Hello all I recently moved to another country London UK few months ago and I want to restart my coding journey as I left it off long time ago. I was thinking about going through multiple 10-15 hour tutorials from YouTube what do you think about this approach. I want to be able to learn quickly/be job ready entry level jobs in a short period I can give as many hours to learning/coding all day. What do you suggest to start over and go towards landing my first job here/junior/entry level job.
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The quickest way to learn is to use the technologies you want to learn, so build something, do not follow any tutorial
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Thank you. I was thinking about building something following tutorials like 25 react projects etc video after going over the basics quickly then maybe rebuilding it myself
I think this should be addressed. What is starting over? Is starting over as in you have to re learn everything, or do you still remember some things from when you last worked on it? Coding is not a job that someone is going to be job ready in a “short period” of time if you are completely starting over
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Hi @ankurchaulagain !
If I remember correctly you landed your first junior job a few years back, right?
I remember you were posting about the interview process.
How long did you work at that company?
Did you work at other companies before taking a break?
I agree with the others in this thread where I don’t think that is the best approach.
You have already built some projects and even worked as a developer briefly.
So jumping back into tutorials again before building stuff on your own wouldn’t be a good approach IMO.
I think you will learn best just by jumping in and building projects like you did before.
Sure, you took a break and might have forgotten some things.
But just start building projects and googling around when you get stuck.
That will accelerate your learning much faster and get you aquatinted with coding again.
Hope that helps
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Taking two years or so off actually helped me, but on the other hand if you didn`t understand or learn the first time yes start over.
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I quit in 1-2 weeks 
I wasn’t very good didn’t knew very much working in live projects then they decided I could either continue as an unpaid intern which I decided not to do. Then I just left it off. I’ve been trying to get back on track on and off but haven’t even able to. One time I speed ran through the first two certification to refresh my memory like just the tutorials then jumped on to John Smilga’s 14 hour React 18 Tutorial which I was 4 hours into then again left it off this is few months back. So I still remember a lot of the stuff (though my own stuff I wrote in RegEx and all in final project and other code was foreign to me but I know I can google most Validators and all and I believe it was more about building problem solving skills than the code itself)
Now I want to continue again trying to go towards a better job and all and was super overwhelmed by all the Tutorials, lots of content creators in Youtube, new certification redone like JS etc
I was thinking about what to do then FCC just uploaded a John Smilga video which I believed was my answer: going back to his channel and doing videos in this order:
- React+Redux 14 hours
- React Project 10 hours
- Back End
- Back End projects
Also checked his website and saw that he had a lifetime members of all courses+future courses for a price I can afford and was thinking if I should get it. Like he emphasizes very strongly from the beginning of his webpage that its project based how important it is etc So I’m thinking its going to be a good investment. I mean I could speed run through everything or just direct jump into React 72 hours(looks like a vert massive/comprehensive course) What do you think?
I remember a majority of the stuff. The new certifications are way too long I think I checked out the first certification but I went through the old legacy certification in no time at like 4/8x speed 
I know the first certification completely. I think I know the second and third one good enough as well like scope and everything. Just might need a refresher like speed running through some ES6 shortcut way of doing things, some regex refresher, and I need to look at I think the promises section again which I believe I can learn along the way while going through the React long tutorials in Youtube say by John Smilga while he uses it if not I can open that particular lesson in FCC and read it
I did understand the first time. Where I was stuck was not knowing how to call API in the project Random Code Generator(one could use array I know) and stuck in other things like timer, playing sound on pressing a key etc(Right now I remember there was a code for key stroke(I can look up the code in FCC to remember that particular part again) but playing sound part was where I was stuck) overall being stuck on the projects was where I left off and never returned back to it but I want to again which I tried before as well but again left off after a month of soeed running+4 hour into a 14 hour tutorial(which I agree was a good video tutorial/really nice refresher+tutorial on things not taught in FCC like hooks I think use effect etc)
Looks like a very good deal rather than investing in bootcamp and all if its going to help on the long run what do you guys think? Or should I just stick to YouTube videos or anything else to learn well with trying to get a job like a junior role in a short time like few months taking previous experiences into consideration?
Here is a link I just finished this one and it has the information like use key with variable.addEventListener(). Its an easy modual!
Just scroll down to LocalStrorage by building a todo app.
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This is the core issue that you have to address.
Because going through a whole bunch of tutorials isn’t going to fix your problem.
I think tutorials are fine when you are an absolute beginner and just learning about the basics of JS, HTML, CSS, React, etc.
But once you get out of that absolute beginner phase, then you need to start building projects on your own.
What is missing from your learning approach and why you struggled on your first job is learning how to build solutions on your own.
When you build projects on your own, you are going to make millions of mistakes. But that is where the learning comes in.
You are going to learn how to break problems down.
How to research for information.
How to ask better questions.
How to debug your code.
How to learn more advanced concepts and techniques.
Your skills will grow infinitely more with that approach then jumping back into a whole bunch of courses.
and that is where the majority of the learning comes in.
Most students believe that struggling when building projects is a bad thing.
But it is actually the best thing that will happen to you.
Because you will learn so much more working through those problems and arriving at a solution.
That is the best preparation for a job.
If I hadn’t built projects on my own and stuck through those frustrating moments getting stuck, then I would have never survived my first job.
But because I was able to go through that important learning process, I was able to do well and get high marks for performance reviews.
Hope that helps
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Yes I agree to what you said but you know FCC doesn’t teach a lot of stuff like even in the basics like react hooks, effects etc and instead just a tiny subsection , I have to learn these from somewhere as well right? And a whole bunch of other stuff. But yes I think I need to lean on more towards completing the projects/certifications which I am excited about too like learning about SQL and ML/AI and what new stuff are there apart from Backend and all too
And also the John Smilga courses look like a project based course where we actually build stuff what do you think? @jwilkins.oboe
Yeah, the react section is out of date.
But you can still learn all of that while building frontend projects on your own.
The react docs have greatly improved
I think it is fine to watch different videos to explain certain concepts.
Are you referring to these courses?
If so, John is a good teacher. And it is a good course.
But you are still coding along with someone else’s solution.
At the end of the day, if your goal is to get a job, then the only path forward is to build your own projects outside of a course.
And these projects have to be bigger then the random quote machine and 25+5 clock.
Those are great for learning.
But if you are trying to compete with other juniors for a job and get job ready, those projects will be to simple.
These are the types of project ideas you should look to
Those projects have some good problems to solve and you will learn a lot by building them and will be able to demonstrate your skills to an employer.
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The best way to learn at this point is building projects, and then researching when you get stuck. I have a bachelors degree for software development and have been working as a developer for over two years. To this day I still say that the majority of my actual learning and understanding came from building my own projects. School was like my FCC where I was following the examples, and projects they set up. The only difference is I owe the school 40k lol. Build projects, and ask questions when you run into something you dont understand. Before my job, and before my degree I asked questions here all the time on my own projects. In fact, before I became a mod most of the current mods here are the ones who helped me through everything. I think you’re just gonna waste too much time watching videos instead of getting that hands on learning which is more effective
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Well said, Cody. People are afraid of building their own projects cause they’ll get stuck. Little do they know that getting stuck is the actual learning.
So Ankur, if you still remember most of what you learnt, I’d suggest you come up with project ideas or borrow ideas from some developer and product designer communities. When you get stuck, research, and ask for help.
If you had a chance to work as a developer, then you shouldn’t go back to tutorials.
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Thank you guys for all the suggestions
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