How Do You Become a Digital Nomad Web Developer? - Part 1
So since about 2 months I have thrown myself into the web development world and started learning coding languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript pretty much full-time. And the reason for that is simply because I want to be able to travel the world and earn an income while traveling. I searched online for the best jobs you could do remotely, so without having to go to an office every day. And on top of most of those lists was being a web developer. But this is definitely not a ‘get rich quick’ thing and the path to getting this remote job is far from a well-defined, easy-to-follow laid out path, it’s more like a windy journey, so join me on this digital nomad web developer journey!
What does a digital nomad web developer actually do?
So the jobs you can have with these skills differ. It could be that you have to work on a certain website, make a website from scratch or maintain a website. Also for whom you would be working differs greatly. From small business to Google, or Facebook. Web development is very client based. After all, the client gets to use the website to get clients of his own. So it is very important that you can communicate and meet deadlines. What I like about web development is that you have a lot of different flavors of web development. Some people prefer the front-end (what the visitor gets to see in front of him), some prefer the back-end (working with a database that only the admins of the site get to see and work with), some like to design a webpage and some like to make a website interactive, etc…
What are the languages you need to learn as a web developer?
First you need to learn HTML and CSS. These are the core languages every website uses, so make sure you learn these! At least a basic understanding of these two is required for any web developer job. The good thing is though, these are by far the easiest languages to learn! HTML stands for ‘HyperText Markup Language’ and is the language that contains all of the content that a website has, like text, images etc. This is the language you’ll probably begin with, and honestly, I think you can have a solid grasp of HTML in a day! CSS stands for ‘Cascading Style Sheets’ and handles all of the styling for a website, like font, color, layout etc. This one is a little harder, but still quite straightforward, compared to the ‘real’ programming languages like JavaScript or Ruby. So after these two the ‘specialization’ of your learning begins. Ask yourself: do I want to become a front-end developer or a back-end developer? The reason is, that there are different languages for the front-end as there are for the back-end.
Some good front-end languages:
- JavaScript
- Flash
- JQuery
- Microsoft SilverLight
Languages for the back-end:
- PHP
- C
- Java
- Ruby
Now any of these languages are quite different from HTML and CSS and in my opinion, also a lot harder. So you’ll probably spend most time learning the language(s) of your choice here.
How do you learn the skills you need as a web developer?
So back in the day there were 2 ways you could learn these skills: Go to school or learn it yourself. When you go to school, you can get a degree and have a higher chance of getting a better-payed job, but it will take a looooot of time and money. When you learn it yourself, it’s pretty much free except for your own equipment, but you don’t get a degree and the path to a well-payed job can also be loooong. But today there is another option: the online coding certification. There are online learning services (like Udacity, what I chose), that have a proper certification but you can learn at your own pace, so it is kinda like a mixture between going to school and learning it yourself. Every programmer I’ve read about or watched videos of said the same: Don’t go to college for this. College takes too long and because the web is constantly changing, it’s often the case that the knowledge you learn is outdated by the time you graduate. Besides, college is quite expensive. So basically you should learn it yourself or take on this online degree course. The latter is what I would recommend if you don’t have the discipline to figure it all out without help or if you don’t have the money to go to college or don’t want to spend the time/money to do that.
Which path did you take?
The path that I’ve gone is via a paid online learning service called Udacity (here’s a good review of this service). I started using their online course ‘web development’ about a month ago. The reason for this is because I want to become sufficient at programming in an as short amount of time as possible, and using this course I could probably learn a lot more efficiently and faster than when I had to learn it all myself (the free way basically). You also get a degree, when you finish the course, called a ‘nanodegree’. This service comes at a cost though: about $200 / month, which is not cheap, but they also have another subscription which has a 6-month no job money back guarantee for $300 / month, which shows that a job could be in arms reach! 6 months is probably also a lot faster than I could do, have I had to learn it myself, but even more important: having to build up my network myself. And that is also where the real value for this service lies: they have a complete program which builds up your profile and portfolio and helps you setting up a good network.
So this is what I’ll be doing for the next months
I have the luck to be able to learn to program full-time now, because I don’t have job during the day and I currently live together with my parents. In the future I plan to make another post in this sequence giving you some more updates about what I’ve come across and learnt in the programming journey.
Please leave a comment down below if you have any questions about programming and web development!
– Tice