How to code like a cool cat

First up, our managing director, Jon Malyon, who to paraphrase Derek Zoolander, is an “ex developer that used to code good”.

What I wish I’d known…
Don’t be afraid. Be hungry and remember, sometimes you will need to chew on something for a while to properly digest it and extract the nutrient nuggets. It wont all make sense at once.

The hack I swear by…
Create your own library of code patterns for re-use later. Otherwise you will spend your days hunting down a piece of functionality that you wrote on an old project that you will want to re-purpose on a new one.

My nifty go-to guiding light…
Google is your best friend! Unless you are building the next AI interface then the chances are that someone else will have encountered your same problem, so keep it simple and have a search.

Sarah is our head of development…

What I wish I’d known…
I wish I’d known that you don’t need to be perfect before you show people what you’ve done.

The hack I swear by…
If you’re learning, find something you want to build first. A problem you want to solve; always go down the project route because it gives you a driver to finish.

My nifty go-to guiding light…
I love Can I Use. It’s a favourite of mine!

Colette is our front-end developer…

What I wish I’d known…
Start by learning what interests you and build from there. Don’t worry overly about following a set ‘traditional’ path.

The hack I swear by…
Teach. However basic you think your level is. Explaining concepts to someone else will help solidify that knowledge in your own brain. This could be in person, at groups, such as Codebar, or by blogging.

My nifty go-to guiding light…
Build real projects. If you need ideas, check out Frontend Mentor.

Rich is our front-end developer…

What I wish I’d known…
Coding is only a small part of being a coder and its actually the (relatively!) easy part. Most of the real effort of a project is going to be dealing with other people so be prepared for a lot of meetings!

The hack I swear by…
When you’re completely stuck on something, step away from the computer. Do a household chore. Have a short run around the block. Often you’ll find the break helps your mind come back at the problem fresh, and a solution becomes clear.

My nifty go-to guiding light…
The Mozilla Developer Network is a fantastic resource and one I use daily.

Renato is our junior developer…

What I wish I’d known…
It’s normal to feel like you don’t know enough. You will always have this feeling and there will always be something new to learn.

The hack I swear by…
Use more than one platform to study code. You will learn it from
different perspectives.

My nifty go-to guiding light…
W3Schools is a very handy website with tutorials and exercises.

Check out our dev teams work…

Read the stories and case studies for some of the development and coding working the team have done.