Becoming a front-end developer in Nigeria is not as hard as you may think. I can say that because I have learnt it, and I mean from scratch.
From not knowing anything about the basic skills which are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, to building a simple website, a random quote generator for my girlfriend, a GP calculator for students, and a job listing platform for frontend developers.
Imagine, I learnt from scratch and did these, all in a year.
From personal experience, it is not all a bed of roses, but, with the right guidance, you can become a professional front-end developer, even by learning on your own.
The good news in being a professional front-end developer is that you cannot run out of jobs if you know your craft.
In 2019, about 24% of job openings in Nigeria were front-end developer roles and the percentage has increased now, so you stand a good chance.
In fact, you can apply to companies outside the country, and earn in foreign currency.
You know the saying “earn in dollars, spend in naira”, sounds good right? Let me show you how to do that.
Table of Contents
What are The Basic Front-end Developer Skills to Learn?
The basic front-end developer skills to learn are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. That’s where I started, and that’s where everyone should start.
You cannot jump the process.
Some make the mistake of learning JavaScript first because it seems like the most important, but you are going to run into trouble with building a complete website or application if you don’t know HTML or CSS.
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HTML
HTML is short for HyperText Markup Language.
HTML is not a programming language, it is a markup language, but it is a foundation for everyone aspiring to become a professional front-end developer.
A markup language simply means a language that consists of tags and symbols that tells a browser how to display texts and how to structure a web page.
You can call it the word document or google docs of web development.
You learn how to make texts on your webpage bold, italicized, paragraphs, insert images, create checkboxes, and a whole lot of fundamental things you see on the web.
You can also learn how to structure your website with HTML.
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CSS
CSS is Cascading Style Sheet. And as the name implies, it is for styling what you’ve done with HTML.
HTML is like the skeletal structure, and CSS is the flesh.
How scary would it be for a skeleton to walk the streets? That’s how HTML without CSS looks.
CSS gives beauty to your HTML. Without CSS, what you’d have on your webpage will not be different from a word document, white background, and black texts, just bland.
Can I be honest with you? This seems the most difficult for me to learn.
You can say it’s because I am not naturally inclined to design, but I found some helpful learning sites. You can check sites like frontendmentor.com, and codecademy.com.
There is also a CSS Zero to Hero course by freecodecamp on YouTube.
It’s a 6 hours video that will teach you all the basics you need to know about CSS.
To gain a better understanding of CSS, you need to pay extra attention to the flex and grid system, responsiveness in styling, and how to use the “rem, em, and px” symbols for fonts and sizes.
You can learn other CSS frameworks like Tailwind CSS, Bootstrap, Materialize CSS, Material design, etc. CSS is a core skill requirement if you want to become a professional front-end developer.
Read also: What does a Full-Stack developer do?
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JavaScript
This is the engine of the web. JavaScript is the language that gives functionality to your code.
Without JavaScript, your code is going to be static. JavaScript is used for DOM manipulation.
DOM stands for Document Object Model. DOM manipulation is the interaction of JavaScript with HTML elements to modify them or initiate an action on the webpage.
JavaScript is the foundation of frontend development, you would be doing yourself a great disservice if you don’t take it seriously.
JavaScript has other front-end frameworks like VueJS, ReactJS, NuxtJs, etc.
To take your JavaScript skills further, you can learn either VUE or ReactJs.
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VueJS
VueJS is a lightweight JavaScript framework that is used for building interactive applications.
It is JavaScript with a lot of powerful tools that make writing JavaScript easier.
With VueJs, you don’t need to write long lines of code as you would in Vanilla JS, some actions are already configured for you, you just need to write a few lines of code to activate them.
VueJs is a powerful front-end programming language to learn for anyone seeking to be a professional front-end developer.
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React JS
React is a JavaScript library, similar to VueJS.
It has pre-built components that you can leverage to build single-page applications and reusable UI components.
Where Can I Learn Front-end Development?
There are several learning platforms online for learning front-end development.
You can take front-end development courses on Udemy or Coursera.
You also have options to learn from Pluralsight, codecademy, freecodecamp.org, etc.
Now, some of these platforms are paid platforms, though they do give discounts sometimes.
Good thing is, their fees are not too high. For example, Udemy gives discounts on their courses that you can learn for as low as 10000 naira to 30000 naira.
Imagine learning a skill that will fetch you hundreds of thousands for an amount as low as that.
Also, if you don’t have enough money at the start, you can check frontendmasters.com, there are recorded Bootcamp sessions for frontend courses on their platform.
All you will need to spend money on is data. Download the sessions and start learning.
You can also explore frontendmentor.io for front-end challenges. You can also join the front-end mentor community on slack here.
Meanwhile, you should subscribe to YouTube channels that offer interesting content on front-end development.
You may want to check Brad Traversy, The Net Ninja, and Coding Addict. For example, Brad Traversy has a full course on JavaScript from scratch on his channel.
You can leverage front-end development courses created by these developers to learn and sharpen your skills in front-end development.
Read also: Top 10 coding hacks in Python every developer should know.
How to Learn Front-end Development Effectively in Nigeria
Now, I’ll talk about how you can learn effectively in Nigeria.
Learning a technical skill like frontend development can be frustrating if you don’t know how to be effective with your learning.
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Register in a workspace
One of the things that might dampen your morale for learning is the erratic power supply situation we have in Nigeria.
With the increase in digital skills learning, and remote work, most cities in Nigeria now have workspaces that give you access to an uninterrupted power supply and internet connection.
To maintain your drive and be more effective with your learning, just search for a workspace in your city.
Register and resume there every day for your learning.
You can also get bored while at home, and it would be easy for you to just do something else or even sleep.
A workspace gives you the feel of being at work. So you are very focused.
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Code along with the tutorial
When watching a tutorial, remember that it’s not Nollywood, it’s not to amuse you or kill your boredom.
You are watching to do what the instructor is doing. It’s training, not movie time. So, code along with the instructor.
If you get an error in your code, and the instructor’s code seems fine, google the error to know what’s wrong with your code.
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Make friends with stack overflow
Stack overflow is the developer and software engineer’s friend. You will need it a lot.
You should try and figure out what is wrong with your code on your own, but when you are stuck, you can always go to stack overflow.com and ask questions.
Some questions you ask on Google will even return answers from stack overflow.
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Practice
Build simple applications with what you are learning or solve coding frontend development challenges on the frontend mentor.
As you learn, build simple applications similar to the one in your tutorial. Try to be creative on your own too.
Being creative is a core skill for front-end developers, and you should try to develop that as you learn.
If you are taught how to fetchAPI in your JavaScript tutorial, find an API for something you wish to build, and build a simple application with your knowledge of fetchAPI.
You’ll become more effective doing so. Another great option is to look for front-end mentor development challenges to solve.
Meanwhile, if you feel too overwhelmed to learn on your own, you can sign up for online Bootcamps that are easily accessible to Nigerians.
There are boot camps like the HNG internship program, also called Zuri internship, steamledge Bootcamp, and ALX internship.
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Conclusion
Becoming a professional front-end developer takes commitment and dedication.
No matter the route you want to take, either self-learn or enrolling in a frontend development school or Bootcamp, the effectiveness of your learning still depends on your deliberateness and consistency.
I believe this is helpful to you. If you’ve got any questions, use the comment section or reach out to us on Whatsapp.
About Author
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Henry is an SEO Content Writer and Technical writer. He adopts a balanced method of content research and SEO Best practices to create user centric content that rank on Google SERP.
Henry is Hubspot certified, and you can always count on his knowledge on content creation.
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