Wikipedia lists about 700 programming languages. The real number is probably even higher, but let’s go with that. We’ve also got thousands of frameworks, tools, and libraries. That’s a lot.

How can software developers navigate this? What should we learn? What will pay our bills?

I’ll be honest with you — it’s hard. Betting on technologies is always risky. A few years ago, big data and data visualization were all the rage, and now blockchain is getting popular.

I can’t tell you if you should bet on a particular technology or not, but I can tell you about some common…

You know how to code. That is great! This one skill can transform your life forever.

There’s only one problem — knowing how to code doesn’t guarantee you’ll find a job. It’s a prerequisite, but it’s not enough.

The competition in the software development market, especially amongst juniors, is fierce. In my company, we get over hundred resumes for one junior frontend development position.

Why choose you?

You have to stand out. That’s the only way. Your application has to be different than others. …

In January 2015, I was depressed. I had been learning software development full-time for over half a year, and it felt like I wasn’t getting any closer to landing a job.

A few months later, I had my first job. Another few years later, I became a co-founder of a software house and started hiring developers.

Here’s what I’ve learned about software development from my failures and successes.

1. Focus Is a Superpower

The single biggest factor in deciding if I’ll learn something is focus. When I was focused, my productivity skyrocketed and my mood improved. …

So much to do, so little time. Save time by learning how to pick what to learn next and what steps to follow in front-end development.

Front-end development moves at a breakneck speed. To stay employable, you have to learn new things all the time. But there’s a problem — the number of things you can know is infinite.

At the top of my head, you can start learning a serverless, new framework, accessibility, performance, SEO, Typescript, design, data visualization, web assembly, state management, testing. And that’s just the beginning.

To help you navigate learning you can find many front-end…

In his brilliant book, “Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking” Ted Orlando told a story:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty…

I’ve seen hundreds of junior frontend developers' resumes. In an average recruitment process, we get 80 candidates for one job.

What makes us pick you?

The sad truth is you have to stand out. If there’s nothing special about your skills or experience, you have to be lucky to get a job. And relying on luck is not a reliable tactic.

Fortunately, it’s not that hard to stand out. Most of the resumes are like carbon copies. The candidates finished the same bootcamps or online courses. They have similar projects. Sometimes, even their portfolio pages are indistinguishable.

Here are a…

Learning frontend is hard. The field is growing fast and it’s easy to get lost in the dozens of frameworks, libraries, and tools. To grow as a frontend developer, you have to cut through the noise and focus on the essential things.

Here are five tricks that worked for me in my journey from layman to a frontend developer.

1. Make a Plan

You know your goal: become the best front-end developer possible. To achieve it, you have to make a plan. …

It was a judgment day. I had been working on a feature for the last month. That afternoon, my team was to present the work to the CEO.

I felt fairly confident. The day before, a tester reported a few minor bugs — some obvious things to fix during my morning coffee.

One task was to show the companies' logos in a table. Fair enough. But it was weird. I felt like I had fixed it earlier. I even wondered how I could mess up simple logic.

Well, the only one who doesn’t make mistakes is the one who does…