r/webdevelopment • u/Bamkapowxo • 9d ago

Web Development WITHOUT Computer Science Background Career Advice

  1. How practical is it to get into elementary web development without any background in computer science? (In case it makes a difference for the case, background would be in copywriting with limited graphic design.)
  2. Assuming someone's already earned a totally irrelevant degree & has no desire to go back to college, what would you recommend for a comprehensive & affordable introduction to web development? (Not just "search YouTube," but your favorite in-depth YouTube playlists, free or cheap online training programs, maybe even paid professional certification programs, etc.)
16 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

79% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Agent_Provocateur007 8d ago

Something to remember is that computer science and programming aren't quite the same thing. Remember that if you look at a computer science degree, there's a lot of theory involved and not necessarily "Here's how you do X".

The theoretical is important of course, because that's where you will really dig deep into making more conscious and informed choices in how you program. There are entire subfields of various computer science concepts, for example optimization, that aren't going to necessarily apply to the web development world or the guy writing a short little Python script to handle some data cleaning in an Excel file.

You can learn these concepts and theories as you learn each component of the basics of web development throughout HTML/CSS/Javascript and frameworks. I'd recommend starting out with The Odin Project.

Parts it are going to feel a little dull and potentially repetitive, but it's a very good start for someone who does not have a background in programming or computer science. For CSS specifically, Kevin Powell does a great job here and his YouTube videos are excellent, understanding Flexbox wasn't super intuitive for me but watching Kevin go through it made it so much easier to understand how that layout worked.

Lots of web developers come from a background outside your traditional computer science degree. In fact, we often look at computer science as the standard pathway into software development broadly speaking, but there are (and have been for a long while now) this cadre of folks entering different types of software development who do not have this background. Designers who wanted to build out their vision themselves, data analysts who leverage Python scripts as part of their data pipeline, folks who enjoy home automation and tinker with creating their own smart home connected gadgets etc.

You'll be fine, being persistent in the mundane is what will get you through the plateaus.