Web Development Resources for Bitmaker Students

If you'd like to take your studies further, or you're ready to start looking for a job, we're here to help guide the way.

This is a living document. If you have anything to add, change or remove, please let us know. Or better yet, make the change yourself and submit a pull request.

Where Are You At?

• You haven't started the course
• The course has begun
• Your course has finished you're not feeling job ready
• You're looking for a job

If you haven't started the course...

You're eagerly awaiting for the course to begin, and want to get a head start. Great! Complete the following:

• Do the Bitmaker Prep Work

• Set up your computer for development. If you get stuck, we'll finish off the process during Install Fest, which happens one evening the week before the course starts:

• Mac Setup Instructions

• Linux Setup Instructions

• Start building your skills. Try one or more of the options in the section below.

If the course has begun, or you just want more...

You can choose from a range of online courses, e-books, tutorials and more that can help you further develop your skills.

Note: Lynda.com courses and Safari books are sometimes suggested in our list. These are available for free with a public library card.

HTML & CSS

HTML and CSS
Lynda.com online course / beginner level

CSS-Tricks
Blog / beginner level

Ruby

Learn Ruby the Hard Way
Online e-book / beginner level

Ruby Essential Training
Lynda.com online course / beginner level

Ruby on Rails Tutorial
Online e-book / beginner level

How to Read Ruby documentation
Blog post / beginner level

RailsCasts
Screencasts / beginner level
(These screencasts are a little dated, but may still be a good resource when you want to accomplish something specific with Ruby on Rails.)

Sitepoint
Blog with tutorials / intermediate level

Eloquent Ruby
Safari online e-book / intermediate level

Ruby Tapas
Short videos / intermediate level

RubyFu
Online e-book / intermediate level

RubyFlow
Linklog / intermediate level

Riding Rails
Blog / intermediate level
(This is the official Ruby on Rails blog. Once you feel you have the a good grasp of Rails, it's good to stay up to date with the framework as it evolves.)

Ruby Rogues
Podcast / all levels

JavaScript

JavaScript Essential Training
Lynda.com online course / beginner level

Beau teaches JavaScript
Short videos / beginner level

Vanilla JS equivalents of jQuery methods
Github gist / beginner level

MDN's Document section
documentation on working with the DOM / intermediate level

Eloquent JavaScript
Online e-book / intermediate level

You Don't Know JS
Online e-books series / intermediate level

Sitepoint
Blog with tutorials / intermediate level

funfunfunction YouTube Channel
Short videos / intermediate level

David Walsh Blog
Blog / intermediate level

JavaScript Jabber
Podcast / all levels

Command Line & Git

Command Line Crash Course
Free Online Course (note: this is the appendix of a paid Python course, but the command lin appendix is free)

Unix for Mac OS X Users
Lynda.com online course / beginner level

Learn the Linux Command Line: The Basics
Lynda.com online course / beginner level

Think Like (a) Git
Online e-book / beginner level

Git for everyone
Online e-book / beginner level

Use Grep for Fast Search from the Command Line
Egghead online course (videos) / intermediate level

Wrangle your terminal with tmux
Egghead online course (videos) / intermediate level

Julie Evans
Blog / intermediate level

Multidisciplinary resources

Each of these links address multiple topics.

Bitmaker Guide To Fixing Bugs
Online Guides / beginner level

Learn web development from the Mozilla Developer Network
Online course / beginner level

Front-End Developer Handbook 2017
Online e-book / beginner level

HTML Dog
Tutorials and reference / all levels

Techsith YouTube Channel
Short videos / beginner level

Craft Academy Bootcamp
Online course / beginner level

The Changelog
Podcast / all levels

Software Engineering Radio
Podcast / all levels

Software Engineering Daily
Podcast / all levels

Mozilla Hacks
Blog / intermediate level

Hacker News
Linklog / all levels

Algorithm Challenge Sites

Prospective employers will test to see how you think through problems. Start practicing now. Try a daily programming challenge using one of these sites:

• Exercism

• Codewars

• HackerRank

• Ruby Koans

Assignments

Go back and re-do Bitmaker assignments. Take a look at how you tackled the problem initially and compare it to how you'd tackle the problem today. You'll be pleasantly surprised to see how far you've come.

Be Social

Start attending meetups and become active on relevant chat channels. Everyone from novice to experts is welcome to join.

Meetups & Events

There are too many meetups to list them all. However, the following are most relevant to the Bitmaker course:

• Ruby Lightning Talks

• Ruby Hack Night / Toronto Ruby Brigade

• Rails Pub Nite

• Rails Girls TO

• Women Who Code Toronto

• Gamma Space (formerly Bento Miso) hosts tech-themed events.

Slack Channels

• Bitmaker (Students) Ensure you click the Channels link to explore all the other channels available to you.

• TorontoRB

• railsgirlsTO

If the course is over, but you're not feeling job ready...

• First, ask yourself if you're having a case of Imposter Syndrome. Imposter Syndrome is rife within our industry. There's always more to know, and nobody knows everything. Be conscious that the psychological barrier can get in the way of learning and finding a new job. Here's a great video about Imposter Syndrome.

• Go over all the suggestions in the above sections and try to fill in any gaps you may be missing.

• Book Bitmaker alumni office hours for continued technical support.

• Find an open source project to get involved with. Look at libraries (e.g. gems and JavaScript libraries) that you've used before and that are under active development (i.e. have open issues and have many recent commits). If you're apprehensive about submitting code, try writing documentation, or even proof-reading documentation and submitting corrections:

  • Look through the issues tab of the project you're interested in. Sometimes issues will be labeled 'easy'. Those are meant for people just starting out.
  • If you're interested in Rails, check out the Contributing to Ruby on Rails Guide.
  • Do a google search for my first pull request to read stories from others about their experiences.

• Start your own project on something you care about. You can continue to come to the Bitmaker office to work on it.

If you're looking for a job...

• On the first of every month, the Hacker News forum has a wildly popular "Who is Hiring?" post. To find the most recent post:

  1. Go to HN Search
  2. Enter the search terms who is hiring <year> <month>
  3. Once you're on the most recent Who Is Hiring page, do a find-in-page for "Toronto", "Canada" and "Remote". You'll find jobs you can do in or from Toronto.

  For example, at the time of writing this document, I would search for who is hiring 2017 march and it would link to here.

• Ensure your LinkedIn profile is up to date.

• railstoronto.com has a good list of companies who use Ruby on Rails that you could approach.

• Along with searching for jobs in Toronto, look for remote opportunities. For example, remote | OK has many remote opportunities.

• Attend meetups. Often employers go to meetups to find new candidates. See our Meetups & Events section for a list of gatherings.

• Check out Medium's Grading Rubric. You can get a detailed look at a tech company's hiring process and find out what companies might be looking for.

• Keep in touch with Bitmaker. We want to know how your search is going and we can offer further support. Often employers reach out to us and if we think you'd be a good candidate, we will refer you.

• Never stop learning and creating. See previous sections for our suggestions!

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See any corrections or have any suggestions to improve this document? Let us know!