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I was JUST going through this debate and decided no. I was in the same boat as you, didnt study cs -> did a bootcamp -> working on frontend now and realize just

I was JUST going through this debate and decided no. I was in the same boat as you, didnt study cs -> did a bootcamp -> working on frontend now and realize just how little I know. I thought of doing a masters but decided that it wouldn't be appropriate for now. So to bridge my knowledge gap I: 1) Keep working, dig deeper into topics along the way 2) Build side projects. One is a site that has open courseware organized the way a CS degree is. I feel like people need structure to learn effectively, but with so many resources available it can be hard. 3) Use the resources on the web and learn what you want to. There is a TON of info out there. Just pic a topic or two and dive into them. So

burger_moon 11y ago
Same boat. Although I never finished my undergrad so masters would be out of the question. However just before checking out HN I just wrote up a blog post about this exact thing. It's something that's been bothering me for a while now and holding me back in advancing my career. I think it's important to set some clearly defined goals and avoid drifting through the ecosystem of JavaScript. It is too big, there is too much to do and learn in any reasonable amount of time. You(not you specifically) need to set some specific goals and etch away at them everyday. Approach it with a sense of urgency and be relentless at achieving those goals because it is much harder to learn difficult concepts on your own and without guidance so most people start then give up or get sidetracked. I am very quickly approaching my first full year of front end development and although I have a solid github account full of projects, I've only recently realized how little time I've spent honing my skills at core JavaScript principles. This has worked wonderfully at getting me interviews and terribly at actually getting offers.
- dorfuss 11y ago
  Very good point here. While self teaching you need to set specific goals with a fast paced schedule, otherwise you can get stuck in trying to get way too deep staying there too long, to the degree that your technology becomes obsolete or that your skills are no longer needed. I am more of an amateur, so I don't mind. My only ambition would be to become more like this guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bisqwit https://www.youtube.com/user/Bisqwit The abundance of online resoures is a mixed blessing - there is so much interesting stuff out there that it's enough to spend your entire life exploring all of it without realising your primary goals. Think about it like this - if you are a doctor, it's not enought to say you want to be "a better doctor", or "a better sportswoman". Such goals are meaningless, because each and every one of us wants to simply be better. Does becoming a better programmer mean you understand the given technology better, that you code faster in a language of your choice, colaborate with others more efficiently? You are talking about your career here so I'd approach the problem from the standpoint of the value you bring to the market. On a meta-level your general goal should be acquisition of such a skillset that would be valued and allow you gradually achieve such a high position that would secure your income for the years to come. Going to a school certainly helps you limit the scope, time and effort you have to put into the task as well as it gives you a diploma that always could be of use. (The market is still unsaturated with coders of any level, but if the demand for manpower dropped a diploma could be important while competing for employment). Schools are also good about teaching more general problems such as math, algorithms and computability theory, these however have imho little use in front-end development. Try asking people around you what things they think you should learn to perform better in the specyfic set of tasks you are dealing with on daily basis and focus on them. Your employer will be happy to hear you want to improve your skills. Apart from that try learning something really challenging, something you really don't like doing (assembly? scala?), or something fundamental like TCP/IP or SSH. Personally my weakest point is math, so for me discrete mathematics would be best. TL:DR Be specyfic in your goals whether you decide to go to school or not.

burger_moon 11y ago

Same boat. Although I never finished my undergrad so masters would be out of the question. However just before checking out HN I just wrote up a blog post about this exact thing. It's something that's been bothering me for a while now and holding me back in advancing my career. I think it's important to set some clearly defined goals and avoid drifting through the ecosystem of JavaScript. It is too big, there is too much to do and learn in any reasonable amount of time. You(not you specifically) need to set some specific goals and etch away at them everyday. Approach it with a sense of urgency and be relentless at achieving those goals because it is much harder to learn difficult concepts on your own and without guidance so most people start then give up or get sidetracked. I am very quickly approaching my first full year of front end development and although I have a solid github account full of projects, I've only recently realized how little time I've spent honing my skills at core JavaScript principles. This has worked wonderfully at getting me interviews and terribly at actually getting offers.

dorfuss 11y ago
Very good point here. While self teaching you need to set specific goals with a fast paced schedule, otherwise you can get stuck in trying to get way too deep staying there too long, to the degree that your technology becomes obsolete or that your skills are no longer needed. I am more of an amateur, so I don't mind. My only ambition would be to become more like this guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bisqwit https://www.youtube.com/user/Bisqwit The abundance of online resoures is a mixed blessing - there is so much interesting stuff out there that it's enough to spend your entire life exploring all of it without realising your primary goals. Think about it like this - if you are a doctor, it's not enought to say you want to be "a better doctor", or "a better sportswoman". Such goals are meaningless, because each and every one of us wants to simply be better. Does becoming a better programmer mean you understand the given technology better, that you code faster in a language of your choice, colaborate with others more efficiently? You are talking about your career here so I'd approach the problem from the standpoint of the value you bring to the market. On a meta-level your general goal should be acquisition of such a skillset that would be valued and allow you gradually achieve such a high position that would secure your income for the years to come. Going to a school certainly helps you limit the scope, time and effort you have to put into the task as well as it gives you a diploma that always could be of use. (The market is still unsaturated with coders of any level, but if the demand for manpower dropped a diploma could be important while competing for employment). Schools are also good about teaching more general problems such as math, algorithms and computability theory, these however have imho little use in front-end development. Try asking people around you what things they think you should learn to perform better in the specyfic set of tasks you are dealing with on daily basis and focus on them. Your employer will be happy to hear you want to improve your skills. Apart from that try learning something really challenging, something you really don't like doing (assembly? scala?), or something fundamental like TCP/IP or SSH. Personally my weakest point is math, so for me discrete mathematics would be best. TL:DR Be specyfic in your goals whether you decide to go to school or not.