Published on 2024-01-05 09:30 by Gabriel Palhares

Why I Personally Decided to Bet on JavaScript

and some junior developer mistakes

Intro

In my previous post, I shared my opinion and some details about why Woovi Bets on Javascript, but I focused more on an enterprise context. In this article, I will discuss why I personally decided to bet on JavaScript.

Few people know me, but I’m not special or different from anyone that’s trying to land a job in web development nowadays. What I really want to say is that I made ALL the most common mistakes that every beginner makes. All of them. In my opinion, the biggest mistake was floating around my learning process with different programming languages.

I remember the first time I completed a Grasshopper challenge, when I knew absolutely nothing about programming (not that I know much now). After that, I started searching for some online courses and ended up studying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript - the most common path that probably everyone has taken, does take, and will take.

However, I began to notice that many people in social networking and tech communities were talking about how JavaScript was saturated, how the junior roles were disappearing, and “if you kick a tree, hundreds of JavaScript developers would fall”. Later, I discovered that maybe all of that was true, but in a positive way (yes).

So, I decided to leave JavaScript and started studying Java, Spring, focusing on backend development. It seemed like a solid path, more complex for a beginner, but I was convinced that doing so would help me land my first job sooner, as I was taking a less common route.

The Reality

I was just increasing my learning curve and slowing down my study rhythm, adding an even greater load of knowledge to learn, and also discarding everything I had studied about JavaScript before, as I stopped practicing and logically forgot. Needless to say, the job never came, and I ended up frustrated and sad.

Another mistake was that when I started studying Java, I limited myself to only backend concepts. As a junior developer, you must study about everything first. It doesn’t matter if you prefer front-end or back-end; you have to know a little bit of everything. After that, you can decide which path to focus on or continue with both. This was the core consequence of experiencing these learning stages: I realized that every junior must be full-stack.

Final result: JavaScript

I believe that JavaScript is the best programming language for beginners. With JavaScript, you can tackle almost every computer science concept and engage in diverse practices. Whether you aspire to become a full-stack developer, delve into front-end, back-end, testing, or explore other areas, JavaScript provides a versatile foundation.

Nonetheless, it offers nearly infinite possibilities. You can code and create anything, from a mobile app with React Native to a desktop application with Electron.js. Furthermore, JavaScript provides excellent frameworks and libraries that can be applied in various approaches, such as React, Three, Vue, Meteor, and Astro.

To enhance its appeal, JavaScript has a great and active developer community. As a multi-paradigm language, and with the introduction of TypeScript, you can delve into type systems and functional programming. This versatility and wealth of resources are the primary reasons why I returned to and decided to invest mainly in JavaScript.

Conclusion

• But hey, you said earlier that you gave up on JavaScript because everyone said it’s saturated and many other negative things. What happened?

Nothing happened. And yes, it could be true that there are a lot of JavaScript programmers (after all, JavaScript is on the entire internet), but I truly believe that if you put effort into something, you’ll exceed yourself, others, and prevail. Someday, you’ll see the results of your hard work - that’s a fact. Also, you should learn to avoid negative stuff that plenty of people on the internet often say.

Decide for yourself what you want and pursue your goals. JavaScript is a programming language that offers numerous opportunities in various ways and scenarios. It doesn’t matter at which level you currently are; right now, I believe it’s the best way to secure your first job in web development or to advance your career in this field.

If you are a junior developer like me, my final advice is to study a lot of other things rather than just how to code with programming languages. Computer science concepts like algorithms and data structures matter a lot. At the end of the day, the truth is that being a software engineer is much more than programming languages, and the sooner you realize this, the sooner you will evolve.

• Maybe this can help you: A good overview intro JavaScript and Functional Code

Cover photo by Carissa Strickland, taken with an Canon EOS 5D Mark II.