I'm a Web Dev, looking for courses to improve my skills?

JackHeuston

Hello,
I'm a 25 years old web developer and I work in a small company as a lead dev.

My employer this year gave me a modest "training and education package" as a benefit. He's willing to spend 100 € each month in my training, this makes ~1000 € a year (I'm not counting these first couple of months because, well, I'm guessing I'll need some time to find something and the grant for those months would be gone).

Now, I'm not too sure where to start looking. I work Mon-Fri in Dublin, and I'm not sure if I should look for an online course or something where I actually go to classes after work (must be in the evening, or very early morning).

I also know the grant is not much, and I was wondering if with that amount I can find a decent course or everything's gonna be "How to make your personal website with FrontPage 101".

I have experience with (and I am more oriented to) backend web development, even though I'm not completely new to frontend dev. I currently manage and develop a service for them, and the general framework is as follows:

• Proprietary MVC framework in PHP
• MySQL and MongoDB as databases
• Some external modules in non-web programming languages, they handle what PHP can't, I usually make the connection between them having to handle processes etc...
• Proprietary framework in vanilla Javascript, plus many modules in jQuery, everything is at a pretty high level (we have voting widgets in canvases or styled HTML elements, everything must work on most platforms and devices, ... you know the drill)
• HTML and CSS, this includes making responsive web designs or using CSS heavily where possible to avoid handling styles in Javascript

I feel like I'm doing a decent job with all these technologies, but there's little I could "sell" to other employers if one day I have to change job. Everything's proprietary and pretty specific, for example I can't say I can work with Zend Framework or Angular.

I tried making some personal projects after work, and while I have no issues working with basic PHP frameworks like Slim (I want to *do* most of the things, with Zend/Symfony there are so many features I'm lost), I find I have some difficulties with frontend frameworks. I have no issues at all with Javascript, but right now for example I set up an environment with RequireJS+Underscore+Backbone+Marionette. I find all of this very powerful and I'd like to use it in a real website, but my lack of knowledge makes it difficult for me to structure the actual code, to use those libraries correctly, and to take full advantage of the possibilities they offer.

Does anyone have any suggestion on how to understand what the best plan of action is, in order to take advantage of this opportunity?

Are there specific companies that you'd recommend that offer courses in these fields? Maybe looking at a list of possible courses I could make a decision in a shorter time!

Thank you

Fukuyama

Keep in mind I'm currently just a student (hDip). I'm sure other more experienced posters will have more credible wisdom to offer.

TBH, you sound as though you genuinely want to learn up-to-date technologies inside-out and improve as a developer as opposed to getting a piece of paper with fancy lettering. I don't think that traditional FETAC courses offer this. In my experience you'll only get an overview of technologies and a basic grasp on fundamentals in college courses.

I'm doing an ICT conversion course (Web Dev). There's some good modules but the pace is slow. I find myself getting very bored with some of the modules. I'm teaching myself libraries like Node and D3 in my spare time. I don't know of any course that offers newer technologies. Most seem to stick to PHP, Java, C# etc... which are all good (I quite enjoy learning OOP via Java) but obviously as a lead dev you're already familiar and want to branch out.

Why not just stick to self-teaching. I've learned most of my stuff that way. YouTube in particular is great. Or Corsea and Treehouse if you want a structured approach and even a certificate if you like. And because of your work commitments, self-teaching or distance learning would probably be best. A course requiring attendance would likely be inefficient with your time.

Again, I'm just starting out but I find self-teaching to be way more interesting and rewarding than a course. The only thing that excites me is the summer internship I have to do and my personal projects. Assignments, exams etc... wind up (mostly) being a bunch of box checking that distracts you from actual fast-paced, fun learning.

It is cool that your employer actually appreciates employee development and offers educational allowances. I hope I end up in a company like that.

JackHeuston

Thanks for sharing your point of view! Let's see...

Fukuyama wrote: »

Keep in mind I'm currently just a student (hDip). I'm sure other more experienced posters will have more credible wisdom to offer.

You already studied more than I did But yeah I was even thinking going back to college for a higher diploma (postgraduate course? Sorry I'm not Irish so I don't exactly know how all the tiers of education are called here) but with that money and all the time I have to spend at work I'm not sure it's a feasible option. I currently have a bachelor's degree earned in the EU.

Fukuyama wrote: »

I'm doing an ICT conversion course (Web Dev). There's some good modules but the pace is slow. I find myself getting very bored with some of the modules. I'm teaching myself libraries like Node and D3 in my spare time. I don't know of any course that offers newer technologies. Most seem to stick to PHP, Java, C# etc... which are all good (I quite enjoy learning OOP via Java) but obviously as a lead dev you're already familiar and want to branch out.

Yeah I *think* most of these college courses usually teach the basics so that at the end you have the ability to learn old and new technologies by yourself, rather than teaching specific things and risking you'll only know those for the rest of your life because you're not able to self-teach or update yourself.

Fukuyama wrote: »

Why not just stick to self-teaching. I've learned most of my stuff that way. YouTube in particular is great. Or Corsea and Treehouse if you want a structured approach and even a certificate if you like. And because of your work commitments, self-teaching or distance learning would probably be best. A course requiring attendance would likely be inefficient with your time.

There are a few pros and cons yes. Going to classes would help me seeing and knowing people with similar interests, while staying away from the office, there's also this "social" side. Apart from that, I self-taught me most of the things I know, but I've come at a point now that it's very hard to concentrate when I'm at home after work. Going somewhere, having to pay attention, maybe taking exams too would definitely make me work harder.

Online courses are still an option though, I know there are some free ones and I'll definitely check Coursera out since you're not the first one who mention it, but I'd like to see what that (little) money can do. If it can help get me a better training, that's good, if it can't, well, I tried :-P

Fukuyama wrote: »

It is cool that your employer actually appreciates employee development and offers educational allowances. I hope I end up in a company like that.

Apparently some companies do that, this is my first experience with training paid by a company, but everything that shines isn't gold. I'm trying to push this thing because I think it's time to start looking around for some new opportunities soon, before I end up in the streets

Keedowah

With a fairly small budget - why not look at something like www.pluralsight.com - it'll cost you about $24 a month, leaving you something free in case a conference / short course comes up. After a quick search on some items you mentioned I see courses:

"Building PHP Applications with Zend Framework 2"
"Starting in Symfony2"
"Application Building Patterns with Backbone.js"

Atomic Pineapple

We've been given a free Pluralsight licence in work and I'd recommend it given your budget, the courses are pretty good for getting high level overviews of the topics and give you the means to go on and learn in more detail yourself.

Talisman

There are a few online training sites I'd recommend:

Pluralsight as previously recommended. There's a wealth of good content there, I found it particularly helpful when learning AngularJS.
Laracasts - It's primarily focused on the Laravel PHP framework but it does branch out into other domains on occasion. It costs $9 per month or $86 per year + VAT.
Egghead.io - It's completely focused on JavaScript (Angular, D3, React, etc.) and costs $170 + VAT per year.
Safari Books Online - $39 per month or $399 per year (+ VAT). It gives you access to an incredible online library of books and video courses, they also have the Packt Publishing catalogue.

Pluralsight and Safari both offer free trials.

JackHeuston

It seems that Pluralsight is the most recommended, I'll get a free trial account to test it and see for myself. Their offer of courses seems promising!

colm_c

Along with the online training, it's worth looking at conferences/meetups, locally or further afield.

This will give you a better flavour of what tech is new/emerging and are being used in other companies so you have a better idea of what you should focus on.

Graham

+1 for

Pluralsight
Laracasts

counterpointaud

+ 1

pluralsight.com
eggheads.io
frontendmasters.com

JackHeuston

We're going with the plan for businesses from Pluralsight! Thank you all for your suggestions, I'll also check out the other websites since I only used part of the budget, or see if there are conferences and seminars around.

Last question: in your experience, does it matter having a link to your Pluralsight public profile in your CV to show your exams and grades? Would you put it in yours?

counterpointaud

JackHeuston wrote: »

We're going with the plan for businesses from Pluralsight! Thank you all for your suggestions, I'll also check out the other websites since I only used part of the budget, or see if there are conferences and seminars around.

Last question: in your experience, does it matter having a link to your Pluralsight public profile in your CV to show your exams and grades? Would you put it in yours?

Personally no. It means very little. What you learn is generally demonstrated by application or technical interview anyway.