Where can I find an advanced Javascript tutor?
June 15, 2015 11:25 AM   Subscribe

I'm a web developer with years of Javascript experience. I'm currently interviewing for a Javascript position and I have several things working against me for the interview. I'm self-taught and don't have a Computer Science degree. Worse, I haven't been able to use Javascript intensely in my current position, so I'm a little rusty and don't have anyone I can ask questions and learn from. Where can I find someone with advanced and contemporary Javascript knowledge willing to answer questions and give me some guidance?

I have some specific things I'd like help working through that I haven't been able to completely grasp in my own self-learning. Mostly dealing with Object Oriented Javascript and AngularJS. But I'm not sure where to find someone who can be available and can help me out on such short notice--I am interviewing this Friday.

I've already posted this to craigslist, and haven't gotten any responses. Web developers are busy developing, they aren't looking for opportunities to teach/tutor. I'm also aware of (and frequently use) question sites and forums like Stack Overflow, but the questions I have are the sort that need a person to look over my shoulder and quickly correct obvious problems that I'm running into. Doing that online or in a forum would be extremely laborious and inefficient.
posted by brenton to Education (15 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Have you posted to MetaFilter jobs?
posted by dawkins_7 at 12:00 PM on June 15, 2015


Response by poster: No, thanks dawkins_7! I will.
posted by brenton at 12:01 PM on June 15, 2015


You can find plenty of people willing to help at /r/javascript and /r/learnjavascript. In addition to the subreddits themselves, both have active IRC channels linked from their respective sidebars. Also, many, if not most, professional JS developers are self-taught. Good luck!
posted by ludwig_van at 12:35 PM on June 15, 2015


Is the goal to establish yourself as being very good at JavaScript? Or to convey at the interview that you are capable of picking it up relatively quickly?

Between now and Friday, if the interview is deep, I'm not sure you can establish that you are a JavaScript expert. I was in your situation before and banked on the "I am an experienced developer who has learned many programming languages and should be able to handle this" angle. It does not hurt to know as much as you can, either way, but I'd keep in mind that the former goal may be out-of-reach no matter what you do.
posted by ignignokt at 12:47 PM on June 15, 2015


Response by poster: @ignignokt, I want to convey that I am very good at Javascript. And really, I already am. But I realize I have some gaps and I honestly think that I can fill them in a few days given the help of someone who doesn't have the same gaps.
posted by brenton at 12:53 PM on June 15, 2015


Ah, OK. If you understand closures and the event loop already, then it's doable!
posted by ignignokt at 12:55 PM on June 15, 2015 [1 favorite]


to me, if you understand, scope, closure, prototypes, associative arrays, and the function keyword, you are at a pretty good place...with *javascript*. json and XmlHttpRequest get you to *ajax*.

what now for productivity? it is super important to know which ide, vcs, client-side frameworks, node modules, unit test libs, lint tool, etc the shop uses. there is a pretty huge level-of-quality difference between a dojo shop and an angular shop. ask them.
posted by j_curiouser at 2:49 PM on June 15, 2015 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: @j_curiouser, understanding the syntax and logistics of Javascript is one thing, understanding how to write Object Oriented Javascript is something else entirely.
posted by brenton at 7:32 PM on June 15, 2015 [1 favorite]


codementor!!

(I haven't used it myself yet but fully intend to once I have a bit more free time to actually work on my side projects.)
posted by ropeladder at 8:31 PM on June 15, 2015


Re OO in JS, there are some good articles at MDN:

Working with Objects
Introduction to Object-Oriented JavaScript
Inheritance and the Prototype Chain

Addy Osmani's Learning JavaScript Design Patterns is also available for free.
posted by ludwig_van at 9:15 PM on June 15, 2015 [2 favorites]


true, i skipped the oop part. but, tbh, the popular usage of common frameworks are all naked state and long procedural blocks inside closures, not oop anyway. procedural blocks acting upon instances rather than types handling their own behavior.

i hate it, but that's how most production shops are doing it.

if we consider:

a) encapsulation (destroyed by all-public state in json types)
b) polymorphism (prototypes, not abstract types or interfaces)

really the best hope for some type of decent ood is to be sure to use SRP and DIP. all the major frameworks have creational mechanisms for churning out types from prototype-y definitions.

check out crockford for the real dl on javascript programming. the functions video is golden.
posted by j_curiouser at 9:18 PM on June 15, 2015


Yeah, it's definitely not OOP in the C++ way. It's mostly about setting up state for functions, which is partly what traditional OOP does, too, in addition to a whole lot of other stuff.

I don't think he's offering it in the next week, but for future question readers, if you have a chance to take Crockford's Effective JavaScript course, it is mildly life-changing.
posted by ignignokt at 6:03 AM on June 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Read Crockford's JavaScript: The Good Parts.

And watch this as well: Douglas Crockford: The JavaScript Programming Language which is a great history and presentation (4 parts melded together) on the language. If you've been practicing JavaScript you probably have some things you've done, but never quite grasped why you do them. I think Crockford is a great way to start thinking deeper about the code you write, which in turn will make you a better programmer, and then you'll be seeking out even more advanced books and tutorials.

As far as learning Angular - I encourage you to play with it. Here's a little example I've put on codepen: http://codepen.io/artlung/pen/mJMLMo. It shows some basic binding. No user input but I've found that playing around with things like this can get you going if you're unconfident.

I'd also encourage you to learn about code linting with jslint or jshint. Do that kind of work against your own code and see what pops up. You may learn things that are useful.
posted by artlung at 9:15 AM on June 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


Serendipitously, just got a marketing email for a new course on Codecademy for AngularJS.
posted by artlung at 2:21 PM on June 16, 2015


Response by poster: It's kind of amazing how most of the links that people are putting in this page are already showing up in the visited color! This tells me that I'm definitely already pursuing the right path and finding the right resources.

Thank you, everyone, and thanks for the links to the Crockford videos, in particular. I'm "learned out" today and ready to just sit down and watch a video for a bit.
posted by brenton at 5:19 PM on June 16, 2015


« Older Best way to care for a care with a faded red body...   |   If you don't live here, don't swim here Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.