Hi everyone! I’m a 21-year-old college student trying to figure out which JavaScript concepts I should prioritize to get hired as a developer. My university classes aren’t very practical, so I’m teaching myself JS from scratch.
I want to ensure I’m not wasting time on topics that won’t help me get a job. What parts of JavaScript do employers really care about for junior roles?
I’m also looking for good learning materials such as books and online courses. I understand reading official documentation is important, but I sometimes find it hard to do.
Here are a few specific questions I have:
- Which JavaScript fundamentals do companies typically test during interviews?
- What common mistakes should beginners be aware of?
- How did experienced developers land their first JavaScript job?
- What coding projects would be beneficial to include in my portfolio?
- What resources have been most helpful for you when you were starting out?
- How do you maintain motivation while studying on your own?
- When should I start applying for jobs while still learning?
Thanks for any advice you can share!
Debugging gets overlooked but it’s huge for entry-level jobs. Companies want devs who can fix their own code and figure out what broke. Learn browser dev tools - focus on the console and debugger first. Event handling is another big one for interviews. Know event bubbling and delegation, and you’ll stand out from most candidates. Skip static websites for your portfolio. Build interactive stuff like a todo app or calculator instead. Shows you can handle state and user interactions. Start applying once you can build a working app from scratch, even something basic. Most companies will train junior devs if you’re a solid problem-solver and actually excited about learning.
i totally agree, focus on the basics first, like vars, funcs, loops, and conditionals. also, get familiar with array methods like map and filter, you’ll be using them a lot! dont worry about frameworks yet. vanilla JS is what will help you shine in interviews, esp closures!
I’ve been working with JavaScript for years, and DOM manipulation plus async programming are absolute must-haves. Companies love asking about promises and async/await in interviews, plus how you handle API calls. Learn ES6+ stuff like arrow functions, destructuring, and modules - you’ll see them everywhere in modern code. Get comfortable with how ‘this’ works in different situations or you’ll trip up in interviews. Build projects that pull data from APIs and display it dynamically. A weather app works great for this. Write clean code and practice explaining your thinking out loud.