4 Things you should prepare before working as a Junior FrontEnd developer / Intern
“Working as a Web developer is to write code.”
I presume that many of people think so. But it’s not 100% true.
Writing code is a part of Web developer’s job but it’s not all. I just started to start to work as a FrontEnd developer. Before starting to work in the development team, I was just worried about coding part.
Now I can say that I should prepare for other things as well as improving coding skills. There are many things to know before starting to write actual code in the team.
Let me tell you a few things that I noticed.
1) LEARNING COMMAND LINE
Do you know how to use command line? I suppose that most of you said ‘yes’ .
Knowing basic command line is sufficient for doing simple tasks.
However, there are a lot more command lines than you may currently know and it could be essential in helping you if you want to become a better developer.
I took time to read through the Command Line tutorial that was recommended by the senior developer
Honestly speaking, I realized that I was unable to use command line at all. What I had known was so limited compared to the full scope of command line. I believe it will definitely help your work flow.
Tutorial : Learn Enough Command Line to Be Dangerous
2) SETTING UP TEXT EDITOR PROPERLY
There are various text editors to choose from, for example Sublime, Atom and Brackets.
If you are unable to pick one editor, there are many useful articles that tell you the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of each editor, read them and choose one.
What is more important is to pick up one text editor and stick to it. According to him (the person who gave me this advice), it’s important to be able to make full use of the text editor you choose.
There are many plugins you can use in the text editor.
Actually making full use of a text editor will increase your productivity and efficiency. By implementing adequate plugins, you will be able to write code much more easily.
There are several good tutorials you can use to set up the proper environment and it depends on the text editor.
Search for it for your favorite text editor!
Here is a tutorial I used for my sublime text editor.
Tutorial : Sublime Text 3 From Scratch
3 ) LEARNING GIT
Many companies use Git to maintain and track projects. You might have used Git for your own projects.
It was same for me. I have a Github account and I put all my personal projects there. Even though you have used Git for your personal project, it’s not necessary to mean that you know everything about Git.
As same as other things I pointed out in this article, there are so many other features that you probably have not used on your own yet. Working in the team is different from working for your own project.
So it’s is a good idea to read through official tutorial from Atlassian thoroughly before starting to work in the team. This tutorial is very comprehensive. Git is complicated in some sense but this tutorial explains the concept with illustration. It should be helpful for your understanding.
Tutorial : Getting Git Right
4) WRITING A CLEAN CODE
You might think that you could immediately start to write tens of lines code from day 1. Sadly, it won’t be happening in most case.
Most of the companies have a style guide to keep and maintain good code. You need to learn how to keep clean code which matches each company’s guideline.
This guideline will be varied depends on the companies, however, you could have a look the style guide which many companies implement.
Airbnb JavaScript Style Guide is the most well known one for the time being.
If you want to learn the fundamentals of writing clean code, it’s recommended to read “Clean Code” written by Robert C. Martin (aka Uncle Bob). This book is like a bible for people who write code. Must read.
If you plan to work as a developer or want to work as a developer, it’ s preferable to learn all 4 things as early as possible. It should help you to onboard your new job smoothly !
If you come up with other tips which is relevant to this topic, please share it by leaving comments below ! Thank you for reading :)
