HOW TO BECOME A FRONTEND DEVELOPER IN 2020: What to learn, how long it takes + resources

hi and welcome to program with pax my name is Paxton and I love breaking down complex web development topics and teaching it in a really approachable way so if that sounds good to you be sure to subscribe for more videos just like this one in today's video we're gonna talk about how to become a front-end web developer what you need to learn how long it'll take and also a bunch of resources to get you there this video is really for somebody that's just getting started and ready to take the first leap and it's really just looking for a roadmap to move forward let's get started so what is front-end web development it is using code to create the visual part of a website the content the styling and positioning as well as the logic that's front-end on the other side you have back-end that is everything to do with networking and the database that's on the other end the things that you you don't see now there are a couple different ways of learning web development the first is a degree through either a university or college this offers strong foundational knowledge in computer science which can be very helpful especially in certain areas of programming however in my experience this understanding of computer science is not necessary in order to get your first web development job and you can learn all of the theory and nitty-gritty details of computers while on the job additionally getting a degree is also a very long process so three to four years it's also extremely expensive and the majority of it won't be focused on web development next you'll boot camps those are usually three to four months of intensive learning it offers really great structure and it forces you to be fully immersed but again it's expensive and you have to be full-time you can't just take couple hours per day finally their self-taught what the focus of this video is this route offers a flexible schedule and it's inexpensive and as long as you have the right set of online courses and curriculum set up for you I believe it's the best option getting your first web development job is not about what certificate or degree you have in most cases it is a meritocracy that is if you have the skills to do the job you can get the job so how long does it take to become job ready I would say that it takes between 3 and 12 months what you'll want to do is create a time frame that you're comfortable with dedicating towards learning this whether it's 3 6 or 12 months and create a schedule around it that way you can hold yourself accountable for it so if you set a date for completing a certain course or starting to apply for jobs you'll know whether it is 3 months or 12 months you'll need to learn the same amount of content the only thing that changes is how much time you're spending each day so if it's 3 months then maybe you'll be having to do 10 to 12 hours per day and if it's 12 months maybe only 2 hours a day the key is consistency you need to be coding daily it's also really important to stick to one programming language based on the job that you're trying to get so there are a lot of Awesome languages out there and you'll get to them in time but don't get distracted if your objective is to try and get a front end position as quickly as possible and it's really important that you focus on the core front-end technologies you don't want to be a jack of all trades and a master of none you really need vertical proficiency not horizontal and you get that by practicing that one thing daily you may be asking why start with front end I would recommend front end because you get instant visual feedback more so than just an error in the console when learning HTML and CSS you're able to see if the positioning of your content isn't right and also if you click on a button the expected result doesn't happen I found this to be a really enjoyable way of learning web development and in turn and became really rewarding and there's a positive reinforcement loop that happens so what do you have to learn the first thing you're going to need to learn is HTML that's the content the text images links of your website then CSS the styling colors positioning and responsiveness on mobile and then JavaScript that's the logic of your website when you click a submit button what happens once you've learned those three and have a strong foundation in JavaScript then you'll be at a crossroads react angular or view these are JavaScript libraries and frameworks which act as wrappers around vanilla JavaScript giving you additional functionality that would take longer to code otherwise it's important that the first thing you do before getting too deep into one of these is to look on job websites such as LinkedIn Glassdoor or indeed and ensure that there are a lot of jobs for all of these in your area search for titles including front-end developer front-end engineer as well as the words angular view and react and see how many listings there are if there's more of one of these technologies in your area it might be better to learn that one you'll likely find many of each personally I would recommend react as it's a lot easier to learn than a full framework and there are usually a ton of jobs out there yes that means more competition but if you hammer out the fundamentals and have a strong portfolio you will get a job that said I work with angular every day and absolutely love it though it has a steeper learning curve so be warned as a bonus I would also recommend looking into typescript and Redux in JavaScript you don't have to say that variable X is a number it will infer that x equals 5 is a number type this however can sometimes lead to heart to catch bugs typescript is still JavaScript but it allows you to add strong typing to your application where you define that variable X will be a number Redux is a state management library angular reactant view all have their own variations of it when your application gets bigger and there are lots of different parts with their own data Redux acts as a centralized memory for all of your different UI components to read from it acts as a single source of truth so that everything stays organized you'll also need to be familiar with git which is a version control technology it allows you to save your app at a specific point and revert back if necessary as well as share your code online and work with other developers it would also be really helpful if you new SAS which is an extension of CSS it still CSS but it has some extra tools and can be a really big time-saver along the way you're also gonna have to pick up basic terminal commands be familiar with using NPM packages as well as the build tool it would also be really helpful if you knew just the basics of agile methodology this is what a lot of development teams use and a hiring manager will definitely take note of that so what resources can you use to learn all this I would say that between udemy and YouTube you can really learn everything required I'm gonna leave a pinned comment down below which has a list of udemy courses that I would strongly recommend you take a look at each of them are around $15 20 to 40 hours worth of really high quality content and the instructors are awesome I don't make any money on this I'm not affiliated with them I just know that there are awesome courses and they'll teach you exactly what you need to know if you're looking for a free resource to learn JavaScript I'd highly recommend looking at eloquent JavaScript it's a fantastic book that is also available online for free their website has a bunch of great projects and it'll really teach you the foundation that you need I really like their embedded code sections it's really interactive after that it's all about making your own projects I'll leave a list to a bunch of free api's that you can tap into these api's are data providers so let's say if you wanted to build a weather app you can grab all this data and then on your front-end on your UI you can display it all you can build an entire project around any of these api's it'll be really helpful once you've completed a few projects it's all about getting your first job I'm gonna create videos on each of these points because they deserve a video of their own in short you'll need to have a great resume which highlights your love of web development while also emphasizing how all of your previous job experiences has guided you towards this new career path next you'll need to build out a portfolio website which highlights the projects you've built and the skills you have you can host your portfolio and projects for free on github pages you could also consider doing one or two freelance jobs even if it's just for friends or family where you're working for a real client with a real deadline this will be good practice for you and will show your future employer that someone has already trusted you and then you delivered finally you'll need to familiarize yourself with LinkedIn indeed and Glassdoor and apply for three to five jobs per day I did this for an entire month had a few interviews and then landed my first job it can take a few weeks or a few months eventually you'll get your first opportunity getting your first job is the most difficult once you've worked somewhere and have some experience finding your next job will be a lot easier on a final note learning code is not easy there will be roadblocks and it can be a real grind to learn everything just know that the path that you're on is worth it and it can get you to a place in your life that you really want to be whether it's with career satisfaction or the ability to work anywhere in the world remotely or financial freedom if you found this video helpful consider dropping a like it really helps the channel out and subscribe for more content just like it thank you very much for watching I hope you having a great day and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Programming With Pax

Views: 20,638

Rating: 4.98703 out of 5

Keywords: how to become a frontend web developer in 2020, become a frontend developer 2020, how to become a frontend developer 2020, how to become a frontend developer, how to become a frontend web developer, how to become a frontend engineer, become a frontend engineer 2020, how to become a frontend engineer 2020, Programming with pax

Id: 4wKpHh6tolA

Length: 11min 21sec (681 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 17 2020