On being a newbie JS developer
Two months ago, I decided to chase a dream I had always wanted to - getting into tech. So I applied to go to Moringa School. I was invited for an interview, and well, I thought I had failed. To my surprise, I passed and voila, I was in.
So, I was all out during my 5 weeks and wanted to learn as much. I participated in all that Moringa had to offer including stand ups and lightning talks. You can check out my lightning talk here.
Anyway, the reason I am writing this is to just share a few things I have learned over the last few weeks.
It is one thing to know the syntax of something, for instance a function, but do you really understand? I have learned that actually breaking something down and try to understand it your own way helps. If it is a function for instance, you need to play around with parameters, and how you can manipulate them. Take a parameter and think about another way to pass arguments to it. What if you passed arguments within the function? Outside the function? How about trying to define it? You will be surprised how much you can learn. You can also try to take the examples given and come up with your own.
2. Use resources well
One of the things I first learned was to read documentation. Until last week, all I have been doing is reading the definition of a particular method or property, but never trying it out. So last week, I actually looked up this property on W3Schools and clicked the 'try it out' button. I then opened jsfiddle.net, typed out the HTML and the JS code, even before reading the definition. I was amazed at how it worked, and I could now understand the definition.
3. Build a passion project
I am building 2 passion projects currently. Are there parts I am stuck? Definitely, yes. I have however learned so much building this projects. Every time I learn something new, or understand a concept I had not previously understood, I find myself going back and thinking, 'how about I try this new concept here?' Sometimes, I have found more than one way to achieve something, yea, and it's cool.
4. Find more places for learning, opportunities and collaboration
I have come across places where I can learn more, interact with others on the journey, ask questions and make contributions. I have also come across some programming challenges that make me think about how to apply all the knowledge that I have been learning. Attend meetups. I have attended one meetup this far, and man, I floated.
All the same, I hope to learn and build something significant. I hope you do too.