Need Advice - Web Development Journey Struggles

[fakeactivist]

I just finished this entire course with all assignments perfectly done in 2 weeks - App Brewery London's Full Stack Web Dev Course

I learnt HTML, CSS, JS, Express, React, Node, PostgreSQL, SQL

Today when I tried to make my portfolio site, I got stuck and confused. I couldn't get react to work anymore, got confused between EJS and JSX, caused a big mess. Ended up following a React Calculator tutorial to get back on track.

I suck at frontend dev currently and need some advice on how to learn it by the end of the year. I'm good at programming otherwise, but frontend is a pain.

I learn by building, but I don't have any project ideas in my mind. Those of you who are good at this, please tell me how you got good?

 

[IM Dude]

Looks like you are doing programming and not web development.
The stack you are using is 10 years behind.
For web development learn wordpress and a page builder like elementor or oxygen. And for deployment learn cpanel.

 

[lucky.sparks]

Looks like you are doing programming and not web development.
The stack you are using is 10 years behind.
For web development learn wordpress and a page builder like elementor or oxygen. And for deployment learn cpanel.

With that stack he would be very well paid if stack mastered. And the stack is perfect for custom website or even app(mobile, desktop) development.

I just finished this entire course with all assignments perfectly done in 2 weeks - App Brewery London's Full Stack Web Dev Course

I learnt HTML, CSS, JS, Express, React, Node, PostgreSQL, SQL

You did not learn these, you heard about them. Learning would take a year or so and then a couple more years for getting in medium level to senior.

Today when I tried to make my portfolio site, I got stuck and confused. I couldn't get react to work anymore, got confused between EJS and JSX, caused a big mess. Ended up following a React Calculator tutorial to get back on track.

I would suggest opening chatgpt account, subscribe for 20$ for gpt4 and use it as your live tutor to learn quickly.

I suck at frontend dev currently and need some advice on how to learn it by the end of the year. I'm good at programming otherwise, but frontend is a pain.

Only by doing. Force yourself to take on challenges and tasks in tech you want to learn.

I learn by building, but I don't have any project ideas in my mind. Those of you who are good at this, please tell me how you got good?

Pain, tears, and many many many years of practice.

I would suggest creating a project that would include tech you want to learn and master, portfolio site is a good start.

 

[AutomationIsKey]

I am programming for 12 years now and even I feel I have not mastered shit lol

My approach has always been to just find people who want something done that's just a few steps out of what I would normally do on a month over month basis, and take the projects for slightly lesser pay than I would normally recieve (especially when it teaches me something major) The fact of the matter is that by taking on projects or joining a job, is the only way you can really learn.

 

[IM Dude]

I am programming for 12 years now and even I feel I have not mastered shit lol

Exactly, check out my stack above and master it in 1 month.
Do whatever stack you guys want for the rest of your lifes.
Get the basics done first guys.

 

[OccultKingdoms]

Bro, today they want you to answer all these Leetcode challenges live during tech interviews.

That feels like school. And I didn't skip school for no reason. So I pass this too.

Programming is only cool when done in solitude.

Pain, tears, and many many many years of practice.

Exactly! You want to be paid for pain, tears and such? Why? I get you're ambitious, but be mindful of your choice!

Mental work can be more tiring than physical work - after an intense day at the office, many people only have the strength and desire to lie on the couch and watch TV for the rest of the day. This is not laziness at all - the cause of mental fatigue is the accumulation of large amounts of a certain chemical in the brain, glutamate, which can interfere with its functioning.

 

[Tinfoil]

For front end lean towards Next Js. But before that you need to learn some react and vanilla javascript. Sometimes it seems like you can follow a tutorial for and advanced project but you barely understand jack even after deploying the successful project.

 

[fakeactivist]

Looks like you are doing programming and not web development.
The stack you are using is 10 years behind.
For web development learn wordpress and a page builder like elementor or oxygen. And for deployment learn cpanel.

Is this the new industry standard for freelance clients right now? I'm prioritizing programming since I'm in college and this is the stack big companies are on, I assume this will help me more getting hired out of college.

 

[fakeactivist]

With that stack he would be very well paid if stack mastered. And the stack is perfect for custom website or even app(mobile, desktop) development.

This is my goal, I have 2 years till I graduate college to be prepared, I hope I can be good enough to compete with other 22-23 year olds.

You did not learn these, you heard about them. Learning would take a year or so and then a couple more years for getting in medium level to senior.

You're right, I understood CSS but I'm still bad at it, and have theoretical knowledge of these other technologies.

I would suggest opening chatgpt account, subscribe for 20$ for gpt4 and use it as your live tutor to learn quickly.


Only by doing. Force yourself to take on challenges and tasks in tech you want to learn.

Sounds good, but in your opinion how would GPT 4 be better than the free version for learning? Does GPT 4 have a code extension of something?

Pain, tears, and many many many years of practice.

I would suggest creating a project that would include tech you want to learn and master, portfolio site is a good start.

Thanks, that's what I'm working on. React, Express, and Bootstrap/Tailwind to publish an acceptable portfolio. I'm too focused on design I have quit portfolio projects 20+ times because the end result looked embarrassing to show the world.

 

[fakeactivist]

Exactly, check out my stack above and master it in 1 month.
Do whatever stack you guys want for the rest of your lifes.
Get the basics done first guys.

Bet, what kind of work do you use your stack for?

 

[fakeactivist]

For front end lean towards Next Js. But before that you need to learn some react and vanilla javascript. Sometimes it seems like you can follow a tutorial for and advanced project but you barely understand jack even after deploying the successful project.

I realized I'm actually decent at Valinna JS since I'm pretty good at Java and Python since I've been coding in those since high school. You're right I can sometimes write code even without tutorials but after deploying it I feel like I don't know shit

 

[Black_Adam]

I would suggest opening chatgpt account, subscribe for 20$ for gpt4 and use it as your live tutor to learn quickly

Could you give an example of how I would go around doing it ? Like ask it to explain step by step or what.

 

[sosyofun]

Use wordpress and learn php in my opinion

 

[CAFED00D]

I suck at frontend dev currently and need some advice on how to learn it by the end of the year. I'm good at programming otherwise, but frontend is a pain.

That's totally fine ) It took me several years to become a full-stack web dev. My passion is backend programming, but I had to become a full-stack because my goals required that. So if you're comfortable with real programming - *uck the frontend, learn programming! I'm joking of course to some extent, but you don't have to rape yourself. There are plenty of jobs in the C#/Python/Java/PHP field. Honestly, you still will need some front-end knowledge if you stick to web dev, but it can be just basic stuff. Really.

I learn by building, but I don't have any project ideas in my mind. Those of you who are good at this, please tell me how you got good?

Learning by building is the right way. But theory is important too. CSS is not that scary, you just need more practice. It will take weeks or even days to learn syntax and it will take years to become a really good programmer. No, a Programmer. So try searching for some real project to see what real tasks are done there.

Looks like you are doing programming and not web development.
The stack you are using is 10 years behind.
For web development learn wordpress and a page builder like elementor or oxygen. And for deployment learn cpanel.

Naaah.... man, wordpress is not web development. Wordpress is wordpress. CPanel for deployment? Cpanel is a management system for servers. There is no such thing as 'stack 10 years behind' if we're not talking about, say, ADA or Delphi.
Programming is a part of web development, and Wordpress and Elementor are just webmastering. It's not even close to development or programming, sorry. Making plugins for wordpress requires PHP skills, but the trick is that making plugins won't make you a good developer, but being a good developer will help you make Wordpress plugins. That's my attitude to WP.

 

[JSRLove]

I realized I'm actually decent at Valinna JS since I'm pretty good at Java and Python since I've been coding in those since high school. You're right I can sometimes write code even without tutorials but after deploying it I feel like I don't know shit

I guess spending 2-3 years on a strong technical team with real projects is the only way to learn programming.

Many beginners think that the programmer's goal is to make things work, but it's not actually true. Yeah, it's applicable for money sites and some simple systems, but not for real products with $M+ investments.

You need to make things work and reduce time to production for future features. It means that you should understand architectural patterns, know common mistakes and solutions.

The best way to learn is to participate in a real project, do, and pass code reviews.

So if you are aiming to build a web dev career, start searching for a job (not solo freelance, but a real job). You'll be able to choose whatever you want after.

If you want to just make some money on Fiverr/Upwork, and don't care about growing into an Architect/CTO or just a strong senior, start doing a project about whatever you're interested in.

Speaking about React, it's a wonderful library/framework. But the biggest problem is that there are no two identical projects because React doesn't force you to have any strict architecture. So it's not the best choice for a beginner. I would suggest you switch to Angular for the front end and Nest for the back end. They have a pretty similar Dependency Injection (DI) based architecture, the same as Java Spring.

Whatever you choose (React/other framework), start making a serious project. Not something like to-do apps or a simple blog grid. Something that has a lot of logic and common "components" like:

1. Registration/Authentications: Learn how to work with cookies/tokens (both BE and FE). You'll learn how to manage different layouts on the front end.
2. Create a simple CRUD for some products: Learn how to validate input and handle server errors.
3. Create a grid/table of products with filtration/pagination.
4. Build some page that gathers data from multiple BE endpoints.
5. Connect sockets: Build, for example, a feature that allows you to use only one device.
6. Setup site localization
7. Integrate payments (you're able to use dev accounts for paypal or stripe)
8. Make some checkout processes
9. Make sure that everything you've developed is easy to scale, but components are not coupled with each other. Try different store managers, learn about inbuilt and custom hooks. But don't dive too deep into details; focus on architecture and general solutions.

Last, but the most important: find a good developer who will be able to review your code and your solutions.

 

[afreespirit123]

The stack you choose is fine.

It seems like you need someone to guide you. Find a internship or whatever that have a senior help you when you get stuck. It's a MASSIVE advantage. I wish I knew it sooner.

When you get past the junior level the path will be easier.

 

[OccultKingdoms]

It will take 7 or more years to become an architect if you only know basics. So what one does in the beginning doesn't matter much. In my opinion the most important thing is to ship your first serious product that doesn't cause trouble on the users end. Following OOP and refactoring your code fot sure will help other developers in the future. Just keep in mind that what you're doing is really gonna be helpful.

 

[FUTP]

In would take a while to compose everything in you head, and it`s ok if you have messed something up. Try to find some courses about your tech stack and try to repeat everything step by step, until you will feel confident to move forward all alone.
Tech stack that you are using is up to date, but you can try other framework. For example, I prefer Vue. It`s ease to learn and to use in small projects.

 

[iproxyonline]

Can't really see how the mentioned tech stack could be "10 years out of date" . It's pretty much the foundation that stays relevant. I mean, everyone's using React and Node, regardless of the frameworks layered on top.

Adding Redux would definitely beef up the frontend. And it's worth checking out the trendy frameworks for Redux nowadays. TypeScript is also a great choice. Next.js (React framework) is quite nice.

We totally agree with the recommendation to use ChatGPT (though they've temporarily stopped new premium subscriptions for 4.0 due to high demand). For learning, just ask it to "Write me a simple Redux code example and explain what each line means". Then keep asking follow-up questions for clarity.

 

[followerise]

Try mastering the backend. Maybe the frontend is just not for you? Because its what I can tell about myself