web development Tag Archives - General Assembly Blog

Mindfulness Tips for Web Developers

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Mindfulness for Web Developers

The fast-paced nature of the tech industry is what draws many to it. The pace can allow for accelerated learning, plentiful growth opportunities, and the ability to make a significant impact. The downside is that, if not managed effectively, it can lead to stress and burnout. 

When it comes to a career in software development, it might seem like the best way to learn programming is to dive in and never come up for air. But if you’re under the impression this is how to get better at programming, we’re here to tell you that’s not the case. Pairing your professional development with mindfulness practices is the best way to succeed as a software developer. 

In today’s environment, many teams have been impacted by layoffs, resulting in more work for remaining and new team members, and more pressure to perform. Setting boundaries and implementing mindfulness practices is more essential than ever —not only for your mental health but also for your work quality and productivity.

This article reviews ten tips for mindfulness for developers — to help you get better at programming without neglecting your well-being. 

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What Is Front-End Web Development?

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So, you’re interested in learning more about a career in frontend web development?

You’ve come to the right place. 

As the web development industry expands, so does the demand for web developers worldwide. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for web developers is expected to grow 23% between now and 2031 in the U.S. alone. In Europe, more than half of companies that recruited or tried to recruit IT professionals had difficulties filling vacancies— meaning there are more jobs than people.

Undoubtedly, it’s an excellent time to enter a web development role. The real question remains: Is it the right fit for you? If so, how do you actually become a frontend web developer? Read on to learn more.

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Looking for a new career? Here are the 3 most promising tech jobs of 2023

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The tech industry experienced mass layoffs and budget cuts in 2022 that have many tech workers who were once flying high worried about job security. Despite the gloomy news, however, the labor market for tech talent continues to be strong. While big tech firms are making headlines for drastic cuts, tech talent remains in high demand across other industries. 

For example, industries like finance, healthcare, government and automotive, all of which have yet to fully digitally transform, are hiring tech talent. The City of San Francisco—a verifiable tech hub that should, in theory, have unlimited access to tech talent—recently shared that its vacancy rate for IT workers is 21%. 

For workers willing to look beyond big tech, well paid opportunities continue to abound. At General Assembly, we help people break into a career in tech so they can increase their wages and land a job with great benefits and working conditions—ultimately, improving their quality of life. 

Despite today’s economic landscape, we still believe this is a path to prosperity and that opportunities abound for tech workers. In fact, not having a technical skill set could leave you less secure in your career going forward as everything goes digital. 

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6 Surprising Celebrities Who Know How To Code & Why You Should Too

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Are you thinking about a career in tech? If so, consider learning how to code. With the mass adoption of the digital era across all industries, businesses big and small are on the lookout for tech-savvy talent. 

According to Forrester’s recent report, the global tech market will experience robust 6% growth in 2023 (significantly faster than pre-pandemic levels). With the tech industry thriving and companies hiring, consider learning in-demand hard skills like coding. 

Coding is the building block of the digital world. It’s the set of instructions designed to make computers perform tasks. Although it may seem daunting initially, coding is much easier to learn than you might think. When learning to code, you have the option to learn many different languages like HTML, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, C++, SQL and many more. After all, celebrities like the ones we’ve listed below have all learned how to code without a dedicated tech career background. 

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The Top 5 Highest-Paying Careers in Tech (2022)

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Careers in tech

It’s no secret. Tech talent is in high demand across industries, but finding people with the skill sets to fill these roles has been challenging, causing competition amongst businesses for talent in tech — in software engineering, UX design, data science, and digital marketing. As a result, jobs in data analytics, computer science, cloud computing, software engineering, digital marketing, and others pay well.

So what does “pay well” really mean? Using data from PayScale, Glassdoor.com, we’ve put together the numbers for the most common entry level tech jobs. (Note: salary levels quoted below are for the U.S. and can vary from country to country.)
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Portfolio Project Spotlight: Software Engineering Immersive

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Every graduate of our Software Engineering Immersive programs gets the opportunity to work on a portfolio-grade final project. The experience gives students a chance to apply their newfound skills in programming languages and problem-solving to real-world issues and scenarios, as well as gaining invaluable insights and impactful results that they can use to stand out in their job searches.

Here are a few of our instructors’ favorites.

Save the ocean

Jiha Hwang, a visual interaction designer at Lopelos Project Group, created an app to raise ocean pollution awareness, allowing users to share tips for reducing plastic use. She used Rails, React, and PostgreSQL to build the app and deployed it with Heroku.

See the Project

FRIDGIFY

Sathya Ram and Marichka Tsiuriak, now both front-end developers, created this eater-friendly organizational tool using MongoDB, Express, React, and Node. The animated web app allows you to categorize the contents of your fridge and track their expiration dates.

See the Project

SETTLERS OF CATTAN

Bryant Cabrera, now a software engineer at Amazon, built a web-based adaptation of this popular board game. Powered by HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery, the app allows players to test their logic and negotiation skills just as they would in person.

See the Project

Getting Started with Sublime Text 3: 25 Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts

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Computer with blinking text selector

Note: Sublime Text 4 has since been released and is available here.

Sublime Text 3 (ST3) is the former version of one of the most commonly used plain text editors by web developers, coders, and programmers. It is a source code editor that has a Python programming surface or API. It is able to support C++ and the Python programming language. Plus, functions can be added by any user with a plugin.

Make the most of ST3 with the 25 tips and tricks in this ultimate guide for web developers. Learn not only how to use Sublime Text 3, but also about must-have packages, useful keyboard shortcuts, and more.

1. User Preference Settings

By default, ST3 uses hard-tabs that are 4 characters long. This can result in hard-to-read code, as large tabular indents push your work to the right. I recommend all developers add this to their user settings (Sublime Text 3 => Preferences => Settings – User):

  {
    "draw_white_space": "all",
    "rulers": [80],
    "tab_size": 2,
    "translate_tabs_to_spaces": true
  }

This setting converts hard-tabs to spaces, makes indents only two characters long, puts a ruler at the 80 character mark (to remind you to keep your code concise), and adds white space markers. Here is a complete list of preference options if you wish to continue customizing your ST3 environment.
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5 Reasons You Should Learn to Code

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learning to code

Why learn to code? There’s no denying that full-stack web development is one of today’s most sought-after careers. With a median salary of more than $75,000 and demand expected to grow 27% from 2014-2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-stack web development is a smart career path for many individuals.

But even if you’re not planning on becoming a full-time programmer or coder, learning how to code and having that kind of knowledge and experience can have substantial benefits for your career and further job opportunities. In today’s competitive job market, the smartest workers are those who are able to leverage technology to their advantage — no matter their job title.

Not sure if you want to tackle the challenge? Here are five reasons and benefits of learning to code that will add serious value to your career.

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Learning to Code? 4 Reasons You Should Learn JavaScript First

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JavaScript_EmailArt_560x350_v4

Browse any number of job postings for web developers — front-end, back-end, full-stack; it doesn’t matter — and every single job will require different expertise. From Adobe Creative Suite to Zero Day Exploits, you could spend an entire career attempting to become the ideal developer to meet any one of these job’s multiple requirements.

Or you could learn JavaScript instead. Continue reading →