Last night I was able to finish up the Simon project wrapping up the last of the requirements for Free Code Camp’s Front End Development Certificate. I am pretty excited to have completed this, while it’s just a certificate from a free online site, it means the completion of the first step in my journey.
It only took me about 3 weeks in all to get through all the required algorithms and projects. I really enjoyed the algorithms, they were challenging, and got me to finally understand Regular Expression. The projects also had a lot of fun in them although I only see 4 projects in all that I would call complex or do enough to be worth putting on a portfolio.
- Four Function Calculator. Good basic project for showing JavaScript control and updating DOM and using Event Handlers
- Wikipedia Search. Example of using public API’s from a major service. Simple project but gets the point across.
- Tic-Tac-Toe. Very simple project UI wise, but shows basic AI ability though JavaScript that is just fun to make
- Simon. Last and best project in my opinion. Not only does it take a ton (compared to projects prior) to make look like a simon game, but the JavaScript logic needed and heavy use of timers makes it a real challenge.
Looking forward to my next steps. Many people have gone, on after getting their Front End Developer Certification, and gotten jobs working as web developers. However, I’m not sure this is the path I am wanting to go down. I have a goal of being a Junior Developer, particularly I would love to get into Backend or Full Stack development. I worry I wouldn’t find enough fulfillment in just doing front end web design, but this is coming from someone who has only done it as a hobby from time to time. Although if it was for a tech company or a company whose first priority is web I would be interested. My main fear would be to work for a company whose website is more of just an afterthought, and with that comes the lower salary, and lower respect for what you do.
Today my books on Ruby should be arriving in the mail and I will being a month long frantic study session to get though both of them before March 1st. I will post more about the books soon, as well as some possible videos based on getting started with Ruby on Rails.
As always thanks for reading, and follow me on twitter for more daily updates and post on my journey from Senior IT Admin to Junior Developer.