6 Stupid Simple Study Tips for People Who Want to Be a Web Developer
Lord Google is full of information meant to help you become a web developer. Inevitably, you’ll become overwhelmed by the amount of available content. This can easily lead to mental fatigue. You’ll spend too much time searching for the “best” course of action when any of them could serve the same exact purpose. To simplify your life, follow these six steps to get started.
1. Determine how developing this skill will enhance your life.
Skip this step at your own risk. If you don’t have a strong understanding of how learning to code will improve your quality of life, you’ll be tempted to quit when the goal feels insurmountable.
Spoiler Alert: You can expect that feeling to sink in on a daily or weekly basis.
The #1 reason I joined Lambda School = I want a secure and stable career. Jobs are growing at a rapid pace, but the overwhelming majority of them wouldn’t allow you to build a retirement fund, nor will they allow any travel.
I spent a year working in a restaurant. The most depressing part was seeing how some people in their 60’s-70’s are forced to work through their twilight years. Social security doesn’t provide enough money to cover basic expenses, so they don’t have any other choice.
Envision where you want to be in the future. Seriously. Close your eyes and paint a vivid mental picture. Would you rather be free to spend your time on travel, passion projects, volunteering for a cause? Or find yourself stuck in a situation where your only two options are:
A) Starve
B) Work until the day you die
Sound bleak? That’s because it is. And unless you’ve inherited a fortune to spend on a law degree or medical school, teaching yourself how to code is probably the most realistic and affordable way to expand your career choices. Remember this anytime it feels too hard, inconvenient, or time-consuming.
2. Be realistic about how much time you can devote to this goal.
If you have a full-time job, you’re only going to have so much time and energy. That’s fine. The important thing is to be consistent. Even if you only coded for an hour or two per day, that’d add up to 1,000 hours within 15–27 months.
Limited time? I suggest starting with Codecademy. This was my first foray into the world of web design and development. Their learning platform is interactive and non-intimidating: ideal for somebody with a hectic schedule.
Understand: no employer is going to hire you because you got through these courses. However, they are a good place to start, and will help you confirm this is the right career path for you. If it is, move onto more difficult courses (there’s a ton on Udemy) and eventually start building projects from scratch.
3. Concentrate on a single coding concept or language at a time.
Coding languages tend to build on top of each other. HTML shows you how to place words and photos on a website. CSS teaches you how to make them look pretty. Javascript gives you the power to make them dynamic and interactive.
You can’t animate a navigation menu before you know how to create links with <a> tags. You won’t be able to write a slideshow function before you discover how to display a photo with a source attribute. Fundamentals first!
Your best bet is to become competent in one language before moving onto the next one. Don’t tackle CSS before you’re able to use header, image, paragraph, and link tags without researching the syntax. And don’t move onto Javascript until you can lay out a website with flexbox and/or grid.
As you reach a certain level of comprehension — read: when you’re combining HTML, CSS, and Javascript in every project you create — then it becomes okay to split your study time among several subjects. Until then, only one at a time. Here’s a mantra: increase the depth of your knowledge (not the width).
4. Don’t sacrifice your health and fitness as they’re valuable assets.
Seem out of place? I assure you: it isn’t. If you spend all of your free-time hunched over a computer, you’ll wreck your posture and physical strength. And if you eat fast food religiously, your body will start a rebellion.
Eating fruit and vegetables is scientifically proven to boost your brainpower. Taking a brisk walk helps you focus better and yoga eases stress and anxiety. Here’s the evidence for those claims. The efficiency provided by these perks easily outweighs the time they take.
Lastly, I’m going to steal an idea from my team leader (TL) at Lambda School. Brandon Pampuch recommends a daily meditation habit. While I believe the same benefit can be achieved in less time (3–5 minutes), I agree with his tip. Gaining control of your thoughts will help you reduce mental friction and the urge to procrastinate. Here’s a one minute meditation to help you get started:
5. Get in as many reps as possible while slowly escalating the challenge.
In my past life, I was a personal trainer. Progressive overload is an important concept when it comes to strength training. Basically, the idea is to raise the difficulty — heavier weight, more reps, less rest — as you go to get stronger.
The same idea can be applied here. If you’re a total newbie, perhaps you lack focus, and thus should only study for an hour at a time. When that gets easy, start studying for two hours. And if time allows, work up to four or five hours.
Another strategy: use training wheels at first. Stick with simple exercises like the ones you’ll find on Codecademy. Next, move onto a harder challenge like the code challenges on FreeCodeCamp (the Javascript certification is nasty!). Finally, leave the tutorials behind and make your own website.
6. Understand the amount of time and effort it takes to make yourself marketable.
Are online courses great? Yes.
Will any of them get you hired? No.
While I encourage you to take advantage of the resources discussed here, none of their creators will be honest and upfront about this harsh truth.
If the only experience on your resume is a coding course you took on Udemy, no employer is going to take you seriously. It doesn’t matter how expansive or thorough it might have been. People won’t be impressed.
So what will result in a job? Projects that demonstrate you know your stuff. This is why we have a “build week” every month at Lambda School. We apply everything we learned to make an app or website that can actually function.
(If you’re curious, here’s the two I’ve made thus far — eventually I’ll have ten!)
One more element of realism for you: I have no expectations of finding a job until I complete this (full-time, 8+ hr/day) program. In addition, I’m braced for the possibility of needing to devote six or more months to the job search.
I don’t want anybody reading this to fall victim to the delusion that studying for an hour or two everyday will result in gainful employment anytime soon. At that rate, you’d need to study (and implement!) for several years.
There’s plenty of potential in web, app, and software development. But that also means there’s plenty of competition. And the standards are thus high.
Accept this reality before you embark on a new career path. Otherwise, you’ll get discouraged fast. Agree? Go ahead and click the clap button!
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