Should I upgrade to Techdegree even if it affects my budget?

Hey Alexander,

Getting a tech degree subscription is not necessary as you can learn the same things with the normal subscription service. When I was learning I was contemplating the same thing but decided not to go with tech degree as it was beyond my budget as well.

If you are looking for structure, doing the front end track is a great option and pairing that with other services like freecode camp and codecademy (both free) to get hands on practice. That is what I did. Started in February 2018 with team treehouse tutorials and practiced with other services and developed website on my own. By the end of the year I got my first job in front end web development! Still a lot more I need to learn.

The secret is stick to it and stick to your plan. Don't get distracted by other things and especially don't allow yourself to think you are not good enough. You can achieve great things if you put your mind to it...so persevere.

As they say, practice makes perfect. If you haven't already, set yourself up a local Dev environment (great YouTube videos on how to do this) on your personal computer so that you can begin developing your first site. If you are looking to develop WordPress sites, Local by Flywheel is a free and easy to use local Dev environment (you don't have to worry about setting up a MYSQL database), this is only specific to WordPress development. Go with Mamp if you are not focusing on WordPress.

Videos will only go so far and are a great start. But diving in and actually building something is where the real learning starts. Because you will see what works, what doesn't and you will be forced to figure out to find the answer to a problem...you'll become an expert googler lol! Start with pure vinella code...try to not use any frameworks like bootstrap. Developing a site with vinella HTML and CSS will teach you a lot about the two languages. Also, and this is very dependant on your local job market, you may not need to spend much time learning JavaScript. I got lucky with my first job as I know very little (but am in the process of learning now) JS. But focus on HTML and CSS and get familiar with those before moving on to JS. Once you are comfortable with HTML and CSS and have a couple simple sites developed you can start applying for jobs. But don't stop learning while you apply. LBA (Learn. Build. Apply) is a methodology I followed, that helped me stay on track and not focus too much on one thing over another. I developed a weekly schedule that touch on those three points.

If it takes you several hours to figure out a simple problem, don't get down. It once took me 5 hours to figure out how to center an element. And it was as simple as inserting the proper class name (using bootstrap). But these types of experiences are learning experiences.

In conclusion, you can learn everything you need to get your first job without going over budget. It takes time, patience and perseverance.

Hi Alexander Cifuentes,

First off, Christopher Lugenbeal is spot on.

You can definitely succeed with the basic plan, there is a lot of people here who has! :)

Short reply here, but I just wanted to give you one more "Yes"-vote.

Happy coding!