Thanks Everyone!
I was hired on as a production artist at a pretty big corporation. We had a lot of very repetitive tasks that should have been automated but weren't. We had some helpful actions, but no scripting. So that is when I became interested. I came on here without any knowledge of JavaScript. I began finding examples in this forum, copying them and manipulating them and began to understand a little bit. I eventually made an account on here and began asking questions. After getting help from people on here I was able to make some basic scripts that really helped our workflow. I eventually developed a basic knowledge of JavaScript, and that is when this started to be fun for me. I found out about codecademy and took a JavaScript course there and became more comfortable. I loved it so much I knew I found a new passion.
I took a basic html and css class in college so I was familiar enough to put together a website and some of my scripts up there. I applied for some jobs, and I was contacted by a recruiter about a junior javascript position. They sent me a test to do, I had to put together a single page application that updated a list and sent it to a server. I stayed up all night trying to figure it out and I got it done in the morning haha. My night consisted of googling and learning about jquery and ajax and generally lead me to this site W3Schools Online Web Tutorials
They reviewed my app and I passed the test so they schedule the interview. This was my first interview so I totally bombed it, but I learned that I needed more to my portfolio, all that I had at that time was my website and some script examples. I still felt pretty good though because I was able to pass the test, and the job was going to pay twice more than what I was currently making! So I knew I had to capitalize on this newfound skill. I later found freecodecamp, and after about 3 months of that, I had a decent portfolio. I definitely spent a lot of time and dedicated a lot of weekends to building my apps.
The most valuable resource I found was freecodecamp.com
This will start from zero and pretty much walk you through how to be a developer, starting with html and css. Not only will you learn, you will also end up building a very strong portfolio as you go. Your 2nd project will be a portfolio page, and the next projects will all be single page applications you can add to your portfolio. If you keep going you can obtain a certification that you can also add to your portfolio.
codecademy is good as well if you need extra training you can take specific courses to languages and frameworks. If you get far in freecodecamp you will need to create projects using React. They have yet to create training for React in freecodecamp, so I went to codecademy to take a free course in React to help with my project. There is a pro version in codecademy that I never tried because you have to pay (I haven't spent a dime on any of my training lol) so that might be good as well but I prefer not to pay.
I also took CS50: Introduction to Computer Science | edX
This is a bit more broad approach which doesn't focus specifically on web development but I found it helpful. You will learn how everything works starting with the zeros and ones. There was a section on algorithms that I found very helpful. This is free as well though there is an option to pay like 50 bucks to obtain a certification, which I didn't do but could be helpful.
Great place for creative ideas http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/
If you don't have a lot of time I would recommend just focusing on freecodecamp because you can build your portfolio as you go.
I recommend to apply for jobs as soon as your portfolio is set up. Even if you don't have lots of projects to show, you can still be contacted by recruiters and maybe even get an interview or two. Never turn down an interview, even if you feel you are under qualified you never know. I had several interviews before I got my job. Some of them I am sure I looked very dumb, but it was great experience for later interviews down the road. Indeed.com and dice.com are where I applied the most, you will become familiar with tech staffing companies in your area.
I am sure lots of people on here have a background in design, that will help you because your portfolio will look awesome and stick out. I will add more to this thread if I can think of other things that helped me. Learning this stuff can be very frustrating, but it will be worth it and enjoyable once you get an understanding.
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