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Learn Web Development and Actually Get a Job
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Feb 6, 2024
"Learn Web Development and Actually Get a Job" is an instructional video aimed at individuals interested in pursuing a career in web development. The video likely offers practical guidance on how to learn web development effectively and increase the chances of securing a job in the field. It may cover topics such as essential skills and technologies to focus on, recommended learning resources such as online courses, tutorials, and coding bootcamps, and strategies for building a strong portfolio of projects to showcase skills to potential employers. Additionally, the video might provide tips on networking, job searching, preparing for interviews, and standing out in a competitive job market. By offering actionable advice and insights, the video aims to empower viewers to embark on a successful career path in web development.
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How is it possible for an average construction worker to learn to code, to get that super
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hard first programming job, and then get hired by a large tech company making hundreds of
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thousands of dollars in total compensation each year? Nine years ago, I was totally that construction worker because I couldn't get another job
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with my near-worthless history degree. So I ended up freezing my butt off in the cold each winter doing physical labor for
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mediocre pay and no benefits. I'm now a full-time senior front-end software engineer at Adobe, and I'm self-taught
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working in a nice cozy office. So let's talk about why most self-taught devs fail, why you should choose to become a front-end
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developer instead of learning Java, PHP, Python, or some other backend-focused programming
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language, the technologies you should learn, the right way to learn to code, and how to
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get your first job as a programmer. What's the matter with your mind and your side and uh..
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But first, what's your background story? I would totally dig it if you'd let me know in the comments
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Fist bump. Alright, there are four main reasons most people fail when they want to become a self-taught programmer
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First, they underestimate how hard it's going to be. There are plenty of videos out there about people who are learning to code in three months
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six months, and in my case it took around nine months. Though three to six months is probably not very common unless you end up in a full-time
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boot camp that can really help you stay focused. I did it in nine months in the evenings with the support and patience of my wife and kids
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because I ended up having to sacrifice pretty much every evening during that time
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And that's not going to be something that's going to be doable for a lot of people. It took a ton of self-discipline on my part, especially on the days where I just wanted
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to give up. Because there will be those days. You also have to be realistic about your ability to learn quickly
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Some people learn incredibly fast and things just stick. Others need more time to process it
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If you compare your progress to a fast learner, you're going to get discouraged and may quit
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even if you're actually learning code at a normal pace. Second, for most people, getting your first programming job is going to suck
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I'll share some good strategies to overcome this in a minute, but a lot of people wash
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out before getting that first job. Third, some people's brains just aren't wired for this kind of work
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I know plenty of people who are amazing working with their hands and that's totally fine
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There's nothing wrong with that. If you think that's you, before you give up, I encourage you to question yourself
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Is it really because you don't have the brain for it or is it just because it's hard and
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you lack grit? Fourth, a lot of people make poor decisions when it comes to picking a programming language
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or area of software development. Let's talk about why I chose to become a front-end web developer
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In simple terms, front-end web development is just the visual part of a webpage or application
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that you interact with. There are a couple of really important reasons why I chose this
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First, I have nothing against back-end development. It's super important. This is where the magic happens for storing and retrieving data
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Let's face it, back-end code is visually boring. This means when you go into an interview, the only thing they have to test you on are
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code problems and your ability to communicate what you know verbally. You're new, so you might understand what you're doing, but it's super easy to get
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stuck trying to explain things and just not using the right words to describe it and to
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get hung up. At least that's how it was for me when I first started. Perhaps that's hard for you too right now
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This puts us at a disadvantage when competing against fresh computer science grads
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We could even code better than them, but they can out-talk us and they have some paper to
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back them up. The cool thing about front-end development is that you can show the finished project
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Even if you stumble on describing some of the things, they can see what you have done
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If you have other valuable skills like an eye for aesthetics or good user experience
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intuition, it will show through in your work. Second, the front-end includes everything from software engineering skills to design
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skills and so it tends to be more open to self-taught developers as a community
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It's a pretty big mix of different backgrounds, whereas with back-end development, you can
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tend to have a higher concentration of computer science grads. Now it's still going to take a lot of hard work, but it's going to be easier to stand
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out and out-skill other self-taught front-end web developers who maybe just don't have
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the same level of ambition as you do. Third, on the front-end, there are plenty of tools to make it super easy to set up boilerplate
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code needed for an application and that lets you quickly jump into developing everyday
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code skills without getting lost doing all of the complex configuration stuff
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You can learn all of that later. For a lot of people, being able to see visual changes happening on the page can be super exciting
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It's awesome to get fast feedback on the progress you're making and this really helped me stay motivated
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With back-end, there are also tools to set things up, but the basic stuff can be pretty
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boring and it's just so much harder to impress people with what you have done
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It's like walking in the shadows of your girlfriend's real boyfriend. This is really important when talking to non-technical hiring managers or recruiters because even
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these people can appreciate a website or an app that looks nice, even if they don't
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know what's going on underneath the hood. Especially websites where you can hit that like button, I would totally appreciate that
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So, you are going to end up having to learn three things, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
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HTML is kind of like code legos that gives your app structure
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The CSS or cascading style sheets lets you define the size, the shape, color, the animations
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for each of those legos. Add JavaScript is how we give it instructions
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If someone clicks on a button, what should happen? Maybe it loads some data onto the page
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If you hear someone say vanilla JavaScript, they're talking about writing code with plain
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JavaScript without using any third-party libraries or frameworks. And as software engineers, we do a lot of repetitive stuff
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And instead of writing everything from scratch ourselves, smart devs will usually use libraries
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of heavily tested code written by other people. You should probably ignore anyone who says you should only use vanilla JavaScript or
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else you'll end up basically building your own crappy library that nobody else knows
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how to use. And if you care about actually getting a job, most companies will want you to have experience
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working with one of the major JavaScript frameworks like React, or you could learn Angular if
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you want to become a boomer living in your mother-in-law's basement. For a concise breakdown of several popular front-end frameworks, you should check out
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this video up here by Fireship where he basically builds out like 10 different versions of the
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same simple application to compare them. It's really cool. Either way, the right way to learn to code is not reading a book cover to cover
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It's not trying to understand everything. There's just way too much stuff in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that you just won't use
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It's far better to master the core concepts and to learn all that other stuff as you need
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it at some other time instead of just becoming mediocre in everything
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The best way to figure this out is to just step away from following tutorials as soon
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as you're comfortable with the basics and just start building things that solve problems
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that you are already interested in. As you write code, you'll start to identify things that you just keep doing over and over
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again and you should focus on learning how to do those things really well
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How can you make that code chunk smaller, more reusable, maybe more efficient, and easier
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to read? That kind of stuff. And then you should be able to explain why you chose to do it the way you did
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In your interview, you'll probably get asked questions that stump you or that are just
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hard to remember the exact answer. If you understand generally what's going on, it's going to be super easy for you to say
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I don't remember that one thing and then just start to explain everything else
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And that's probably one of the best tips for dealing with your first interview
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In fact, that is exactly what happened during the interview that led to my first job offer
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Be able to talk about a lot of core concepts can really make up for messing up on some
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random technical question. And trust me, I messed up on a few questions
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And here are some more tips for how to get your first job as a programmer
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First, most people who are fast at getting their first dev job either know someone at
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the company or they have someone mentoring them who can vouch for them and their skills
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or else they just got lucky. And if you want to be that person, try to build solid relationships with people in the
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industry as soon as possible. Second, if you've made it this far, I assume you're liking this video
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So consider subscribing. I have a ton of other videos to help you become a programmer
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Okay, for reals. Second, you are at a distinct disadvantage when compared to computer science grads
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They have a paper that vouches for their educational experience and that is something you don't
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And most certificates from doing courses online are going to be worthless
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So don't count on those. You have to get practical experience any way possible
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And that means build your own projects, work for free if you have to, but you have to find
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creative ways to get your own experience. In my case, I built personal projects in the evening
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And then in my downtime at work, I started building things and doing things for my employer
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that could provide them value and build some skills, stuff that they didn't even ask for
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And this means I had to be proactive and come up with ideas on my own
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I created my own opportunities to get experience and you're going to have to do similar things too
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Third, you want to have a portfolio that can sell your potential. And instead of focusing all of your attention on a single large project, I would shoot for
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a handful of smaller projects first and then do one that is more of a complex project
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The people interviewing you are probably only going to give it a quick glance
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So seeing lots of projects is going to have a bigger visual impact initially
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By starting with building the smaller ones, you're going to get some quick wins that are
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going to help you stay motivated and then dive into that larger one
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If you start with a really complex app, there's just a good chance that you are going to get
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lost and that you might give up. For these projects, you need to do stuff that interests you rather than just copying existing
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projects or tutorials. Simple and unique applications are going to be way better than a complex tutorial clone
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But a unique complex project will really stand out. And don't get me wrong
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Following tutorials can really help you develop your skills, but just don't consider them
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to be good portfolio pieces. When you get to an interview, there's a good chance that they haven't even clicked the
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link to see your portfolio. So bring an iPad or a laptop and be prepared to show them what you built and explain the
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technologies you used and why you did what you did. If you used multiple frameworks, tell them what you liked about each one and what you
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didn't like. That will go a long ways. Fourth, and one of my personal favorites, is don't just sit there hoping they'll ask
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you the right questions. It's like politics. Instead of waiting timidly, just answer their question as best you can and then try to steer
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the conversation to related topics you are prepared to discuss with confidence
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Fifth, the spray and pray approach to sending out resumes just doesn't work well
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If that's what you're doing, don't complain about why you're not getting interviews
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You need to do whatever you can to get in contact with the hiring manager directly instead
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of going through HR and the online application process. You don't want to be a no name in a database
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The goal is to have the company want you before you ever fill out an application
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Is this going to be easy? No, it's not. But all it takes is getting your foot in the door one time
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And so be willing to fight for that because no one owes you anything and no one is going
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to care about your career as much as you do. Even if that first job offer doesn't pay very well, you should really consider taking it
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so you can start getting some real world experience as soon as possible
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Getting that first dev job is going to be the hardest and you can always bounce a year
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later if you need to. But if you really want to know why some front end software engineers make a ton more money
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than others, you should watch this video up here and I'll even share how much money I
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made at each of my jobs as a self taught developer. Lates
#Career Resources & Planning
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