Vanilla Isn’t My Favorite Flavor of JavaScript (but I always keep a quart in my code editor)
Now that I’ve completed my software engineering program, the job hunt has been consuming all of my time. Networking, researching, learning all kinds of DSA for technical interviews — all of these are important! But I realized while attempting yet another coding challenge practice problem that I hadn’t actually coded anything in over a week. No building, no designing, no pushing to a new Github repo — in the hustle and bustle of launching my career, I forgot what the heck I was doing in the first place. And on top of that, my skills for solving all of these algorithmic problems were suffering, because I wasn’t using the language enough in my daily work.
My personal experience as a bootcamp graduate was fast, intense, and moderately insane. We learned Ruby, only to move on to implement Rails. We learned JavaScript, and moved right into ReactJS (and Redux). What I remembered about basic “vanilla” JavaScript was devoured by JSX and the marvelous convenience of a framework that did so much of the work for me, that I took for granted how powerful the language was on its’ own!
As a newly minted developer, I want to get better at building things. As job seeker, I need to learn a lot of logic and mathematical theory to pass the interview process at most companies (which, quite frankly, is the most difficult thing I’ve done so far, because it doesn’t engage my brain the way creating something from thin air does. Yay, artist brain!). What’s a human to do?!
I had the strangest image pop into my head — six year old me, getting my first pair of velcro shoes. Sure, I learned how to tie shoelaces, all kids do, but the velcro was AWESOME! SO much convenience, less work — but when I tried to put on my lace-up shoes a few months later, I actually had to think about how tying worked. I got so used to the new way, I forgot the original skill of tying shoes! So…
I went back. Back to the time B.F. (Before Framework). I decided to build a simple web app, using HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript. To find a bit of inspiration, I watched some videos and read a few blogs (some resources listed below). I then spent a few hours crafting a sound making app, that generated audio when a button was clicked, and sent a little animation bubble bouncing from the click. I leaned on a video from DevEd here, mainly for the styling — when I was just starting out, his videos were a great resource, and I like his style.
Once the app was built, I felt terrific. Accomplished. Like an actual software developer, not just a struggling student who was trying to recursively solve the fibonacci sequence (if you know, you know!). It gave me a confidence boost, and some new shiny green boxes on that ol’ Github profile. I started another, longer project, and decided to give it an hour a day of coding time, while jugging the other demands I’m balancing right now.
Some excellent sources for project ideas:
This list of 40+ project ideas — emphasis on vanilla JS, but could be modified to use with other languages (and upgraded to use frameworks if you want)
This list on Github full of all kinds of project ideas, both front end and back end
The DevEd channel on YouTube — a lot of his material is geared towards beginners, but his grasp of HTML/CSS and style of teaching is great. Excellent to review things, or ideas for projects to try
Please share any other resources you recommend — I’m always on the lookout for inspiration!
