Hi! I’m Chris and I started writing webpages in 1999. I don’t have a formal computer science degree. I’ve always developed alone or with one other person…until recently. I took a break from development and focused primarily on the Dev Ops side of things. Making sure all the servers and systems kept running.
A shake ups required I look for a new job. And I decided it was a good time to get back into programming full time. I found a place that was willing to take a chance on me, even though I hadn’t really written any code for several years.
I learned two things right away:
- I’d missed being a developer
- A LOT had changed in web development while I was on hiatus
Even though I was in the mid-level category for a programmer in my career, I was clearly going to have to play “catch-up”. This new job built projects way more complex than anything I’d worked on before. And the tech stack had all but changed on me. Other than base level HTML, CSS & JavaScript, everything else felt new. Like I was back at the beginning of learning. I was working with people half my age who knew twice as much. I felt like an impostor. I was worried someone might realize they made a mistake by hiring me; that I didn’t know as much as they thought I did.
But after being on the job for a while, I discovered two more things:
- I knew more than I gave myself credit for
- Everyone feels like an impostor at some point
Sure, there were people who knew more about JavaScript than I did, but I had knowledge which they didn’t, too.
I decided to start cataloging the things I was learning so I could reference the information later. And since I’m not the only one in this world trying to keep his head above water in development, I’m making it public. This way my efforts can benefit someone else who’s struggling.
If you’re still reading, chances are you’ve felt the way I did at some point. I hope this site will offer some assistance. Feel free to drop me a line and tell me how you handle this changing sea of web development. Or just say “Hi!”
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