Good day everyone,
First off - I don’t mean WordPress in the mere sense of drag and drop menus or simple content blogs. I mean being able to create and fully customise WordPress sites with some knowledge of PHP, possbily creating my own plugins and really getting into the nitty gritty of the exact things that makes many developers NOT want to work with WordPress, which I believe is valuable in itself and in turn creates perfect opportunities for many new and aspiring web developers that just want to break into the industry somehow.
So I’m just about halfway through the intermediate algorithm challenges and I’ve hit a brick wall. I want to get going with the advanced front end development projects and at the moment I don’t really see how the practice gained from doing the intermediate and advanced algorithms beforehand will carryover into the advanced front end projects (at least by a significantly substantial amount in comparison to the intermediate front end projects). I feel that the programming skills and practice gained from the algorithms will more so carryover into the backend projects later, but for now those are out of reach for me right now so there isn’t much point in forever dwelling in frustration over the fact that I can’t quite figure out how to sum a range of prime numbers or sort out a Fibonacci sequence by myself (just yet). I do want to finish the front end certificate which will take me some time to do legit without rushing/copying algorithm solutions, but right now I’m (fortunately) currently in a spot where I’m also likely to have prospective clients approaching me for projects. I feel it is going to take a lot of time before I actually become half decent at hardcore programming as opposed to just simple website / webapp customisations by means of coding. I believe it is also going to take a good long while before I actually finish the front end certificate. If I can be productive as a newbie coder sooner as opposed to waiting to become a super adept programmer before I can actually create something cool or even better, a project that will help me get my foot in the door in the industry then why should I wait?
My ultimate goal is to get into freelancing, although I do embrace the idea of working for a startup as a fullstack developer for a good few years just to really get proper developer experience and hone my skills. I do NOT see myself working for the tech giants of today where one usually has to be some sort of programming prodigy with a CS degree or really lucky with their interview/whiteboard algorithm challenges on the fly. I don’t have a CS degree so I speak not just for myself but also for many who are in a similar situation. Having looked into the opportunities that have presented themselves available both online and offline, the demand for WordPress and PHP especially is significantly high where I live (I live in the UK) and a lot of the fullstack developer roles in my area in smaller agencies require WordPress experience anyway, so right now it seems to make sense for me to go down the WordPress + PHP path instead of lets say, Node or any other backend language.
As I’ll be learning PHP I need some kind of platform to visualise my PHP practice coming into fruition - This is also another reason why I am strongly leaning towards WordPress. I don’t have to quite be a PHP master to see my progress, I just want to be able to prove to myself and prospective employers that I am capable of customising websites to a client’s liking through PHP and making use of the plugins available. Again, it boils down to the idea of being more productive for my time spent learning and coding in a way that makes sense from the get go.
I also have a project that I have (fortunately) been given the opportunity to work on that involves content updating/blogging and also a database system. This is the reason why I’ve been looking into WordPress and although it isn’t fully fledged coding/programming, I feel like I could actually be more productive in producing projects for prospective clients, especially if they’re asking for something with the features mentioned above, something which WordPress is widely used for worldwide. Right now I just don’t think there is enough time for me to gain build the project completely from scratch.
I’m gonna be starting off with some Udemy courses to get the basics of WordPress down, then supplement my learning with some PHP practice. I believe the programming practice I have gained thus far on FCC should enable me to at least get started with the simplest concepts to work with WordPress in PHP.
TL;DR:
I want to learn WordPress because:
- I have a prospective client that wants a project done in a way that WordPress is great for.
- There is a huge demand for work in my area.
- Overall satisfaction of being able to build front end projects and leverage backend capabilities with the help of plugins while I practice actually getting good at programming to build my own stuff from scratch later on.
- My ultimate goal is to well establish myself as a freelancer.
What’s not to love about WordPress?
If anybody here is also learning WordPress or has learned it, please do share your story on how you got started. It would help empower the rest of the community that do want to go down this route. After all, we’re not all aspiring to become fullstack JavaScript developers due to many reasons such as job opportunities, learning interests etc.