Any Web Developers/Designers here? Need some advice. (1 Viewer)

Up until July I was going to school for a computer science degree, focusing on programming. I was forced to take a break from school for health reasons and have now been out of school for almost 6 months, the soonest I'll be able to get back into non-elective classes will be Fall of 2014 so I have plenty of time to help prepare myself.

I'm sweating returning with a focus on programming, since I've been out of school I've been dreading diving back into complex programming concepts as my background in math is imo not great, I've also been wanting to do something more creative and hoping web dev will scratch that itch.

I've got two years of programming experience (C#, Java) as well as a semester of basic web design (HTML4, CSS).

So I have a few questions if anyones inclined to answer:

1) Do you enjoy Web Development? Do you find it fulfilling in a creative way?

2) Were you self taught or class taught?
3) Are there any books you would recommend someone who wanted to make a switch to Web Dev/Design?

4) HTML5, start learning it sooner or later?

Run It Up said:

So I have a few questions if anyones inclined to answer:

1) Do you enjoy Web Development? Do you find it fulfilling in a creative way?

2) Were you self taught or class taught?

3) Are there any books you would recommend someone who wanted to make a switch to Web Dev/Design?

4) HTML5, start learning it sooner or later?

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First off, I've followed your thread about your health - I hope you are still progressing, good luck.

I was a CS major and my degree was mostly coding. I co-oped while in school and starting doing some web development where I was working. I really enjoyed it and shifted from traditional programming to web development/programming. That was about 18 years ago when php/mysql/perl were all the rage. I loved it. My school didn't really have classes focused on that so I had to learn it all myself. I continued and finished my CS degree and it really helped to understand the fundamentals of programming but almost all of my learning for web development was done on my own. After I graduated I found a job that allowed me to do custom coding for 3rd party apps in the Business Intelligence field. That was 13 years ago and after doing a mixture of coding/BI I shifted to managing the development staff. I miss it - some day I wish I was still writing code.

To answer your question about books - unless you get a solid recommendation I would use online turtorials and training - tons of that available. And yes to HTML5 - definitely something you should learn and know if you want to continue doing web development.

Good luck.

Thanks and I am doing very well.

There are definitely a lot of online resources to take advantage of I was just hoping to have some sort of direction as I've got a good 6 months before I can finish my degree being able to work through a book just sounded easy.

As far as the HTML5 goes, I have absolutely no knowledge of it, I've heard its much more flexible and powerful which to me makes it sound less like a new collection of standards and syntax and more a completely new language. I wasn't sure if it was something to learn in tandem with other Web Dev subjects or after I've gotten my feet wet.