New Career

The industry generally likes to split the term "web developer" into two sub-categories: back-end web developer and front-end web developer. Most entry level web developers tend to fall into the front-end category with required skills such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These are must haves in my opinion. Front end developers usually take a design, such as a PSD or similar, and turn it into a real, working website. They're also responsible for creating the interactive parts and pieces of the website, usually using jQuery or even client-side MVC frameworks such as Backbone.js.

When it comes to back-end web development, this is where the experience with PHP, Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, etc comes into play. Back-end or server-side developers are responsible for developing the business logic of a web application, most likely including persistence with a database such as Postgres or MongoDB. Generally, if you want a position as an entry level back-end web developer, you need to have experience or knowledge of one or more of the common web application frameworks that I mentioned above.

You may here the term "full-stack" web developer thrown around on job boards. This generally means that you know and are experienced with developing both sides of a web application. While I think it's great to have knowledge of both sides, you generally should not try and become an expert on both sides. For front-end developers, it is a good idea to understand how web application frameworks, such as Ruby on Rails, handle CSS and HTML templates. For back-enders, you need to be aware of how the HTML is constructed so you can provide the right data in the right APIs.

In the end, I would recommend figuring out which side interests you more and then learn the technologies used in that realm. I will list a few recommended technologies below for both sides.

Front End Web Development

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript / jQuery
• SCSS / Less / Coffeescript

Back End Web Development

• Ruby, PHP, Node.js, or other similar language
• Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, Django, or other frameworks
• PostgresSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, or other DBMS

Your story is rather similar to mine. Got laid off last year and decided to concentrate on web development as my new career. I did a few sites in the past and got familiar with php (on intermediate level) but I did it just on the side. Now i am working on my associate degree in computer science and programming. Quite a career change - from digital prepress graphics artist to a web developer, especially since I just turned 40. :-) Anyway, my effort is aimed towards php but also c# as I want to work using Microsoft's ASP too. I just want to kind of separate myself a bit from the php crowd hoping asp could give me a bit of a boost. And since I will already be taking VB.net at school, then i figured I can work on my .net skills as a whole. Along with improving my php skills (I really want to go beyond intermediate) and Java and C++ classeses I am taking at school too, I hope I'll be ready to get my foot to the door and compete with 20 year old graduates...

I'm a student at the Flatiron School. Our prework is a great start for materials to learn to be a web developer: http://prework.flatironschool.com/

I also wrote a blog post for resources for learning to code: https://medium.com/on-coding/41fe6fc1b8df

Treehouse is great! If you want to be a front-end developer I'd focus on HTML / CSS / Javascript. If you are interested in being a 'full stack' developer I'd suggest learning ruby/rails or python/django.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Thanks all for your advise. I have self taught html, css and basic javascript but decided to enroll here at treehouse to ensure I get a good foundation. I want to get into an entry level front end dev position and continue my education to eventually specialize in back end dev. I feel like I have the appropriate knowledge and skillset for an entry level position now I just have to find a firm willing to give me a chance. In the meantime, I continue to improve.