My Web Development Mistakes As a Beginner.

I started my web development journey 1.5 years ago. Even though It was not my first time programming. I have always been fascinated by web development and always had the curiosity to learn about it. Along this journey of 1.5 years, I have gained good knowledge in HTML, CSS, JS, and Node Js along with some JavaScript libraries like React and Express. I have built many small frontend projects like Book Manager, Portfolio website, Blog app, Announcement boards and so on. I have also built two full-stack applications Vehicle Rental Systems and Maven wardrobe e-commerce in the MERN stack. I am still on my learning journey with some projects in hand.

I am sharing this cause I think there is a lot of jargon in the web development industry which will confuse beginners. Many people talk about web development roadmap: Learn HTML, CSS and JS blah blah... but few talk about the journey and some mistakes to avoid when you are just starting as a web developer. I just gonna lay out some mistakes I made as a beginner.

1. Trying to Learn Everything

I think this is the mistake most beginners make while starting their journey they stick to one thing unless they know everything about certain technology they are learning. I made this mistake myself when I was learning CSS. I spent way too much time learning the CSS which in general was not required. You needed to know how to get things done instead of learning things you are going to use rarely. Also, I have noticed beginners change their routes now and then they lack the motivation to stay on one track at a time. For a week they learn how to code in HTML and CSS another week they run into something like Python or ML. This is something you need to avoid as a beginner. You need to learn things only to a certain level staying on the same path, That is how you make progress.

1. Not Building Projects or Taking Challenges

This is another mistake the beginners make, they learn from some random YouTube video just copying the code from the video and learn nothing Instead they fall into something called tutorial hell. No matter how much you try to learn or complete the 4 hours course you will not feel confident unless you build some projects on your own. Building some new projects requires taking on small challenges. For example, if you are learning how to center the div in the CSS from the video your next goal should be to align three divs in the center horizontally. These small progress may seem worthless in the beginning but you will make progress drastic amount of progress doing them in the long run.

1. Lack of consistency

As a beginnner I had the hard time tackling this. I was not consistent enough. I also spent a lot of my time wasting doing nothing in my during my college days. I now really wish If I could have built few more projects in those time instead of wasting them. I used to code for 4 hours when I wanted to but Never opened the VS code for 3 days straight. You need to be dedicated enough to give everyday of your time learning how to code and figuring out new things to do and trying new things instead of just following that course, Then only you will be able to make some progress. Along side there is the question how long should I code everyday? well it totally depends on the number of hours you are ready to put in outside of your main work or your university. Ideally in my opinion you need to put atleast 2 hours of your day codding. That is how you can grow your consistency.

Well, those were the most important as well as the small list of the mistakes beginners makes as starting their codding journey.