âtutorial hellâ.
Speaking from my experience I absolutelly love Udemy tutorials.
I was coding along for 7-8 months following udemy videos starting from html-css-js-react-redux-node and was able to land my first job as a jr react dev.
Anyways if you will find a job, it will be 180degrees different that you have done on your own. For example you did max 200-300 lines of code in your own app and real life projects have 100 000 to millions lines of code.
I have a dev job, after job and on weekends I watch udemy courses, code along and enjoy it. Its just how I absorb the information. And I dont want to stop watching videos and start building my own projects asap because âi have to build my own projectâ that no one needs including me.
The problem here might be if you have 5-10 udemy courses each of them 30% completed )))) i have 2-3 similar courses )))))
Just need commitment to finish this course and it will help during your job.
for absolute beginner JS - Shaun Pelling (is a must)
then intermediate JS - Andrew Mead
50 projects JS course - Lawrence Svekis
â it will take 350 hours of study
for absolute beginner ReactJS - Rob Bunch (is a must)
for intermediate ReactJS - Colt Steele
project course - Andrei Neagoie
âwill take 300-350 hours of study
Totally will take 650-700 hours of study
Divide the total hours on your daily study hours and you will find out when you will be ready to become a juniorest dev )))
then you are good to go.
Thanks for your kind information.
I started Js from [Jonas Schmedtmann] course.
What about nodeJs or Django?
BTW,What do you prefer for Backend Services
I generally find I donât learn from watching videos and simply âcopyingâ what the author is typing. Iâm spending so much time trying to imitate what they write that Iâm not actually focused on what Iâm coding or how it works. Itâs good for a new concept (something Iâve never done or a new language), but I lose interest fast.
I prefer being given a problem and solving it myself. Like a written tutorial, or vague guidelines that need to be completed, or the lessons on freeCodeCamp or Codecademy. I find these are a good balance of âteachingâ and âfigure it out myselfâ that I learn best.
Also in-class learning. I donât quite understand how it is different than watching a video, but having real-life people explain concepts is so much better. Maybe because you can ask questions, itâs not just a 1-way dialogue.