(Last updated on September 21st, 2023)
Before starting to learn something, the most difficult thing is to make a decision about what you want to study because, after graduation, it is rather difficult to change your career at any moment. It requires new knowledge and experience, but at the same time, not so many employers are ready to hire the newbie. But if you know what you want, then you have to understand where you need to start and what the best ways to get the required knowledge are.
We decided to write this article for those who don’t want to waste their time and efforts. It is always better to use the advice of someone who has already tried to take these steps and succeeded. So here are some useful tips; for sure, they will help you to get a dream job and become a developer.
But before we start, just remember that studying an absolutely new subject requires a lot of time, so if you study in parallel, then you should be able to determine your preferences. Be ready that, in some cases, you will have to read and study a lot of new material, and maybe some of your paperwork you will have to delegate to professionals, for example, WritePaperForMe. Thanks to it, you will not have to worry about possible failed deadlines and will be able to study something new.
Start from the basics
If your current education or job has nothing to do with development, then you have to start from the very beginning; in other words, you should learn the main and the most fundamental languages, HTML and CSS. If you want to become a professional developer, for sure you will need and use them. There are a lot of free tutorials on the Internet; as an example, you can choose the one offered by Codecademy.
What you will also need to learn in order to make your web pages more interesting, interactive, and vivid is JavaScript. Knowing these two languages, you will gradually be able to start working as a front-end developer.
When you do tutorials, it is also very important to practice a lot. As you know, practice makes perfection. But don’t just repeat everything you see in a tutorial; try something you found out from another course. The more you practice, the easier it becomes for you to use the tools, so soon, you will become more confident about your skills.
Keep in mind that most languages in development are forming on top of each other, so if you cannot use the basic one, it will be very difficult for you to learn something new. On the other hand, if you study everything step by step, you create a strong foundation for your future success.
To pay or not to pay.
Of course, we can talk for a long time regarding the topic, whether it is worth spending money on online courses or not. But in a nutshell, unless you are sure what you want to learn, don´t do it. It is very important to understand what kind of tool you would like to use in the future. So, don´t think that free courses are not good enough. But as soon as you make up your mind, don’t feel sorry about the spent money.
First of all, the positive thing is that paid courses usually contain more information that is not available in the free ones. The tasks for practice in these courses and the projects to create are more challenging and, therefore, more interesting for those who are fulfilling them.
It is important to find The One.
We all want to find the special one in our lives, and those who are starting to learn web development should find the right platform for studying. Our recommendation actually would be to choose only one source because when you are using one platform, the manner of providing the material for different courses will be the same, meaning it will be easy for you to notice traceability between the courses. Here are some examples of the best platform:
Codecademy
The first will be the one that we have already mentioned Codecademy, a place where a lot of beginners start their way in the world of web development. First of all, we guarantee that it is very user-friendly, there are no difficult systems for signing up, you can do it in a couple of minutes and start the course that you have chosen.
And there is no need to install any software on your laptop or PC; everything is possible in a browser. The platform is also great because it checks your work right away and gives feedback, meaning that the possible mistakes that everyone has when they just begin to learn something will be spotted.
The prepaid subscription will open a wider range of options for you. For example, you will receive access that will give you the possibility to know about real projects that can be perfect for you to fulfill and that will look nice as a part of your portfolio. Just as with any other platform, you read reviews of other users to get more information about the pros and cons.
Udemy
The thing that we really like about this platform is that there is no rush here. You don’t have to be in a hurry; you learn everything in your own rhythm because there is no limited time for accessing the course that you have chosen, no matter whether it is a free one or you paid for it. Plus the selection of the course you can choose.
There are free courses for beginners here, and the platform also pretty often offers sales of all their courses with discounts of up to 95%.
How to choose the best development course.
Well, when you don’t know what to choose in other spheres, they usually recommend listening to yourself and understanding what you want. But how do you understand if you are a beginner and still don’t know anything about development and what is a good way or a bad way of teaching it? In such a case, we can recommend you to listen to those who have been in your place, so basically, you should read reviews of those who managed to become developers by learning some online courses.
We tried a lot of different courses for beginners, and if you asked to name the best one, it would definitely be the Complete Web Developer Course 2.0. The course is created for absolute beginners, and you will be really surprised by how clear the course lectures are. As we mentioned before, at first, you have to decide what you want and then pay for it. So, this course is worth every dollar you spend on it.
Think about future prospects.
Another important advice that we can give is to think about the future as well. The world of web development develops really quickly, and you have to keep up with it. So, as soon as you start your beginner course, you should think about the
future progress and what other topics in this sphere are worth learning. The good thing is that if you listen to one of our first pieces of advice and you already know what you want to study and what you want to do, it is easier to decide on what further courses to study.
Just as it happens with ordinary texts, one of the important things for writers is a good text editor application. When your text has mistakes, is not organized logically, or sounds as if it was composed by different people, it is not good because your reader will not understand the idea you wanted to present; and if it is a college essay, then there is a great possibility that you will receive a bad mark because there is no such professor who likes non-coherent texts.
When we are talking about development, it’s even more difficult because if you have a mistake in your code, then it will simply not work. That’s why for developers who are just starting their careers, it is very important
to find a good text editor, like, for example, Sublime Text.
Freelance web developer.
If you want to work as a web developer, we also recommend you decide from the very beginning whether you want to work for a company or you want to be a freelancer. If your choice is the second one, then it means that you can start taking small orders and projects considerably quicker than you think.
Of course, you will not receive a lot of money starting from the first days, but it will help you get experience, make a nice portfolio, and improve your skills.
The more we practice, the better solutions for code you will be able to find. The experience received this way is priceless because when working for a big corporation, you might never work directly with the client, and in order to understand their needs, it is important to get what they want quickly.
Chris Graham is an experienced Computer-Aided Design (CAD) draftsman and a writer. He has extensive knowledge of almost all the top CAD software available on the market these days. From simple tasks to developing a professional CAD drawing, he can do everything.
He also has a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) (Landscape Architecture & Civil Engineering) degree from the Louisiana State University School of Architecture and Design. He has worked at the Corporate Green Landscape Management where his duties included landscape design, irrigation design, landscape installation, CAD drafting.
