I don’t post much, so I would like to share a little about me before moving to my question. If you don’t feel like reading, just skip to the bottom!
My name is Sacha. I’m a 30 years old Japanese major living in Tokyo. I learned some programming in high school (and loved it) but in 2005 I didn’t see any ways in which programming could help me nail a good job in my country (weird times, looking back) and decided to move to something completely different.
In late 2015 I joined a recruiting company that deals with engineers/programmers and having the chance of talking to those people made me realize I wanted to be on the technical side of the job market. I started studying by myself (Python, some C++ and SQL, then web development mainly on fCC) and exactly 1 year later I was able to find a job thanks to my language + programming skills (that has nothing to do with web development, since I’m mainly using C++).
Today, April 6th 2017 I earned my Front End Development Certificate and now I have several options in front of me (since in its current situation fCC doesn’t offer any tutorials in non-beta form).
I want to start studying Unity3D since it will help me with both my current job and game development (love games), but I still feel like I would like to keep studying web development and see what’s hiding under the hood. What do you recommend to do next? I would like to hear different opinions.
Keep in mind that the hardest part for me so far has been only working with HTML/CSS, creating the algorithms for the advanced projects was much easier (and a lot more fun) than what I usually do at work. It took me 5 days to nail that for the Simon project, less than 2 days for the Javascript. (I learned a lot about responsive design and plan to make it better though)
tl;dr
What should I do now that I am done with the Front End Development? Should I move to SASS and React? I am already working as a C++ developer, web development is a hobby but wouldn’t mind creating websites as a freelancer in the near future.
It seems that you have yet to get used to CSS/HTML properly. I’d do a course on those and maybe do beta.freecodecamp.com afterwards. Focus on understanding how things work until it’s no longer difficult to make pages from scratch, after that it’s up to you, do whatever is interesting to you. If you want to freelance then take a look at the job market, do some projects with those skills in the job market.
Here’s an exercise, take a Screenshot/Image capture of a website, and convert it to an HTML template (complete with CSS, jQuery, Angular features).
The final working template will have minimized/compressed CSS, javascript files, using online fonts, have the necessary Google analytics code, Twitter and Facebook meta tags, etc.
Reasoning Behind This: You mentioned you want to be a freelancer in the future. One usually presents to the client a Photoshop mockup of a design, you and the client go back and forth with changes until final approval. Then you must convert that image prototype into actual working html/css codes.
Hey there, thank you for your reply. It’s definitely what I used the least, and that’s why it takes me longer than coding in Javascript/C++. I used my last project to learn more about responsive design and I feel much more comfortable with them now.
I think I will try to create a better personal portfolio next.
Thank you for your reply. Yes, I suppose that’s the way to go if you want to be a freelancer. I am not completely sure about this last thing, but I would like to build those skills just in case.
I see you recommend Angular but I think fCC is kinda trying to push React. Is there any reason to pick one over the other?
There are plenty of websites that discuss the Angular vs React debate. Personally, I’ve only designed/worked with Angular. Hope to know a little about React/Node in these FCC courses.
In the end, you just need to pick one technology (Angular or React) and know it well enough to produce what the client need.
If you end up being a freelancer, your clients really don’t care what technology you used on their project… as long as it works reliably! (I’m a 100% full-time freelancer for these last 17 years.)
If you plan on working for a company, it helps to know both to improve your chances.
As for video tutorials, check out Udemy and Udacity. There’s also Codecademy.
Thank you so much, you’re exactly the kind of person I hoped would reply! I am not sure I want to work as a freelancer, this year I want to keep studying while working for my current company, but who know what will happen next.
I guess I’ll start with React/Redux. I just bought a course on Udemy (10$ sounds fair and the app allows me to download the videos and watch them while commuting). I’ll focus on this one and study some SASS/SCSS in the meantime (I guess I should since CSS is where I waste most of the time anyways).