Hi everyone, I started front-end development a year ago and I feel like I’m going round and round without ever reaching my goal. I’d like to know why it’s so hard to be a developer
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Because coding is hard. Computers can only follow extremely literal directions, so everything has to be exactly correct or your code will not function as intended.
Unfortunately, learning how to be a developer takes time. Some people share success stories where they got a job after 30 seconds of practice, but in reality, some people go to college for 4 years to become a developer, so you should expect a similar volume of effort as a self taught developer.
I see this as a good thing. This means that the job is well paying. It means struggling while learning is perfectly normal. This means you can do it if you have access to the time and resources to invest.
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HI @dark2020light !
The job of a developer is to come up with solutions to business problems.
Most of your energy will be spent thinking about the problem, coming up with different approaches and then deciding on a solution to implement to code.
Development is not about just hacking some code together and hoping it works.
You are hired to provide solutions that make sense for that business. Remember that all of this technology is just a tool for implementing that solution.
It is also important to note that even if you do get a job very early, you still have to learn ALOT on the job.
In the beginning, you will primarily work on small tickets and bug fixes.
Over time, as your skills grow and as you mature as a developer you will be trusted with more responsibility and taking the lead on more complex problems.
Hope that helps!
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thank you for taking a moment of your time to answer me, I understand a little better now, but having less is not easy to stay motivated
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Well motivation comes and goes when you are learning how to code.
It is important to set small goals along the way that will lead up to your larger end goal.
If your end goal is to get hired as a developer, you will need to write down some goals you need to achieve to get you there.
Some of these goals will include:
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building out a couple of projects with some substance to it that you can show to potential employers. Do these projects solve some sort of problem? What kinds of features do these projects have?
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building out a developer network, getting involved in community forums, twitter, reddit groups, slack groups, etc. Networking with other individuals can help you land your first job.
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finding some small contract or freelance work. Maybe a small business in your area needs a website. Or maybe their website needs work and you can help them. Any amount of work experience is going to be a huge help in landing that first job.
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learning about how to write resumes, cover letters, linkedin profile, how to study for technical interviews. There are plenty of articles and videos to help you prepare for that.
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thank you very much for everything, it’s thanks to people like you that we keep moving forward
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I’d like to expand on this.
Not only are you providing solutions to a given problem, but you are building something that will solve the problem.
It’s one thing to be given a problem and solve it yourself, it’s another to take the problem and build something for said problem.
It’s this “removal” from directly dealing with the problem is where things get a little more difficult. Especially when the “solution” (coding) can get so complicated. This is also why FCC starts with front-end development first, and foremost as it’s vastly easier and quicker to “see” the problem and start dealing with it (with HTML and CSS). It’s only once you start moving into the programming section where your code becomes more and more “removed” from direct user interaction, and thus can get harder to reason about.
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It might get easier with time, but it’s never going to be easy. In fact, it might be the opposite, the better you get at something the harder the problems you are given to solve.
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I had a quick run through the Responsive Web Design curriculum, but I hit a roadblock around the Object Oriented Programming section of the Basic JavaScript curriculum. I got stuck, which often happened, but this time was different—I wasn’t stuck because I had forgotten the proper syntax, or had a typo—I was stuck because I didn’t understand.
I couldn’t wrap my head around the problem, and to be honest with you, I almost cried. I recalled the hundreds of Reddit posts I had seen, success stories similar to what @JeremyLT mentioned above. I felt like I wasn’t smart enough to go on, like I had been born without enough brain power to absorb the information.
The thing that helps me the most when I’m in these moods, is knowing that everyone experiences them. Programming is not easy for anybody!
When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
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