Finished frontend track but lousy when doing independent projects

I have yet to learn alot of things regarding web development, but, I have taken on 2 projects for friends, for free and i am applying what i am learning and adding that to thier web pages on the go.

It works for me promising to build a webpage for your friend{s} and explaining you are just starting out, and actually send them copies of their webpages as you make it, the real world feedback helps massively.

And also if you are not totally 100% confident you fully understood what was said in the tutorial videos then work out what you have struggled to understand the most and repeat it over and over and over again until it sinks in. repetiveness is the key to learning coding {i think it is for myself anyway!}

Good luck and don't give up!

Heya Imri,

Keep calm and re-watch those vids! When working from Treehouse, make sure you go back and reference what you are working on. When I originally started on here (2011?), I would always go back and re-watch the video as I was trying to achieve something, giving the lesson more real world context which helps to solidify the information even more so.

For the first few years, I was always watching Treehouse videos at work to help me with something I was working on; absolutely no shame in that! It's important to do things right. Even now I'll use TH or Google to remind me how to do something I've completely forgotten how to do; and I'm now a technical lead for a WordPress team!

Here is a great article that helps with workflows.

The below may help you create context around a project you are working on.

Making context with no clients. If you do want to build a site without a client, find a...terrible site (there are many :p) and rebuild them. Think about what the client really wanted from their site and (using the article at the top) go through the whole process. This will really help you to apply things you have learnt.

I'm not sure if any of the ramblings are useful but respond on here and I'm happy to clarify any points :) Cheers Liam

Thanks, Paul and Liam! You both gave me some great advice and calmed me down :) I'll push forward and give myself a little more time to rewatch the vids. I'll focus on doing things right, like Liam said, and not doing things fast.

I'd love to hear some more about the path people take after the courses here, which is (I think) the same as asking "how to start building a portfolio?". That way, I can get some needed perspective.

Thanks again guys and happy holidays!

Oh and one other thing! Do you think learning another course, on Bootstrap, for example, would be wise at this point? Or simply continue coding and solve problems as they come?

Hey Imri,

No problem. Happy to help budding developers! :)

Keep with the courses you are currently on, especially if you are having issues learning what they are trying to teach you; it will make sense!

I think I used to watch the videos 3 times. First time to see what they were teaching; second time to ask questions (this way I knew i they were kinda gonna cover it); third time to absorb and code along at the same time (pausing as I went through the video).

Some of the courses I had to come back to several months later. There are times when it suddenly just clicks but some you really do have to knuckle down and try to understand it (Sorry. There is no way of telling :p). 'JavaScript' and 'OOP with PHP' were those hurdles for me. I think OOP took me about 2 years to suddenly understand and now it's second nature.

Keep at it and stay involved with the TH community. It really does help to ask for help :)

I agree with Liam 100%! although i am no where near to his experience!

I can be fairly impatient when it comes to wanting to learn how to code and work in this field, I despise my current job right now and all i want to do is start making a living out of web development but i've had to tell myself, Rome wasn't build in a day!!

Just have patience Imri and stick with it. And Merry Christmas to you all.

Lol. Thanks Paul. Appreciate that :)

One thing I would say is worth checking out is using the WordPress CMS (no bias here!)

If you can get to grips with a visual builder for WordPress like WPBakery (previously visual composer) or Divi (Divi is much better!) you'll be snapped up as a Junior dev in no time. My first job was as an in-house developer and it was only because I knew WordPress theme development that they initially took me on; this has seen me go from strength to strength pretty quickly due to people wanting WordPress developers.

After that it is about following best practices, design patterns (theme and plugins) and work flow management. If you can lock that down your clients will be happy to share your details with others.

Anyway!! That is enough from me. Good luck to the both of you and feel free to keep in touch on LinkedIn if I go AFK on here :)

Thank you Liam!

I just had a look at your linkedin profile and it is brilliant to see your progression from your first junior position as a developer! I'm hoping to achieve similar to yourself.

best wishes.

Thank you Liam, appreciate the help!

Guys, thanks so much for your responses! I'm sorry I didn't answer here sooner, tough week...

Paul - good luck mate; I'm sure you'll end up being an awesome developer. You seem to have the right attitude and mindset.

Liam - what can I say, man, thanks so much for all the helpful information! You're amazing. I've kept your contact details for the future, I'm sure we'll be talking more someday soon :)

Have an awesome weekend and a great 2018! Thanks again!