Where do I start? Which language should I learn first? Those are similar questions that I was asked whenever someone is thinking to become a developer.

In my opinion, there are a lot of options and there is no right or wrong answer. It depends on what are you planning to do in your career. But from my experience, the easier way to find a first job is as a Web Developer, and front-end is a good start.

A front-end developer is a web developer who focuses only on the outward-facing parts of the website or web application. This includes parts like the menu, articles, or photo galleries. They are also focused on aspects like widgets, games, and making the product aesthetically pleasing.¹

When I was in university I was learning Java, but I realized it was hard to get a job as a Java developer when you don't have any experience.

I looked around for the most popular languages and the job description, and I notice that Web Developer was the most popular. But I had no experience, and It would take me some time to get the knowledge at University.

A friend suggested creating an online pizzeria application, to study the language and get experience. Considering Pizzaria is a simple use case, I started with that. Then, every day after work, for 1-2 hours a day I was working on this new application. After 1–2 months I got my first job 🙌.

Based on that, I believe it is an easier way to start as a developer and get a job. Follow my suggestions for essential languages to get the first job:

HTML

The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser.²

HTML is the standard language used in the creation of websites and is supported by all modern Internet browsers such as chrome, safari, firefox, etc.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>This is a title</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div>
        <p>Hello world!</p>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

As the fundamental building block for all web pages, HTML should be the first language to learn.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is the language for describing the presentation of Web pages, including colors, layout, and fonts. It allows one to adapt the presentation to different types of devices, such as large screens, small screens, or printers.³

In my opinion, CSS is important to learn and to be familiar with as a front-end developer.

body {
  background-color: lightblue;
}

h1 {
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
}

p {
  font-family: verdana;
  font-size: 20px;
}

CSS can be challenging to make a simple page work in the same in all browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc) and because of that, it is my less favorite language. But after you understand a bit, you can use some libraries such as Bootstrap with already provides responsible components and a lot more, it will make your life easier for sure!

JavaScript

Javascript is a scripting language that enables you to create dynamically updating content, control multimedia, animate images, and pretty much everything else.

JavaScript has been the most widely used programming language in the world, which makes it a necessary language to learn. Here is a simple example of JavaScript code.

document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML = 'Hello JavaScript!'

JavaScript is versatile, beginner-friendly, and very flexible. Developers have written a variety of tools on top of the core JavaScript language, unlocking a vast amount of functionality with minimum effort.⁴

var x = 5;
var y = 6;
var z = x + y;

I am not mentioning frameworks such as React, Angular or VueJs. But consider checking at least one of them if you really want to be a front.

Node.js

My list is based mostly on the front-end, but Node.js is used for executing JavaScript code on the server side, so why is it in this list?

The first reason is the choice of which programming languages to learn or how many to have in your portfolio is completely up to you, but the more languages you know, the more job opportunities you’ll have access to.

Node.js is a free, open-sourced, cross-platform JavaScript run-time environment that lets developers write command line tools and server-side scripts outside of a browser.⁵

Node.js has a lot of libraries and it is simple to learn. For example, for a simple web server not much code is required:

const http = require('http');

const hostname = '127.0.0.1';
const port = 3000;

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.statusCode = 200;
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
  res.end('Hello World.');
});

server.listen(port, hostname, () => {
  console.log(`Server running at http://${hostname}:${port}/`);
});

Node.js is not the only option for beginners, but considering you will learn Javascript already, I think it can be easier and avoid much confusion with diverse languages from the start.

For example, PHP was the language I started and got my first job. But there are other possibilities for example Ruby or Python.

SQL

SQL is not the responsibility of a front-end developer, but the same logic applies as explained before, the more languages, (and skills) you know, the more job opportunities you’ll have access to.

Structured Query Language (SQL) is a widely-used programming language for working with relational databases.⁶

My last suggested language is SQL. I recommend being aware of knowing how to create a database and table. And next insert, update, delete, and select data from the table.

CREATE DATABASE 

CREATE TABLE persons (
    person_id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    first_name varchar(100) NOT NULL,
    last_name varchar(200),
    email varchar(100)
);

INSERT INTO persons (first_name,last_name) VALUES ('Adriana', 'Zenck');

UPDATE persons SET last_name = 'Zencke Zimmermann' WHERE person_id = 1;

SELECT * FROM persons;

DELETE persons WHERE person_id = 1;
It is not necessary to go deep into the database topic, but it is important to be familiar with the basic commands you will use in your day-to-day work.

It is not necessary to go deep into the database topic, but it is important to be familiar with the basic commands you will use in your day-to-day work.

Looking for more challenges?

Java

Oracle Java is the #1 programming language and development platform. It reduces costs, shortens development timeframes, drives innovation, and improves application services. With millions of developers running more than 51 billion Java Virtual Machines worldwide, Java continues to be the development platform of choice for enterprises and developers.⁷

Java is one of the most popular languages for backend developers, to be honest, it is my favorite language. Unfortunately, it is not a good language if you are starting as a developer, which means looking for your first job. That is why I do not suggest you start with Java. But, of course, it is a good language and it will be a bonus if you invest some time checking this language or any other JVM language such as Kotlin or Scala.

Let me know in the comments what is your recommendation for essential languages for beginners.

References

[1] Web Developer VS. Front-end Developer

[2] HTML & CSS by World Wide Web Consortium — W3C

[3] CSS — https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

[4] Javascript — https://developer.mozilla.org

[5] Node.Js — https://nodejs.dev/

[6] SQL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL

[7] Oracle — The Java™ Tutorials: https://docs.oracle.com

[8] JavaScript basics: https://developer.mozilla.org

Essential languages to get the first job as a developer