If you haven’t met me… I’m Andrew Weisbeck - Full Stack Web Developer

I’m new to the game - well, new to the being a developer part of creating websites and such. I used to use basic coding that I could get by on while also using website editors like Elementor to create websites.

I realized this was whack and wanted to actually design websites. Then I worked in Cybersecurity and I learned a lot about the back end of technology and wanted to create the whole process and create my own apps and websites - so I started learning Full Stack Web Development!

In a total of about 6 months, I have learned most of the necessities needed to be a good developer and cybersecurity analyst. I really care about designing and developing websites and web apps the right way. I wanted to create a newsletter and chose to make it about the first stack that I have learned well. That first stack would be the MEAN stack (which is an awesome and popular stack framework) - I by no means only use the MEAN stack, it is just what I have the most experience with and decided to talk about it for this fun newsletter!

MEAN Stack?

If you don’t know what the MEAN Stack is, no worries! While it is popular in the developer and IT world, it is not an everyday topic of conversation for most people. The most basic way to explain the MEAN stack is that it is a framework, based on JavaScript, used by developers to create web applications - it is named after the four key technologies that make up the stack, and they are:

MongoDB - Database for documents
Express(.js) - Node.js web framework - “Fast, unopinionated, and minimalist”
Angular(.js) - Client-side JavaScript framework
Node(.js) - Premier JavaScript web server

You don’t need to know the technology like the back of your hand - luckily their documentation makes it super easy to use once you understand JavaScript concepts. I try not to make things to technical so it is easier and more fun to read. I will link to the more technical stuff for users who want to do that. Most of that you can find on my homepage, currently at hosted on GitHub pages until I finish some things up and link it to its domain.

Click on the picture to go to my personal webpage @GeauxWeisbeck4 - which is also my Twitter name!

Enough with the introduction! Here are some must have Web Developer learning resources:

Most of this first newsletter is kind of getting acquainted with each other - I plan to send this out every Friday for all subscribers and more frequently for paid subscribers. But I’m going to go ahead and include a few great resources that helped me get to this point in my career.

I want to pay respect for how much these instructors helped me and also so you can find them early on if you are a new developer or find them wherever you are at in your career and can find help with something your struggling with.

Wes Bos - https://wesbos.com/ - Canadian Web Developer

-Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats ft. Wes Bos & Scott Tolinski -

https://syntax.fm/

This podcast has the most amazing tips, especially for new web developers. Wes is one of my favorite teachers, because of his brute honesty about what it takes to be a web developer. He also has great courses that get you right into coding while learning - this is my personal favorite way to learn. This podcast is fun because they go over every little thing you could imagine in web development, but in a way anyone can understand.

When they start an episode, they start pretty high level about what you should know so newbies can enjoy the show. They then dive into more technical aspects of what you should learn to level up, or give you a resource to use to level up. Hands down my favorite Web Developer Podcast available.

-What the Flexbox?! & JavaScript30 - CSS Flexbox and Coding JavaScript Projects for 30 Days - Wes Bos

https://flexbox.io/

https://javascript30.com/

As mentioned earlier, Wes does a really good job at teaching you all the high level and low level details that you need to know as a developer. He gets you going in his courses quickly by teaching you how to do everything that you should need to know in CSS Flexbox. He teaches it in a way that makes it really easy to understand, then immediately makes you apply it to create something you can use for a project. It’s awesome and my favorite way to learn. *Oh and it must be mentioned that both me and my Fiance Lisa, absolutely love the fun whistle tune for every new video you start in What the Flexbox - I was learning this during a stressful time and it made us both happy :) *

I am still working my way through JavaScript30 because I am so busy with everything else in my career and life, like getting a job and creating websites, that I haven’t finished it yet - but I can tell you this: this is the best way to create things in JavaScript and reinforce the fundamentals of what you need to know. A project every day for 30 days is an amazing way to nail down the little things that you should know.

Thank you Wes Bos for your awesome resources! You can follow him on Twitter @WesBos and his podcast partner @stolinski.

Front End Masters

-Jen Kramer - Freelance Instructor on Frontend Masters - Getting Started With CSS - https://frontendmasters.com/courses/getting-started-css/

Jen helped me design my home website which was a task I dreaded forever. I wanted to make it look somewhat different from what I had been creating before - which was dreadful. I wanted to show that I could put together HTML and CSS. I followed her videos, but also used my own coding to make the website mine. You can follow her steps to make a personal resume website on your like mine!

She does a good job of guiding you through how to get things to line up in accordance with a beautiful template for a professional webpage. You can then freestyle and make it yours by changing the elements and adding in your own code to add other functions with JavaScript. I’m going to follow up and take her other courses because I love her teaching style - she’s funny, to the point, and really cool! Her personality makes coding with her fun.

Front End Masters does cost $39 a month, but they are so worth it with the level of education that they provide. They have a diverse group of fun instructors that show you how to quickly get going and build things with code. I believe they do offer previews or some free courses to get you started, but the good stuff is in all the paid subscriptions.

You can find her on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and GitHub for more wonderful learning resources.

Dr. Angela Yu & Colt Steele Web Development Bootcamps - Udemy

-Colt Steele - The Web Developer Bootcamp 2022 & YouTube

-Angela Yu - The Complete 2022 Web Development Bootcamp & 100 Days of Code: The Complete Python Pro Bootcamp for 2022

These two instructors deserve so much credit for the amount of work they put into their courses. If you are looking for the way to learn Web Development at the quickest speed possible - choose either of these courses. They push you through the MEAN Stack quickly and get you up with projects as soon as possible while learning the principles on how to actually create something with HTML and CSS and then get it on the web with JavaScript.

The way I did it was by going through Angela Yu’s first very quickly, because she provides a lot of project opportunities throughout and early on in the course so you have a lot to show off right away. The only issue was I didn’t personally look close enough at the fundamentals the first time through, so I did that on Colt Steele’s Bootcamp and that kind of helped me to completely understand the web developer full stack process with the MEAN stack framework (even MERN and now learning Python stacks) with both of these courses.

I’ve read people leave bad reviews - ignore those - those people have no idea how incredibly hard and tasking it is to create a course of this magnitude. I don’t know how they did it without losing their minds. There IS SO MUCH MATERIAL that is so awesome. It is the user who doesn’t learn how to be a web developer out of these courses.

The only reason I had to use both was because I fast forwarded through certain parts I shouldn’t have and wanted to learn a different way on certain topics to polish off my skills as a web developer. You may only need to take one class - I hope that’s all you have to do, but don’t feel bad if it takes multiple classes!

You can find all of Colt Steele on GitHub and the other links I previously provided.

You can find Dr. Angela Yu on Twitter, her website App Brewery, and Facebook.

Happy Friday! Thanks for reading - check us out next Friday or try our paid subscription for more insight!

Well I’m about to high roll into my weekend and apply for jobs, clean the apartment, and try to make some money while listening to hip hop. Check out my Sick Ass Rap playlist. Some good tunes to take you into the weekend.

I’ll be launching my blog soon once I finish creating my blog app and will be launching a podcast episode soon - so stay tuned!1

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You can also find out how to subscribe on our homepage. Please share us with your community - you can shout back at me @GeauxWeisbeck4 or on my SubStack page to have me share you with my community. I also appreciate all feedback. But share and subscribe and check us out for more tips next week!

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