Sorry, I know this has probably been asked many times already, and I also understand the short answer is, yes. But I’d still like some feedback.
Is completing all of the curriculum worth it?
I’m in a rut, mid career, and just figured “knowing” is better than “not knowing”. I don’t have a specific goal, or any tangible ideas of how I will use this knowledge at the end of it. But I’m hoping that by the time I complete it (2000+hrs later), I’ll have some direction…
Or is that naive and will I just be wasting time?
Don’t know how to get out of the rut, so I’m just trying to grasp onto “something” and hoping FCC will be that “something” that gets me out of the rut.
Are you interested in web development?
If so, then yes, it would be good to complete the full stack JavaScript portion of the curriculum.
Then from there you can build projects on your own
It is important to note that the curriculum has expanded a lot over the past few years and will continue to expand in the future.
So technically, it won’t be possible to “complete” all of it, since there will always be new courses added.
I think once you narrow down which area of tech you are interested in, then it will help you know which parts of the curriculum you should look into and go from there.
The problem is that I don’t really have career goals.
I’m interested in coding in general, and understand that the future (and present) is in this field. But what do I want to do with it personally? No idea.
Well, in that case, I would suggest starting from the top and working through the full stack JavaScript portion.
Within a few months, you will have a better idea what direction you want to go in
But it will 10x worth if you use this knowledge and build many projects, post finishing curriculum on FCC jump on to FrontEndMentor and build as many projects as possible on your own ( make sure you put all your work on Github daily basis )
In the end all this hard work is definitely worth million dollars.
You are not at all wasting time. The FCC has given us [devs] to learn and practice simultaneously.IMO this is the best way to learn coding. So if you want to learn coding start doing it and practice. I suggest you watch a tutorial if you are a complete beginner and start doing it. This will help a lot
Firstly, think if you are comfortable doing it or not. What do you want to do to become a front-end, back-end or Full Stack? Then go with the curriculum you are interested in.
Surly if you complete that 2000 hours of content you will get an idea of what you like and what you don’t like, but if you are doing it without any sort of goal or interest then the time you spend will not be meaningful and its not worth the time you spent.
I know what it’s like to struggle with figuring out what direction you should take, worrying about making the wrong decision and wasting precious time on something that doesn’t work out.
Personally, FCC was that “something” that got me out of a rut back in 2016. I didn’t complete any of the certifications (yet!), and didn’t become a we developer (yet!), but it started me on a technology career after years of struggling to find steady work. In that sense, it was worth it for me.
I suggest that you go ahead and give FCC a try, and see how it pans out. Work on the challenges, get involved in the community, and try building a few simple projects with the stuff you’ve learned. If you discover that you enjoy it and get some traction, great! If you decide it’s not for you (at least for now), then that’s good too, because you’re free to try something else.
Either way, you are not wasting your time when you try something new, and don’t forget that the FCC community is very supportive.
Trying it out is probably “worth it”. It’s free, so it only costs you time and effort. If you try out freeCodeCamp for a while and decide that you could spend your time and attention better elsewhere, then stop.
Best take the fCC responsive web design course. Maybe after finishing its projects you will already have an idea if programming/ web development is for you.
If it is, the interactive course will give you solid knowledge in HTML and CSS. I learnt almost all of my HTML/CSS basics from fCC, it was the foundation for my own career change a few years ago.
@vikramvi
I appreciate your response to my very ambiguous question.
Yes, I agree, life is, and has been, very dull and boring.
There isn’t a day I wish I just didn’t wake up.
I’m not depressed, I’m not suicidal, there’s just not much I care for and thus, don’t really care for life. I know that’s hard to comprehend for most people, but I just see it at the same level of someone liking chocolate or not caring for it. I just happen to not care for it.
But unfortunately, life goes on, whether we like it or not. And thus need a goal/something worth while. I have financial 5 year, 10 year, 20 year goals, but struggling with the “how” & “doing what”.
Hopefully FCC will open some doors or help me come to a realization of some sort.
I appreciate your response to my very ambiguous question.
Yeah, I know it’s a personal questions, so I’m sorry for even asking a dumb unanswerable question.
I want to learn because I’m purely interested and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but figured it’s over my head. But a more specific why, like “I want to do insert specialized field”, I have no idea.
@Tarun30
Thank you for your response to my ambiguous dumb question.
Yeah, it’s hard to say right now since front-end, back-end, full stack mean nothing more to me than what a layman can deduce (design/interface, logic/functionality, and guessing programmable pancakes, respectively).
I did java (AP CS) in high school, matlab/python/SQL (maybe more) in college, so I’m not completely CS illiterate, but I still have no idea which direction to go or what each direction even entails.
Sorry, I know you didn’t mean it that way.
I guess personally I feel bad that I asked such a “bad” question, because the answer is “it depends”, and I know that. Yet, I still asked because I want affirmation that this is the right direction, that I’m on the right path. But I know that’s, again, subjective, which is why I was so self-deprecating lol.