February 10, 2025 ā¢ 26 mins
Iām calling out five big misconceptions about becoming a frontend developer that might be wrecking your progress. I talk about whether you actually need backend skills to land a frontend gig, if you should learn Next.js, and even if you should learn Tailwind. There's more I dive into, so if you're aiming to become a frontend developer, this one's for you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Don Hansen (00:00):
If you are trying to become a front-end developer,
I'm going to talk about fivemisconceptions about becoming
one that you need to know.
There are rumors and there'sadvice coming from even very
large content creators that Ithink is screwing a lot of
people over.
So we're going to go over five.
The very first one mightsurprise you, because this is a
(00:21):
very popular thing told.
But you hear that you need tolearn backend skills to be
marketable as a front-enddeveloper, and if your gut told
you that doesn't make any sense,your gut's right.
The problem is that you getpeople that spread this
information.
It really started with codingbootcamps, to be honest, but a
(00:45):
lot of coding boot camps spitout surface level developers,
which who kind of new front end,who kind of new back end, but
they were never really good witheither.
But you know, in 2001, or,sorry, 2021.
And even before the pandemic,you were able to get positions
(01:06):
kind of with surface levelknowledge.
It's not that you necessarilyknew full stack and that's why
you were hired.
Most positions wanted to hirepeople that were good at their
area of focus, whether it wasfront end or back end.
But the bar has risen for a lotof junior developers now and
(01:26):
the only thing that's happeningis you are now seeing a lot of
developers that have went thisfull stack path, this templated
path, who only have surfacelevel knowledge, who aren't even
being considered for interviewsbecause their knowledge is just
too surface level in theirportfolio showcases that right,
because their knowledge is justtoo surface level and their
(01:47):
portfolio showcases that right.
If you want to stand out in afront-end position among so many
other aspiring developers whothink front-end is the easiest
to get into and we'll talk aboutthat in a bit you need to be
good at front-end.
You need to dive deeper intofront-end.
There are so many niches and somany areas that you could dive
deeper into front-end, and sopeople just suck with CSS or
they suck with JS and theyjumped into React too quickly
(02:09):
and they're just trying to buildapps, but they don't really
flush out any sort of complexfeatures or anything that
requires some deep JavaScriptknowledge or anything that
requires deep CSS knowledge tobuild, uh, very impressive
layouts.
They just they kind of justspit out cookie cutter apps and
(02:29):
they just keep doing that withportfolio project after
portfolio project afterportfolio project.
That doesn't make you stand out.
So many other people are doingthat.
If you want to be good withfront end, dive deep into front
and get really good with JS, getreally good with CSS, care
about semantic HTML, care aboutaccessibility and yes, care
about testing.
(02:49):
Yes, there are tests on thefront end and there are
companies that are going torequire you to write tests on
the front end.
So, yes, eventually you do wantto dive into React, of course,
but a lot of people just havesurface level knowledge on the
front end and then they're notreally getting interviews.
Then they think they need tolearn back end in order to stand
out.
Everyone's going through thesame Mernstack tutorial and a
(03:14):
lot of those tutorials justdon't go nearly deep enough.
That's why you're not standingout on the front end.
Because you're not good atfront end, please get good at
front end.
Because you're not good atfront end, please get good at
front end.
There's so many years to spendto even get decent just decent
at a junior level on the frontend.
People are just skipping it.
So the second one is people arejumping into Next way too
(03:39):
quickly.
First of all, people arejumping at a React way too
quickly.
I always say this I highlyrecommend, before you even
decide to learn React, gothrough Eloquent JavaScript.
It's a free online book.
The first six chapters Makesure you understand all the
material.
You can do the challenges atthe back of each chapter, no
(04:02):
problems.
If you are in that kind of ashape, you're probably ready to
finally start learning React.
A lot of people are not goodwith JS and they jump into React
too quickly and they're able tojust copy and paste what
tutorials are telling them to do, but they don't really
understand what's happening withReact because they don't really
understand what's happeningwith JavaScript that they're
(04:23):
writing.
The foundations are shaky witha lot of people.
And then you man.
Even in the React docs, Ibelieve they still recommend use
Next if you were learning React.
That's not terrible advice forsome developers, but I highly
disagree with thatrecommendation for junior or
(04:46):
aspiring developers especially.
Just use Vite.
One single command will spin upan entire React application
with Vite.
Go through their tutorial, spinup a React application and then
dive into react.
But I think it's important toextract your learning with react
(05:08):
outside of next.
Next has a lot of unique thingsand a lot of people will.
So I think next is really goodfor experienced front-end
developers that don't reallywant to get good with backend.
I think next is a really goodtool or to spin up an app very
quickly for experienceddevelopers.
But it helps to be able toseparate what's unique with Next
(05:28):
with just building somethingwith React.
A lot of people won't do thatand even just like coming up
with your own way that you'regoing to set up React Router and
how you're going to organizethat, how you're going to
organize your files in your ownReact application says a lot
about you as a developer and youcould develop those conventions
(05:50):
based off of building a bunchof crappy organized React apps
that just grew and grew and grewand you're like man, I keep
going back into this, but nowI'm taking longer and longer to
find these components and like Idon't really have a consistent
file structure and I don'treally know like where I want to
separate certain components.
(06:11):
I haven't really gotten thatdown, but like, these decisions
that you eventually develop arereally good talking points in an
interview.
Why did you organize it this way?
Why did you decide to separateit by types?
Why did you decide to separateit by types?
Why did you decide to make it alittle bit more modular and
feature-driven?
Right, like.
What about?
That appealed to you.
(06:32):
What went through your mind?
Did you encounter any hurdlesof as you were trying to scale
your React app?
Where you're like man, I coulddo this a lot better and you
looked at different tutorialsand you chose this.
Why?
What interests you about this?
You should be able to talkabout these things.
You should be able to talkabout your organizational
patterns.
You should be able to talkabout your implementation in
junior interviews.
(06:52):
Yes, you should.
You're not just a code monk.
You really have to flesh thisstuff out and think through it
Again.
The bar has risen, but this wasan expectation before for a lot
of different people where youkind of just like built very
basic vanilla apps, you try toscale it.
(07:13):
It got disorganized and thenyou learn the next abstraction
to then make your app a littlebit more organized and scalable
and reusable.
And like React is awesome forthat and reusable.
And like react is awesome forthat.
But when you implementsomething like next as a junior
or aspiring developer, it comeswith its conventions that are
very opinionated.
(07:33):
To next, which is fine, but alot of companies do not use.
Next, most companies where youare going to be working at a
react application, do not useNext.
And there are some juniordevelopers I don't know where
this is coming from, but thereare some junior developers that
actually believe Next is justplentiful.
Tons of jobs for juniordevelopers in Next if they just
(07:56):
learn Next.
This is why I think the docs ofReact recommending Next are a
bit misleading to juniordevelopers.
I don't think they're trying todistinguish.
And if they are recommending itfor junior developers, I just
strongly disagree.
Build something with React, spinsomething up with Vite one
single command then dive deepinto React and build some
(08:16):
components with it and theneventually again the bar has
risen.
Before you didn't really haveto get into like any sort of web
pack config, but eventuallylike spin up or set up your own
web pack config.
I mean, like Vita is fine, butweb pack is going to be a little
bit more plentiful and a lot ofreact apps.
So set up a basic web packconfig and just build some
(08:38):
commands that kind of automate alot of the bundling and set
that up for you.
That that's going to be helpful.
That's going to make you standout.
These are things that juniordevelopers are not doing.
That's going to make you standout and Next just kind of
abstracts all of that away soyou never have to worry about it
.
But that's not the reality ofmost React positions.
I think it's only going to hurtyou to jump into Next too
(08:59):
quickly Now if you've built abunch of React apps and then you
want to try out Next, because Ido think it helps to build
applications that are full-stackapplications in the sense where
you're saving data.
So even if you're not reallybuilding a backend it's a bit of
a serverless backend.
But maybe you just link toFirestore, right, it's kind of
(09:22):
just a cloud-hosted database.
You set it up with your Reactapp and you're able to just save
data to it.
You don't really have to worryabout building any routes or
anything like that.
You're just connecting to athird party database and it's
really convenient.
So you can build morecomplicated applications by
saving and manipulating data inthe database and now you could
(09:44):
start building projects that arevery useful.
But if you don't want to useFirestore, you could eventually
learn Next and be able to kindof build a basic backend with it
.
I think that's fine.
I think people, especiallyjunior developers, are jumping
into it way too early and that'sthe problem.
Next is a tool and it's auseful tool.
(10:06):
It's very valuable for certainprojects, for certain people.
Most junior developers arejumping into it way too quickly
and you can definitely get a jobwithout it and you're probably
going to stand out a lot more.
Setting up some of the stuffthat, some of the basic stuff
that next abstracts and organize, like creating your own
organizational pattern.
(10:27):
Being able to talk about thatin the interview will make you
stand out among many otherjunior developers.
So, third one if you are ajunior developer, if you have
not gotten a professionalposition, what the fuck are you
doing with Tailwind?
I have seen so many projectswith Tailwind among aspiring
(10:49):
developers.
And the second you try to takeTailwind out of the workflow.
They fumble completely with CSS.
Learning Tailwind does not meanyou are going to be good with
CSS.
I promise you.
It is only going to push youfurther away from really
(11:10):
reinforcing and learning thefundamentals of CSS.
I don't know where thismisconception is coming from,
but please, junior developers,stop learning.
Tailwind.
Next is explainable eventuallyand it can make you marketable
for a few extra positions and itcan teach you some conventional
organizational patterns thatyou can decide if you want to
(11:31):
pick up and it can kind ofprovide a little bit of a backup
.
There's a reason to eventuallylearn next as an aspiring front
end developer.
But Tailwind too many people arebad at CSS that are trying to
become front end developers.
Most positions are not going tobe hiring for Tailwind.
Most positions are going to behiring for something like SCSS
or styled components.
(11:52):
That's what they're using andfor some reason Tailwind just
gets pushed on everyone and youhave to realize just when
content creators are obsessedwith a tool.
I think that's what's happening.
They love it, they push it outand a lot of experienced
developers might pick it up.
They might love it, they mighthate it, but a lot of these
(12:13):
pushes from bigger contentcreators are more towards just
like stuff they love to use intheir own stack.
But it doesn't necessarily applyto junior developers and I feel
like it's really difficult as ajunior developer and I want to
be charitable here to likenavigate all of this information
.
You're trying to listen to yourfavorite content creators and
you're trying to learn thethings that they recommend,
(12:36):
because you know they trust youand you kind of assume that they
have your best interest atheart in landing a position in
the industry, but Tailwind isnot the answer.
Industry, but Tailwind is notthe answer.
Oh, by the way, if you'retrying to become a front-end
developer, I highly recommendyou check out Scrimpa.
I'm specifically talking abouttheir front-end developer career
(12:56):
path.
They have a fun, interactiveway to learn how to code and
become a web developer, andwhile that's true, that's not
the main reason that I want topromote them.
Honestly, the main reason istheir curriculum is solid.
There are a lot of curriculumsthat do not prepare people to
actually be competitive in themarket, and I've reviewed a ton
of programs and to this day, itis still one of my favorites and
(13:19):
one of the best front endcurriculums out there for
self-taught developers.
And they're backed by MDN, aleading and well-respected
resource in the developercommunity, and I actually
personally run my own menteesthrough the program to prepare
them for front end developerjobs.
And if you choose to sign upvia my affiliate link below in
(13:40):
the description, you actuallyget 30% off if you sign up for a
paid plan, but you have to signup by the end of February to
take advantage of that, becauseit expires after that.
Anyways, check it out foryourself what, but you have to
sign up by the end of Februaryto take advantage of that,
because it expires after that.
Anyways, check it out foryourself.
What do you have to lose?
Let's get back to the topic.
I'm telling you there are waytoo many people jumping into
Tailwind that just suck with CSS, spend time just building.
(14:01):
I would even argue that youdon't need to learn Sass, scss,
that you don't need to learnsass, scss, um, css has come a
long way with a lot of its newfeatures where using scss can
and like I don't know, buildingsome functions with it can be a
little bit of a flex that it can.
You can put it on.
(14:21):
You know you build somethingwith scss and you do something a
little bit more complicated.
Create something more reusablewith it.
Um, you can put that on yourresume and um, I think that's
completely fine.
But there's so much you coulddo with just CSS alone, where,
if you aren't able to buildlayouts, if you aren't able to
like, if you have a designmockup and you're not able to
(14:42):
take that design and build alayout with just CSS without
Tailwind, you're in trouble.
A lot of companies want you tobe comfortable with css.
Please stop using tailwind as ajunior developer now if you have
spent a lot of time reallybuilding a ton of websites all
(15:03):
the way through all of your, youknow your basic vanilla
javascript applications andeventually your rap React
applications and eventually youwant to try a project with
Tailwind to see how you like it.
I think that's fine.
I think it's okay to explorethose tools.
The problem is that juniordevelopers are becoming
dependent on these abstractionsand it is only hurting them.
(15:24):
I think it's okay to buildanother project with a unique
library that you want to use.
Just please be careful.
The problem always is juniordevelopers just keep jumping
into abstractions way tooquickly.
Their foundations suck horribly.
So that's really what I'mtrying to get a lot of junior
(15:45):
developers to realize.
That's the problem is justjumping into abstractions too
quickly because your favoritecontent creator told you this is
the best tool for the job andthey don't really go into
context of, like, what job andwhat applications actually need
a lot of these abstractions.
But that's besides the point.
All right.
So, fourth thing you do not needto be good with design.
(16:07):
Not need to be good with designI.
I don't know where this iscoming from either, but I get
people that'll come to mystreams and ask about this and
it's like they ask or no.
The reason why they don't likefront end or they're not
pursuing front end is becausethey're like I'm not good at web
design.
What the fuck does that have todo with anything?
(16:28):
Have you seen some of the stuffthat I've built?
I build stuff that looks like afive-year-old could have drew
it better.
Like I suck with design.
I suck so hard with design.
You don't need to be a webdesigner to be a front-end
(16:49):
developer.
There are going to be nichepositions where kind of blends
design and front-end developmenttogether.
Usually that is more focused onlike really small startups
where you're wearing a lot ofdifferent hats, but that is.
Those positions are a lot fewer.
When you apply for front-endpositions, the expectation
(17:11):
usually is going to be that youare going to get a high-fidelity
mock-up at least kind of asemi-low-fidelity mock-up at the
very least, but usually ahigh-fidelity mock-up.
So you basically get thewebsite what it looks like
mobile, potentially tabletversion and desktop version and
then you translate that intocode and you build a website
based off of that design.
(17:31):
That's your typical front-enddeveloper position.
So I don't know where that'scoming from.
You don't need to be good withweb design, but I do think you
should care about kind of justux fundamentals.
I think like having just abasic understanding of stuff,
like being consistent with yourspacing.
(17:53):
If you have a banner with sometext and maybe an input and an
email signup or whatever, if youhave 50 pixels padding on the
very top and you have 10 pixelson the bottom and it looks
really scrunched on the bottomand it just looks like crap, I
feel like that's.
I I feel like neglecting thatand not having consistent
(18:17):
spacing, or that there are otherux fundamentals, like proximity
, that you could focus on.
There are lists online that youcould look up for like ux web
fundamentals, for like front enddevelopers, where you can kind
of just take a website and makeit look decent and readable and
legible, and I don't think thattakes much effort and I don't
(18:41):
think that's about becoming abetter designer.
It's just about like very basicpositioning of things and
sizing of things.
I think you could probablyspend a day just picking up some
UX fundamentals and then startapplying them into your projects
.
No problem, and it'll take alittle bit of practice to kind
of develop a kind of a Iwouldn't even call it like a
designer eye, but just like agut feeling of like you know
(19:03):
what I think I should likecreate a little bit more spacing
here.
Let me try it.
Yes, that looks better Likethat's the extent of you
building out a lot of yourlayouts.
As a front end developer,you're not expected to be really
good at front end or at webdesign in general.
So basic US fundamentals, butdefinitely not web design.
Not a good designer.
(19:25):
I promise you you will surviveas a front end developer and
really, where a lot ofdevelopers struggle getting
positions as front-end, thereason is because their
foundations suck.
They suck with JS and they suckwith CSS.
That's mainly what I see Allright.
The fifth misconception thatfront-end is the easiest to get
(19:49):
into as a software engineer.
This has been spread by so manypeople, a lot of junior
developers who are continuing tospread that information when
they've never even landed aposition in the industry.
But they were told that and sothey repeat it, they parrot it.
(20:09):
Front-end developer positionsare very competitive.
The number of junior developerswho are going through the
Mernstack tutorials and justkind of building surface-level
applications and applying tofront-end positions is crazy.
(20:30):
There are a lot of aspiringfront-end developers that are
applying for front-end positionswho are not quite at the level
they need to be.
But companies have to figureout arbitrary ways to trim a lot
of resumes and applications.
Because so many people areapplying to front-end positions,
it's highly, highly competitiveat the entry level where you're
(20:56):
getting like potentially 500people applying for the same
front-end position not allpositions, but a lot of
positions you'd be surprised,but it there are a lot of
Majority of those developers arejust surface-level developers
that kind of learned a basicMerge Stack tutorial and that
was it.
That was it and they just builtapplications with it.
(21:21):
They didn't really build asolid foundation.
So if you are that aspiringfront-end developer that really
builds a solid foundation thatgoes deep into the front-end,
you are going to stand out a lotmore than you think you are.
There are a lot of differentvariables that are going to
affect you getting a position.
So just being a good developerisn't everything.
(21:43):
Also, it's your soft skills,networking, it's how you present
yourself, potentially buildingself-branding, it's like what
companies you're applying toLike.
There are a lot of differentthings that you have to do right
and that is the struggle oflanding a job in the industry.
Finally, but I can tell you forcertain, most people that are
(22:05):
applying for front end positionsare just surface level
developers who get weeded outbecause they don't have a
portfolio.
There's like no activity onGitHub, nothing to showcase of
like what they can do, whattheir experience is.
It's people that will failfizzbuzz tests.
(22:26):
It's people that just like,really suck with JavaScript,
really suck with CSS.
And if you are diving deep intothe front end as a junior
developer, you're going to standout quite a bit, but I don't
think that means it's theeasiest position to get into.
And you get a lot of people thatdon't like front end that much,
(22:48):
that are just like.
You know what I'm gonna breakinto the industry.
I hear front end is the easiest.
Once I get get in, then I'lltransfer it.
Most of those people neverbecome a front end developer.
They eventually give up.
Most people that would ratherdo back end do front end and
eventually give up Because ofwhat I'm telling you, because it
(23:08):
requires depth and most peoplearen't willing to get that depth
of knowledge on the front end,and so they give up.
You know, two, three years inthey're just like oh, no,
company's hiring and they have aton of spread out knowledge.
They haven't really liked it.
Again, we can go into in adifferent video of like a lot of
other red flags for juniordevelopers.
(23:30):
But, like, a lot of people arejust trying a bunch of different
stuff, hoping like somethingwill stick, and they don't
really go into depth and narrowdown and become good at that
type of position that they'reactually applying to.
So, if you like backend, whatI'm saying is like, do backend
Dive at a backend.
A lot of people struggle to getthat initial backend position
(23:54):
because their backend skills aresurface level.
There aren't a lot of goodcourses for backend.
There just aren't.
Um, so shameless shout out.
Um, I am affiliated withbootdev.
You can get a discount in thevideo description below and you
could definitely try it out foryourself.
But, um, for real, like, Irecommend them because I've been
(24:17):
searching for a very, very longtime for a self-taught
developer course that actuallyprepares back-end developers.
And that's been the problembecause a lot of people that do
like back-end they'll uh,they'll learn these full sec
node courses and tutorials andstuff like on udemy and
different places like that,where it's just teaching you a
(24:38):
lot of surface level stuff itdoesn't have a lot of depth.
Front end is not the easiest toget into.
Please don't be fooled by that.
What I find is the easiest toget into is the path that you
actually enjoy enough to spendyears building yourself up as a
developer going down that path,and if you are not willing to do
(24:59):
that, you're going to have areally, really rough time.
So if you like front end, it'sactually and you're willing to
spend years at it.
It's actually a lot easier tobe competitive among many other
people who take a ton of breaksand don't really deepen their
knowledge and reinforce theirskills.
You can see that.
(25:20):
But if you don't like front-end, do not expect to just get into
the industry, because front-endis the easiest to get into when
everyone and their mother wantsto apply to it.
Pursue something that you mightlike instead.
That's it.
Those are five misconceptionsfor front-end developers.
Of course there are a ton moreif you want me to extend this
video and talk about moremisconceptions.
(25:41):
I was a professional front-enddeveloper for a little less than
a few years and I've beenmentoring a lot of front-end
developers for the past fiveyears or seven years or
something like that.
So I know front-end pretty well, but I can create more videos
like this.
Just me know.
But yeah, let me know what youthink is kind of holding you
back in the comments.
And you know what I would loveto see in the comments to be
(26:02):
honest with you.
Instead of, like people justblaming the industry, I would
like to hear like what youpersonally are fucking up.
Everyone is fucking up.
I made so many mistakes tryingto land a front end position.
Everyone is fucking up as anaspiring developer.
What are you fucking up?
Let me know in the comments.
If you are trying to become a front-end developer,
I'm going to talk about fivemisconceptions about becoming
one that you need to know.
There are rumors and there'sadvice coming from even very
large content creators that Ithink is screwing a lot of
people over.
So we're going to go over five.
The very first one mightsurprise you, because this is a
(00:21):
very popular thing told.
But you hear that you need tolearn backend skills to be
marketable as a front-enddeveloper, and if your gut told
you that doesn't make any sense,your gut's right.
The problem is that you getpeople that spread this
information.
It really started with codingbootcamps, to be honest, but a
(00:45):
lot of coding boot camps spitout surface level developers,
which who kind of new front end,who kind of new back end, but
they were never really good witheither.
But you know, in 2001, or,sorry, 2021.
And even before the pandemic,you were able to get positions
(01:06):
kind of with surface levelknowledge.
It's not that you necessarilyknew full stack and that's why
you were hired.
Most positions wanted to hirepeople that were good at their
area of focus, whether it wasfront end or back end.
But the bar has risen for a lotof junior developers now and
(01:26):
the only thing that's happeningis you are now seeing a lot of
developers that have went thisfull stack path, this templated
path, who only have surfacelevel knowledge, who aren't even
being considered for interviewsbecause their knowledge is just
too surface level in theirportfolio showcases that right,
because their knowledge is justtoo surface level and their
(01:47):
portfolio showcases that right.
If you want to stand out in afront-end position among so many
other aspiring developers whothink front-end is the easiest
to get into and we'll talk aboutthat in a bit you need to be
good at front-end.
You need to dive deeper intofront-end.
There are so many niches and somany areas that you could dive
deeper into front-end, and sopeople just suck with CSS or
they suck with JS and theyjumped into React too quickly
(02:09):
and they're just trying to buildapps, but they don't really
flush out any sort of complexfeatures or anything that
requires some deep JavaScriptknowledge or anything that
requires deep CSS knowledge tobuild, uh, very impressive
layouts.
They just they kind of justspit out cookie cutter apps and
(02:29):
they just keep doing that withportfolio project after
portfolio project afterportfolio project.
That doesn't make you stand out.
So many other people are doingthat.
If you want to be good withfront end, dive deep into front
and get really good with JS, getreally good with CSS, care
about semantic HTML, care aboutaccessibility and yes, care
about testing.
(02:49):
Yes, there are tests on thefront end and there are
companies that are going torequire you to write tests on
the front end.
So, yes, eventually you do wantto dive into React, of course,
but a lot of people just havesurface level knowledge on the
front end and then they're notreally getting interviews.
Then they think they need tolearn back end in order to stand
out.
Everyone's going through thesame Mernstack tutorial and a
(03:14):
lot of those tutorials justdon't go nearly deep enough.
That's why you're not standingout on the front end.
Because you're not good atfront end, please get good at
front end.
Because you're not good atfront end, please get good at
front end.
There's so many years to spendto even get decent just decent
at a junior level on the frontend.
People are just skipping it.
So the second one is people arejumping into Next way too
(03:39):
quickly.
First of all, people arejumping at a React way too
quickly.
I always say this I highlyrecommend, before you even
decide to learn React, gothrough Eloquent JavaScript.
It's a free online book.
The first six chapters Makesure you understand all the
material.
You can do the challenges atthe back of each chapter, no
(04:02):
problems.
If you are in that kind of ashape, you're probably ready to
finally start learning React.
A lot of people are not goodwith JS and they jump into React
too quickly and they're able tojust copy and paste what
tutorials are telling them to do, but they don't really
understand what's happening withReact because they don't really
understand what's happeningwith JavaScript that they're
(04:23):
writing.
The foundations are shaky witha lot of people.
And then you man.
Even in the React docs, Ibelieve they still recommend use
Next if you were learning React.
That's not terrible advice forsome developers, but I highly
disagree with thatrecommendation for junior or
(04:46):
aspiring developers especially.
Just use Vite.
One single command will spin upan entire React application
with Vite.
Go through their tutorial, spinup a React application and then
dive into react.
But I think it's important toextract your learning with react
(05:08):
outside of next.
Next has a lot of unique thingsand a lot of people will.
So I think next is really goodfor experienced front-end
developers that don't reallywant to get good with backend.
I think next is a really goodtool or to spin up an app very
quickly for experienceddevelopers.
But it helps to be able toseparate what's unique with Next
(05:28):
with just building somethingwith React.
A lot of people won't do thatand even just like coming up
with your own way that you'regoing to set up React Router and
how you're going to organizethat, how you're going to
organize your files in your ownReact application says a lot
about you as a developer and youcould develop those conventions
(05:50):
based off of building a bunchof crappy organized React apps
that just grew and grew and grewand you're like man, I keep
going back into this, but nowI'm taking longer and longer to
find these components and like Idon't really have a consistent
file structure and I don'treally know like where I want to
separate certain components.
(06:11):
I haven't really gotten thatdown, but like, these decisions
that you eventually develop arereally good talking points in an
interview.
Why did you organize it this way?
Why did you decide to separateit by types?
Why did you decide to separateit by types?
Why did you decide to make it alittle bit more modular and
feature-driven?
Right, like.
What about?
That appealed to you.
(06:32):
What went through your mind?
Did you encounter any hurdlesof as you were trying to scale
your React app?
Where you're like man, I coulddo this a lot better and you
looked at different tutorialsand you chose this.
Why?
What interests you about this?
You should be able to talkabout these things.
You should be able to talkabout your organizational
patterns.
You should be able to talkabout your implementation in
junior interviews.
(06:52):
Yes, you should.
You're not just a code monk.
You really have to flesh thisstuff out and think through it
Again.
The bar has risen, but this wasan expectation before for a lot
of different people where youkind of just like built very
basic vanilla apps, you try toscale it.
(07:13):
It got disorganized and thenyou learn the next abstraction
to then make your app a littlebit more organized and scalable
and reusable.
And like React is awesome forthat and reusable.
And like react is awesome forthat.
But when you implementsomething like next as a junior
or aspiring developer, it comeswith its conventions that are
very opinionated.
(07:33):
To next, which is fine, but alot of companies do not use.
Next, most companies where youare going to be working at a
react application, do not useNext.
And there are some juniordevelopers I don't know where
this is coming from, but thereare some junior developers that
actually believe Next is justplentiful.
Tons of jobs for juniordevelopers in Next if they just
(07:56):
learn Next.
This is why I think the docs ofReact recommending Next are a
bit misleading to juniordevelopers.
I don't think they're trying todistinguish.
And if they are recommending itfor junior developers, I just
strongly disagree.
Build something with React, spinsomething up with Vite one
single command then dive deepinto React and build some
(08:16):
components with it and theneventually again the bar has
risen.
Before you didn't really haveto get into like any sort of web
pack config, but eventuallylike spin up or set up your own
web pack config.
I mean, like Vita is fine, butweb pack is going to be a little
bit more plentiful and a lot ofreact apps.
So set up a basic web packconfig and just build some
(08:38):
commands that kind of automate alot of the bundling and set
that up for you.
That that's going to be helpful.
That's going to make you standout.
These are things that juniordevelopers are not doing.
That's going to make you standout and Next just kind of
abstracts all of that away soyou never have to worry about it
.
But that's not the reality ofmost React positions.
I think it's only going to hurtyou to jump into Next too
(08:59):
quickly Now if you've built abunch of React apps and then you
want to try out Next, because Ido think it helps to build
applications that are full-stackapplications in the sense where
you're saving data.
So even if you're not reallybuilding a backend it's a bit of
a serverless backend.
But maybe you just link toFirestore, right, it's kind of
(09:22):
just a cloud-hosted database.
You set it up with your Reactapp and you're able to just save
data to it.
You don't really have to worryabout building any routes or
anything like that.
You're just connecting to athird party database and it's
really convenient.
So you can build morecomplicated applications by
saving and manipulating data inthe database and now you could
(09:44):
start building projects that arevery useful.
But if you don't want to useFirestore, you could eventually
learn Next and be able to kindof build a basic backend with it
.
I think that's fine.
I think people, especiallyjunior developers, are jumping
into it way too early and that'sthe problem.
Next is a tool and it's auseful tool.
(10:06):
It's very valuable for certainprojects, for certain people.
Most junior developers arejumping into it way too quickly
and you can definitely get a jobwithout it and you're probably
going to stand out a lot more.
Setting up some of the stuffthat, some of the basic stuff
that next abstracts and organize, like creating your own
organizational pattern.
(10:27):
Being able to talk about thatin the interview will make you
stand out among many otherjunior developers.
So, third one if you are ajunior developer, if you have
not gotten a professionalposition, what the fuck are you
doing with Tailwind?
I have seen so many projectswith Tailwind among aspiring
(10:49):
developers.
And the second you try to takeTailwind out of the workflow.
They fumble completely with CSS.
Learning Tailwind does not meanyou are going to be good with
CSS.
I promise you.
It is only going to push youfurther away from really
(11:10):
reinforcing and learning thefundamentals of CSS.
I don't know where thismisconception is coming from,
but please, junior developers,stop learning.
Tailwind.
Next is explainable eventuallyand it can make you marketable
for a few extra positions and itcan teach you some conventional
organizational patterns thatyou can decide if you want to
(11:31):
pick up and it can kind ofprovide a little bit of a backup
.
There's a reason to eventuallylearn next as an aspiring front
end developer.
But Tailwind too many people arebad at CSS that are trying to
become front end developers.
Most positions are not going tobe hiring for Tailwind.
Most positions are going to behiring for something like SCSS
or styled components.
(11:52):
That's what they're using andfor some reason Tailwind just
gets pushed on everyone and youhave to realize just when
content creators are obsessedwith a tool.
I think that's what's happening.
They love it, they push it outand a lot of experienced
developers might pick it up.
They might love it, they mighthate it, but a lot of these
(12:13):
pushes from bigger contentcreators are more towards just
like stuff they love to use intheir own stack.
But it doesn't necessarily applyto junior developers and I feel
like it's really difficult as ajunior developer and I want to
be charitable here to likenavigate all of this information
.
You're trying to listen to yourfavorite content creators and
you're trying to learn thethings that they recommend,
(12:36):
because you know they trust youand you kind of assume that they
have your best interest atheart in landing a position in
the industry, but Tailwind isnot the answer.
Industry, but Tailwind is notthe answer.
Oh, by the way, if you'retrying to become a front-end
developer, I highly recommendyou check out Scrimpa.
I'm specifically talking abouttheir front-end developer career
(12:56):
path.
They have a fun, interactiveway to learn how to code and
become a web developer, andwhile that's true, that's not
the main reason that I want topromote them.
Honestly, the main reason istheir curriculum is solid.
There are a lot of curriculumsthat do not prepare people to
actually be competitive in themarket, and I've reviewed a ton
of programs and to this day, itis still one of my favorites and
(13:19):
one of the best front endcurriculums out there for
self-taught developers.
And they're backed by MDN, aleading and well-respected
resource in the developercommunity, and I actually
personally run my own menteesthrough the program to prepare
them for front end developerjobs.
And if you choose to sign upvia my affiliate link below in
(13:40):
the description, you actuallyget 30% off if you sign up for a
paid plan, but you have to signup by the end of February to
take advantage of that, becauseit expires after that.
Anyways, check it out foryourself what, but you have to
sign up by the end of Februaryto take advantage of that,
because it expires after that.
Anyways, check it out foryourself.
What do you have to lose?
Let's get back to the topic.
I'm telling you there are waytoo many people jumping into
Tailwind that just suck with CSS, spend time just building.
(14:01):
I would even argue that youdon't need to learn Sass, scss,
that you don't need to learnsass, scss, um, css has come a
long way with a lot of its newfeatures where using scss can
and like I don't know, buildingsome functions with it can be a
little bit of a flex that it can.
You can put it on.
(14:21):
You know you build somethingwith scss and you do something a
little bit more complicated.
Create something more reusablewith it.
Um, you can put that on yourresume and um, I think that's
completely fine.
But there's so much you coulddo with just CSS alone, where,
if you aren't able to buildlayouts, if you aren't able to
like, if you have a designmockup and you're not able to
(14:42):
take that design and build alayout with just CSS without
Tailwind, you're in trouble.
A lot of companies want you tobe comfortable with css.
Please stop using tailwind as ajunior developer now if you have
spent a lot of time reallybuilding a ton of websites all
(15:03):
the way through all of your, youknow your basic vanilla
javascript applications andeventually your rap React
applications and eventually youwant to try a project with
Tailwind to see how you like it.
I think that's fine.
I think it's okay to explorethose tools.
The problem is that juniordevelopers are becoming
dependent on these abstractionsand it is only hurting them.
(15:24):
I think it's okay to buildanother project with a unique
library that you want to use.
Just please be careful.
The problem always is juniordevelopers just keep jumping
into abstractions way tooquickly.
Their foundations suck horribly.
So that's really what I'mtrying to get a lot of junior
(15:45):
developers to realize.
That's the problem is justjumping into abstractions too
quickly because your favoritecontent creator told you this is
the best tool for the job andthey don't really go into
context of, like, what job andwhat applications actually need
a lot of these abstractions.
But that's besides the point.
All right.
So, fourth thing you do not needto be good with design.
(16:07):
Not need to be good with designI.
I don't know where this iscoming from either, but I get
people that'll come to mystreams and ask about this and
it's like they ask or no.
The reason why they don't likefront end or they're not
pursuing front end is becausethey're like I'm not good at web
design.
What the fuck does that have todo with anything?
(16:28):
Have you seen some of the stuffthat I've built?
I build stuff that looks like afive-year-old could have drew
it better.
Like I suck with design.
I suck so hard with design.
You don't need to be a webdesigner to be a front-end
(16:49):
developer.
There are going to be nichepositions where kind of blends
design and front-end developmenttogether.
Usually that is more focused onlike really small startups
where you're wearing a lot ofdifferent hats, but that is.
Those positions are a lot fewer.
When you apply for front-endpositions, the expectation
(17:11):
usually is going to be that youare going to get a high-fidelity
mock-up at least kind of asemi-low-fidelity mock-up at the
very least, but usually ahigh-fidelity mock-up.
So you basically get thewebsite what it looks like
mobile, potentially tabletversion and desktop version and
then you translate that intocode and you build a website
based off of that design.
(17:31):
That's your typical front-enddeveloper position.
So I don't know where that'scoming from.
You don't need to be good withweb design, but I do think you
should care about kind of justux fundamentals.
I think like having just abasic understanding of stuff,
like being consistent with yourspacing.
(17:53):
If you have a banner with sometext and maybe an input and an
email signup or whatever, if youhave 50 pixels padding on the
very top and you have 10 pixelson the bottom and it looks
really scrunched on the bottomand it just looks like crap, I
feel like that's.
I I feel like neglecting thatand not having consistent
(18:17):
spacing, or that there are otherux fundamentals, like proximity
, that you could focus on.
There are lists online that youcould look up for like ux web
fundamentals, for like front enddevelopers, where you can kind
of just take a website and makeit look decent and readable and
legible, and I don't think thattakes much effort and I don't
(18:41):
think that's about becoming abetter designer.
It's just about like very basicpositioning of things and
sizing of things.
I think you could probablyspend a day just picking up some
UX fundamentals and then startapplying them into your projects
.
No problem, and it'll take alittle bit of practice to kind
of develop a kind of a Iwouldn't even call it like a
designer eye, but just like agut feeling of like you know
(19:03):
what I think I should likecreate a little bit more spacing
here.
Let me try it.
Yes, that looks better Likethat's the extent of you
building out a lot of yourlayouts.
As a front end developer,you're not expected to be really
good at front end or at webdesign in general.
So basic US fundamentals, butdefinitely not web design.
Not a good designer.
(19:25):
I promise you you will surviveas a front end developer and
really, where a lot ofdevelopers struggle getting
positions as front-end, thereason is because their
foundations suck.
They suck with JS and they suckwith CSS.
That's mainly what I see Allright.
The fifth misconception thatfront-end is the easiest to get
(19:49):
into as a software engineer.
This has been spread by so manypeople, a lot of junior
developers who are continuing tospread that information when
they've never even landed aposition in the industry.
But they were told that and sothey repeat it, they parrot it.
(20:09):
Front-end developer positionsare very competitive.
The number of junior developerswho are going through the
Mernstack tutorials and justkind of building surface-level
applications and applying tofront-end positions is crazy.
(20:30):
There are a lot of aspiringfront-end developers that are
applying for front-end positionswho are not quite at the level
they need to be.
But companies have to figureout arbitrary ways to trim a lot
of resumes and applications.
Because so many people areapplying to front-end positions,
it's highly, highly competitiveat the entry level where you're
(20:56):
getting like potentially 500people applying for the same
front-end position not allpositions, but a lot of
positions you'd be surprised,but it there are a lot of
Majority of those developers arejust surface-level developers
that kind of learned a basicMerge Stack tutorial and that
was it.
That was it and they just builtapplications with it.
(21:21):
They didn't really build asolid foundation.
So if you are that aspiringfront-end developer that really
builds a solid foundation thatgoes deep into the front-end,
you are going to stand out a lotmore than you think you are.
There are a lot of differentvariables that are going to
affect you getting a position.
So just being a good developerisn't everything.
(21:43):
Also, it's your soft skills,networking, it's how you present
yourself, potentially buildingself-branding, it's like what
companies you're applying toLike.
There are a lot of differentthings that you have to do right
and that is the struggle oflanding a job in the industry.
Finally, but I can tell you forcertain, most people that are
(22:05):
applying for front end positionsare just surface level
developers who get weeded outbecause they don't have a
portfolio.
There's like no activity onGitHub, nothing to showcase of
like what they can do, whattheir experience is.
It's people that will failfizzbuzz tests.
(22:26):
It's people that just like,really suck with JavaScript,
really suck with CSS.
And if you are diving deep intothe front end as a junior
developer, you're going to standout quite a bit, but I don't
think that means it's theeasiest position to get into.
And you get a lot of people thatdon't like front end that much,
(22:48):
that are just like.
You know what I'm gonna breakinto the industry.
I hear front end is the easiest.
Once I get get in, then I'lltransfer it.
Most of those people neverbecome a front end developer.
They eventually give up.
Most people that would ratherdo back end do front end and
eventually give up Because ofwhat I'm telling you, because it
(23:08):
requires depth and most peoplearen't willing to get that depth
of knowledge on the front end,and so they give up.
You know, two, three years inthey're just like oh, no,
company's hiring and they have aton of spread out knowledge.
They haven't really liked it.
Again, we can go into in adifferent video of like a lot of
other red flags for juniordevelopers.
(23:30):
But, like, a lot of people arejust trying a bunch of different
stuff, hoping like somethingwill stick, and they don't
really go into depth and narrowdown and become good at that
type of position that they'reactually applying to.
So, if you like backend, whatI'm saying is like, do backend
Dive at a backend.
A lot of people struggle to getthat initial backend position
(23:54):
because their backend skills aresurface level.
There aren't a lot of goodcourses for backend.
There just aren't.
Um, so shameless shout out.
Um, I am affiliated withbootdev.
You can get a discount in thevideo description below and you
could definitely try it out foryourself.
But, um, for real, like, Irecommend them because I've been
(24:17):
searching for a very, very longtime for a self-taught
developer course that actuallyprepares back-end developers.
And that's been the problembecause a lot of people that do
like back-end they'll uh,they'll learn these full sec
node courses and tutorials andstuff like on udemy and
different places like that,where it's just teaching you a
(24:38):
lot of surface level stuff itdoesn't have a lot of depth.
Front end is not the easiest toget into.
Please don't be fooled by that.
What I find is the easiest toget into is the path that you
actually enjoy enough to spendyears building yourself up as a
developer going down that path,and if you are not willing to do
(24:59):
that, you're going to have areally, really rough time.
So if you like front end, it'sactually and you're willing to
spend years at it.
It's actually a lot easier tobe competitive among many other
people who take a ton of breaksand don't really deepen their
knowledge and reinforce theirskills.
You can see that.
(25:20):
But if you don't like front-end, do not expect to just get into
the industry, because front-endis the easiest to get into when
everyone and their mother wantsto apply to it.
Pursue something that you mightlike instead.
That's it.
Those are five misconceptionsfor front-end developers.
Of course there are a ton moreif you want me to extend this
video and talk about moremisconceptions.
(25:41):
I was a professional front-enddeveloper for a little less than
a few years and I've beenmentoring a lot of front-end
developers for the past fiveyears or seven years or
something like that.
So I know front-end pretty well, but I can create more videos
like this.
Just me know.
But yeah, let me know what youthink is kind of holding you
back in the comments.
And you know what I would loveto see in the comments to be
(26:02):
honest with you.
Instead of, like people justblaming the industry, I would
like to hear like what youpersonally are fucking up.
Everyone is fucking up.
I made so many mistakes tryingto land a front end position.
Everyone is fucking up as anaspiring developer.
What are you fucking up?
Let me know in the comments.
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