Half-Way Point: Microsoft Professional Program in Entry-Level Web Development

" For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

- Aristotle

" You have to go through the falling down in order to learn to walk. It helps to know that you can survive it. That's an education in itself. "

- Carol Burnett

As the first breezes of the Spring season begin to roll through Maryland, the horizon draws ever nearer in my journey to become a capable Full-Stack Web Developer.

This evening, I have officially completed the second in the four total Microsoft Professional Certificates for their program in Entry-Level Web Development. After the programming fundamentals professional certificate, which I posted earlier, came the three-course approach to building functional prototype for web applications with JavaScript and Node.js. This third and final course was the most lucrative in terms of my knowledge gained - before this, the prior two courses helped buff my prior skill in static web page building in HTML5 by adding the potential to create dynamic elements within the page using JavaScript. That was a great introduction into creating a competitive front-end for today’s Internet 2.0, where dynamic web pages are the standard.

In the aforementioned third course, the learning kicked up a notch when I was introduced to the fundamental concepts of creating a web application with three-dimensional production: First - a dynamic front-end web page utilizing Javascript and the jQuery library; Secondly - a server-side RESTful API, designed with Node.js along with the Express library, to listen for specific HTTP requests, retrieve data and perform response methods; and finally - a relational database created and maintained using SQLite3. The bulk of new information, for me, was in the understanding of HTTP requests and responses, the four functions defined as 'CRUD operations' for programming on the web as well as operations in relational databases, and then putting it all together by creating my own REST API.

Where to Next? 

Now that the seeds have been planted to create a full-stack web application, the only direction to go is forward down the path of creativity! Over the next month, I will be tirelessly working on a two-pronged effort to advance my coding skills: first, to complete the third Microsoft Professional Certificate in Object-Oriented Programming in Java (a skill that will be more of a re-honing than an introduction, as Java was the first language I learned in the early stages of my Computer Science education) and secondly, to create my very first web-application using the foundation of skills through this last Professional Certificate. This week, I will be hounding the popular open-source repositories on GitHub to find some ideas for good starter projects in web development. If you have any ideas about good starting projects that are open-source, please leave a comment below or reply to my post on LinkedIn! I am always on the lookout for helpful advice on my learning strategies.

As always, thanks for checking in with me on my journey, and to all those in the same boat - happy learning! If you will it, it is no dream!