Are crash courses for tech newbies?
Tags: html, css, javascript, frontend
Published: 2023-11-15 20:41:09

I started my tech journey earlier this year, in February to be precise. When I started, I had it in mind to cover the entire front-end development in the first three months, and then spend another three months on the backend development. By my calculations back then, I'd have become a full-stack developer by August. I was bent on achieving this target, and I set out to find the fastest route to my journey.
The first material I picked up was Andrei Neagoie's zero-to-mastery course on Web development. I was doing just fine with this course, and then I got introduced to Angela Yu's material along the line too. I fell in love with her material immediately, and I began to use this material to buttress my first course. I eventually started learning from both materials simultaneously! Whenever there was confusion on a subject in Andrei's course, I'd use Angela Yu's material to solve the puzzle per time.
This approach worked for me; until I decided to build a page with a simple framework like Bootstrap, and I ran into all manner of issues.
I struggled with the entire project, and I made a mess of things in this project. Can you imagine spending close to a month trying to sort out what I got wrong? I had to reach out to a tech sis, who eventually bailed me out and explained the documentation of Bootstrap to me. 
By the time I was done with this project, I decided to forge ahead with my learning, and I got to the CSS grid and layout and the responsive design. Andrei's course touched on it, and I didn't bother to understand it better.
I felt I was done with the entire HTML&CSS part, and that I could move on to Javascript. I was excited to have gotten past the stage of HTML and CSS, and I was eager to get into Javascript. I followed the same pattern, and I was using Andrei's course and Angela Yu's course simultaneously for the Javascript study again. I honestly felt there was nothing wrong with my learning all along. And then, my tech sis gave me a challenge.
She was on the HNG challenge at the time, and she told me to clone a site using HTML and CSS alone, without frameworks. I felt it wouldn't be an issue initially; until I started! I started and I made such an awful mess of things. It became obvious to me instantly that I did not know HTML and CSS enough. What could have happened? But I spent more than 5 months on this alone, using two materials simultaneously. I had to look for a solution to this mess.
I was then introduced to the CSS course by Max Schwarzmuller on Udemy by my friend. I decided to give the course a go, but I had to attend a physical boot camp for a month after two weeks into this course. I had to disrupt my learning and I focused on the physical bootcamp alone. I was crammed with total tech newbies, and the instructors started web development afresh in the class. I saw a comical trend in the class, one which reminded me of myself. There was so much to learn within a month, and they all struggled. 
For me, it was a way of fine-tuning my learning. I was the only one that was able to flow well with the instructor, the comical side of the story is that I sometimes wasn't allowed to answer questions in the class. 
We were asked to clone a website as our final project, and it was a piece of cake for me. I was able to work on the layout well, but it still did not feel perfect to me. I then reverted back to the CSS course that I was taking before the physical boot camp. Layout became so easy for me as I went deeper into the course. I am at the tail end of the course right now, and I am reflecting on my journey so far.
I have come to a bold conclusion right now, and that is the fact that web development boot camps aren't exactly for total tech newbies. I believe strongly that it is for advanced learners who need to pick up on a topic; and don't have much time. The veterans will be able to digest the contents of crash courses easily. Three people recently approached me, and asked me to teach them web development. Initially, I was going to recommend Angela Yu's course to them. As a matter of fact, I had already shared the material with one of them. However, I had to change the course to the HTML and CSS course by Jonas Schmedtmann. I love the course because it is elaborate enough.
The course by Jonas Schmedtmann is elaborate enough for any newbie to sit down with, and digest easily. The only sacrifice this course will take is your time as a newbie, but I can guarantee you that you will have an unshakeable foundation to forge ahead in web development. I already got the material for the full Javascript course by Jonas Schmedtmann, and I intend to digest the whole course before going into Javascript frameworks and the other topics in my front-end syllabus. I do not want to have a shallow knowledge of Javascript as a developer. 
My sincere advice to newbies in tech is to take dedicated HTML and CSS courses before taking a full Javascript course for a solid foundation in the tech journey. Please do not jump on a crash course as a newbie, your depth may be shallow and you may not know enough as demanded by the tech market.
Now, I feel so confident ahead of the Javascript study. I am not new to it, but I want to commit to a pure study of the subject starting from next week. I'll wrap up the advanced CSS course before the end of this current week. I just believe that it is going to be a good thing to share what I've learned in my first year in the Web development journey.
I speak from a very sincere heart that some may see as being biased, but I do not believe that crash courses are for tech newbies. They may do you more harm than good. Why risk being half-baked for something you want to build a career upon when you can spend extra time to solidify your foundation?