My experience as a self-taught developer

Salis Sadiq — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 08:25:57 +0000

Hello readers, I will start by introducing myself, I’m Sadiq Salis Gebe a self-taught developer with over six years of experience in the tech industry, I started learning programming in college. Everything was going well when I was focusing on building static websites with HTML and CSS, and then I started getting curious about how dynamic websites work. So, I started researching how to create a dynamic website, while I was doing that a friend suggested PHP and MYSQL, which I started learning.

After learning the basics of PHP and MYSQL, I remember testing my skills by building a login and registration system with PHP and MYSQL, which was awesome, I was excited about it. I kept on building mini projects to enhance my skills and at the same time, I was reading Books like PHP and MYSQL for Dummies, mastering PHP, Clean Code in PHP … etc. My final year project topic was to develop a social networking site for my department, I faced a lot of challenges in developing the app, but the most challenging one was, trying to get real-time messages on the platform, it was a very big challenge for me at the time, it took me a week trying to figure out how to implement the feature. The first step I took was to identify the problem, then come up with the algorithm, read blog posts on relevant issues, identify tools that will be used in solving the issue, and then use socket.io to solve the challenge. I successfully completed the project.

Being a self-taught developer was not easy for me because I was not following a structured way of learning, I was just doing stuff on my own and I was not treating it as a career, it was along the way I discovered I could make a living with programming. This led me to start applying for jobs and attending tech meetups, but I kept failing interviews, after this experience I decided to discuss it with friends and some people in the tech community. I later realized that I have a knowledge gap and I need to have real-world experience in solving complex problems and doing things in a structured way.

I started looking for a way to gain more experience in a structured way that would make me an industry-standard developer, I explored a lot of options which included enrolling myself into a coding bootcamp, but that’s not the solution because I already have the knowledge, I’m only missing structured way of doing things. After sharing my concern with an old friend, he suggested that I should apply for an HNG internship, telling me about the benefits of HNG, so before I applied, I did research about HNG and it turned out to be what I was missing, so I applied for the internship.

I’m eager for it to start as I’m planning to gain standard and structured experience, expand my knowledge and network, gain more confidence in getting a job, and fill the knowledge gap that I have.

Make the right choice between React and Vue in 2024

Salis Sadiq — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 09:43:59 +0000

In the world of frontend development and javascript frameworks, Vue and React are the ones that stand out, but how can you pick between them? what is the distinction between them? My name is Salis Sadiq Gebe a full-stack engineer with over six years of experience, I will highlight the difference between React and Vue by exploring their strengths and weaknesses, What are they good for? So that you can make the right choice.

First, let's answer a question that will help you better understand these comparisons. What are React and Vue made for? And why do developer are adopting them?
React: Many developers have this idea that React is a javascript framework, but in reality, it's an open-source javascript library made by Facebook in 2011 for building robust interfaces and is one of the most adopted UI libraries in top tech companies. It's easy to use, fast, and scalable, whether you're creating a smile user interface or building complex web applications, React might be your choice.

Advantage of React.

It's easy to learn and use: React is user-friendly especially when compared with other frameworks like Angular. If you know a little bit of HTML, CSS, and Javascript you can hit the ground running with React.
It utilizes JSX: Makes it easy for developers to embed HTML, and CSS into Javascript in creating UI components, and also enables developers to write complex logic in their app.
It has reusable components: React makes use of building blocks' reusable components for easy maintenance and to streamline the development process.
Its performance is outstanding: React boosts performance by utilizing virtual DOM, which ensures a smooth and speedy web app.
It is SEO friendly: It speeds up rendering and reduces load time, these are important in search engine ranking.

Vue is a progressive Javascript framework for building user interfaces. Since 2014 millions of developers have chosen Vue because it has everything that you need to quickly create and scale performance products whether you're a freelancer, a new startup to mature Enterprise company. Vue is a framework that will give you all the tools for the job no matter how big you're building. Vue has a reactivity system with declarative rendering, which means Vue does all the heavy lifting for you. It has its pre-build router, state management testing tools ... etc.

Advantage of Vue

Its Simple: Vue aims for maximum efficiency with minimal effort, it uses single file document that contains HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
It's Typescript-based: It simplifies complicated code into smaller readable parts, the use of Typescript allows developers to spot errors before running the code
It is flexible: Easy to integrate with other frameworks.

It turns out that both React and Vue are greater choices. Vue stands out for its flexibility, performance, and good documentation, on the other hand, React excels in more adoption and third-party tools, and robust community support. But which one is better for us? There is no right answer here because both Vue and React can be good for different project requirements, goals, and even types of development teams. Vue is ideal for lightweight and flexible projects, especially with high interactivity. React on the other is ideal for high scalability and maintainable projects, especially those requiring extensive customization.

But these are just technical aspects and there are other aspects to consider like support, community, and personnel preferences. According to my experience, you choose a technology that your team is more familiar with. When it comes to career opportunity and advancement both React and Vue are in high demand, according to Glassdoor average salary for Vue developers in the US is around 95k/yr, and when it comes to React it is around 88k/yr. So getting skills in React and Vue makes a lot of sense.

If you found this content enjoyable please don't forget to follow for more.

Also, I would like to use this medium to tell you guys that I have signed up for an HNG internship to enhance my tech skills, expand my network, get mentorship, and also for more career opportunities.
to learn more about HNG internship you can click the link here. and they have premium space where you can collaborate and access more jobs in the industry

Thank you.

Forem: Salis Sadiq

My experience as a self-taught developer

Make the right choice between React and Vue in 2024