Improving Web Development Skills Without a Job

The journey to becoming a proficient web developer doesn't stop when you're not employed.

Keep Practicing and Experimenting

The key to improving your skills in web development is to continue practicing and experimenting with personal projects or by contributing to open source projects.

Start with your own projects and try to improve them. This is the best way to gain experience and sharpen your skills. It will also be a significant advantage when you apply for jobs, as your potential employer will see that you have done something and you know how to code.

Consider placing your code on platforms like GitHub or Bitbucket, and practicing using Git. These tools are highly beneficial and will be useful in your future career.

Understanding the Web Development Process

To truly excel in web development, it's essential to understand the process. Before diving into development, consider the steps that come with it, such as prototyping, wireframes, and other preliminary processes.

Choose a project to work on and follow a structured process, such as the one you would typically employ in a professional setting. This will give you an idea of the web development process, as well as help polish your skills.

Read and Experiment

To enhance your web development skills, you need to read and experiment.

Starting with side projects that solve real problems and build real things, you can further improve by contributing to open source projects. This hands-on experience not only enhances your coding skills but also boosts your portfolio.

Katas are another effective method. Learn something complex and common, then practice it repeatedly from scratch. The more you do this, the more you'll remember and understand.

Example Katas:

Create an aggregate root model in a CRUD system and an event-sourced the onion architecture (clean architecture) by setting up a new project from scratch, creating all the layers, and implementing common paths like user creation.

Stay motivated by working on this independently, as it can be challenging to stay focused when not being paid. However, employing techniques suggested by Arthur van Acker, such as getting books on the languages and algorithms relevant to your field and doing the homework problems in them, can significantly enhance your performance on projects.

By following these strategies, you can continue to improve your web development skills and stay competitive in the job market, even when you're not employed.