Can You Become a Front End Developer without a Degree?
You might already have a nice paying job as a graduate but you might see it as very stressful and not worth your time and you need something that you can do that pays well and yet you are free to determine your time.
Getting digital skills might come to your mind and you think of becoming a Front End Developer. People in this situation do wonder if you can become a Front End Developer without a Degree.
In this article we will discuss most things you need to know about being a Front End Developer and you can go about it to make it very successful.
One of the important questions we have raised now is if it is possible to become a Front End Developer without having a college degree. The simple answer is yes, you can become a Front End Developer without a Degree and you will be successful too in the career same as those with a degree.
You might wonder how this will be possible since there are many institution which offers it to their students and they graduate with degrees, how is it possible you compete with people with degrees when you have known in the labor market
Before we talk about how you can be successful as a front end developer without having a college degree and how you can get that job being a self taught developer, let us first look at who is a front end developer? What do front end developers do? How to become a self taught developer without going to any college?
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Who is a front end developer?
A front-end developer builds the front-end portion of websites and web applications, that is, the part that users actually see and use
A front-end developer builds responsive websites and mobile applications using programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript so that users can access and interact with the site or mobile app. When you search the internet and go to a site, the site layout and design you see are the work of a front-end developer.
Compare this to back-end developers, who work on developing the behind-the-scenes parts of a website or application, such as data storage, security, site performance, or other server functions
What does a front-end developer do?
Front-end developers are the ones who build the user interface (UI) of any website and this determines what each portion of a site, software or mobile application does and how it will look.
For example, If someone wants to build a website, all they need to do is hire a front-end developer to build the site’s layout on their instructions. Front End Developer will work with you to know what you desire for your site to have and what it will look like. Then the front-end developer will determine the best part of your site to place images.
Also, they make sure that the navigation works well for easy access by the users. Much of their work involves ensuring the appearance and layout of the site or application is easy to navigate and interesting for the user.
Front-end developers are problem-solvers. They get to use a variety of languages, tools, and their own experience and creativity to deliver a website or application. There are many ways to design a website or create a program, and that’s why being a front-end engineer is so exciting. These developers tend to enjoy working with a variety of people in their daily jobs.
How to become a Front End Developer without a degree?
To become a Front End Developer without a Degree, it means you will not attend any college or Universities that offer degrees. So how can you get the knowledge you require? You have to teach yourself.
A self taught front End Developer will search for the Vital information he or she needs to have the best knowledge on the matter.
To help you become a Front End Developer, you need to have a better knowledge of web programming languages. There are many web development languages but you don’t need all of them to become a web programmer. What you need in the beginning is the core languages which are HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
As you progress in the field, you can learn other ones.
To become a front end developer without a Degree, you need to teach yourself these programming languages and you can do it through reading articles, watching YouTube videos and paying for some courses online.
Today there are many online schools where you can get the knowledge you need to become a Front End Developer. Below are few of them;
- Udemy
- Coursera
- Alison
Also, if you don’t want the paid or free course on these online platforms, you can head over to YouTube and search for free courses there.
Technical and soft skills you need to become a Front End Developer
Now that you have developed the desire to become a Front End Developer and also know that you can have the career without a Degree, it’s time to know the skills or knowledge you need.
To become a web developer, you need to learn how to code computer programs. You need to have good knowledge of programming languages, especially the basic ones. The building block of every website are programming languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language commonly known as HTML is a programming language that is used to design most web pages and applications. It is a set of codes that is used as a building block for all websites and mobile applications. It is used to structure a web page and its contents.
To become a full web developer, you must be vast or experienced in coding using HTML. So you need to learn HTML to become a developer.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML. The style in which you want your content to be displayed is added using CSS.
JAVASCRIPT
Some features of the website and applications cannot be deployed using HTML and CSS, but with JavaScript it is possible.
JavaScript is a dynamic programming language used for web development, applications, mobile game development and many other things for the internet. It allows you to implement dynamic functions on web pages that cannot be done with HTML and CSS alone.
Many browsers use JavaScript as a scripting language to do dynamic things on the web. Every time you see a click-to-give drop-down menu, additional content added to a page, and dynamically changing element colors on a page, just to name a few features, you see the effects of JavaScript.
How long does it take to become a self taught front-end developer?
How long it will take to become a self taught web developer depends on the individual, time spent on learning and the practice you put in place.
As you want to become a front end developer without a Degree, it means you have to make out time to search the internet for knowledge and the time you put in learning will determine how long it will take you to be good with coding and programming languages.
If you dedicate a lot of time to this venture, you can become a front end developer within 3 to 4 months. For people working, it means your study will be part time and as such it will take a longer period of time.
For some it will take up to 6 months for you to become a full Front End Developer without having a degree.