Photo by Alexandru Acea on Unsplash
Pretty much every organisation on this planet, business or non-profit, large or small, has a website. Increasing numbers of individuals have web presences through social media profiles.
So what does it mean that most of us have zero idea about the technology underpinning this situation?
Back in 2016, when I was building my business, I learned some basic coding because I wanted to build a website with minimal financial commitment (i.e. not paying a professional developer and avoiding Squarespace, Wix et al). I had no prior experience with code and no understanding of how computers, the internet, apps etc work. (Disclaimer: I still don't understand that much, but at least now I know what it is that I don't know...)
I took beginner courses in HTML and CSS (the building blocks of your basic web page) and this enabled me to create the website I wanted for a fraction of the cost of hiring a developer and for considerably less than the price of a pre-packaged site. This was very basic work as coding and web development go but it opened my eyes to the advantages of knowing even just the very basics. Previously I'd worked for a company that had outsourced the management of their website to a freelance who was intermittently available to update things; no one at the company itself understood what went on 'behind the scenes' at the website and so no changes or improvements could be made in-house; everything had to be handed over to the freelance. Looking back, with a bare minimum of training, I or another member of staff could have brought some of that work in-house and moreover would have been equipped to communicate more effectively with the web developer when necessary.
Learning to code isn't about building websites or apps from scratch or understanding the intricacies of computers – that's for people who want to go the whole 'developer' hog. But it's on the school curriculum now, so it's something the generations below us will simply take for granted. Beginning to understand code as opposed to simply using the internet etc is the difference between being driven around by your parents and actually getting into the driver's seat, putting your feet on the pedals and turning the key. It's empowering, it's the key to understanding some of the major forces behind the way we live now and it makes you more employable or more flexible in your own business.
If you're serious about becoming a full-time developer then starting salaries and long-term job prospects are strong; this is a relatively future-proofed industry that's growing rapidly and hiring to fuel that growth. It now makes just as much sense for a new graduate with no clue about what they want to be doing to go into a tech job as it does to become a lawyer or a banker – more sense, really, if that graduate wants to have the opportunity to move abroad, go freelance, work for exciting start-ups... And it’s definitely not a job just for basement geeks – you could be working with small business owners, graphic designers, branding agencies, or for some of the world’s largest and most influential corporations in their international offices.
Anyway, as you can tell I'm pretty evangelical about the career possibilities for those who can code! So I've listed below 5 resources to help you get started. As I mentioned, I started by learning HTML and CSS basics (see below Glossary) but depending on what you want to get out of this you may start elsewhere. Several of these sites offer 'career path' programmes so you can see which courses are best for which objectives.
Codeacademy: Popular site offering a large number of free beginners' courses on a range of languages.
The Khan Academy: this non-profit educational platform provides high-quality free courses.
Udacity: This is the platform I predominantly used; it's quite career-focused with a combination of free programmes, and paid-for 'nanodegrees' which can link graduates directly to employers. Their free 'Intro to HTML and CSS' course is the first component of a Front End Web Developer nanodegree and the perfect way to gain fundamental skills whilst testing the 'do-I-want-to-take-this-professional' waters.
Lynda: This is the learning platform for LinkedIn and whilst it's a subscription-based set-up new users can get their first month for free. It has a vast database of video courses, ranging from broad subjects like 'HTML Essentials' to very niche topics, and you can find them organised into programmes such as 'Become a Front-End Web Developer'. (Incidentally, I used Lynda.com to improve my Adobe Creative Suite skills as well as for coding.)
Udemy: If you want to dive in headfirst, online learning platform Udemy has over 2,000 coding classes, including 35 hours of lectures on 'The Complete Web Developer in 2020: from Zero to Mastery' programme, currently on sale for £12.99. https://www.udemy.com/course/the-complete-web-developer-zero-to-mastery/
These are all good places to start so it's really just a case of finding which platform appeals to you!
A basic glossary of terms (written by me, very much still a beginner!):
Code: Basically sets of instructions that computers follow to produce whatever it is you have designed, kind of like the text in a recipe, if the cook takes the place of the computer. Code comes in lots of different languages that have been created specifically to handle different jobs, but the 'basic' languages have lots in common with each other so once you've learned one you'll find it easier to tackle others.
HTML: This is the code that builds the structure of a web page, e.g. laying out that 'this section is a header' and 'this section is an image'
CSS: This is the code that styles the web page, e.g. 'the background colour of this section should be light blue' and 'all the headers should use such-and-such a font'
Front-End Web Developer: These are the guys who take care of how websites look and feel (as opposed to Back-End Developers, who manage the server-side of things.) I came across a helpful analogy:
Web developer (also 'Full Stack Web Developer'): House builder.
Front-End web developer: House decorator.
Back-End web developer: Bricklayer.
Javascript, Ruby, Python, etc: These are other coding languages, like HTML and CSS, which take care of other areas. e.g. Javascript is the code that handles interactive elements, such as when a button changes colour because you've clicked on it.
Squarespace, Wix etc: These are companies that offer template websites for a monthly or annual fee. They're pretty easy to use and you can choose from a range of styles. The Career Girl is currently hosted on Squarespace, because at the time of launch I didn't have time to build the site myself, nor the knowledge without further study to include the features I wanted. However, I'm already finding aspects of Squarespace a bit limiting... That's the downside of using pre-built websites, you have to work within someone else's framework.