Questions regarding programming languages I should learn

Career Advice
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Hello members
I just started learning how to code planning on becoming a web developer
Initially, I assumed that I just need to learn html, css and JS to get a job however, when I was looking that the job postings at linkedin, it seemed like most of companies are looking for someone who knows more than just html, css and JS. it almost seemed like html, css and JS prerequisite. So I just wanted to ask members’ honest opinions how many and what languages I should learn to get a job as a web developer. And realistically speaking, how long it will take someone who does not have any coding experience to learn languages and get a job?

secondly, I don’t speak English fluently, would this hinder me from get a job as a web developer?

thank you very much

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hi, im yet to make myself fit to get a job in web developement or similar department, so the info ill give you might lack and be insufficient in some areas.
HTML, CSS and JS are the basics, but there are the so called frameworks, libraries etc. technologies, which are built on those basic langueges with an extended complextion, which are used in the creation of advanced web apps(ofc there are frameworks aimed at other fields, other than web, but those are usually subject of other coding languages). So HTML, CSS, JS(and handful other) are languages primarily(or entirely) aimed for web developement and based on them, frameworks are made to sophisticate web app creation. You will see names like React, Redux, Vue, Jquery, D3, Sass, Bootstrap and many others, those are not languages, but framworks/libraries, built on the former listed languages and companies looking for employees require experience and/or knowledge of varying combinations of those technologies. Many of them share similar concept and syntax. Many of them work well in conjunction. Having good knowledge of JS, can help you easily comprehend frameworks built of it. Learning a framework, can make it easier to learn other, similar frameworks etc. Those frameworks and libs posses their own objects and methods, owning predefined properties which simiplifies various tasks when creating a web app and other stuff, which lifts the need to have to make it on your own from scratch. It doesnt mean you need to learn all their commands and functions, like anything regarding programming, you can always consult with online documentation and resources. The key objective is to learn their concept and way of work.
Your english seems sufficient enough to work in the field from what i can see.
I cant tell how much you need to learn before you can be accepted into a company, it varies from your location and per company. I assume there are those who have high standards and there are those who are willing to accept people in learning stage of various degree.
By default, you never stop learning to program. There are always thigns you learn, things that become obsolete and newly invented and accepted technologies, one has to adapt to.

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The web is built only on really 3 languages, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. These are the three core building blocks of everything you see in a browser.

Getting those 3 things to your end user is where most of the possibilities occur. From writing your client-side in TypeScript (“a better version of JS that gets transpiled”) to using a framework that compiles to JS, the client-side may end up becoming only raw HTML,CSS and JS, but how your writing it, and thus building client-side stuff could start with any number of technologies with a small variety of languages.

Beyond the client-side however is where the variety really shows up. Namely server-side can be written in anything you can imagine, Java, C#, Nodejs, GoLang, PHP, Python, etc etc.

Knowing X amount of languages isn’t actually very important in the grand scheme of things. Knowing the differences of languages, the advantages and disadvantages of them, and understanding how to use a given language is more important than just knowing more. You just need to know 1 or 2 in-depth so you can build what is required for a given project, with most languages being suited to most problems.
I like the analogy of knowing more programming languages as knowing more words from a dictionary. This might be useful in some situations, but when it comes to building software your more writing poetry, where knowing lots of words from a dictionary might help, but that doesn’t mean your poetry will be any good, as it goes beyond just the words. In the same sense knowing a lot of languages helps a bit, but it doesn’t mean you will be a good developer when applying any of those languages, so aiming to know a bunch of programming languages ends up not being very useful in a practical sense.

If your just starting out, I’d say I wouldn’t worry much about the timeline as its less about how much time you spend, and more how you spend your time. You could spend 6 months watching youtube tutorials and never touching your keyboard and learn nothing, or you could spend 6 weeks learning and trying to build complex applications and learn way more. Giving a timeline on how long it will take is too dependent on a given person and their circumstances. There isn’t a 1 size fits all timeline where everyone gets a job after X amount of time. It could take months to get a job even if you knew everything, or it could take only a few months to get lucky and be handed a job that trains you. Or you could spend your days toiling around trying to apply to ever job under the sun with a weak resume and never get a job and just hoping to “get lucky” without putting in the work. Anything is possible.

This may hinder you, as a lot of documentation, communities and other content is usually only in English. In terms of jobs, it may or may not impact you a lot depending on how much is required in your area. As long as you can learn sufficiently in English, you should be fine.

I don’t believe you need to be fluent, you just need to be able to communicate effectively.

Going from your posts content, I’d say you should be fine as I wouldn’t of assumed you were anything but fluent.

Good luck, keep building, keep learning :+1:

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First of all, thank you very much for you elaborated explanation. I really helped me a lot of see things clearly in term of what I should aim and focus on. Yes I agree with you. HTML, CSS and JS really are the basic. I think I was just too naïve to think that I can get a job with those three languages but I am glad I found out this early so I can set right expectations.

I think this is very true with programming, you never really finish learning. Technology is always changing so we also have to adapt ourselves by learning it.

thank you very much once again for you thoughtful answers

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I agree with you. Learning those languages are one thing but how to use them effectively and clean is another thing. I’ve heard from someone that when you are in the real world, coding is like 30 % and the 70% comes down to one’s problem solving skills.

Right but I was mainly concerned with my verbal skills in a job interview situation. Like what if I cannot effectively deliver something that I know in head but fail to deliver them verbally. That was my main concern because whenever I see people from you tube doing tech interviews, they seems to deliver their message without hesitation or a lot of pauses.

thank you very much for you thoughtful answers. I really appreciate it

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just like any field, coding comes with its terminology and this comes with time.
Things often have naming convention and certain terms imply sublte context. For example you have the words function, method and callback, which can overlap at places and be synonymous, but each one delivers a specific meaning, or pairs like variable/value, array/list, argument/property/key, some are synonymous, but some differ and can easily misled a newbie to utilize them in the wrong context. I was also anxious initially and was afraid ill never be able to express myself clearly when talking code, it was hard to find the right words and i always worried ill deliver my message wrongly or naive, but as you learn the same terms get repeated over and over, even if you dont care to put extra effort to learn them, you eventually do.

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I believe you are absolutely right about it. Just like any field, there are rules and languages to learn. I think of it as if you wanna play a game, then you got to learn the rules and their languages to play the game effectively and Although It feel very discouraging when I hear ppl saying that they have mastered HTML and CSS in like a week or something, because it makes me feel like I am not smart enough to learn this stuff and makes me thinking "will I ever make it as a web developer? " but on the other hand, I also know that everyone is different and they are no short cuts . You just gotta put the work into and trust the process.

I gotta say Amen to this lol I know eventually it will come to me as long as I repeat myself with things.

Lastly I really wanna thank you for telling me all this. I honestly think it’s amazing how someone who already have walk the walk giving me real life advice. It’s really priceless. so once again, thank you so much for your time to write me this.
Have an awesome day!! :slight_smile:

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Always take such statements with a grain of salt. People have different learning curves for different things. It depends if you have experience in similar field of knowledge. Ofc for someone who knew a coding language beforehand, would have it easy learning HTML, or someone who has experience with markup languages. There are things that will come easy to you and those who will take extra effort based on previous skills and abilities you already developped. In the end, it always comes to effort and how motivated you are, how much time you are willing to invest. Keep in mind, we also tend to speculate with our achievements, to boost our own ego. Sure everyone is eager to declare how bright they are how fast they learned a topic, what a wonderful solution they found to a problem, but we rarely deliver the work and preperation that led to that achievement. I like to do it occasionally. As i finished the Python courses here on FCC, i was able to finish the respective project quite shortly and i was very fond of myself and eager to tell it, while many struggled. But there was reason for this success. Ive worked hard on the JS and previous curriculums, which established a solid ground of problem solving. Others on the other hand might have skipped some sections, or all, might have neglected some projects, as the Python section is designed for newbies and you can learn the basics indeed, but the following projects are for intermediate and can look quite challenging.

After all those forums purpose is this, have us connect and share our experience :slight_smile: . Your gratitude is appreciated

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Hi @limjames86 !

Welcome to the forum!

I think it would help to learn a framework like React.
But you also have to remember that a lot of job posts will add a lot of “nice to have” technologies.
There are plenty of podcasts and articles where hiring managers have admitted that they don’t expect aspiring junior devs to know the entire list of technologies mentioned.
As mentioned, just focus on learning the core languages and it would be nice to learn a framework like React.

This varies wildly from person to person.

In my opinion, just take it at a comfortable speed that works best for you.
Really focus on learning the core concepts of programming.

I have seen people on the forum rush through the curriculum but it creates serious holes in their knowledge.

You want to just take your time and learn it right. :grinning:

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Youtube videos are made by people who are at least comfortable enough to be on camera to talk about a subject they are (hopefully) aware of, prepared and edited for your consumption. Furthermore, odds are you only find these videos from your own network, and the people you find and watch are usually good at what they do, skipping over all of the “worse” content creators.

Taken together, watching someone talk on youtube is no where near the reality of what a fluent English speaker talks like. You could speak as elegant as Shakespeare, but freeze the moment you need to talk to a large group of people.

Youtube in general can be extremely misleading about the reality of a given situation. From speaking skills, to how quickly/easily something can be done, to even something as basic as the truth behind the video’s content. The simple goal of youtube is to create content people will watch, no one actually needs to represent reality reliably to accomplish that goal. The same way you’d go watch the next action-packed movie, not because its realistic, but because it captures your attention.

Instead of gauging your speaking skills against what you see on youtube, I’d suggest finding a situation where you can talk to native/fluent English speakers in the context you desire to focus on (say web development) and see how it goes. If your “fluent enough” while speaking you should be able to handle the conversation well enough, and the more you do it the better you get.

There are other more direct options, like getting a speaking coach, or taking lessons, but I’d only take this routes if you aren’t able to get anywhere near being an effective communicator.

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Hello Jessica

Thank you so much for the reply and your feedback.
and I agree with you. In my head I know that I should really take my time and put in the work and actually know how to utilize skills that I have learn from fcc in real life but on the other hand, I feel rushed since I’m in my mid thirties and wanted to make some happen and prove myself that I can do this(I know it’s really funny because I only started like 3 days ago). And certainly, I don’t wanna rush it and not remembering anything at the end but I know there is no short cut in programming work and i must put the work in a right direction and trust the process.

thank you Jessica

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Right. I know in reality. I don’t think that many people will be that smooth when it comes to interview. It just that as a beginning when I see those ppl appear to be excellent with interviews using all the programming terms and words naturally and smoothly, it kinda makes me think like “will I ever get to that level?”. And I’m sure I will get better as I encounter more of interview situations. It just that it feels so far away from now but I will take one step at the time and gradually improve myself and not compare myself with other ppl since everyone’s learn curve is all different.

thank you very much Brad.

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