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Nick Prodromou
12,824 PointsBest way to learn (spec. Front End ) but any track applies
Hi Community,
just a general question.. for anyone on the Front-End track, or who has finished (and has had success with the track)
What would you consider to be the best way to learn?
For example, I've almost finished the track, and I've been eager to start building my own projects but even with the things I know, I still don't know where to start.
I feel like we all have a little entrepreneur spirit in us, and I have come up with a few things I would like to build. I feel like I (and possibly you) would benefit from sample projects at the end of each course in a track. I work full-time (as a web designer ) and I can only really do this stuff on weeknights and weekends... I'm really passionate about learning Front-End, but I really want to make the most of everything that we learn...
I know the courses are offered as more of a basic guide, and what you do with it is up to you. However, I feel as though jumping from topic to topic might not be giving anything the chance to really stick...
So I've come up with the idea of building a sort of curriculum, to go along with the Tracks.. as to get the most out of my subscription here. I guess I feel as though the tracks are more of a foundation to build on, and without guidance, it's hard to know what your next step is...
Ideally, I would just love to work underneath a mentor where I could learn on the job and be working with this technology that I'm super fond of...
Anyway, thoughts?
1 Answer
Alec Plummer
15,181 PointsHi Nick,
The best way to learn is by taking on projects from start to finish, let things break and search google/stackoverflow for answers when you can't figure them out. I don't know where you are at in terms of skill set, but here are a few suggestions for what I would focus on if you want to be a front end developer. Javascript...lots of javascript! Pick a css framework (foundation / bootstrap). Learn a css preprocessor (Sass / Less). Familiarize yourself with some build tools and how to use git. Sifting through popular projects on github is a good way to learn, read through the code and see if you understand whats going on.
Last but not least, stay motivated! I started with no knowledge, zero friends who knew how to code and absolutely no sense of what direction I should take lol. Almost 2 years later, I now work as a mid level front end developer at a software company (iOS app, custom ecommerce solutions). I build web apps all day long and love every hour of it. I'm exposed to new things daily and have begun working towards becoming a fullstack developer. If you can make it through the confusing and frustrating beginnings, things will start to click before you know it.
A quick list of what I use everyday; Foundation 6, Sass, html5, javascript / jquery, gulp (build tool), git (literally all day long), and c# on the .net framework.
Good luck in your endeavors!