Another One in the Books

I just completed Andrei Neagoie and Yihua Zhang's "Complete React Developer in 2019" and wow, what a ride! I've said it several times in past posts, but this course is definitely not for the faint of heart. The pace is breakneck and the amount of information covered is vast. This is a 39-hour course that could have easily been stretched into 100 hours. At the beginning of this course, I was regularly cursing Yihua's name while I paused the video every 10 seconds to try and keep up with him, but I'm really glad I stuck with it. I learned some great vsCode shortcuts that will make my day-to-day much more efficient while learning so much about so many different things. I still have a long way to go with React and the surrounding technologies before I'm even somewhat comfortable with it, but I feel a lot better about it now than I did when I started. I've now consumed about 80 hours of coursework concerning React, which seems like a lot, but there's so much more I need to do to cement this knowledge.

Now, I move on to the next course. I've been doing some research trying to figure out what that might be, and I think I have it narrowed down. Since Udemy's style of instruction tends to suit my learning style well, I will definitely be staying on that platform. I've considered going back to taking a JavaScript course from Andrei Neagoie, as I really liked his teaching style, but I want to keep building on my React knowledge base while it's fresh. I understand the importance of knowing JavaScript inside and out, especially when using React, but I've become a lot more proficient in JavaScript just by taking these React courses. I've also learned what parts of JavaScript I should be focusing my energy on, while which parts I will likely rarely use. With that said, I believe I'll be taking a 29-hour course by Neil Cummings that is just one large project build of a Meetup-esque site. The project looks really nice when finished and, in 29 hours, I should be able to learn quite a bit. It seems the best way to learn with programming is by actually programming, so I think a course focused solely around building a project should be really useful. In fact, this is almost exactly how the last course was and, like I said, it was very useful.

I'm definitely getting the hang of using Twitter and LinkedIn to network and get myself out there. On LinkedIn, I've doubled my connections in the last 3 days and have gained some skill endorsements by joining some groups and networking with these developers and students. I also learned that you can link the certificates of completion from Udemy courses to your LinkedIn profile, so I can proudly display my progress to potential employers and recruiters, which is huge. On Twitter, getting involved in #100DaysOfCode has been a really good experience, so far. When I first got on Twitter, it seemed that the entire developer community was more concerned with their feelings than actually coding, which is fine, but not really what I was looking for. Now, I'm watching people move forward in their journey with learning to code and seeing people get jobs after going down the same route that I'm going down right now. It's inspiring to see these stories of triumph and relieving to know that other people are out there grinding just like I am on a daily basis. This path isn't an easy one, but if it were, everyone would be doing it and it wouldn't be rewarding or lucrative. The ones that stick with it seem to reap the benefits, eventually!

Until tomorrow!