working in web development

The best thing to do is start with the front end web development track to learn the basics and then keep practicing and build some things to have a portfolio to show potential employers and clients and go from there.

Hope that helps

Most development employers care only about "can you do the work?"

this blog post shows a number of ways to get the experience without getting hired: http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/get-web-design-experience

You need to put together work samples into a portfolio if you want to be hired for front-end stuff.

I'm a junior level front-end dev. I started with Treehouse 13 months ago. I started looking for work about 8-9 months ago, and actually getting paid about 6-7 months ago. Here's my day to day: 90% of my time is split between HTML emails and marketing sites (typically static landing pages, 1-3 page WP microsites or 3-5 page templates for a bigger WP site) for clients of the agency I'm contracted out of - they are digital marketing for a number of large healthcare clients and a few other verticals. Both of those tasks I'm working off of .PSD files the amazing design team puts together and translating that into browser friendly, responsive and standards compliant code - lots and lots of HTML and CSS, some javascript, and some PHP required. we use Coda 2 and subdomains off a mediatemple hosting account to put up/manage all of our test links before taking them live, and our agency acts as web host to some clients but not all. I ask A LOT of annoying, simple questions from the 3 other developers there. Actual people are always your best source of information. A big red flag for possible employers is if you would be the ONLY developer there as your first job. You just don't know what you don't know.

The person I'm most involved with is my project manager/office wife, and I can not state the importance of free, open, and respectful communication (and lest you think that's agency specific, FL clients are even MORE demanding). Last, because I'm a FL at an agency (which, btw, is a great business model if your city has a number of agencies) I have to be really on top of the time I bill out FOR them and TO them.

at night, I'm constantly attending design events, industry get-togethers, developer meetups, seminars, business community events, happy hours, service projects, hackathons, etc. When I go - even if it's been the worst day of my life - I'm showing up happy, excited, and enthusiastic about the path I'm on, but for the most part I'm listening to other people. This is basic Dale Carnegie stuff, but totally necessary for getting yourself out there.

In the mornings, I'm on here or another site continuing to learn. It's a lot of work but it is really worth it for me.

Bottom line - to get started and stay competitive as a web developer you have to 1) be constantly teaching yourself and learning more about your field.
2) constantly make work you're not afraid to show to potential employers - and show it to them. 3) learn how to interact with people professionally and collaboratively.