I tried learning React, but I cannot really wrap my head around it nor can I see myself using it with project development.
I briefly touched on Vue, and I cannot see myself using it either.
I know HTML, CSS, vanilla JS, and the DOM API in depth. I haven’t really dove into using transpilers or module bundlers that much.
For backend, I know procedural PHP, the Linux CLI, and SQL.
I feel I must improve my backend skills.
Sure. You can work as a developer without using a web framework. You are probably not going to be working as a web developer and it also eliminates jobs in other types of applications, but there are many types of programming. Being unwilling to learn a language, tool, framework, library, etc, is a bit of a red flag though.
Hi @Hjb1694,
If you look at what employers are seeking, you will see a lot of Framework requests.
Have you been following the freeCodeCamp curriculum? The basic React is not too bad.
Some of the fCC YouTube videos are helpful as well.
If you can afford it when PACKT has a sale, Max S. video series of React 16.6 (I got mine for $10) has been extremely helpful.
The Frameworks and Libraries will help save a lot of time and headaches once you understand and work with them. I love jQuery (it saved me a lot with JavaScript) and I’m starting to appreciate React.
I suppose it really depends on what type of Stack you are wanting to work with. I’m going for my MERN so React makes sense to me. You may decide Angular is better for you, and apply it towards a MEAN stack.
Whatever you decide, Happy Coding!
You might take a look at different types of devs as well.
With your skills, you could look into Email Dev. Basic HTML, CSS, vanilla js, and sql are the primary skills you’ll need. There aren’t very many of them, so lots of opportunity.
If you’re more familiar with back-end (PHP/SQL) and would prefer sticking with that, then you certainly don’t need to learn a front-end framework. I see plenty of job postings for back-end developers all the time, particularly for PHP. The only reason to learn a front-end framework is if you intend on moving over to front-end, or going full-stack; otherwise you could probably find a number of back-end developer jobs in your area.
That said, Vue.js is commonly used together with PHP, if you ever do decide to get into a front-end framework in the future.
The difficulty with PHP is keeping my code maintainable. This is due to mixing html and php code together in the same document. I have difficulty adopting the MVC approach
It’s all a matter of what you want to specialize in, or to what extent you want to specialize at all. There are certainly people who only do front-end, or back-end, or just XHTML and CSS, but the less you can do, the better you must be at the things you can do. This can be a pretty hard thing to decide since there is so much to learn.
There are generally server-rendered applications such as using PHP, and the newer client-rendered ones like React, and as far as I know the the two technologies wouldn’t be mixed, and I most developers specialize in one or the other type of application. But if you do use PHP, you should understand what kind of Javascript is commonly used in the frontend in PHP applications.
You can be very successful without knowing any front-end framework.
But I don’t think you will be able to compete if you give up on learning new tech either. Not saying you must learn React, but if in an interview you say “I tried learning React and gave up” and that place might of wanted you to learn X, then you might lose out on the opportunity. Now saying you didn’t see yourself being a front-end guy in general is fine, there’s so much you can do outside of the front-end its not a big deal at all.
Arguably front-end is still somewhat over-rated (controversial I know), but it has the most hype and “pushback” from all the front-end devs that feel like they missed out on all the cool stuff, thus they created a bunch of fancy stuff around Javascript to the point JS is the front-end (using frameworks like React). It’s not the correct approach, just the current one. 