Hey folks! Sloan, DEV Moderator and mascot. I'm back with another question submitted by a DEV community member. 🦥

For those unfamiliar with the series, this is another installment of Sloan's Inbox. You all send in your questions, I ask them on your behalf anonymously, and the community leaves comments to offer advice. Whether it's career development, office politics, industry trends, or improving technical skills, we cover all sorts of topics here. If you want to send in a question or talking point to be shared anonymously via Sloan, that'd be great; just scroll down to the bottom of the post for details on how.

Let's see what's up this week...

Today's question is:

I'm quite intimidated by the thought of learning backend development. I'm still fairly new to everything software development and have been scoping out all I need to learn development-wise to be a successful web developer. This is the area that I find most daunting!

I have a design background and am most interested in getting into website design. I like the idea of laying out a webpage for a client and helping them to create something visually pleasing and easy to navigate. I think I would do well at this, but I know I still have a lot to learn. 😅

I know there are CMSes and website builders out there that can help handle some of this for me, but I also want to further my programming knowledge so that I'm not confined to templates. I'm curious if anybody can help guide me in what I need to know to get going. And, is my fear of backend development really warranted? 😱

Share your thoughts and let's help a fellow DEV member out! Remember to keep kind and stay classy. 💚

Want to submit a question for discussion or ask for advice? Visit Sloan's Inbox! You can choose to remain anonymous.