What to do after Colt Steele’s Web Developer Bootcamp?

Have you taken Colt Steele’s Web Development Bootcamp and found yourself looking for the next step?

I took the Web Development Bootcamp back in late 2020, around the time it had been updated to use ECMAScript 6, Flexbox and Responsive Design. If you are anything like me after finishing the course, you find yourself hearing all about JavaScript libraries and frameworks such as React.js and Angular, or the ever-beloved Typescript.

It is important to step back from all of this to refine what you have just learned. You might not be able to rewrite YelpCamp using React and the rest of the MERN stack, but with enough practice you’ll be able to apply what you’ve learned in the course to deploy other full-stack applications.

Practice makes best

Don’t rush into frameworks and libraries until you are confident with the contents of the course, it will make learning any of them easier. Odds are if you go straight into React, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed thinking about how to connect your React front-end with your Node & Express back-end, how to deploy them together or separately, or how to handle routing and dynamic values on the front-end without EJS or Express Middleware.

After a deploying a few applications with what you’ve learned and you feel ready to tackle React, I would encourage you to follow along Traversy Media’s ongoing series (at the time of writing) to learn the full MERN stack.

Skipping the back-end

Did you go through the Bootcamp or the video above dreading the parts having to do with Node & Express? Perhaps try out developing using a back-end as a service such as Firebase and React, and focus on React and its libraries such as Next.js to become a front-end web developer. Pick up some user interface libraries like Chakra UI or Material UI.

For learning Firebase and other web technologies I also recommend Shaun of The Net Ninja.

Focusing on CSS

You may have heard of the great divide among front-end developers, the difference pertaining to developers who chose to focus heavily on JavaScript, and those who are more focused on design side of a website, things such as accessibility, interaction, and animation. If you are part of the latter, please do yourself a favor and learn SCSS.

After looking through LinkedIn job listings you may be led to believe that the only route to getting started in web development is through JavaScript, however an expertise in CSS and implementing complex designs is more than enough to land your foot in the door. If this entices you and this is the direction you’re headed, then there is no one I can recommend more than Kevin Powell and his free course on responsive design.

Keep learning

Chances are if you are reading this, you are well invested in web development as a career choice and are reading this to find where to head going forward. There isn’t much you can do wrong as long as you keep learning and practicing side by side regularly. The biggest mistake you can make however, is hopping from technology to technology because the new one seems shinier.

There is nothing wrong with being curious and if you enjoy learning about things you will work with in the future perhaps try out the Fireship YouTube channel for short high level overviews of many web technologies out there.