When I started with web development, I thought I was super fortunate to live in an age of bootcamps, developer blogs, online courses, and tons and tons of free resources to be had. However, when you’re first getting into things this can end up being a problem as much as it is a blessing. With some many articles, sites, and posts, you can quickly find yourself getting lost in a deluge of information, and not all of it is as quality as the rest. It can be hard to know what is worth your time, and what is going to waste it. To this end, I’ve put together a list of some of the resources I’ve found value in as I’ve navigated my way through what I’ve found on the internet. I hope to add more to it in the future.
Below I’ve listed some of my own personal favorite resouces for various parts or web development. I think it would be good to run through a step by step guide of how to progress but for now I’ll just put the resources up as a starting point:
Free Resources
When you first start out, you generally want to invest as little as you can, test it out a little and see if you like it. The first place to start when you know nothing is a little basic instruction and some sandbox tinkering. Here is a short list of some of my favorites free stuff:
- freeCodeCamp: Get started here. I can’t think of a better way to start. Sign up, go to the first HTML lesson, and start learning.
- Scrimba: Give this a shot later on when you want something specific. In particular there is an excellent free course on React.
- Traversy Media: With so many blogs, courses and youtube channels out there, you can get lost in an endless sea of tutorials. In my experience, this guy is one of the best. I recommend doing a project along with him, and then making your own directly after.
Reference
From day 1 until the rest of your life you will need references. These are the best places to refer to and the closest thing to a dictionary you will have while doing web development. Get used to reading documentation as you’ll need to do it a lot.
- MDN: MDN or the Mozilla Developer’s Network is one half of the two main reference sites. Though not always easy to understand, it is a vast and comprehensive resource.
- W3 Schools: The other main compendium of concepts. I would say its in some ways not quite as comprehensive, but often easier to understand. They have great interactive code snippets, and a ton of basic projects to try.
- Stack Overflow: Not specifically for web development, this is where EVERYONE goes when they need help with coding. For literally anything. It is the world’s developer tech help forum.
Photo Assets
If you work at all in HTML/CSS you will likely need a lot of stock photos for your projects. Here are some of the best free, legal places to get them.
- Pexels: A stylish site with some awesome options. You can choose the resolution of your downloads which is a real plus.
- Unsplash: Another good choice. You can even do some tricky linking based on their URL schemes to generate random pictures for you.
- Photos for Class: Not just for college students. A little clunkier of an interface, but none the less a useful repository.
Version Control
For those who don’t know, version control is kinda like a time machine for coding. You need to get in the habit of saving your projects in iterations, because you never know when you’ll need to go back in time before you screwed things up. There is really only one good choice here in my opinion. Use GitHub. It’s an industry standard, and a great system. Learn to use git from the terminal while your at it. Its quite useful.
Blogs
Never stop learning and exposing yourself to what other people are doing. This section is totally subjective. I’ll give a couple opinions:
- Coder Coder: This is a great one if you’re feeling a bit lost as a newbie. Jessica does a great job of providing a bit of organization and motivation to the big scary world of web development.
- Rad Devon: Devon is a bit of a quirky character, but provides so good lessons in coding, and is a great resource if you want to try your hand at freelance web development. If you decide to take that plunge, check out his page first.
- freeCodeCamp Blog: You can tell I love these guys if they’re on here twice. If you sign up with your email, you’ll also get Quincy’s emails, which are some of the best mailing list emails I’ve ever received. Really good stuff there.
Ide
Once you get going coding you’ll quickly outgrow textpad as a program for writing code. An Integrated Development Environment is a much better option, available both in the browser and on your PC:
- SublimeText: Lightweight and versatile, this is a great place to start (and was my first ide).
- VSCode: Excellent free product from Microsoft. Loads of customization and add ons, you’ll want this when your needs outgrow sublimetext.
- Codepen: A combination of a lot things from in your browser. Showcase your projects, quickly code with live feedback, and scroll through a ton of other users work. A quick note though: do NOT get tempted to do all your work here only. While its great for making stuff quickly and accessing everywhere, its too easy as a newbie to only use this. Learn to use a real editor and create a real work flow. Its important, you’ll thank me later.
- Glitch: Another cool all inclusive browser IDE. Want to make a quick React project without setting up the environment? No problem!
Cheap Resources
Sometimes you have to invest a little bit of money into things to get quality returns. Here are a couple of good cheap options for courses on how to code:
- Udemy: Lookup Colt Steele’s Web Developer Bootcamp course, which you can sometimes get for $10 or less. A great teacher and a good starting point.
- Edx: Quality varies widely on this site. Lots can be had for free however, so take your time in choosing.
Networking
If you want to get a job you have to do this. Its actually the most important thing. Seriously. Use Meetup to find groups in your area. Make a profile on LinkedIn. Start finding people to chat with on Slack. It isn’t always fun for people to do but start sooner rather than later.
Job Hunting
Good luck! No but seriously its hard work. I think these are some decent places to look, but really its a war of attrition. Fail a lot and keep going:
- Glassdoor: A top site for reading company reviews, finding jobs, estimating salaries and so on.
- Indeed: Same as Glassdoor.
- Google: Yup find jobs here too.
- ZipRecruiter: Another staple. This one is more employer focused, but they will try to match you up as quick as they can.
- WeWorkRemotely: An option for remote work.
- RemoteOk: Antoher one.
Building a Site
Want to make a cool site on your own? Its doable on a budget. Its easy-ish to do but do your homework first. Check out this video from Brad Traversy. Here are what I use:
- Namecheap: Cheap way to buy a domain.
- A2 Hosting: A good option for hosting.
I hope this list is helpful for some, I know I would have appreciated it when I got started.