Becoming a GreatFrontEnd

It’s been 4 months since graduating from SWE Bootcamp, and I have to say, I’ve had a ton of fun just learning and expermenting with new technologies. In the time since graduating, I’ve:

• Practiced my UX Design Skills by redesigning and testing a project from back in my cohort.
• Created a Calendar App for my family’s business and used AWS to power it’s critical services.
• I’ve taken some courses and learned some skills to make enterprise level code (Typescript & Sass).
• I designed and developed a Utility Timer app from the ground up.
• Started to study for the AWS Certified Developer Exam.

In all that time of learning new languages, building out new apps, interviewing, I’ve noticed that I’ve been lacking in enrichment when it comes to the actual coding. While it’s nice to have the internet, and Geeks for Geeks to lean on in times when I want to build out a new project. I’m expecting interviewers and employers desire a candidate that can do the things on the fly like building out a timer, or a calculator, or some sort of Class and Object Oriented function.

This is where GreatFrontEnd came into play. It’s like Leetcode, but its centered around and created for FrontEnd Devs who want to practice, learn, and strengthen their skills. Like Leetcode, they have challenges not just to prepare you for coding intervies, but also for System Design and Behavior (“Tell me about yourself”).

So what now?

Now that I’ve done a lot of learning, and will continue to do more learning (more Dev Ops stuff as far as I can tell). I want to become more of a specialist, and I think I want to become an Expert in Front End Development - UI/UX Design areas. What that means is, that in between putting out content dedicated to my learnings for AWS, or documenting some new project that I’m working on, I want to put out blog posts dedicated to deep dives on the little things.

Forms for example, I did a challenge on creating a simple contact form, and while I could bumble through it, I was sobered by how much I didn’t know about constructing a contact form that could collect and pass information to a server from the client - “What is the difference between Id and name attributes of the input tag?”, “What is an Aria Label, I’ve seen it before, but I’m not sure of it’s use?“. I just have all of these questions that I’m too embarrased to not know about, and am too embarrased to ask about. This is me dedicating myself to leveling up my skills with curiosity rather than fear and ego.

Like the epiphany I had when I first started in my Software Engineering Cohort, my hope is that as I learn more about coding and the different parts of various concepts, all of the experience and training I’ve had as a UX Designer will make even more sense as the practical application (coding) of all of the theory (UX Design) is learned and practiced.

Thank you!

For always sticking around and walking through my journey with me. If you have any thoughts or stories about your own learning path, what’s helped you, or what didn’t help, you can send me an email at - anthony.john.medina@gmail.com