What coding languages do I need to be a Web dev/content administrator?

[Stalyn]

I don’t really know how to start this but I guess a hello to everyone is not out of place, my question is this, I have been learning HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the past 7 months, I first covered HTML and CSS as a believed it to be a good way of introducing my self to the coding world, with only two months learning it I was able to create simple websites without JavaScript, I don’t find it impressive because it is not rocket science, I am now learning JavaScript which is taking me longer as I do find it a bit more complicated, my thing is; by now I wanted to be able to apply for roles in the matter, but I don’t know if i am wasting my time trying to master the previous languages mentioned or am I going to be able to land a job with them, are those languages still relevant? Or should I start learning Python 3 as this language seems to be a bit more on-demand based on some research that I have done?

 

[Ryuzaki]

There's a huge difference between HTML & CSS, which are basic front-end user-display "make things pretty" languages. They are coding languages by definition but they aren't scripting languages. Javascript blurs the line between the two and is still massively useful.

It just depends on what kind of job you're wanting to land. Do you strictly want to do front-end work? HTML, CSS, Javascript, and then all the Javascript libraries like React, Vue, Angular... those will be necessary to be familiar with.

If you want to get into some backend stuff, knowing PHP, MySQL, other database languages, Python, and even Ruby would/could be important. The nice thing is, once you understand the logic behind scripting, you can pick up more languages fairly easily because it's just a change in syntax for the most part. Each will have their own idiosyncrasies to learn, though.

Usually I'd say to be a master of one instead a jack of all trades, but from my understanding the expectations on coders to know everything is pretty wild. And you'll have to be able to think on the fly and solve problems right there during an interview, or create a pre-defined test project overnight.

There's still C, C++, even old stuff like FORTRAN which might be good to land government jobs as they're tied to old languages in many ways.

You need to figure out what kind of position you want before you choose what to focus on.

 

[Jesse]

There's still C, C++, even old stuff like FORTRAN which might be good to land government jobs as they're tied to old languages in many ways.

I thought I'd share this for OP:

A woman I'm close to works for a moderately sized credit union and occasionally talks about how they have to keep throwing money at people who are familiar with COBOL to come out of retirement to fix things when they break.

Until the past few years, their ATM interfaces were still using a version of Windows XP.

 

[built]

HTML, CSS and Javascript are the foundations to working with frameworks/libraries like Angular/React etc. To land a frontend junior position you will need to be familiar with atleast one of the frontend frameworks.

Works the same way with python, python is the foundation to working with backend frameworks like Django and Flask. So whatever you pick, the languages themselves are not enough, you need experience with different frameworks as well.

So if you want to start applying for roles, pick a frontend framework/library (like React) and do some of these challenges https://www.frontendmentor.io/

 

[bernard]

I learned Python and have found it very useful for practical work as an SEO. It's used a lot in the SEO business and in the analytics business.

I would not necessarily recommend it for anyone thinking about frontend or websites. Flask and Django can get the job done, but why specialise in Python, when PHP has built like 90% of the internet?

Facts is that most people I know off who actually ship SaaS and tool websites do it with PHP. That might not have anything to do with the language itself, but there is a clear correlation.

 

[Stalyn]

Thanks to everyone for the replies it did put me in the right path. @Ryuzaki, I loved your reply as it was in very good detail. I am gonna be looking at doing some back-end, there is so much being mentioned that I did not know and have to have a look at on these replies, just thank you!