The Fast Track to Become a Software Developer.
The criteria for a good career is:
- A decent wage – be it financial or psychological reward.
- Personal growth.
- Autonomy.
- Being creative and making a difference.
- What you do should be a craft.
Being a software developer in today’s world can satisfy all of the above criteria and with “the new normal” you can work for anyone from anywhere.
What’s the fastest way to become an in demand software developer?
LEARN PLAIN JAVASCRIPT
Really! Learn JavaScript.
No shortcuts. No libraries. JavaScript will be around for many years, while libraries and frameworks come and go every year.
HOW TO BEGIN
Use the Feynman technique and learn JavaScript as if you were going to teach it to someone. This means don’t just learn from little bits of tutorials, tips, or tricks online. Instead, you want to learn the foundations, the fundamentals. Then all your future learning will be so much faster.
You can begin with a book like this “Head First JavaScript Programming”.
Use Free Code Camp and use it at the same time as you’re reading the books. Think back to your school days and how learning things via different methods helped the knowledge to stick!
MAKE YOUR OWN NOTES.
Writing everything down and making your notes for your pretend Feynman class can really help embed what you have learnt.
Here are some more books that have been recommended to me that will help re-enforce what you have learnt:
- You Don’t Know JS — by Kyle Simpson
- Rediscovering JavaScript — by Venkat Subramaniam
- Effective JavaScript — by David Herman
You should start finding these books easier to follow. Quicker to pick up. Your practice is paying off.
TRY AND SOLVE EVERYTHING YOURSELF WITH PLAIN JAVASCRIPT.
Be it jQuery or React - you will be advised to save yourself the hassle and to use a library. But this will not be for you. You will do it the hard way. Solve everything yourself with plain JavaScript.
You will deeply know your subject matter and set yourself apart from the crowd.
And finally...
When you have completed all of above and you have a web app in mind - start building it NOW
As you build your craft read
- The Pragmatic Programmer by David Thomas, Andrew Hunt
- So Good They Can't Ignore you - by Cal Newport
Since you know the foundations and inner workings of JavaScript you can learn any of the libraries in any of the roles you can now apply for.