It's come to my attention that a lot of people are unaware of where to start and where to go when beginning to learn web development. I believe that you can apply the same knowledge and philosophy from this article to other fields of development, but the frameworks and languages you will need to learn may be different.
1. Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery and Bootstrap (Front-End)
You can learn all of these in various places on the web. I personally learned them on FreeCodeCamp.com. Freecodecamp (FCC) has about 2400 hours worth of working you can do to become certified for work. Front-end development accounts for 1200 hours of that and is entirely composed of challenges and projects related to HTML, CSS, Bootstrap and JavaScript. You can also go the extra mile and learn back-end development and data visualization frameworks such as nodejs, express, mongodb, react.js and d3.js. Freecodecamp is set to launch some new challenges and a more comprehensive course load on September 1st last time I checked.
You can also learn Javascript at CodeAcademy. I found that CodeAcademy had a better Javascript program though I would personally run through them both just to reiterate over the concepts and practices that you will be required to learn and use throughout your career. I truly believe that CodeAcademy and FreeCodeCamp both have their strong points and using them both really helped me to learn rapidly.
There are many other Front-End frameworks that you can learn which include but are not limited to: D3.js, React.js, Angular.js. These are more widely used than jQuery but still use JavaScript as the language to write them.
2. Learn GIT
Git is important for all developers to learn. It's simple and helps you to store projects on Github forever. You can also learn Git on Freecodecamp in the back-end development ceritification. Git also has many open-sourced projects and many people allow others to contribute to their projects and you will learn how to take part in this as you learn Git.
3. Learn Back-End (Front-End + Back-End = Full Stack)
Back-End is considered anything server-side as well as database related. It's the programming of the servers themselves and the frame-works that control them as well as anything to do with databases. Without back-end, your applications cannot store data and usually can't become very complex without them. Image Facebook without having any data. It wouldn't be very useful or interesting.
You can also learn back-end on FreeCodeCamp though it's very limited in what is available. There you can learn Node.js, express.js and Mongodb which are some very powerful and modern frameworks. Particularly they are part of the MEAN framework (Mongo.db, Express.js, Angular.js, Node.js) which has become very popular over the last few years. Most people think that it is replacing the LAMP framework (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (sometimes Perl or Python is used as the "P" as well, though typically PHP is used for Web Development.))
4. Do A Job Search And Learn The Required Skills
If you do a job search for web development jobs, many companies list the skills you need to bring to the table in order to become a candidate for hire. I would suggest doing a search and then writing down any of the skills you've seen a lot of times. These can be critical skills to learn. Often you will see currently popular front-end and back-end technologies that businesses are beginning to utilize and can be very useful to learn. I would personally begin with the first 3 steps before moving on to doing this, though, as some of the things you will learn from those steps can be used to aid your education of these usually new frameworks.
5. Build Projects For Non-Profits And Yourself
Building projects for Non-Profit Organizations can not only be a great way to get some valuable experience, but it's a lucrative and (near)selfless way to promote your product and build a viable portfolio of real-world applications.
Upon completing your front-end and back-end certifications at Freecodecamp, you will be able to begin working with Non-Profit organizations and building real web-applications for them to use to help real people in the world. This not only builds a reputable portfolio but shows your ingenuity and desire to not only further your skills and knowledge, but to help others as well.
6. Always Apply For Jobs
Applying for jobs is sometimes the only way to get actually get them.
I've heard of a lot of people who are not even finished the certifications programs who are now employed. It can depend on the businesses in your area and the need for developers. It's a lot more likely that you will get a job sooner if you live in a populated area with technology based start-ups. Regardless, search for jobs, take section 4 into account and learn the required frameworks and skills and always be vigilant in pursuing new skills.
Conclusion
It's definitely not easy to begin working in technology. It requires a lot of work, a lot of learning and a lot of desire to continue to do that even once you've gotten a job. Technologies are always changing and newer frameworks get released every year. In order to stay with it, you will likely be on a lifetime conquest of learning. Though it certainly gets easier as you learn more, because things come more into perspective and you can make the needed connections.
Freecodecamp is not the only option when it comes to learning, there are many schools out there. Udemy is another great school and so is Udacity. There are also Code Boot-camps which teach entire stacks in a few months, though they can be quite expensive.
One of the great things about development is that there seems to be a forever growing need for more developers, and there's a lot of people who say there will never be enough people for the amount of work that actually needs to be done. So there is always an opportunity for you, especially if you're willing to relocate.