Becoming a web developer.

In need for some advice about the next steps.

[Le_Purrr]

Hello everyone!

I have just discovered this website and, as someone who is working on becoming a web developer, I'm really happy to have stumbled upon it.
I've been learning for a while now, and so far it has been going quite well.
I think I just need some general advice about the next steps.
I have a background in graphic design and am generally interested in front-end development and design. The reason for this new career choice is that I would like to go away from my 9 to 5 job and be able to travel more, and still be able to work remotely. In future, ideally, I think I would prefer to work as a freelancer on several smaller projects at once, and not be dependent on a single company.

So far I've learned HTML, CSS, SASS, Bootstrap, basics of JavaScript, jQuery, some animation GSAP library, some Git and GitHub. I think the next thing will be learning some PHP and also Wordpress management, because I think that a lot of smaller businesses use it and would appreciate help with maintaining their websites. With what I know so far, currently I am working on my online web development portfolio so I can show around what I can do. To begin with, I will have 4 websites in it + the web development portfolio itself.
I am pretty sure that there are a lot of things that would be beneficial for me at this stage so I would be very grateful for any advice on what to do / learn next, for any insight in your experiences, for any useful tools and resources.

So, having all this information, please let me know what you think.
Thank you!

[brotherhood of LAN]

Welcome to the forums, Le_Purrr.

Sounds like you're well on your way with your current experience. Learning some PHP to manage Wordpress would be totally reasonable, I don't see the popularity of WP declining anytime soon and being able to manage the front and back end of it would put you in a good position.

I'd also suggest looking at something like nodeJS, since you're already familiar with Javascript. That way you can use your Javascript knowledge on both the front and back end.

All the best

[engine]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com] Le_Purrr, glad to have you join us.

I'd probably suggest a generic topic and that's security. So much data needs to be protected these days, even if it's not important data, such as credit cards, etc. But it also applies applies to bad actors making changes to a site for their own purposes.

[Le_Purrr]

Okay. Thank you very much!

[not2easy]

Welcome, Le Purrr! One of the most useful tools I have found online is the WebmasterWorld forums' site search in the upper right corner on desktop. Whether I needed to look up information about configuration for Apache or DNS or managing domain migration, registrar hurdles, any number of seldom needed information - it seems the fastest place to find what I've needed.

[graeme_p]

How generalist or specialist do you want to be?

I have over the years focused more and more on back-end work, because that is what I am best at. These days I do a fair bit of non-web programming too.

With your graphic design background, maybe you should specialise in design aspects. Maybe learn about UI design and usability rather than programming.

It depends on your skills set and the market you are aiming for, of course.

[Le_Purrr]

Thank you not2easy!
Yes, this forum seems to be a real treasure chest. Exactly what I was looking for.

graeme_p, I think that, because I would prefer to work with smaller companies, I should have more general skills. But I am definitely interested in the design aspect as well. That's what I really enjoy doing.

[nomis5]

You want to get away from your 9 to 5 job. An admirable objective.

My advice after 20+ years in this industry is that the technical matters count for nothing. As long as you can create a website and publish it the rest is rubbish. My only advice on the technical side would be to avoid Wordpress and similar. They are open to attacks.

Choose a subject that interests you, think out of the box and bring something new to that subject.

If you don't do that, all the technical abilities in the world will be a waste of time. There will always be narrow minded technical experts who will be better than you. They, unfortunately, are missing the point.

[graeme_p]

A lot of people make a living using Wordpress without knowing much PHP - just enough to do templates. They know how to install it and plugins and how to modify themes. Be careful writing PHP as its not difficult to create security issues.

You can even avoid PHP entirely for templates you design from scratch as there is a Wordpress plugin that lets you use Twig. This has some advantages: its more secure, its probably more productive and its easy to work with other platforms that use Twig (Symfony, recent versions of Drupal) or similar template languages (Django, Liquid - I have had problems finding designers for the former, and the latter is used by Shopify so small businesses often use it).

Wordpress itself is reasonably secure, the problem comes from insecure themes and plugins. Minimise the number of plugins and custom PHP you use and you are a lot more secure. Doing that can be a problem - I had to add a plugin to my blog recently just so that I could use SVG images in posts.

[Le_Purrr]

Thank you nomis5!
Couple of friends of mine, that are working as web developers, have told me something similar about the technical side of web development.
About Wordpress, I thought that it might be useful knowing how to maintain it, because it is so widespread and there is probably plenty of job opportunities.
About choosing a subject, I think that I am at the stage at which I want to get the taste of different things, and then decide what feels right. But I'm pretty sure that front-end development is something where I feel most comfortable. At least for now.

[Le_Purrr]

graeme_p,
I thought of learning PHP because I wanted to learn some backend language and PHP doesn't seem to be that complicated. I will definitely check the Twig.
Thank you very much for your tips!

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by engine. New thread at: new_web_development/5001534.htm [webmasterworld.com]
10:48 am on Jul 7, 2020 (utc +1)