My First Three Months Learning Front-end Web Development.
In the very short time, I have been on the web development path, I have been able to work closely with software developers and all I can say is it has been very inspiring, and at the same time, very disheartening. But, I’m supposed to be talking about my learning experience, not my insecurities.
I started my HTML and CSS journey on my own, about a few months before I started my internship at Sprinthub Mobile, a mobile and web app development company based in Nigeria. I thought I was good enough, I really did. If I had been asked if I were good enough to work on a project, the answer would have been positive. I even started advertising for jobs, but I didn’t get any. No worries, I’d say that was a good thing. Can’t have your career end before it even begins, right?
Eventually, life threw me in the direction of this software company where I was put under the lead front-end developer, and I realized I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. My layouts were messy, my code had more lines than necessary and was really disorganized and confusing, among other things. So, big ups to those who were self-taught and had no mentors.
Due to my prior knowledge, the time I spent on HTML and CSS wasn’t so much and went by rather quickly. The things I learned, however, seemed like a whole lot.
In the first month, I was given a few projects — one of which was to create a really complex web page. My mentor may have had something else in mind but with that project, I was able to see my weaknesses and limitations — which were: not knowing my way around the layouts and not ordering my code so it’s readable. Eventually, I was given a bunch of mini-projects — mini because they were not full web pages, more like components of a web page, which made me understand a lot of things, especially “div nesting” — which certain people find confusing. I would say the first month was well spent.
In the second month, I got to learn to use Git. I could not get a proper tutorial to guide me through the process. I also met a few people to help with this but there was just one person who was able to, and even he didn’t think he did a good job, so I wrote an article on “Getting Started with Git” afterward. Alongside web development, I’m learning a lot about people in this field. Yes. Yes, you too.
Also, the first half of the second month was mostly for getting more comfortable with HTML and CSS to a point where I’m not overwhelmed whenever I’m given a task. The trick is to be relaxed, take your time and take everything in, from top to bottom, analyze the page and think of the methods you’d apply in order to achieve what was presented. Make a sketch if you have to.
Yes, child, relax.
This probably would’ve seemed cooler if HTML and CSS weren’t child’s play (sad, I know).
The second half of the second month was spent on JavaScript. I was really excited to get started with this. My first JavaScript project was a “random quote generator”, which I was guided on (meaning I barely did any of the heavy liftings) but it was really exciting.
My small mind was indeed impressed.
On this JavaScript journey, I hit a lot of walls:
Errors ! -
I bonded so well with these error messages, such fascinating creatures that judged my every command. I was powerless. Sometimes there’d be no error messages, the code just wouldn’t run as intended. I started to miss the error messages, they guided me well.
What better way to learn from your mistakes?
Questions! -
Believe me when I say I had a truckload of questions. I had so many questions that I didn’t know how to go about asking them all. I’d ask anyone at any chance I got. And still wouldn’t get the answers I was looking for.
Google it! -
The questions weren’t even the worst part. The worst part was, and still is, getting this reply — “Google it”, that was all everyone said. They could have just said they didn’t know, or that they could not explain it all and spared me the reverse confidence boost, but they always said to google it and walked away. It’s like a common trait with developers and it stings. Probably one of the reasons why I was advised against going down this path. No love in these streets.
However, I got something from my boss — he said “there’s nothing you’re going through now that people haven’t gone through before, so your questions and your answers are there if you’d just google it”. Maybe not in those exact words but that’s the gist of it.
This also paves a way for this next part.
Learning on my own! -
Self-learning is a big part of the industry. I had to read a certain book that I could not go two pages without yawning. I would rather watch a video because of the illustrations and the little bit of humor which makes things less difficult to understand, but each time I asked for a video tutorial instead, the reply I’d get is that books were more thorough. But were they really? If they were, I don’t think the next point would be there.
Proper explanations! -
I wonder if it’s just me sometimes but whenever I try to read up online, I find it that a lot of people do not even try to be thorough in their explanations. Yes, the videos too.
I’d say the second month was really exciting.
The third month was when I started my first real project. Nothing too special, just a website without JavaScript. I had no knowledge of bootstrap at the time and I didn’t want to disappoint my teammate, so I had to learn that while creating this site on a deadline. I was given two weeks and for a whole week my response to how the project was coming along was “it’s coming along fine”, or something like that. Well, something positive — but I’m sure you know it wasn’t positive.
It was rough but I was able to finish it up in the second week — yes, I shock me too.
But work is never done until the designer complains, isn’t it?
However, long story short, the first three months on this journey have been really exciting, educating, and definitely challenging. Learning how the internet works seem so unreal; how JavaScript is used to manipulate and interact with the web-page will always be a personal fave; having an all-out battle with the visual designer in my head — that always results in me winning — will always be infuriating, yet somewhat entertaining. I’m sure I still have a long way to go — I barely understand how JavaScript is used to do so many impressive things and it’s so overwhelming most times just thinking of how to go about the little tasks before me, but I’m really looking forward to more of this.
I’m also really sure I’ll shed a tear or two (maybe cos I already have).
