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Newbie Web Dev learner feeling overwhelmed! Next steps???

Sara Gardner's photo
Sara Gardner
·Feb 12, 2018

I just started learning web development last year, and it's been going pretty well, I think. I've been teaching myself independently-- it's just been me, myself, and Google (haha). I find that with good resources, I can pick up coding concepts pretty readily.

I've been working on a starter project that utilizes basic concepts in HTML/CSS/PHP/vanilla Javascript, and I'm quite proud of it. I have registration/login forms, I have a modal popup with dynamic content, I've tackled media queries to make the whole thing responsive, I've utilized Flexbox. But now I feel like I'm at loose ends and I'm not sure where to go next. I know I need to tackle jQuery and a host of other things (Angular? AJAX? PDO? React? Ruby?? I barely even know what they are at this point, let alone which ones I should prioritize).

I mean, eventually I'd love to get a job in web dev. And I have a browser/mobile game concept I want to develop. But I've been feeling lost and I need to get my bearings. I'm not even sure what questions to ask. So, I guess what I want to ask is more or less like this:

1) What do you guys, personally, do when you feel like you've hit a wall in your current skillset? How do you level up?

2) What would be your number one recommendation for a junior web dev looking to level up? If you were going to give one piece of advice, what would it be?

3) What would be the best way to get input or advice on the code I've already written? I'd love to get a fresh set of eyes on it, in order to get a sense of how I'm doing. Github?

4) I searched on here to see how other people have handled finding mentors. Can I really just ask people?