Hello. It's been a while since I've been on this forum, and it does seem a bit quieter than it was. One of the main reasons that I haven't been on is that I've found my first web developer role.

 

My post is for two reasons. The first half is to thank everyone who has helped, especially those who have helped me directly when I had questions on building my own portfolio sites, but also those who helped indirectly - just reading the posts in this forum has been a help, especially the constructive criticism given to those who ask for their websites to be reviewed.

 

The second reason is hopefully to give hope and inspiration to anyone else trying to get their first role. It hasn't been easy - studying/coding 10+ hours almost every week outside of a full-time job (and trying to have a life).

 

And it isn't easy being a junior web developer - my particular problem is that my job requires CSS, Wordpress and PHP - the latter two of which I never used before starting! So it is a steep learning curve on the job, one which so far I am not quite meeting expectations.

 

So, so so much to learn. Some very frustrating days and I might not still have the job come Christmas. But the good days are very, very good, and I don't regret the career change in the slightest.

 

I've only just begun!

One of the best pieces of advice I can give any junior dev's is to really remember what your role (normally) is.

 

You are there to learn and progress your skills, but you are also there to make the people above you jobs easier and allow them to focus on what they need to.

 

Offering to pick up any emails, ask if they need anything doing to help them through out the day, re structure some CSS for them or whatever.

 

In a junior dev role you normally get lumped with some not so fun tasks and projects but you just have to show your commitment.

Firstly well done on the new job!

 

One thing I really pushed on my first job is that I was a front-end developer and not backend. I told my employers that by allowing me to focus purely on the front-end it would allow me to improve in that area much faster which in turn will yield better products for them.

 

That was probably my best move to date as since leaving there any PHP or WordPress knowledge that I'd have gained would have been useless in my current role or any future ones that I might take up.

The big bucks in web-dev are typically in building out systems with React, Node etc consuming REST APIs etc - not WordPress / PHP CMS systems.

 

I would encourage you to do the same if you eventually plan to move up in the game in time

 

Don't be discouraged by the learning curve it happens. I had the same experience again around 6 months ago when I moved into my new role as the people who work here are on another level, Simply knowing React, Redux, ES6, TDD was not enough with many of my colleagues being experts in them all. But persevere, keep on studying in your spare time and eventually you'll be in the position where colleagues come to you for help... Until you hit the next level and step up again!

 

BTW I've had no life for the past 3 years, I work 8 hours a day, run my business (Consulting) and study. I have Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings off, that is it. I work/study every evening and do not watch T.V I take a few holidays a year but even then I am reading books on development during travel etc.

That said It's 100% worth it, I can finally afford a new car and soon to buy a city centre apartment. The hard work is paying off - but be prepared for it to continue. The more you learn the more you realise how little you actually know

Also shameless plug for my Sass framework - I encourage you to try it out at your new place... https://github.com/rbrtsmith/nebula-css

Edited November 7, 20169 yr by rbrtsmith

Congrats on the new role. It must have been that red flower.

 

I'm a complete PHP beginner and getting to learn about it in my spare time via this gentleman's tutorials, which I recommend for anyone: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS1QulWo1RIZc4GM_E04HCPEd_xpcaQgg

 

Good luck with your new team and new role.

Congrats on the new role. It must have been that red flower.

 

I'm a complete PHP beginner and getting to learn about it in my spare time via this gentleman's tutorials, which I recommend for anyone: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS1QulWo1RIZc4GM_E04HCPEd_xpcaQgg

 

Good luck with your new team and new role.

 

Thanks - they look good for beginners. I think I have covered them all now on Lynda courses. Might check a couple of the SQL connection ones though.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give any junior dev's is to really remember what your role (normally) is.

 

You are there to learn and progress your skills, but you are also there to make the people above you jobs easier and allow them to focus on what they need to.

 

Offering to pick up any emails, ask if they need anything doing to help them through out the day, re structure some CSS for them or whatever.

 

In a junior dev role you normally get lumped with some not so fun tasks and projects but you just have to show your commitment.

 

Yep, I've just been copying and pasting all week!

Firstly well done on the new job!

 

One thing I really pushed on my first job is that I was a front-end developer and not backend. I told my employers that by allowing me to focus purely on the front-end it would allow me to improve in that area much faster which in turn will yield better products for them.

 

That was probably my best move to date as since leaving there any PHP or WordPress knowledge that I'd have gained would have been useless in my current role or any future ones that I might take up.

The big bucks in web-dev are typically in building out systems with React, Node etc consuming REST APIs etc - not WordPress / PHP CMS systems.

 

I would encourage you to do the same if you eventually plan to move up in the game in time

 

Don't be discouraged by the learning curve it happens. I had the same experience again around 6 months ago when I moved into my new role as the people who work here are on another level, Simply knowing React, Redux, ES6, TDD was not enough with many of my colleagues being experts in them all. But persevere, keep on studying in your spare time and eventually you'll be in the position where colleagues come to you for help... Until you hit the next level and step up again!

 

BTW I've had no life for the past 3 years, I work 8 hours a day, run my business (Consulting) and study. I have Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings off, that is it. I work/study every evening and do not watch T.V I take a few holidays a year but even then I am reading books on development during travel etc.

That said It's 100% worth it, I can finally afford a new car and soon to buy a city centre apartment. The hard work is paying off - but be prepared for it to continue. The more you learn the more you realise how little you actually know

 

Also shameless plug for my Sass framework - I encourage you to try it out at your new place... https://github.com/rbrtsmith/nebula-css

 

Thanks Robert, you have been one of the most interesting and helpful people on this forum, so I do appreciate your advice.

 

At the moment there are only two developers in the company, myself included, so I simply have to muck in. Hell, I haven't even done any coding at all this week, bar 4 lines of CSS. I am actually enjoying PHP/Wordpress, but you are far from the only one mentionning React - it is next on my list, hopefully first half of 2017.

Edited November 18, 20169 yr by James Winfield

Congratulations:)

 

Thanks Robert, you have been one of the most interesting and helpful people on this forum, so I do appreciate your advice.

 

At the moment there are only two developers in the company, myself included, so I simply have to muck in. Hell, I haven't even done any coding at all this week, bar 4 lines of CSS. I am actually enjoying PHP/Wordpress, but you are far from the only one mentionning React - it is next on my list, hopefully first half of 2017.

 

There's no rush to learn React, it's well suited to single page JavaScript applications but not so well suited WordPress sites or any that leverage server-side HTML templating like PHP as React itself deals with templating.

React essentially takes some data, usually in the form of JSON from a REST API or similar and transforms the data and renders it out into the DOM using it's own templating language (JSX).

 

The other thing is that React requires quite an in depth knowledge of JavaScript. It seems you are enjoying what you are doing and that is the main thing, once you are comfortable I would advise you to focus more energy on the JavaScript side of things, not that PHP is a dying language, it isn't. It's just that strong JavaScript knowledge is in huge and increasing demand and I don't see that changing in the short term. Assuming here that your long term ambitions have you building out more complex applications in the future

Edited November 20, 20169 yr by rbrtsmith

Congratulations on your first role!

 

My advice to you is to push yourself, be positive, ask questions and enjoy the journey ahead. It will get tough, but you've got to persevere. As long as you've got the drive and willing to learn, you'll be successful.

 

I echo what Paul says. Get yourself onto some of the online learning resources. I haven't managed to do much for the last few months due to moving into my first home but before that egghead.io was one of the ones I really enjoyed and found useful (particularly for JavaScript/React development).

 

Congrats again and good luck

Thanks Robert, you have been one of the most interesting and helpful people on this forum, so I do appreciate your advice.

 

At the moment there are only two developers in the company, myself included, so I simply have to muck in. Hell, I haven't even done any coding at all this week, bar 4 lines of CSS. I am actually enjoying PHP/Wordpress, but you are far from the only one mentionning React - it is next on my list, hopefully first half of 2017.

Congrats on getting the job!

 

React doesn't pair well with Wordpress, I've tried it. It's basically impossible with existing sites, possible on a new build, though, but there are huge trade-offs. I consider these trade-offs to be for the better, but some certainly won't. I'm planning to release the Twenty Seventeen theme on Github built in React, WP API, and either GraphQL or Falcor, whenever I get around to it. I have to figure out how to setup GraphQL first. Once I get there I'd be happy to talk you through how it works and connects together, but I wouldn't expect anything this year.

 

The biggest plus of using React for me personally is being able to use and think about your frontend as components that can be composed together, and the focus on state. I have a feeling that there will be a divide in the community between people that want to use web components, and those that prefer React components. Web components still require the DOM API, and I can't imagine ever being excited about using that without something to do the heavy lifting.

 

If you're interested in a framework that will let you drop it into PHP sites or apps, then Vue JS is worth trying out (V2 only though). I'm a big fan of Vue, I think it has a lot going for it, and it's growing at a huge rate. You can either drop the vue.js file into an existing template or if you want, build out single page apps using single file (.vue) components, Webpack or Browserify. A lot of the ways apps are built in Vue 2.0 are extremely similar to React, you can also use JSX and functional components. There's a lengthy comparison with React here and a tweet from a React core member about it here. Finally, use whatever you enjoy building things in, whatever that may be.

Well it was fun whilst it lasted, well whilst there was enough coding to do anyway. Now unemployed. Bum.

Edited December 8, 20169 yr by James Winfield

Gosh that was quick - 1 month. As above what were the learning points?