This article was initially published on Dev.to
Beginners in web development, whether those on the self-taught college or Bootcamp path make avoidable mistakes during the journey to be embarked on to become a developer. A lot would argue the mistakes are a part of the journey, but they are actually avoidable. I decided to compile a list of mistakes beginners make and how to avoid them, using my past experience as aguide.
1. AVOIDING THE BASICS
While learning to code, a lot forget that nothing starts big in a day. I have once trapped in this myself at a time. After learning and rushing through just the basics of HTML and CSS, I quickly picked up JavaScript with a course, only to get to know I need to dwell more on HTML/CSS and practice with it before moving to JavaScript itself. No matter which language you're learning, you have to focus on the basics a lot, so It'd be easy for you to pick up advanced features when necessary. If you want to learn React, Vue, or Angular, strengthen your HTML/CSS, cross over to JavaScript, and know the advanced features, then pick up the framework of your choice. If you want to be a master in Django, then you need to be comfortable with python first.
2. CODING IN ISOLATION
Forgive me for talking too much about myself. But I faced a lot of issues while starting out to learn how to code, hence the reason to make myself an example for others so they don't slow down like me. Being an extreme introvert, I didn't make real progress until I reached out to the world by googling my bugs and reading blogs. Initially, I would face them on my own with the textbooks I was using, but the fact is no textbook has it all. Reach out to the world while learning to code. Join coding communities like the #100DaysOfCode, #DevCommunity, #WomenWhoCode and #CodeNewbies. You will see how open to the world you'd become and how fast your progress will go.
3. BEING SHY TO ASK FOR HELP
A lot of beginners in coding and web development often feel ashamed to ask for help. Remember the popular saying that no one is infallible. Personally, I wised up and took my ability to ask for help to the next level when I got to know even senior developers still hop around on google and StackOverflow and won't discover their programming bugs oftentimes until they tell a colleague to take a look. As a beginner, you need to make Google and StackOverflow your friends, read documentations, ask colleagues and more knowledgeable individuals for help and get a mentor too.
4. NOT GETTING A MENTOR AND/OR ROLE MODEL
A lot would argue this is not a mistake. But I see it as one of those which slowed down my progress while starting out. If you're starting out as a self-taught developer, things could get very intimidating to the extent that you might consider giving up on coding for life. Due to this, you need someone to guide you and keep you from backsliding or rolling in 360 instead of going 180. I couldn't afford a mentor while starting out, but I picked three important people as role models and follow what they do by reading their blogs, taking their courses, and watching their videos, which really helped me a lot.
I hope this little piece gives you insights on how to deal with common beginner mistakes. Thanks a lot for reading.
You can contact me via my portfolio site , or Twitter , where I spend most of my time engaging in web development-related issues.