So I’m planning on being a front-end developer, and I was wondering how many skills other than Javascript are necessary? For example, the skills covered in the first certification are basic HTML, basic CSS, Visual Design, Accessibility, Responsive Web Design, CSS Flexbox, CSS Grid, and then the Web Design Projects. Would you say these are all important to learn to be a web developer? I definitely think basic HTML and CSS are obviously required, but it seems like the rest of them are kind of more for visual designers? If these are essentially required, would it be unwise to skip them for now and head to JavaScript, and then go back to the rest of these, or would you say I just need to suck it up and go through them all?
Literally my first task on the job as a full-stack dev (Java/MySQL/Javascript/React) was to take a look at the React app the team was working on, notice all the bits that were not responsive, and fix them. Thankfully I know Flexbox pretty well and had to brush up on my Bootstrap 4 to get the job done, but yeah. Accessibility is crucial if you want your size to be usable to all users, as well as comply with the law, responsiveness is huge (more people use mobile now) and Flex/Grid/Bootstrap will make that process a smooth one.
Don’t skip them. They won’t take as long as the Javascript will, put it that way 
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Okay, thanks! I know you’re right but ugh this is boring XD. Anyway, I guess I’ll just have to force myself to it and enjoy the rewards later XD.
If you’re genuinely finding those elements boring you may need to reassess your goal of being a front-end developer. What part of coding do you enjoy? Maybe back-end will be more your thing.
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I guess I don’t really find them boring but I suppose I don’t really enjoy them either. I also don’t think back-end would really be my forte either. I definitely have a passion for programming but after researching the roles of back-end and front-end developers, as well as software engineers, none of it seems very compelling to me. I think you may be right about back-end being more my thing. This is kind of eye-opening for me because I’ve always been so set on being a front-end dev, so thanks. I’ll have to think about it.
Web dev isn’t the only kind of development: https://www.coderhood.com/19-types-of-developers-explained/
I’m a front end developer and the fiddly CSS stuff is my least favorite part of my job (except when it’s writing tests). You may use some or all of what FCC teaches. You will probably also have to go learn things that FCC doesn’t teach you. If you’re very lucky you might work for a company with a full time UX designer, but you may also have to do some of that yourself. Whether you design it or not, you’ll have to implement it.
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If I could make one recommendation outside of FCC: Dave Geddes’ Flexbox Zombies course is free and took me from being endlessly confused about flexbox to understanding it pretty well in the course of maybe 10 hours over a week or so. Flexbox is of course not the only aspect of responsive design, but just having that one “go-to” tool has been hugely helpful for me.
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I got all of my coworkers to do Flexbox Zombies 
Could you give some specific real life examples of what you do as a front-end developer? (obviously I’m not expecting code 
just like generally what do you find yourself doing the most?) Also how long does a project typically take? Because to my naive self it seems like a project would take a super short amount of time, but this seems unrealistic to me?
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Flexbox Zombies, definitely gonna check it out when I get there thanks! <3
Both at my previous job (Hewlett Packard) and my current job (LGS Innovations) I have worked on projects where specialty hardware is managed by a browser-based UI. The hardware runs a web application server and all the *stuff* our customers do is done in a web app. Prior to that I worked at a company that sold SaaS (web based) for hospitals for insurance handling. My projects are never done. The software always needs to be updated, improved, and modified to include new features. I might work on a feature that gives users a dashboard of information about the health and status of their hardware. Then I might have to go back and make it customizable. Then I might have to go back and make it exportable. I might work on settings panels for configuring their devices - allowing only valid settings and helping them choose the best ones. Then I might have to go back and make some settings read-only based on a user’s privileges. Those are a couple of general examples that I’ve done many times over the last few years.
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I’ve marked ArielLeslie’s reply as the solution so no one would waste any more time on my topic but all of your replies are very helpful and inciteful so thank you all <3 If anyone wants to continue the discussion feel free to do so potentially here or in DMs.
//Edit
Also if anyone is wondering, I’m enjoying it now I was on gradients and for some reason when I saw I was doing gradients I was like “Well um that’s boring” but I started them and now I’m in animation and wow it’s heaven.
Also if anyone is wondering, I’m enjoying it now I was on gradients and for some reason when I saw I was doing gradients I was like “Well um that’s boring” but I started them and now I’m in animation and wow it’s heaven.
This is the best advice. Find something that’s enjoyable for you and try to use it in a little project. You’ll run into all sorts of problems and then eventually come out on the other side knowing at least that one thing pretty well.
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