I started the process of coding only four short weeks ago. I had absoltely no idea what the hell I was doing, and there was a big part of me that didn't believe I'd actually be able to learn how to become a front-end web developer. The honest truth is that I wanted to buy myself more time while everyone around me watched and waited for me to find my next stable source This path is anything but an easy way out, but more than anything, it's rewarding as hell. You will feel like you're in over your head most of the time. Just when you feel like you're on top of a lesson or a new skill, you'll feel just as quickly that familiar sense of being defeated once again. Push through it. Stay up late to go over it one more time. Re-do the project without the helpful hints and answer codes. Take redundant notes you "know you'll never look back on." (You're going to be scowering your notebook for those "useless" notes after a few lessons.) Put in the extra thirty minutes to really get these skills under your skin. You are worth the time and energy it takes to learn such an amazing skill like coding. But beyond learning something new, you're worth this investment. You are worth feeling proud of!
Have you ever been so sure something was perfectly written out and spell checked, just to come back to it a few hours later with fresh eyes and see a bunch of typos? Imagine that, but times a million. Your code must be perfect for it to work. There are no grey areas in HTML and CSS. It either works or it doesn't. That happens to be one of my favorite parts about web-development, but it isn't everyone's cup of tea. All I have to say is...learn to love nitty gritty details. But you're in luck! You don't have to rely solely on the power of your own eyes. There are amazing resources online to help you "verify" your code. This is important to utilize not only if you are running into an issue you can't seem to fix. Verrifying your code is essential to completing a team project -- You won't always be the only one looking at your code. While you might understand your messy, un-nested, un-indented, non-commented, out-of-order code, what will happen when you are collaborating on an entire team of web-developers who need to make sense of your code? They will need to effortlessly pick up where you left off. Time is money, and coder's don't come cheap. Verify those pesky detials and respect those that tend to your code after you. (You'll also save yourself a lot of hastle in the long run, as well.)
You are now venturing into the world of working from home. Guess
what that means? No more hands-free-knee-driving commutes to work on busy freeways
with burnt out people eating their breakfast out of tupperware
at
7:00 AM rush hour. You are working in the convenience
of your own home. As beautiful and flexible as this is,
it is also a big downside to being your own boss. A good friend of
mine often says, "They tell you working for yourself is great because
you get to set your own hours. What they don't tell you is...
it's all of them." I hope you are great at setting boundaries
around your time, but if you aren't, lucky you! You will be
learning that skill very quickly if you have any interest
in maintaining your sanity. The flexibility of being
able to work from anywhere in the world, in your pajamas,
without even brushing your teeth is the dream! Well, for the most part!
This also means that you'll be confronted with many opportunities throughout
the day to work when you are meant to be engaging in other things like
with your family, your house work, school, your kids, dinner, etc.
Don't get trapped in your work and become a slave
to the thing you started to gain more freedom in the first place.
If this sounds overly simple, it's because it is. As a web-developer, you will have the opportunity to take high paying jobs, and work for companies that have more money than you can even imagine. Before you start looking for a job, really have a think about what you want out of the coding/web-developer world. Do you want to work 40-60 hours a week? Do you only want to work part-time? Are you a stay at home mom just looking for supplimental income? Do you want to be a freelacer? Do you want to work for one large company on a big team of web-developers? Do you want to work for single-person local businesses? Will you charge by the hour, or adopt a "value-based" pricing model? Before you get carried away in the possibilities, think about why you started to pursue this career in the first place, and what you really want out of it. From there, you are able to accept jobs accoringly. This will ensure you are enjoying what you do 10 years... 15 years.... maybe even 30 years from now!