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James Barrett
13,253 PointsWhere to go from here? Undecided on direction
Hi there,
I am a relatively new user to Treehouse and I have just completed the 'How to build a website' course which I found very interesting and enjoyable. My question is where should I go from here? I was considering building my own portfolio website after completing a JavaScript course, whilst reading up on blogs and keeping my HTML and CSS memory fresh. Is there anything users on here would recommend?
Thanks, James.
2 Answers
Brandon Bolin
760 PointsI would recommend beginning your portfolio, and at the same time continuing to learn some jQuery. It's a good next step. Followed with WordPress/PHP in my opinion.
Cheers
Jarrett Young
12,635 PointsHi James,
When I first joined Treehouse, I completed the "How to build a website" course as well, then continued on the "Front End Web Development" Track. I dove into Javascript and kept going until I reached the course on AJAX. Then I decided to jump over to the "Swift" track to learn iOS development and completed that track. Then I roamed around various Wordpress courses for a bit, then back to the Front End Web Development track, got a little bored again, and jumped over to Python for a quick second. I did all of this in about 3 months.
Around this time I was feeling pretty lost. I felt like I had exposed myself to TOO many different web languages and they were all starting to blend together in my mind. I couldn't quite differentiate between some of them, and I couldn't remember which syntax goes with this language or that language...you get the idea.
So I reached out to a buddy of mine who began his learning path about 6 months before I did. He is now the lead front end developer for a creative digital agency. I asked him what I should focus on now, and he told me to focus solely on HTML and CSS (and some Javascript/jQuery when needed). But otherwise, go back to the beginning and MASTER that. Really understand how to take a Photoshop mockup or design and code it out so that it looks EXACTLY like that in the browser. Understand the workflow of receiving a design, coding out the HTML DOM, assigning IDs and classes, and styling it perfectly with CSS. Understand responsive design and mobile layouts. Understand flex box (you're definitely going to need that mastery). Just really dive into HTML and CSS. That was his advice to me, and I now see why. The agency he works for is looking to hire another developer, and my buddy (being the lead developer) wants to hire ME.
As he puts it, he is giving me advice that he wishes someone else would have given him 6 months ago. So, stick with HTML and CSS and really, really, really learn it well. Master it. That's what I'm doing now. I suppose I would recommend continuing down the Front End track or switching over to the Web Design track. I, myself, am on the Web Design track since I'm trying to learn as much as I can about HTML and CSS. Perhaps that would be a good place for you as well.
Hope that helps, Jarrett
James Barrett
13,253 PointsThank you very much for your response, Jarrett. I think this is a good idea! Did you start developing websites after mastering HTML and CSS or did you did you develop along the way?
Thanks, James.
Jarrett Young
12,635 PointsHi James,
Well, I'm still a FAR cry from any level of mastery, but along the way I've helped develop and customize a few Wordpress sites. But my goal right now is to really, really, really master CSS. I want to be able to take someone's design and completely code it out from scratch with HTML and CSS. Also, there have been a number of developments with CSS lately. From what I understand, the community is really developing the language and progressing it in a way that allows things to be done in the browser without the use of Javascript. In other words, some things that would have required Javascript are now being accomplished via CSS, thereby reducing page load times and providing for a better overall browsing experience, both on desktop and mobile screens.
But by all means, don't let me deter you from learning something else that you're interested in. We're all on our own individual unique learning paths. I mean, I completed the whole Swift track on Treehouse a couple of months ago. Perhaps getting away from where you are now and jumping into something totally different will open doors for you. Who knows? Python is definitely something I'm interested in, and perhaps one day I'll get around to diving further into that.
As Brandon mentioned earlier, jQuery, PHP and Wordpress are absolutely worthwhile. Feel free to jump around, of course. But I think you'll find (and of course I could be completely wrong here) that even after you check out other languages, you'll eventually want to go back to the beginning and really hone your fundamentals. It's kind of like you need to start making your layups first before you start launching three-pointers, you know?