Learning front-end web development shouldn't be so overwhelming.
“Do I really need to know all those frameworks?”
“I'm terrified I'll waste a year learning the wrong stuff.”
“There's too much info out there. I wish I had a road map so I'd know what to do.”
I know your pain.
Hi! I'm a front-end developer by the name of Yaphi.
As a mostly self-taught coder, I've had these frustrations too. I eventually realized that a lot of people make web development sound more complicated than it needs to be.
I created a front-end development road map so you can stop feeling lost, learn what you need to learn, and get paid to do what you love.
Why would you listen to me?
I didn't come to web development through a neat path.
I did a bunch of unrelated jobs first, my degree is not in computer science, and I know how it feels to struggle to learn code.
A few years later, I'm at a stage where I develop production sites that get millions of hits, and I've been recruited by places like Amazon, Capital One, Rosetta Stone, and others.
My web development articles have been featured by organizations like Sitepoint, Lifehacker, Treehouse, and Dreamhost.
The most important qualification I have is this:
I know what you're going through because I've gone through it too.
Here are some of the issues you and I have probably shared:
There's so much new stuff coming out. How do I know which things to learn? How do I keep up? How do I avoid wasting time with the wrong things?
No matter how much I learn, I still feel like I'm faking it, as if I'm a fraud somehow. Part of me is terrified I'll be "found out".
Traditional education can be so expensive and outdated for web dev. A lot of classes still insist on teaching Flash or table-based HTML from 1998.
Motivation is not the problem. I'm willing to put in the effort. I'm just overwhelmed by which direction to go in.
I'm sick of having my ideas trapped inside my imagination. I want to make them real.
I don't have a computer science degree, and I'm constantly afraid that will count against me.
I'm tired of depending on inflexible plugins and themes to do what I want.
Too many instructors forget what it's like to be learners.
Veteran developers in forums can sometimes be really condescending and discouraging to learners.
It's too easy to forget stuff once you learn it, so I keep going in circles forgetting and relearning.
It's easy to do a code project while I'm following along with a tutorial, but as soon as I have to do it on my own, I get lost.
It would be wonderful to be paid well to do something you love.
Based on these struggles, I've put together the learning road map I wish I had when I was getting into front-end web development.