I learned at UDEMY, CODECADEMY, switched career and got a webdesigner job 3 months ago because the employer read my portfolio, force yourself to make a portfolio of your personal projects, so the future employer will see that you are willing to learn and build something.
What i don’t like is when people try to be smart, giving stupid answers that have no logic. Many people say “No, you’re restricting yourself with only HTML, CSS and JavaScript” which is just bullcrap.
Imagine somebody asks “Is chicken, potatoes and green salad enough for a full corse meal?” and then somebody says “Well, no… you need soup, you need desert, you need breadsticks… it’s 2020 and times have changed”
Bla bla bla blaaaaaaaaaaa
But what if somebody doesn’t like soup, desert and breadsticks? Do you have any idea how many websites in this world are made entirely in HTML and CSS (no JavaScri
What i don’t like is when people try to be smart, giving stupid answers that have no logic. Many people say “No, you’re restricting yourself with only HTML, CSS and JavaScript” which is just bullcrap.
Imagine somebody asks “Is chicken, potatoes and green salad enough for a full corse meal?” and then somebody says “Well, no… you need soup, you need desert, you need breadsticks… it’s 2020 and times have changed”
Bla bla bla blaaaaaaaaaaa
But what if somebody doesn’t like soup, desert and breadsticks? Do you have any idea how many websites in this world are made entirely in HTML and CSS (no JavaScript)?
Many! Many websites are very simple and people pay for this. If people pay for this, then why wouldn’t HTML, CSS and JavaScript be enough for a full time job? Where’s the logic?
I do web design, i have met people that don’t know coding. I will never forget that girl i met on LinkedIn, she was working for a company for years, SHE HAS NO CLUE HOW TO WRITE CSS.
How does she do it? There are some platforms, similar to Wix that are paid monthly. You can built websites with them, she also uses some softwares… just with the mouse - drag and drop.
AND SHE MAKES MONEY AS A WEB DEVELOPER! NO, IT’S NOT MINIMUM SALARY! THE CLIENTS ARE HAPPY WITH WHAT SHE DOES!
Dude, believe me… when somebody has a business, the business makes (for example) 200 000 per year and the owner of this business has many things in mind and many things that need to be paid.
- Bills
- Materials
- Employees
- Repairs
- Personal life
… And one of them is a website. When the owner of this business pays for a website and says “It needs to have a contact page, it needs to have a page with pictures…”
DO YOU THINK HE WILL GIVE A DAMN ABOUT JavaScript? If you tell him “JavaScript” and he’ll say “My son watches Star wars too”
I personally write CSS, HTML, JavaScript and PHP. However many clients tell me “i want you to make a Wordpress website” he’s literally telling me “I will pay you, to stop coding and to do drag and drop with the mouse”
What the clients pays for, the clients gets! It’s how the world works.
When you all get smart and start talking and i’m just “uuuuuuugh”
There are people that have mastered every single javascript library and platform out there. From Bootstrap to .pug or some other ridiculous name for a framework and they don’t make money as developers.
Do you know why? Because they can code, but they can’t work it, they don’t own the skill of being a good designer.
Go, visit a website, any beautiful website.
Automobili Lamborghini - Official Website | Lamborghini.com is a good example.
See the design and try to make it as beautiful as this design with only html,css and jabba script.
If you fail, then no framework, library or flippidy-flip-flop will help your.
Certifications and hands-on experience will trump free online training. It's impossible to say what you can earn because it will be based on experience, work history, professionalism and geographic location. Free online training is great to get a leg-up on something you dont know, but just passing a codeacadamy course is not in itself going to get you hired. If you can however demonstrate an understanding of the technology, that is your best bet.
Well, as for everyone saying you can't start making money til you learn a ton more stuff or simply do freelance, I'll tell you what me and my brother did. We both started off learning HTML and CSS before really any programming. We both got jobs doing emails for a company, and while doing that job started being given other tasks that were more difficult and led to me learning some basics in javascript/jQuery and C#.
Within a year they gave me a decent raise, and within another 6 months another big one. As soon as I was about to get my degree they doubled my pay. I literally spent 2 weeks lear
Well, as for everyone saying you can't start making money til you learn a ton more stuff or simply do freelance, I'll tell you what me and my brother did. We both started off learning HTML and CSS before really any programming. We both got jobs doing emails for a company, and while doing that job started being given other tasks that were more difficult and led to me learning some basics in javascript/jQuery and C#.
Within a year they gave me a decent raise, and within another 6 months another big one. As soon as I was about to get my degree they doubled my pay. I literally spent 2 weeks learning HTML/CSS before getting the emails job. They can be hard to find but there are definitely entry-level jobs, usually part time to start getting some experience which can lead to your career.
When I found the opening it was listed under just "Web Developer" and I thought for sure when I clicked on it that it was once again going to say like all the others, "You need 2-3 years of experience with this list of 25 technologies", and all it said was you need to know HTML & CSS, javascript a plus. I would say hands down, spending several hours looking for that entry level job position was what started my career.
Just get on glassdoor, careerbuilder, monster, and linkedin and start looking for entry level postings. It might take an hour or 2 to find some good ones, but trust me they're there. I have since helped several of my friends find them, and I have been able to find them every time I start looking.
You become a junior web developer once someone pays you to do the job of being a junior web developer. So there is two parts to this question:
1. How much do you need to study (assuming all study is equal which it isn’t) to be able to pass basic jr dev interviews
2. How long would it take to get a job once you are confident enough to start applying
For (1) I take the bootcamp I work with as a guideline. We do
- Prep - about 3hr/day 4d/wk for 3wk => maybe 50 hours with homework
- Bootcamp - 3h/day 4d/wk, 5wk => about 90 hours with homework
- Immersion Precourse - 8h/d, 5d/wk, 3wk - about 150hr
- Immersion -
You become a junior web developer once someone pays you to do the job of being a junior web developer. So there is two parts to this question:
1. How much do you need to study (assuming all study is equal which it isn’t) to be able to pass basic jr dev interviews
2. How long would it take to get a job once you are confident enough to start applying
For (1) I take the bootcamp I work with as a guideline. We do
- Prep - about 3hr/day 4d/wk for 3wk => maybe 50 hours with homework
- Bootcamp - 3h/day 4d/wk, 5wk => about 90 hours with homework
- Immersion Precourse - 8h/d, 5d/wk, 3wk - about 150hr
- Immersion - 11h/d, 6d/wk, 14wk = about 900hr
So all in all that’s on the order of 1200hr of actual focused study, instruction, and building. Not bad.
20–25h/wk for 12–18mo lands you at 1040–1950hr
Conclusion: Yes, this is about on par with an immersive bootcamp
Now there’s part (2) - how long does it take to get an actual job? Depending on your organization, inventiveness, and your local market I see most people land a job in 3–6months of hardcore 20–40hrs/wk applying, prepping, and interviewing. So that cuts into your budget above a bit, but its still in the same ballpark.
I would certainly plan for 25hrs/wk of dedication and 18months till the first paycheck and I would encourage you to work hard to get a good plan together (or enroll at a good program). But largely, what you’re saying is doable, yes
Maybe. Personally, I’d make two strong suggestions:
1. Start off with just JavaScript and HTML. You need HTML first - because without it, it’s kinda hard to get into JavaScript.
2. CSS is something you can pick up bits of as you need - and only learn properly after you have JavaScript and HTML.
3. Once you have those three things nailed - you can produce some pretty impressive web pages - but you’l
Maybe. Personally, I’d make two strong suggestions:
1. Start off with just JavaScript and HTML. You need HTML first - because without it, it’s kinda hard to get into JavaScript.
2. CSS is something you can pick up bits of as you need - and only learn properly after you have JavaScript and HTML.
3. Once you have those three things nailed - you can produce some pretty impressive web pages - but you’ll need some art and design skills to make them look good.
4. You may need to learn about the <canvas> API for JavaScript - it lets you do a ton of neat stuff that you can’t easily do in other ways.
5. Leverage what you’ve learned so far to make a bunch of really nice-looking web pages. Use these as your “portfolio” that you can clip onto your resume and show to potential employers.
With just those things - you could plausibly call yourself a “Front End Web Programmer” - and possibly get paying work.
However, you asked about PHP - which implies that you’d like to learn the “Back End” parts of how the web works too.
That’s a creditable goal - and people who know both ‘Front End” and “Back End” parts of the system - and how they interact (read about something called “AJAX”) can plausibly claim to be “Full Stack” developers - but in reality there is much more to learn than just PHP.
For starters, you’ll really want to learn about something called “SQL” - which is about managing databases on servers. That’s another big subsystem.
Also, I would advise against choosing PHP as your “back-end” language. PHP is a total mess - it’s horrible - and it’s slowly falling out of favor. I think you should try to learn either Java or Python or NodeJS. All three are in widespread use. If you already know ...
I got through fifty 5-minute tutorial videos in a weekend, coded up a practice site in a couple days, and finished my first full personal portfolio two weeks after that. At that point, I said I knew HTML and CSS.
Now—a year later—I look back at my code and cringe at how poorly it was written, how unmaintainable and haphazard it is, how unresponsive the sites are, how incompatible they are with different browsers and realize how far I’ve come since then… because I’ve never stopped studying (read: practicing and looking up how to do things as I came across problems).
Anyone can learn rudimentary H
I got through fifty 5-minute tutorial videos in a weekend, coded up a practice site in a couple days, and finished my first full personal portfolio two weeks after that. At that point, I said I knew HTML and CSS.
Now—a year later—I look back at my code and cringe at how poorly it was written, how unmaintainable and haphazard it is, how unresponsive the sites are, how incompatible they are with different browsers and realize how far I’ve come since then… because I’ve never stopped studying (read: practicing and looking up how to do things as I came across problems).
Anyone can learn rudimentary HTML and CSS in a weekend. People can become pretty good at it with a couple months. To really learn and understand HTML and CSS, you never stop “studying”.
It’s a very long time. It should not take you that long. You are probably not learning first principles, or learning in an awful fashion (probably just doing tutorials) and not learning the “unsexy” technology you need to be a programmer. A web developer, is just a specialised type of programmer. Yes there are web developers who cannot program in normal languages, but they are pretty rare.
Just stop and think about it for a second. Web technologies change every 1–3 years… jQuery, Backbone/Ember/Knockout, React/Vue/Angular the list goes on forever. If it takes 3 years for you to learn that techn
It’s a very long time. It should not take you that long. You are probably not learning first principles, or learning in an awful fashion (probably just doing tutorials) and not learning the “unsexy” technology you need to be a programmer. A web developer, is just a specialised type of programmer. Yes there are web developers who cannot program in normal languages, but they are pretty rare.
Just stop and think about it for a second. Web technologies change every 1–3 years… jQuery, Backbone/Ember/Knockout, React/Vue/Angular the list goes on forever. If it takes 3 years for you to learn that technology, you are already outdated before you finish. At the same time, 3 years is almost enough to go to school and come out with a fresh credential. And at the same time (and this is the killer) why do you think that “practice” means anything, when you have nothing to show for it? Why do you think if you go to an employer and say “I studied for 3 years” that it will mean anything? It won’t, not unless the studying comes with an accredited credential.
Instead do this… take a vacation. Then look for whatever hackathons exist in your city, if it is a startup city. Register and waste a weekend at one, tell them you are a new developer and need to join a team. Be happy and have fun and see how it is done.
Then use the experience, to make apps or web applications. Simple ones. Make more of them. Make as many as possible, as fast as possible. Show them off. Get some CTO of some startup, to hire you or even work for free.
ETA about 3 months to 1 year. Chance of success very high. Chance of success of the other plan? Almost minimal, despite 3 years of effort.
Finally be honest with yourself. Do you really spend 3 hours a night on average of effort, for the past 9 months? Do you REALLY spend that much time? When work starts at 8 then you are home at 6 or 7 with sleep at around 10 or 11? Assuming that you have a full time job because you mention “career switch”.
I didn’t think so. If you aren’t honest with yourself, you won’t be able to make a realistic plan.
Nope, absolutely not.
Just watching videos is almost no help at all.
You have to practice by building websites. You need to read website frontend code implemented using CSS, and read examples of CSS, and read articles on CSS, and do tutorials on CSS, and do exercises on CSS, and then practice building websites, and then practice building websites, and then practice building websites some more.
Learning any technical practice, particularly learning to effectively use computer languages, is like playing a musical instrument: you have to practice.
If you've learned HTML and CSS at an intermediate level, then I think you should go ahead and build out your website. You may not think you're ready but until you put yourself out there you won't know how prepared you really are.
Remember, you are often going to be your biggest critic.
Kind of reminds me of when I learned to swim in the deep end for the first time. I was pushed in and told sink or
If you've learned HTML and CSS at an intermediate level, then I think you should go ahead and build out your website. You may not think you're ready but until you put yourself out there you won't know how prepared you really are.
Remember, you are often going to be your biggest critic.
Kind of reminds me of when I learned to swim in the deep end for the first time. I was pushed in and told sink or swim. I swam!
The power of exposure is amazing. Announce to the world that you just created your first website. Even if it's crappy looking, it will motivate you to continuously improve it. At least you've done something that most people haven't. You created, with code, a website.
Now of course prepare yourself for the haters!
You know, the coders who were born writing code and never made a mistake. They literally are perfect of course.
Don't pay them any mind.
But also be prepared for those who care about you so much that they won't give you a real opinion.
Instead, find some people who are real. They don't try...
Yes, you could, but by the way you’re phrasing it, it’s not very realistic.
Nobody just sits down and learns something that rigorously just for the hell of it.
If you’d asked about making a website for your e-commerce store, or making a game, or something else interesting, I’d say yes.
But you don’t have an interest. You’re just looking to get a job. That is not motivating enough to get you through the tough times.
Learning to code seems like a good idea until you get stuck. I mean really stuck. Like a month’s worth of work to get unstuck. You won’t know if you should just learn another language,
Yes, you could, but by the way you’re phrasing it, it’s not very realistic.
Nobody just sits down and learns something that rigorously just for the hell of it.
If you’d asked about making a website for your e-commerce store, or making a game, or something else interesting, I’d say yes.
But you don’t have an interest. You’re just looking to get a job. That is not motivating enough to get you through the tough times.
Learning to code seems like a good idea until you get stuck. I mean really stuck. Like a month’s worth of work to get unstuck. You won’t know if you should just learn another language, give up web development completely, try a new framework where you’ll get stuck even faster, etc.
What then?
You think “getting a job” will be motiving enough to push you through that? It won’t. Especially not at the moment where you’re experiencing the ugly side of the profession.
Think shorter term. And think in tangible projects.
Make a game over the next few weeks. Don’t “learn” anything. Make something. Of course it will require you to learn. But the goal should not, and probably cannot, be to learn something.
According to Malcolm Gladwell, 10 000 hours are needed to be an expert I normally call Gurus.
All Gurus get good jobs. If you become a Guru then you will get a good job.
This must have shocked you. Do not be shocked because I will tell you that for web development you can get a job by just covering 1/4 of the 10000 hours.
That is approximately 312 days, about 10 months of solid coding non stop.
Let me say you start with html, do 30 hours, then css 40 hours, basic javascript 40 hours. With this you will be able to create a static website like a block and publish it to the world, for us to know hurr
According to Malcolm Gladwell, 10 000 hours are needed to be an expert I normally call Gurus.
All Gurus get good jobs. If you become a Guru then you will get a good job.
This must have shocked you. Do not be shocked because I will tell you that for web development you can get a job by just covering 1/4 of the 10000 hours.
That is approximately 312 days, about 10 months of solid coding non stop.
Let me say you start with html, do 30 hours, then css 40 hours, basic javascript 40 hours. With this you will be able to create a static website like a block and publish it to the world, for us to know hurrican hugo is gathering…
Proceed with another 40 on server side scripting like
, php, java, nodejs etc. Add another 40 on database e.g. mysql/sql server/oracle/sqlite/etc. Add 40 for integreation, testing, code reviews.
At this point you will be able to improve your website by making it a dynamic content driven blog. I prefer you create 10 various websites with CRUD, authentication, security, deployment and good front end UI.
Avoid getting lost with information overload from the wild internet where everyone is trying to sell to anyone.
You might be told you are wasting your time, learn this to get that job. Do not allow obstructions, perfect what you know. Principles of programming : iteration, persistent storage, decision making, problem solving, input processing output, etc have never changed since ‘von Neumann architecture’ enacted in 1945. All coding my dear is fixed to this :
- A processing unit that contains an arithmetic logic unit and processor registers
- A control unit that contains an instruction register and program counter
- Memory that stores data and instructions
- External mass storage
- Input and output mechanisms
Its all about Input code, storage, processing and output code. Why? Because of the binary type of hardware we have. It will never change for the next 300 or so years. Unless Quantum Computing takes over.
Any software you code believe me has a market somewhere at some time you do not know, keep them best at github.
Let me stop here, what I have shown here is how easy web development is these days.
I've been working as a freelancer for the past 15 years, doing mostly Web Design, HTML and CSS. And I've been making some pretty good money doing it (6 figures plus).
To get there, I did have to learn how to use other advanced tools like Expression Engine which is based on a php framework. I don't do any PHP. I just follow documentation and use quality modules. I don't code any JS. I use plugins and modify them to my needs following instructions.
Learning these frameworks helped me raise my prices more than 100%. From building static web pages to dynamic websites... and reaching much bigger cli
I've been working as a freelancer for the past 15 years, doing mostly Web Design, HTML and CSS. And I've been making some pretty good money doing it (6 figures plus).
To get there, I did have to learn how to use other advanced tools like Expression Engine which is based on a php framework. I don't do any PHP. I just follow documentation and use quality modules. I don't code any JS. I use plugins and modify them to my needs following instructions.
Learning these frameworks helped me raise my prices more than 100%. From building static web pages to dynamic websites... and reaching much bigger clients.
If you need a real back-end programmer, hire one for part of the project. Don't try to do it all yourself. You'll waste time and money. And the job might be poorly done.
Get good at a specific area (like Front-End Design if that is what you really like) and use frameworks to help you build more advanced websites for which you can charge bigger fees and for which you can offer monthly support.
One other thing you do need to be good at (especially of you are freelancing) is business negotiation and client relations.
By understanding the clients core needs and offering expert front-end UI, UX advices, you'll be able to build a relation based on trust and be respected by your clients.
Read a few good books about selling, on how to build great proposals, how to be respected by clients (so you don't work as a slave but as a partner in a project). These are much easier to learn than PHP, but sometimes hard to apply in the real world. You'll need practice but once your first big proposal get's accepted then next one after will be bigger, and bigger...
Check out Brennan Dunn's Double Your Freelancing Blog and books. They were eye opening for me on how to approach my clients.
I'm still just a Front End Developper. But I'm also a good business man and I've learned how to build great client relations while offering my expertise at a higher price.
And you can do it too!
While I understand what you are trying to get out of your question - it does not quite work this way. Learning web development may help you know how to build websites/web apps, but being able to sell what you know is a complete set of new skills you need to obtain.
It may surely help to have a great road map in front of you as you grow - but it will have to be dynamically adjusted and prioritized in order to reflect current challenges.
I would advise you to put things in practice to really learn what it takes. Learn how to build something the audience needs, and try to sell it. This alone will t
While I understand what you are trying to get out of your question - it does not quite work this way. Learning web development may help you know how to build websites/web apps, but being able to sell what you know is a complete set of new skills you need to obtain.
It may surely help to have a great road map in front of you as you grow - but it will have to be dynamically adjusted and prioritized in order to reflect current challenges.
I would advise you to put things in practice to really learn what it takes. Learn how to build something the audience needs, and try to sell it. This alone will teach you a lot - disregard hours or years or whatever it takes.
There is a ton of people trying to make a living who need a website. There is a lot of companies that currently do it for a fee.
Take Wix - you can learn how to build websites, sign up for a partnership program, work on your portfolio (create more unique websites to be more appealing) - then once Wix customers need help - they can hire you. After so many rounds of this - you will at least start making some money, understanding client relationships and fee structures that are relevant to your services and what market is willing to pay. That in turn will teach you how to re-use this outside of the Wix platform.
You will still have to continuously get better at what you do, offer better / more services that appeal to the market - but at least now you have the idea about how to talk to clients. As opposed to trying to do it all on your own, looking for places around you, trying to sell it to them / be rejected.
Once you are good at this - you can slowly take it to the next level, watch others do it.
This income is not as easy as it may seem.
You can’t go wrong with learning more - but you have to be strategic about it. Some folks turn on the “ok I will learn every day for 4 years come out and get a job - who hooo!!!” mode, as if this was some autopilot that had to do the rest for them - then when they get out of college/university - they have no clue of what they know, what they learned, what is really necessary.
This sort of passive education while believing that as long as there is something happening / something being learned will lead you somewhere could lead to a bunch of debt and starting all over again. That is a pattern I see and hear about over and over - a topic for another day.
If you focus and be obsessed with it and if you are hungry enough - you have a higher chance of being successful. Focus on how the money is being made, what are people are ready to pay for services, and draw your plan from there. Ask yourself - what are the steps I need to take starting today that could lead me to the first paying client? That is the best entry point.
Do not create some plan to do something for some hours for some years - do yourself a favor. Understanding what to do is the key. Testing is the key. Calculating what it takes from one point to another is the key.
All those ideas above are to put money in your pocket quicker, set your mind about it to an active state, make you hungry, and achieve more than you potentially could with your proposed plan. That helps you as an individual, that helps your family / loved ones, gives a better chance for your kids to succeed in life - and warms my heart when I know that is the case!
I think you'll be more interested if you pick a topic that interests you then build a site about that. Here's a task I used to give colleagues when I was training them in HTML and CSS. You could give it a try.
1) Choose your favorite animal. (You could change this to a hobby or something else.)
2) Create a site with 5 pages of content about your animal. Your site should include:
- A header with a large headline.
- A horizontal menu (hint: use an unordered list )
- 1 photo per page. (Be sure to choose photos you can legally use such as those licensed under creative commons or pictures you took yourself.)
I think you'll be more interested if you pick a topic that interests you then build a site about that. Here's a task I used to give colleagues when I was training them in HTML and CSS. You could give it a try.
1) Choose your favorite animal. (You could change this to a hobby or something else.)
2) Create a site with 5 pages of content about your animal. Your site should include:
- A header with a large headline.
- A horizontal menu (hint: use an unordered list )
- 1 photo per page. (Be sure to choose photos you can legally use such as those licensed under creative commons or pictures you took yourself.) Make sure 2 photos on the site are aligned to the right of the text. (CSS hint: use floats)
- Make at least one page that uses a 2 column layout (hint: inline-block)
- Include a footer with a copyright notice and links to 3 of your social media profiles.
- Embed a Youtube video featuring your animal on one of the pages.
- Use 2 fonts in your site. 1 can be serif and the other sans serif.
- Validate your HTML and CSS with Markup Validation Service and CSS Validation Service
- Review your site to make sure it meets Accessibility guidelines Introduction to Web Accessibility
3) When you are happy with the results you can choose to expand the site with more content and features or start a new project.
Practice everywhere and anywhere. Here are some places that someone can practice at, but not limited to:
- http://jsfiddle.net - Practice your HTML and CSS as a playground here
- CodePen - Same as jsfiddle
- Self-hosting - Buy a hosting plan and domain name, upload your HTML and CSS files there and show it to the world for feedback. Or you can try an alternative, host it on Dropbox's Public folder and share.
- Koding - A new way for developers to work. - Try an online IDE and build a website there.
- http://github.com - What better way to improve yourself but to share your codes socially? Create a public re
Practice everywhere and anywhere. Here are some places that someone can practice at, but not limited to:
- http://jsfiddle.net - Practice your HTML and CSS as a playground here
- CodePen - Same as jsfiddle
- Self-hosting - Buy a hosting plan and domain name, upload your HTML and CSS files there and show it to the world for feedback. Or you can try an alternative, host it on Dropbox's Public folder and share.
- Koding - A new way for developers to work. - Try an online IDE and build a website there.
- http://github.com - What better way to improve yourself but to share your codes socially? Create a public repo on GitHub, host your HTML and CSS (think of it as making an HTML template) and ask people to collaborate with you on making the best looking theme HTML template around. You'll learn more if you collaborate with others on their repo instead.
- Inspect Elements - Go to any website, right-click, select Inspect Elements. In the Developer Tools, you'll find the Elements Tab. Hack their HTML and CSS in there. Though this is only temporary for the changes you make, you can use this as a quick practice.
- Stack Overflow - The Internet's famed Q&A for Geeks. Go into the section on Web Design. You'll be bound to find some problems in other people's CSS. But be warned, the problems people face can be very tricky and difficult for noobs. Trend this site only when you are experienced and ready.
quit college and do what you'd love to do .that's enough .learning to code is a different thing and employment is another different thing also .
Well, that depends on what you know, and what you're willing to learn.
I left a job as a Business Analyst, knowing HTML & CSS, and a little bit of JavaScript, and became a web developer making substantially more than the medium salary (Page on usnews.com) of a web developer.
Prior to becoming a web developer, I could claim on my resume that I had written HTML and CSS as part of "other duties as assigned".
So when a company was willing to hire me, they asked me, "would you rather be a Business Analyst, or a Technical Consultant (which was secretly a web developer)?"
My answer was, "Technical Co
Well, that depends on what you know, and what you're willing to learn.
I left a job as a Business Analyst, knowing HTML & CSS, and a little bit of JavaScript, and became a web developer making substantially more than the medium salary (Page on usnews.com) of a web developer.
Prior to becoming a web developer, I could claim on my resume that I had written HTML and CSS as part of "other duties as assigned".
So when a company was willing to hire me, they asked me, "would you rather be a Business Analyst, or a Technical Consultant (which was secretly a web developer)?"
My answer was, "Technical Consultant". And then I explained, "I know HTML and CSS really well, but I don't know that much programming,and that includes JavaScript."
And the next question was, "are you willing to learn?" When I said, "yes," they hired me.
But there were two very big caveats in my own story:
- I was already specialized, and going into a specialized field: As a Business Analyst, I specialized in one particular web content management system (CMS) which was used by very big companies. I was going to another company as a developer, only knowing HTML and CSS, but already specialized in the CMS that my new employer specialized in.
- "Willing to Learn" meant "willing to learn whatever we need you to learn for a given client." : For my very first client, I had to learn PHP, JSP, and some Ruby. Since that first client, I've coded in ASP, .NET, Java, and I have written tens of thousands of lines of JavaScript.
So, if you're already specialized in some way, and you're willing to learn, then you could start at well above the median average in the US, which is $63,160.
Actually, yes it is, provided the following:
1.) Know your Algorithms for Interviews
Learn JavaScript really well, including data structures and algorithms to the point where you can confidently suanter to the whiteboard and hand-code out an algo involving such things as binary search trees, fat-arrow functions and array methods.
2) Be a Fullstack JavaScript Developer
Learn Node.js, and its companion framework Express.js. Learn how to use these server-side tools to do CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) calls to a No-SQL database, namely MongoDB. Learn a leading frontend framework, ideally React
Actually, yes it is, provided the following:
1.) Know your Algorithms for Interviews
Learn JavaScript really well, including data structures and algorithms to the point where you can confidently suanter to the whiteboard and hand-code out an algo involving such things as binary search trees, fat-arrow functions and array methods.
2) Be a Fullstack JavaScript Developer
Learn Node.js, and its companion framework Express.js. Learn how to use these server-side tools to do CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) calls to a No-SQL database, namely MongoDB. Learn a leading frontend framework, ideally React.js. With that accomplished, you will be a MERN Stack (Mongo, Express, React, Node) Developer, and with that you absolutely will be in the mix to compete for, as you put it, “lots of software jobs”.
And I happen to know this cuz why?
I know this for a fact, because Fullstack JavaScript Developers with MERN specialization is what we produce here at Code Immersives in Manhattan. Today I learned that yet another of our recent (Dec ‘18) grads just hired as a junior developer at a leading consulting firm (Way to go, Marcus!). Last week, it was another recent grad, also a MERN specialist, landing a job at a real estate company. His Code Immersives Term 3 Capstone Project which helped land the offer was a cool NYC bathroom-finder app, with Google Maps API integration.
So, heck yeah — if you know your HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript ES6+ frontend-to-backend, you should be good to go, for starters.
Adding AWS (Amazon Web Services) Cloud Architect Associate certification — which we also teach at my school — is a nice cherry on the sundae.
Given that strong foundation, and with your first job in hand, you can keep going with the career development, perhaps by adding Python for Data Science and Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence (AI) to your toolkit.
Hope that helps!
I'll bite. Probably not. If you're very, very focused, honest with yourself about your shortcomings, and test yourself constantly, you could get good enough to write HTML/CSS skins for simple websites. That would be enough to get you self-sufficient in a low end HTML coder job, which you could then parlay into something more substantial with another couple years of self study in Javascript, seriou
I'll bite. Probably not. If you're very, very focused, honest with yourself about your shortcomings, and test yourself constantly, you could get good enough to write HTML/CSS skins for simple websites. That would be enough to get you self-sufficient in a low end HTML coder job, which you could then parlay into something more substantial with another couple years of self study in Javascript, serious CSS3 study, HTML5 web app development, deployment and testing tools, etc.
I would like nothing more than ...
You have expressed opposing sentiments. On one hand you say that you want to learn. On the other hand you are in a major hurry to learn as little as possible to make some money.
I totally understand wanting to make money, but honestly any career takes more than a few weeks to learn, even at the most rudimentary level. If having a paid gig will motivate you to continue learning, then offer to take on some simple web-related jobs for people you know or meet, for some minimal pay.
You will need to challenge yourself by building projects with varied requirements to reach a professional level of skil
You have expressed opposing sentiments. On one hand you say that you want to learn. On the other hand you are in a major hurry to learn as little as possible to make some money.
I totally understand wanting to make money, but honestly any career takes more than a few weeks to learn, even at the most rudimentary level. If having a paid gig will motivate you to continue learning, then offer to take on some simple web-related jobs for people you know or meet, for some minimal pay.
You will need to challenge yourself by building projects with varied requirements to reach a professional level of skill, and you will not always find someone willing to pay you for the sort of thing you need to learn, so take pride in building things of your own conception, even if no one else needs them.
To answer your question directly: no. You won't be making decent money after a week of study. Likely you won't be making any money, but you'll be able to make a web page.
Web development is great because you can always see the progress you are making. If you prefer learning from experience, jump into a project. You may build something that sort of works, then realize you can think of 100 things you should have done differently. Great, you learned one more level of skill on a 100 different ideas!
If you prefer learning best practices before you begin, find a teacher. Don't take an online class, don't take a college course, don't buy a book, don't cobble knowledge together from tutorials. You will cut your learning time down tenfold by finding a mentor or guide, someone you can call/email/text with questions or when you get stuck.
Ask your friends on social media if they know someone who can help. If I had the help of my present self when I first started learning, I could have saved thousands of hours of working through problems with a half-formed understanding. Trust me. No one who loves being a developer wants to see someone struggle as hard as they had to in order to get good.
An investment of 270 hours in ANY skill will show progress, but calling yourself a "good" front end developer will be quite relative. Don't believe the saying about needing 10,000 to be an expert. Spend the first 4-6 weeks learning basic HTML5 layouts with CSS with divs, sections, headers and footers and so on. Spend the rest learning some basic Javascript and jQuery.
After three months, I'd wager that you come out a "decent" front end developer, but to echo Tom Campbell's answer, your prospects of finding a full-time job, even at an entry-level position, will be very challenging. Your typical
An investment of 270 hours in ANY skill will show progress, but calling yourself a "good" front end developer will be quite relative. Don't believe the saying about needing 10,000 to be an expert. Spend the first 4-6 weeks learning basic HTML5 layouts with CSS with divs, sections, headers and footers and so on. Spend the rest learning some basic Javascript and jQuery.
After three months, I'd wager that you come out a "decent" front end developer, but to echo Tom Campbell's answer, your prospects of finding a full-time job, even at an entry-level position, will be very challenging. Your typical "code school" will be more than a full-time effort (8+ hours) every single day, teaching progressive skills and usually run longer than 3 months and THOSE graduates come out with a portfolio of projects and STILL find it hard to find jobs.
There are lots of other skills involved, such as web security, using a revision control program like git, learning about testing using tools like Jasmine and Teaspoon, or writing scripted tests for Selenium, etc., which will help you know if changes you make break something else. You'll need these skills as well.
Possible? Yes.
Likely? Depends on how quickly you pick up the skills.
You absolutely can get a job by just knowing the two basics of web programming. Try applying for jobs on freelancing sites like https://upwork.com , https://freelancer.com and search for "PSD to Html and CSS" and apply for some jobs, who knows maybe you might get lucky and secure your first client over there.
What I recommend though is that you continue applying for those jobs and continue learning some other languages like Javascript first because it is the real thing out there in the web. Its the real programming language. Once you finish Javascript you should learn the frameworks such as Boo
You absolutely can get a job by just knowing the two basics of web programming. Try applying for jobs on freelancing sites like https://upwork.com , https://freelancer.com and search for "PSD to Html and CSS" and apply for some jobs, who knows maybe you might get lucky and secure your first client over there.
What I recommend though is that you continue applying for those jobs and continue learning some other languages like Javascript first because it is the real thing out there in the web. Its the real programming language. Once you finish Javascript you should learn the frameworks such as Bootstrap, JQuery, Vue Js and others.
Once you finish these you should get on to the real languages (The Back End Languages) such as Python, Java, and PHP but note one thing here buddy don't ever try to learn two languages at once. That's like extinguishing a fire with your butt, you are just gonna end up getting your butt burn and nothing more.
All in all, I recommend while you are studying another language, continue applying for jobs for the previous languages that you learned recently So that you don't forget what you learned.
I started out back in 2014 as a self-taught programmer and I've made it buddy now I can make a site like an amazon store all on my own, so you just have to set your goals and you can do it.
Learning to code should not take you that much time to begin with. You will have to learn the specific syntax of a specific language and POOF! You can code! Depending on the language, this should take you between 4 hours and 80- hours, per language.
Actually, coding is reasonable system. You have statements, conditions and loops. And that's it, basically. Well, okay. It becomes a bit more complex because a collection of statements, conditions and loops can be contained in a compound statement, often referred to as a method, procedure or function. But hey, by combining it, you just made a new s
Learning to code should not take you that much time to begin with. You will have to learn the specific syntax of a specific language and POOF! You can code! Depending on the language, this should take you between 4 hours and 80- hours, per language.
Actually, coding is reasonable system. You have statements, conditions and loops. And that's it, basically. Well, okay. It becomes a bit more complex because a collection of statements, conditions and loops can be contained in a compound statement, often referred to as a method, procedure or function. But hey, by combining it, you just made a new statement.
Learning to develop software, that's more complex. Because now you will have to learn why code is written in a specific way. But learning to develop software also means that you should step away from the coding itself. You can't learn to develop and to learn to code at the same time. And learning to develop can be done with pen and paper, far away from any computer, with probably a good book or two about software development.
Learning to develop means learning about algorithms and data structures. Learning about interfaces and objects. Learning to decide which algorithm leads to the best performance. Understanding why the following code is less than optimal:
foreach(var person in ListOfPersons){
if (person.gender == Gender.Male){
if (person.age >= 65) {
// Do something!
}
}
}
Actually, I bet that there are plenty of developers that won't understand what's wrong with that code anyways. :) Okay, it might not compile because I haven't checked if it will compile in C# but it's not about the code, it's about the logic behind the code, which has a minor flaw in this case.
When you've learned to code, it is likely that your code would be similar to this example. Which is why you need to learn to develop, so you can see the flaw and improve it.
-
Learning to code is best done during work. You have a task to write code, so you write code. That's your job and that's what you get paid for.
Learning to develop is better done in your spare time or as part of research for your job. You can't learn this while writing code, because coding means you're converting a design into code. You need to learn how to create that design!
Which is something I generally learn away from my computer. I once had to come up with a solution for a difficult problem at work, which had a very tight deadline. To develop the solution, I spent the first day away from the computer, with only pen and paper to analyse the problem and to come up with the most optimal ways to generate the needed code within a minimum of time. The second day, I did use the computer to open Word and type my solution as plain Dutch text with some code samples in pseudocode. A few diagrams and some images made it easier to read. The third day I made 6 copies of my document and divided it to my manager and the other developers, who were assigned to help me with this. We spent most of the day going over the document and still, no one had done any actual coding. On day four, the coding started and because everything was described very well, we had a solution within two weeks, before the deadline ended, while everyone had expected that we would end up two weeks past the deadline. We did it fast and, as it turned out, almost flawless.
And that's proper development! Three days with no coding! :)
The nice thing about freelancing is there is zero barrier to entry. All you need to do is put up your shingle, so to speak, and start hustling.
If you want a quick introduction to full-stack development I'd recommend choosing from one of two Udemy Courses. Try either Colt Steele's Complete Web Development Boot camp, or Angela Yu's web development boot camp.
Both have enough material to get you started and you should be able to get either one for less than $20 if you Google Udemy Coupon.
You can probably complete either course in three months but it won't be easy. Get ready to spend a couple of ho
The nice thing about freelancing is there is zero barrier to entry. All you need to do is put up your shingle, so to speak, and start hustling.
If you want a quick introduction to full-stack development I'd recommend choosing from one of two Udemy Courses. Try either Colt Steele's Complete Web Development Boot camp, or Angela Yu's web development boot camp.
Both have enough material to get you started and you should be able to get either one for less than $20 if you Google Udemy Coupon.
You can probably complete either course in three months but it won't be easy. Get ready to spend a couple of hours per day, every day, if you want to be that aggressive.
I personally like Colt's courses. He's got a fun teaching style and he has other courses you can use as a follow up, such as his deep dives into JavaScript or MySQL or React. Angela has other courses too but they tend to be in other types of development such as iOS or machine learning.
Good luck!
I will answer in a different perspective than the other answers here because I am and have the perfect example of why you should spend a bit more time perfecting your skills.
I have studied web development for almost a year now, and have a website for my schoolwork. You can see it if you want at 17seha.ssis.nu.
Now take a look at what I’ve done and tell me if you would hire me as a web developer. You would say no by instinct. Why? Because I don’t have many completed websites. The majority of my projects are small things like navigation menus and CSS related stuff.
Your clients will look at what y
I will answer in a different perspective than the other answers here because I am and have the perfect example of why you should spend a bit more time perfecting your skills.
I have studied web development for almost a year now, and have a website for my schoolwork. You can see it if you want at 17seha.ssis.nu.
Now take a look at what I’ve done and tell me if you would hire me as a web developer. You would say no by instinct. Why? Because I don’t have many completed websites. The majority of my projects are small things like navigation menus and CSS related stuff.
Your clients will look at what you have done rather than what you can.
So what should you do? Well, imagine that you’re going to make a website for a business and do it by your own without any money involved. Why? Because you will build a portfolio that you can show your clients and you will then be able to be a freelance developer.
By being hired by companies that require front-end development. I don't only know JavaScript, CSS and HTML, but they're pretty much the only technologies I ever use at work, because there's so much front-end coding to do and so few other people on the team who know how to do it well. There are exceptions, but most of the server-side developers I know aren't JavaScript experts (and vice versa).
Thi
By being hired by companies that require front-end development. I don't only know JavaScript, CSS and HTML, but they're pretty much the only technologies I ever use at work, because there's so much front-end coding to do and so few other people on the team who know how to do it well. There are exceptions, but most of the server-side developers I know aren't JavaScript experts (and vice versa).
This is because the world of computing changes so quickly; there's only so much stuff one person can keep up with. To be a relevant JavaScript programmer, I have to study every single day. There are always new libraries, new frameworks, new techniques, etc. And my employers and co-workers expect me to know them. There aren't enough hours in the day fo...
Yes, 3-4 hours a day should be enough, specially if you like it, programming is a mindset as much as a skill.
Are you going to study all by yourself? In this case I would recommend starting with a high-level language like Python, it won't teach you memory managment or micro-optimizations like C, neither will be mean like haskell, but it is a very capable language, you can implement any algorithm in it, and it has functional, object oriented and imperative features, meaning you can learn the three dominant programming paradigms in it.
I would also recommend you getting an algorithms book (for exa
Yes, 3-4 hours a day should be enough, specially if you like it, programming is a mindset as much as a skill.
Are you going to study all by yourself? In this case I would recommend starting with a high-level language like Python, it won't teach you memory managment or micro-optimizations like C, neither will be mean like haskell, but it is a very capable language, you can implement any algorithm in it, and it has functional, object oriented and imperative features, meaning you can learn the three dominant programming paradigms in it.
I would also recommend you getting an algorithms book (for example introduction to algorithms - CLRS), you can't do much without some algorithms.
No, it’s like asking “Can I be good at riding a bicycle if I just keep reading about riding bicycles”.
At some point you need to convert what you “think” you have learnt into actual experience. Trust me, what you think you know about CSS is going to be WRONG when you actually start using it. Also by just reading about CSS you are learning what each element does in isolation, when you start using them all in conjunction you are going to find that they behave in ways you never even considered.
Besides which, why would you want to? If it’s because you don’t have access to a computer you can always
No, it’s like asking “Can I be good at riding a bicycle if I just keep reading about riding bicycles”.
At some point you need to convert what you “think” you have learnt into actual experience. Trust me, what you think you know about CSS is going to be WRONG when you actually start using it. Also by just reading about CSS you are learning what each element does in isolation, when you start using them all in conjunction you are going to find that they behave in ways you never even considered.
Besides which, why would you want to? If it’s because you don’t have access to a computer you can always write a webpage on your phone and load it into the phones browser.
Once you have learnt the basics of HTML and CSS you should be using it to write things and turning your knowledge into experience, otherwise you are just wasting your time.
If you decide on a career path other than web development, you could consider getting a job as a UX designer. The trick would be to find a company that is large enough where designer and developer duties are clearly split.
This is important to note as I have been seeing a lot of demand for hybrid designer / developer roles. In my mind, this is problematic since both those areas require different skill sets and years to master. There are employers who get it, though. I checked out jobs in UX design in Chicago at one point, and out of ten jobs, two employers expected a high level of proficiency i
If you decide on a career path other than web development, you could consider getting a job as a UX designer. The trick would be to find a company that is large enough where designer and developer duties are clearly split.
This is important to note as I have been seeing a lot of demand for hybrid designer / developer roles. In my mind, this is problematic since both those areas require different skill sets and years to master. There are employers who get it, though. I checked out jobs in UX design in Chicago at one point, and out of ten jobs, two employers expected a high level of proficiency in JavaScript while the other eight expected working knowledge of JavaScript. That said, any JavaScript skills you could bring to a UX design position would give you an edge, especially if you can write interactive vanilla JavaScript and jQuery.
If you don’t already have a background in UX design, though, you will need to read up on it and develop a portfolio. The Interactive Design Foundation is one place you could start. It’s a non-profit organization that offers courses and resources through an annual membership. You could also check out books like Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things and Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think to see if UX design has some appeal for you. If you decide to give UX design a go, Design Lab offers a program for those who wish to change careers.
Another option could be to work on the technical side of marketing. SEO is becoming more and more technical, and with that in mind, SEO experts and metrics specialists should know HTML5 markup. It would put you in a good position if you can demonstrate enough technical proficiency to optimize a webpage.
Good luck with your career search! I hope you find a position that you find fulfilling and challenging.
I’ll keep this short & sweet.
If you be persistent about it & persevere through the time of not understanding anything you’ll probably get a job in 8 months.
However I will disagree with people saying to “NOT” learn PHP. PHP is a great language & has lots of demand in actual Jobs or from Clients. Some of the suggested languages are NO WAY beginner friendly (from experience). You need to learn the basics of programming in procedural way. Don’t frustrate yourself to learn a language where you need to know about Classes, Encapsulation, Polymorphism etc. It may seem simple to a bit more experienced
I’ll keep this short & sweet.
If you be persistent about it & persevere through the time of not understanding anything you’ll probably get a job in 8 months.
However I will disagree with people saying to “NOT” learn PHP. PHP is a great language & has lots of demand in actual Jobs or from Clients. Some of the suggested languages are NO WAY beginner friendly (from experience). You need to learn the basics of programming in procedural way. Don’t frustrate yourself to learn a language where you need to know about Classes, Encapsulation, Polymorphism etc. It may seem simple to a bit more experienced programmers but trust me when I was beginner who started in C# you’ll be dumbfounded (I later switched to PHP after about two months of no progress). PHP supports both Object Oriented Programming (Classes etc) & Procedural programming. So after learning the basics and able to save data to a database you can research and up your knowledge to learn how to do it the OOP way!
What you’ve chosen to learn is by far the easiest & in demand technologies to quickly grasp & become employable. Once you get the hang of it learning new languages will be a breeze.
Remember a programming language is a tool designed to solve a problem & most programming languages can solve the same problems in many different ways (also more efficiently) so it doesn’t matter. What matters is that what you learn adds value to what you set out to achieve.
I rarely use PHP these days, mainly C# & NodeJS but PHP is what gave me that step into the life of a programmer from learning to write simple programs to send emails for a client website or storing information into a database for a Sign Up form.
It’s your choice. However I recommend sticking with PHP, as you grow as a developer your tool set (languages you know) will grow. Learn something that will give you the foundation you need, not the headache you don’t!
For a long answer check out my answer to a similar question at:
Daniel Matthew's answer to Can I go from noob to employable software developer in 8 months? How?
Can I give you some advice that will get you a lot more in return on your time. If you are looking to get ramped up on something profitable that you can do during this time, I would recommend downloading and installing WordPress, on a local instance of a LAMP stack. Learn how the back office works, learn how the template, plugin, and widget systems work, and how it communicates to the database. Also learn how to work with MySQL. This will give you more in return than html/css/javascript. It usually doesn’t take too long for someone to learn WordPress to a point where they can be useful with co
Can I give you some advice that will get you a lot more in return on your time. If you are looking to get ramped up on something profitable that you can do during this time, I would recommend downloading and installing WordPress, on a local instance of a LAMP stack. Learn how the back office works, learn how the template, plugin, and widget systems work, and how it communicates to the database. Also learn how to work with MySQL. This will give you more in return than html/css/javascript. It usually doesn’t take too long for someone to learn WordPress to a point where they can be useful with content management and along the way, you will pick up certain things about CSS’ box model, HTML tags and their attributes, and a little about JavaScript. Then, you can come back and learn more about html/css/javascript and you will also get an understanding of PHP along the way. Its a win/win. Good luck.
I have to agree with those who say that you really can't (and probably shouldn't) convert PSD files to HTML and CSS.
The web is not static. Photoshop is meant for static pictures.
A better approach is to start by focusing on understanding how HTML and CSS work together, what the box model is, how to position rectangles with CSS, and how to style things within those rectangles. Once you really understand the fundamentals of how browsers render HTML by default and how CSS modifies those defaults, you can make it do anything you want and really understand why it does that.
At that point, you'll be
I have to agree with those who say that you really can't (and probably shouldn't) convert PSD files to HTML and CSS.
The web is not static. Photoshop is meant for static pictures.
A better approach is to start by focusing on understanding how HTML and CSS work together, what the box model is, how to position rectangles with CSS, and how to style things within those rectangles. Once you really understand the fundamentals of how browsers render HTML by default and how CSS modifies those defaults, you can make it do anything you want and really understand why it does that.
At that point, you'll be able to look at a photoshop file and see how to convert it to HTML / CSS. But, more importantly, you'll see how this picture of the web page in that photoshop file is going to break when it's displayed on a tablet or mobile device, or how someone trying to viewing the page with a larger font size is going to have a really hard time with it.
As cool as HTML and CSS are, they have limits that Photoshop doesn't and that print doesn't. They can also do things that photoshop files can't do and that print can't do. That's really where the focus should be -- learn to do the things that can't be done with print (so, learn JavaScript).
If you have a client who insists on making a web page look exactly like a photoshop file, RUN AWAY -- they'll never be convinced otherwise and they'll make your life difficult and they won't be happy with the end result no matter what. Even if you do succeed in satisfying them, they'll eventually look at the site on a different computer with a different monitor and say that you did a bad job.
In short: learn JavaScript.