Course Recommendation advice please

if you want to work as a front-end developer it could be a good idea to check out the learning adventure become a web designer. I already finished a lot of this courses and I love it. Having a certification or not, depends on what kind of job you're looking for. From my point of view, showing your work, loving the job and doing the right things counts more than a certification. Maybe it depends on the size of the company - the bigger the more you'll need a certification. For example, if you want to get hired by a huge microsoft partner developing windows 8 front-ends, the certification could be helpful, because it shows that you're in the right corner. Enjoy learning and treehouse.

Most will likely suggest you work your way through the Become a Web Developer Learning Adventure, which it looks like you may already have a head start on (the HTML Deep Dives are part of becoming a web developer, of course).

Knowing when you're ready is the trickier part and it's something I still struggle with. Your best bet is to follow along the adventure and make steady progress. In the meantime, develop small, simple websites using the material you're learning along the way. Building a portfolio of stuff you've done and can show off will probably go farther than anything else.

My personal advice: once you become comfortable with HTML, CSS, JS, and maybe some PHP, look for friends you can offer to build a small website for, or something like that. About 3 or 4 months ago, relatively early into my Treehouse experience, I jumped on the opportunity to build a friend a Wordpress site for their passion project. In all honesty, I was in over my head, but now I have something I'm pretty proud of.

@nathan - agree and congrats to the cheeman-site - like it, cool stuff.