WATCH THIS IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A WEB DEVELOPER! - Web Development Career advice

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When I was starting out in my web development career, I so wish that someone would have pulled me aside for 30minutes and given me a web development lecture with this advice and information. If you want to be a web developer, then this course will give you career advice that will shortcut you to learning the things you need to learn to get a job in the industry. Do you know if you want to be a frontend developer or a backend developer? You need to know.

This video will tell you what you have to learn to become a web developer that employers are desperate to hire. It will show you what paths to take, and what kind of job descriptions are out there that employers are trying to fill.

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Also watch: "Responsive Design Tutorial - Tips for making web sites look great on any device"
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[OfficialDevTips]

This is really great Will. It's really great to get this 100yd perspective from someone who knows what they are talking about. Thanks for sharing!

[throughmyshadow]

As someone who has been doing this for a while and has worked at agencies; this is very accurate.

[veritystothard]

I watched this for the first time about 2 months ago when I first started getting interested in web development. I was trying to figure out where the hell I was meant to start (I literally did not even know what HTML and CSS was), and it was immensly helpful to have a visual map of what I needed to do, as well as an explination of how Front End and Back End differed, so I could work out what I might enjoy most.

2 months of intesive learning later and I'm back here again; it's an amazing feeling knowing I have at least a basic-intermediate grasp of a lot of the skills you mention on the front end track. Honestly, thank you for making this; I've still got a long long way to go, but it's a great reassurance to know that I'm not going around in circles!

[kli]

I am a developer working in Middleware and proprietary software but I am interested in web development.  I am currently looking at targeting my educational focus.  I have spent a lot of time researching what to learn and this is the ONLY video that goes beyond the obvious and explains the why and how of the entire tech stack.  Big Up to you! 

[mzalt]

For those watching, this is literally just 20% of the game! Let me name just few missed stuff:

Programming principles
data structures
algorithms
Web fundamentals
debugging tools
hosting
domain
DNS
Cookies
Sessions
Responsive Design
Browsers Compatibility
Development Tools
Development Environments (also Production Environments)
Message Queueing
Databases Types (not only Engines)
Backend Frameworks (not only CSS & JS but he named Rails and Express..)
Packages/Libraries
Automated Testing Frameworks
Testing Types
Testing Techniques
Protocols such as HTTP and its verbs and usages
Resful API's development and consuptions
AJAX
Operating Systems (mainly Linux ditros and commands)
Version Control (mainly Git + its workflows)
Design patterns :)
Design principles
Architectural Patterns :D
Programming paradigms, example OOP (Object Oriented Programming)
SEO
JS Transpilers
Github
Template Engines
...
...
...

Anyway very good video, thanks for the effort of sharing.

[Bliss..]

Greetings my friend. One thing to say ! You don't need to 2 years to get a job. Start learning! Get yourself a learning plan. Create a to do - to -learn list and stick with it. Consider not having a life for the next 6 months, and you will learn enough to get hired in an entry level position. You won't believe how much that pais off. . . you will learn so many things at the place of work, you will learn by doing. Not to mention, these technologies are not hard to learn at all. Not will all the materials hovering all over the internet nowadays... : ) Good luck to ya'll!

[snaidu]

One of the hardest parts about learning webdev has got to be about knowing which direction to proceed in. This video is amazing in addressing that. Thank you! 

[fazilansarizuhaib]

This gave me a sort of to do list, where as before I was learning random things. thanks for this video man!

[sauliusskeirys]

I have to say, perhaps that was the best video shown talking about the whole Web developer area (taking the fact that Youtube has a lot of bullshit videos too). I really loved it and I found some answers too. Subscribed!

[MynameisBendro]

As a first-year web development student, this video has really answered a lot of questions I had. Also, I now have a good idea as to what I should research in my spare time and over the summer. Thanks Will!

[RioWaller]

Excellent! I've been sourcing information for an online course for students starting in the Web Development major and this will be my roadmap! Great job!!! Very HELPFUL!  

[JoseSotoCanHelp]

I have been playing with web development for a while now and this is one of the most useful resources I have come across. Thank you!

[minhtriettran]

Hi there!

Sir, you're amazing! I watched this video first, and then I saw your "How the Internet Works for Developers - Pt 1 & 2". They all tackle the same issue: what to learn and how all the front-end and back-end are connected! How did I never come across your very helpful videos. I totally agree with your first lines of this video. You're doing me and others a great great favor!

I searched the internet for months on end and there's not a single book that helps me understand how the internet is doing things (which was explained awesomely with your How the Internet Works for Developers - Pt 1 & 2"). Now that might due to my inability to use Google, but seriously, whenever I type web development, it shoves CSS and HTML in my face instantly. It's totally useless if you could make a form using HTML and then when the button "Submit" is pressed, nothing happens. I want to know what undergoes when I press "Post" after I finish this comment.

I want to develop my own website. I have basic HTML and CSS at hand. What I need and want to be is a back-end developer. But before that, I want to completely grasp the concepts of the stuffs like "DNS" or "FTP", ...and How the front and back ends all hooked up together. Just the idea, not any specific languages! I don't know how you put it, but maybe I'm thinking of "the Internet Infrastructure"?. 
In conclusion, I would like it very much to have some guidance from someone who knows things around like that back of his hand like you. I would totally appreciate that if you could help me on with some book recommendations on several subjects. Just throw anything you have at me. I'm not afraid of reading:
1/ How the Internet works from 101 to in-depth, how the front and back ends link to each other.
2/ Your "No matter which route you take". I want to understand what they are for, how they connect to the front/back ends
3/ Django (I have some basic Python so I guess this is the choice)
4/ Your book? Do you write any books? Cause that would be totally cool!

A Big Thank
TMT

PS: I hope you don't mind my "Great Wall Of Text"...

[Raven-jxln]

I normally am a bit more articulate with my comments but all I can say is... THANK YOU. This is exactly the kind of information I've been looking for.

I've learned HTML CSS and JS/jQuery (to the point where I could probably do it in my sleep) but I didn't know where to go from there. I've been wanting to find a job in front end web development for a long time now, but I've never felt like what I know was valuable enough to land me a job anywhere. At least now I have a better idea what direction I'm headed. Next stop, AngularJS!

Cheers

[macgaso]

This is my first tutorial in web development. After learning html5, css3, javascript, jquery, and bootstrap, I am re-watching this video now.

[Clichet]

Thanks for all this. I've been learning this stuff (front end) like a maniac for the past four months. When I watched this video I didn't even know what Jquery was. I'd say my current skillset is being solid with HTML, CSS, Jquery, Bootstrap, Responsive web, and I know my way around Photoshop as well. I coded my own site which is online, along with a few free time projects, which I put on Github. I was recently able to land my first job interview, but apparently the ideal candidate had both front and back end skills so I didn't get the job. Now I'm learning AngularJS, and planning to build that first web app, and hopefully being one step closer to landing that first job.

[ExploreAdore]

Thank you!!! Finally found some clear guidance on learning order after Javascript. Always wondered what purpose node.js, gulp, angular, bootstrap. Saw online recommendations, but no clear explanations as to what each of them were.

[kylerjohnson]

This is a phenomenal video. Very concise. I found this video several months ago and I have been using it as sort of a curriculum for my research. I learned enough about Front-End Web Development to create several websites. I was a high school Spanish teacher but now I'm enrolled at Full Sail University and I'm ahead of the game thanks to this video.

[freakuencer]

Nice video. But as a freelancer in front / backend for now almost 16 years (mostly in ITs, sometimes in advertising agencies or third party stuff at home), I've got a few suggestions:
If you haven't written a single line of code in your life, starting backend with PHP should be your choice. Not because it's the best language (I don't want to start a war on this) but for beginners it's the easiest (you can start very straight forward without oop) and it's still far the most popular - so there are tons of more message boards /  tutorials / stack overflow answers to get into it than in any other language. Ruby is more "the fancy new kid" (well, not new: "rediscovered" ;)) out there you can get into, when you're good in PHP (knowing oop, design patterns, frameworks etc.) or already know how to code. Also in PHP there are far the most job offers out there (and I think this won't change in the next years essentially) - so it's not learning it now to forget it later as well. ;).

Stay away from node.js at first. It's currently more made for "special cases" than for creating whole big projects. Also just knowing JavaScript will make you a horrible coder as JavaScript offers the least principles of oop (and therefore structuring your code) and is beside the other languages "this dude with the strange accent" .
Knowing Github at the beginning is not important as well (I'm just working with it since 5 months - even knowing what git or svn does is also just important when you start to work with other people together).

Well most of the advanced stuff here is not necessarily needed, just good if you heard of it and somehow know what it does to get a first job (as you always start as a "junior developer").

So the routes that should be good:
For frontend:
Be a good designer, know how to design in Photoshop, have at least a good feeling of usability. If not, stop.
Because that's what you're doing as a frontend developer: Making things looking good. You don't really code much in the common sense here: You translate design pictures into a markup language and use JavaScript to trigger interactions (mostly - I know and also had projects with tons of js code, canvas, mvc etc - but these are exceptions and unless you're working for big advertising agencies who want to win prices with their stuff or have to do other crazy interfaces like google maps you won't write much more than some short ajax stuff or hiding / displaying things). 
Learn HTML5, a little vanilla JavaScript (so "raw" JavaScript without any plugins like jQuery or so - just to understand, what JavaScript does and how this programming language works) and CSS first. Make designs in Photoshop and try to convert them into a webpage by using less image-snippets out of PS as you can (try to make it with CSS instead). Use validators. Read sourcecodes of any website which you like and try to understand how they did certain stuff you don't know. Continue with jQuery and bootstrap (for responsive designs). When you're fine with it, try to create an own plugin with it (nothing big, just for understanding how jQuery works). Go on to AngularJS and LESS (or SASS). Learn a little bit about lazy loading and how to avoid requests in images, css and js. Take a look how SVN works (much easier than GIT for the beginning ;)). Then you should be fine for your first job interview.

For backend:
Well that's the harder way and just do it if you want to create things nobody will see and you're fine with "a good feedback is no feedback at all". You're going into the dark nerdy side here. ;)
So, learn basic HTML, a little CSS (just understand what it does) and JavaScript maybe to create some sort of a working webpage interface (doesn't  matter if it looks like one of the paintings in your childhood). As I said, I would start with PHP. The best start is maybe to buy a beginner book and walk through it, so that you get basic lessons in databases, sessions and coding at all. Switch as fast as you can to an object orientated style in coding. Learn to setup / modify an apache server, PHP and MySQL. Under Linux. After you're fine in oop (including abstract or static classes, know when to use interfaces, the difference between public/private/protected) continue with a framework (Zend2 and Symfony2 are currently the most popular ones) and get the MVC model. Learn more about MySQL (indexing, transactions, joins, ...), caching (for the beginning apc is ok, memcache of course better) and server attacks / security. Learn about SVN. Take a look at unit tests / test driven development (it's not that necessary for a junior dev. but impresses mostly). That should be fine then for a first interview as well.

[DougSteinberg]

Wow! Awesome video. I've been learning PHP for the last year, and have lots of experience with HTML and CSS. Lately I've been seeing a lot of jobs for Front End Developers. After watching this I think front end is the way to go. Thanks!