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General Discussion

Posted by Jimmy Wu
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Jimmy Wu
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 10,816 Points

If I want to be hired as a junior front-end web developer from scratch, is one year enough?

Disclaimer I put one year here definitely not because I think front end web development is easy. One year is a time-frame that I hope I can accomplish this.

My background: I have a business administration Bachelor degree. No previous experience with coding. I want to be a FEWD because I came across some tutorials online, and I think it's a really interesting and challenging career. Being able to building something from scratch and let people around the world to see it is amazing to me!

My current work: I currently work as a part-time at an auto parts trading company (3 days per week). I just don't find this job enjoyable and motivating and the pay and benefit is not good at all.

My questions:

1. I currently work 3 days a week, which leaves me four days of free time to learn front-end web dev. If during those days I learn coding for at least 4~8 hours a day and at least 30 mins ~ 1 hour on working days, is one year a reasonable time-frame for me to be hired as a junior front-end web dev?

2. I'm currently doing Treehouse's front-end track because I've heard many good things about this site. Is this a good place to start? And where to go after that? After learning HTML and CSS, should I learn JQuery first or Javascript? Some people say learn JQuery first because it's easier and after you learn it learning Javascript would be less pain in the ass?

3. If I do become proficient in HTML, CSS, Javascript, and JQuery, what is a reasonable salary I should be asking for? (I live in Los Angeles area). After looking on Google, it says around 50k~60k in this area is that accurate?

Thank you for taking your time to read it. As you may see I'm a total noob in this industry, but I do find myself feel passionate in this industry and hope to pursuit this career in the future. If you guys have any tips please let me know. I have been reading on related topics like crazy recently, but still would like to hear more about it :)

1 Answer

Jonathan Grieve
MOD
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,254 Points
Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,254 Points

I would say (and don;t quote me on this) that is year is more than enough time based on the hours you proposed to learn CSS, HTML and Javascript, especially here on Treehouse and you'll have a lot of fun with it too.

I recommend starting with the

How to make a website course here on Treehouse. You can find it on the Web Design Track.

If you wanted a faster paced curriculum I'd go for

  • How to Make a website
  • Responsive Layouts.
  • Responsive Images
  • CSS Basics
  • CSS Selectors
  • CSS Layout Basics
  • CSS Flexbox Basics
  • Javascript Basics
  • Javascript Arrays Loops and Objects
  • Object Oriented JavaScript
  • Interactive Web Pages with Javascript.

Those are the ones that spring to mind from off the top of my head but they're all available to view in treehouse's excellent content Library

There's some excellent courses on individual aspects of HTML5 too like Forms, Audio and Visual elements too.