Should I Be A Web Developer?

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What We're Gonna Talk About. 

  • Why to learn to code
  • What to learn
  • How to learn it
  • Career stuff

Who are you?

Questions for the audience

About Me

  • Web Developer!
  • Tech Director
  • ~20 years of coding
  • Lots of projects
  • Lots of technologies
  • Lots of companies

DIGITAL STRATEGY, DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

What is Web Development?

What is Web Development?

What is Web Development?

Multi-device websites and apps.

What is Web Development?

Web Server

Internet

Internet

Internet

How Websites & Apps Work

What is Web Development?

Web Server

Internet

Internet

Internet

Database

How Websites & Apps Work

What is Web Development?

"Front-End"

("Client-Side")

Programming

"Back-End"

("Server-Side")

Programming

What is Web Development?

Front-End Web Dev

Back-End Web Dev​

  • PHP
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • Java
  • NodeJS
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

What is Web Development?

  • PHP
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • Java
  • NodeJS
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

Full-Stack Web Developer

At least one of:

+

What Can You Do With It?

What Can You Do With It?

Web Developer

Data Scientist

Hobbyist

Product Owner/Mgr

Visual Designer

Quality Assurance Engineer

User Experience (UX) Designer

Job Title

Amount of Coding

Career Paths

Systems Administrator

Analyst

DevOps Engineer

And more...

What Can You Do With It?

Build an online store & sell stuff

​Write a Chrome extension

(Project Examples)

Build games

Build your blog

Analyze your Facebook Posts/Friends

Prototype your UX designs

Code your design portfolio

Do your taxes more easily

Automatically post cat photos to facebook

Photobomb friends randomly

What Can You Do With It?

APIs: Application Programming Interfaces.

Tons more! See programmableweb.com ...

Netflix

Google Maps

Google Docs

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Government data

Yelp

YouTube

LinkedIn

What Can You Do With It?

Demos

Coding For Fun & Profit

Careers in Development

Pros

  • Pays $$$
  • High demand
  • Portfolio > degree
  • Work anywhere
  • Independence, Lifestyle, Freedom

Cons

  • Tech moves fast. Constant learning
  • Deadlines
  • (Freelancers) Finding new clients
  • Tons of computer time

Why Code For Profit?

Types of Companies

  • Big Companies
  • Agencies / Dev Shops
  • Startups - early/mid/late stage

Types of Companies

Simplifeye

Brainscape

ATTCK

ThoughtBot

Droga5

BBDO

AKQA

SquareSpace

Spotify

Tumblr

Company Size

American Express

HSBC

Discover

Huge

Frog

Method

LinkedIn

Facebook

DKNY

Vera Wang

Target

Publicis

Toptal

Government

Tech

Agency /

Dev Shop

Brands / 

Other Companies

Company Type

StackOverflow

BrandYourself

Weiden-Kennedy

Havas Worldwide

Interpublic

Types of Companies

Considerations

Company Culture Big pond or small?
Salary, Equity Cash or stock?
Learning Potential Variety of projects, 
learning resources
Networking Potential Events, mentorship
Perks Vacations / beer / bonuses
Interest Factor Do I love what I'm working on?
Do I need to?

Different Ways of Working

Salaried Job vs. Freelance

In-Person vs. Remote

Different Ways of Working

Pro Con
Salaried Job * Stable, consistent
* See product grow over time
 
* Meet less people
* Slow salary growth
* Less variety in projects
Freelance * Self-assigned hourly rate
* Meet tons of people
* Variety of environments to learn
* Can be tough to get steady work
* More paperwork (taxes, contracts, etc)
* Environment/projects always change
 

Different Ways of Working

Pro Con
On-site * Get to know people better
* More daily structure
 
* Limited to your city
Remote * Work from anywhere in the world! * Harder to sell yourself online
* Need to self-manage

Tech Skillz.

You Can Get'em.

The Challenges

  • So much to learn. Where to start?
  • Computers speak jibberish.
  • Detail-centric.
  • High expectations.
  • Different way of thinking.

Tech Skillz.

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

Must learn.

What to Learn

Tech Skillz.

HTML Basics

CSS Basics

JavaScript Basics

jQuery

Bootstrap

API Basics

AngularJS

ReactJS

What to Learn: Progressions

HTML Basics

CSS Basics

JavaScript Basics

(Pick one)

NodeJS

PHP

Ruby

Python

MEAN

Laravel

Ruby on Rails

Django

Front-End Progression

Back-End Progression

Tech Skillz.

What to Learn: What's Popular?

Use Google Trends as a proxy for popularity.

Tech Skillz.

How to Learn & Grow

Early on:

  • Get strong basics
  • Drill & practice regularly
  • Go to meetups. Peers & mentors
  • Code -> talk to people -> repeat

Tech Skillz.

HTML

CSS

JAVASCRIPT

<h1>Hello World!</h1>
h1 {
    color: blue;
}
$("h1").click(function() {
    alert("Hello World!");
});

Tech Skillz.

HTML

CSS

JAVASCRIPT

<h1>Hello World!</h1>
h1 {
    color: blue;
}
$("h1").click(function() {
    alert("Hello World!");
});

Tech Skillz.

Let's Code.

Where to Go From Here?

Online resources

  • Egghead.io
  • Lynda.com
  • Google!
  • CodePen.io

Education programs

  • General Assembly
  • Startup Institute
  • ATTCK.io

+ Meetups, events

+ Other programmers & mentors

Links

From Tonight's Event

ATTCK.io

  • Hands-on instruction
  • Learn from pro developers
  • Practical learning

Announcing...

Hands-on web development workshops

  • Affordable
  • No commitment

~2 hours each, in-depth, hands-on workshops taught by experienced senior developers. 

Thanks for joining! Any questions?

Mike Cavaliere

@mcavaliere

Director of Technology

For more workshop info:

http://ATTCK.io

linkedin.com/in/mikecavaliere

mike.cavaliere@attck.com

Upcoming workshops:

  • Intro to Front-End Web Development - 3/8
    http://bit.ly/1LEwaXo
  • HTML & CSS In-Depth - 3/22
  • JavaScript Crash Course - 4/5

~2 hours each, in-depth, hands-on workshops taught by experienced senior developers. 

Should I Be A Web Developer?

By ATTCK

Should I Be A Web Developer?

Slides for "Should I Be A Web Developer" Presentation, 2/23/2016.

  • 1,278