

Ask HN: Best developer machine; and what to learn to become employable? - toaskaquestion

Hi.<p>I intend to learn web development on my own during and after the summer. Mainly because there aren&#x27;t any bootcamps over here in Ireland with a proven track record.<p>While I would love to learn web development, I am afraid it will hinder me to do back-end work, if that is something I end up finding interesting in the future.<p>My question is basically, what exactly should I learn to become employable in Europe? Preferably England or Switzerland. I have no degree, and I would be creating a portfolio from scratch. Exactly how low are the requirements?<p>At the moment I intend to learn: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, HTML5 CSS3, Javascript, jQuery. 
Is that really enough?
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lollipop26
Machine doesn't matter, but I recommend Linux or Mac as most of the tools are
built with, and are easier to work with on unix-like machines. Invest in an
SSD as well, as running a dev server as well as tools do hit hard on the disk.

As for languages, master vanilla HTML, CSS and JS. It's handy especially if
you have to work around stuff, or just want to do bare-metal code instead of
high-level. But you should have a standard stack in order to finish stuff
quickly. The usual choices would be:

\- UI: Bootstrap or Foundation

\- Rails + Ember

\- Express (Node) | Flask(Python) + Backbone | React | Angular

\- You could also roll your own combination and be proficient with it.

Portfolio? Don't bother. Just run a Blog and Tweet about it. Join meetups in
your local area and be visible. Get involved in open source by doing bug
reporting or documentation. Eventually, you'd end up knowing a lot, and
actually help in code. Use those as your credentials, as they are more
credible because others can vouch for you.

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mikelothar
If you can learn those during the summer, then I'd say you're so gifted that
you can work where you'd like.

~~~
rl3
The threshold for having learned something is subjective, at least in the
context of software development.

If the intent is just to attain a basic understanding that enables one to
complete projects and pass muster as an intern/junior developer, then it's
likely possible with enough effort.

If the intent is to do a "deep dive" on each topic, or even attaining mastery
during the course of a summer, then that's another matter entirely.

On that note, the concept of mastery is similarly subjective. Even the lowest
definition of mastery for a single one of those topics lie far beyond the
timescale of a single summer, at least for most people, and especially if they
lack previous experience. Fortunately, very few people are masters of
anything.

~~~
mathgeek
> If the intent is just to attain a basic understanding that enables one to
> complete projects and pass muster as an intern/junior developer, then it's
> likely possible with enough effort.

For me personally, that's the understanding. Enough to get a job as an intern
or junior dev.

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alwillis
Get the best MacBook or MacBook Pro you can afford. It obviously runs OS X
(Unix) but you can also run Linux in a virtual machine and boot into Windows
if necessary; you can also run Windows in a virtual machine if necessary.

Not only is the hardware topnotch, you won’t have to worry about graphics
driver compatibility, power management, wi-fi support and all of the other
stuff that can make running Linux as your primary operating system…
challenging.

Don’t worry so much about creating a portfolio; pick a project you’re
passionate about and do that. Or pick an open source project and start making
useful contributions.

I would add Sass (or some other CSS preprocessor) to your list: [http://sass-
lang.com](http://sass-lang.com)

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playing_colours
I am not sure Ruby On Rails stuff is the optimal choice if you want to work in
Switzerland (for the local company). You either work at Google in Zürich or at
some bank or manufacture. Hence you'd better look at Java Enterprize, IBM
solutions, learn German / French, get some credibility (degree). With RoR / no
degree / no proficiency in local language you'll have more chances at
startups, international tech companies. It means Berlin, Amsterdam, cities in
England.

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Tunecrew
Get a Mac - as others have pointed out OS X is a *nix variant so you can set
up a dev environment that is similar to what most production environments are.

I use fink, vi, TextMate and NetBeans w/ mariadb, nginx, php, python, java.

Learn git and how to use some basic command line stuff like grep and find.

If you're learning the front end stuff, learn a framework like Bootstrap too.

Get yourself a cheap (USD 5 / month) VPS node, set it up and figure out how to
deploy also.

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DaRaam
I'm am also in Ireland what is the price range for these bootcamps? I am
studying software development part time (open uni) would it be worth getting
into a bootcamp?

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mazeway
Mastering any one of those things would get you a job.

