February Is React Month
February Is React Month

February Is React Month

Yes I know it is much closer to the end of the month than the beginning.

I’ve had lots to focus on, from job applications, a coding challenge, two interviews – not to mention spending nearly a week creating my own WordPress theme for a blog that I have completely transformed – more on that in a separate post.

Each month I am trying to focus on learning, or expanding my knowledge of one particular area of web development – the list is endless – CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Angular, React, Sass, PHP, Angular2, Laravel, Symphony, Gulp, Grunt, Redux, Webpack, Animations, SQL, Drupal, WordPress, Vue, Express, Ember, Git, Node, npm, – its tiring/exciting even thinking about it.

A good knowledge of JavaScript is the most important criteria for getting my next web development role.  This I did in January – I didn’t spend as much time as I had planned and didn’t get to the end of my to-do list – in fact I only made it around halfway – various excuses from interviews, interview disappointment, birthday, ill health, a weekend away – my plan was probably too ambitious to start.

This month, as per every month, I will spend more time learning JavaScript – it is my plan for the two hours or so left this afternoon once I have finished writing this.  Oh and once I’ve marinated my pork chops.

But my main challenge in terms of learning, is to learn React.  For those reading that are not developers, React is a framework that sits on top of JavaScript and helps to make applications.  It was developed by Facebook, and is used by major organisations such as Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, etc.

It is something I increasingly see requested on job postings, and the one framework I feel could give me an edge.

Clearly I’m not going to fully learn it in a month, but it isn’t as humongous a task as learning a whole new language like JavaScript.

My plan is to do the two free courses on Codecademy (done), then follow up with this £15 course on Udemy, called The Complete React Web App Developer Course (note – never pay full price for Udemy – there is normally a 70% – 90% off voucher code floating around).  So far I am impressed with the quality of the teaching, and I am itching to get to the part where we make a weather app – those that know me, know my passion for the weather!

Before I consider myself for junior roles requiring React, I want to have a couple of my own apps running – and I woke up this morning dreaming about an app that could help keep the cricket score, for amateur clubs.  I think I can do it with React, though I won’t be sure until I know much more about it.  Whether or not anyone ever uses it, is not important – that I can build it, it works and I can add it to my portfolio, is the key.

FreeCodeCamp also have some pretty cool challenges if I cannot think of another app of my own.

 

Of course, half of the reason that I am learning React is to make myself more employable.

But the other half is for my personal projects and just the general enjoyment of learning.

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