Hey guys. Just got into coding, been at it for a couple of weeks now. But after learning all of the content needed for HTML, CSS I finally went ahead and tried to start my portfolio… and my mind went blank.
Some of the questions I’ve had that set me back are these even with research:
How long am I looking at to get employed if I diligently learn all the info I need to be a front-end developer and create a working webpage with just HTML and CSS?
Is it that bad to use <div> over semantic markup like <main>, and <article> tags when starting out? I’ve already seen some tutorials do it and it throws me off.
Should I jump into Javascript for enhancement or become a master at HTML and CSS first?
Any answers are appreciated, but aside from those, I understand this is something I can’t learn overnight I’m just so passionate about coding I want to do it the right way and get into a job as soon as I can.
My current lifestyle is extremely draining and I finally found something I love to do.
Thanks everyone, this is my first time reaching out about all of this.
Welcome to the world of coding! You will have that from time to time. You should make sure you are taking notes on what you learn. I still have my notes from my very first time going through this curriculum almost two years ago!
To answer your questions:
This depends on a number of variables such as how well you retain information. You should be able to teach what you know to a five year old in plain english. You need to be able to do more than create a working webpage in HTML and CSS to become a front end developer. It also depends on who you know, where you live, and how well you market yourself to employers.
It isn’t a good practice to get into, if you want to be an asset to a team you should build yourself up on a foundation of best practices. Using semantic html is just a good trait to have as a learning programmer because it will teach you to write meaningful code in the future.
You don’t have to jump into JavaScript until you are ready, but there are parts about JavaScript that have little to nothing to do with how HTML or CSS works, while other things like DOM Manipulation require you to understand how HTML and CSS work together.
My advice for success are:
Don’t rush the process
Study every day.
Take notes often.
Practice what you learn.
Ask questions. This means make more posts like this!
Anyone who claims to be able to answer this for you is either extremely naive or is trying to profit off of you.
If you know the “best practices” in an area, then follow them. Don’t stress out about this too much.
If you haven’t done the HTML projects, do those. Feel free to spend a lot of time working on making them something that you’re really proud of, including spending time learning more about HTML. I would only recommend spending time researching HTML/CSS that you are going to immediately use. This stuff doesn’t stick in your brain if you’re not using it. When you’re happy with your projects (or so bored of them that you’re not going to make any more improvements), move on.
I just finished the Responsive Web Design Cert super recently. I found it really useful to work through " CSS in Depth" (Free at publisher’s website here: https://www.manning.com/books/css-in-depth). I was getting overwhelmed too by just using google to answer specific questions and found it really useful to have an organized framework to work through.
For a better understanding of HTML, I felt much more comfortable with it after working through the FCC HTML/CSS course on Youtube. The instructor also explains his “development environment” and was perfect for a newbie like me.
Link: https://youtu.be/mU6anWqZJcc
Finally, I used Quizlet to make flash cards while I worked through the FCC coursework and it was really helpful to reference them while I worked on the projects.
