How to gain experience as a beginner: Build something

Learning web development is tough, but getting paid to be a web developer is a whole different challenge. If you've just learned (or still learning) web development, how do you gain the experience you'll need to land a paying gig or even get a full-time job?

Codecademy offers project lessons with real APIs

Working with APIs is becoming a standard aspect of web development. I built a "simple" web app late last year that pulls photos from Instagram and Facebook. Working with their respective APIs was a learning curve I didn't expect. I had to learn about HTTP requests, how to read their documentation, and how to build my own app to accept the information their APIs returned.

Using projects as learning tools (the right way)

Putting to practice what you've learned from a book or online lesson is a great way to reinforce and add application to the knowledge you've gained. But do a project is incredibly unhelpful advice. In fact, it only creates more questions.

What project? What kind of project? How big of a project? What should it do? What should it try to accomplish? What do I want it to teach me? Should it be something worth putting in my portfolio? How much time should it take me? With all these questions, the project has now become another obstacle to your learning success instead of an aid.