Sacha GreifI find keeping up with the JavaScript ecosystem quite challenging, and I have over a decade of experience with web development. So I can't imagine what it must be like for newcomers.
At first you think learning to code is just about mastering for loops and functions; but soon enough you hear about front-end frameworks, then bundling and state management, and then it turns out there is a whole 'nother chunk of JavaScript on the back-end; and that's usually when you give up and become a professional sheep farmer instead.
So you'd be forgiven for thinking that filling out the State of JavaScript survey is best left to real developers who know what they're doing. But let me see real quick if I can change your mind.
1. You're the Future
The grumpy neck-beard programmer is a tired stereotype, but it does have a grain of truth to it: after years trying to keep up with the churn, many developers can become a bit jaded towards the latest fancy framework.
But you don't have that problem. Your spirit is still young, your hopes still uncrushed. You're the one who will go to bat for the new, better way of doing things without being slowed down by the burden of tradition.
And the reason why this is so important is that the whole point of the survey is to try and anticipate trends to let JavaScript developers know what might be coming down the pipe. Even just knowing which libraries a new developer is aware of is already a fascinating datapoint.
2. You'll Get An Overview of Modern JavaScript
Did you know you can get a crash course in modern JavaScript just by filling out the survey?
Broadly speaking, the survey is split in two main sections: features and libraries. First, the features section contains an overview of recently-added JavaScript language features, and by taking the survey you can quickly see which ones you know and which ones you don't.
You'll even get a handy "report card" at the end of the survey with links to learn more about the features you didn't know about!
The libraries section on the other hand covers things like front-end frameworks, back-end frameworks, testing libraries, and more. If you fill out the entire survey you're guaranteed to at least hear about all the main players in each category, even if you don't actually look them all up.
3. You'll Be Able to Track Your Progress
Because we save your data from one year to the next, completing the survey every year provides a nice way to track your JavaScript journey.
Although this doesn't currently exist, we soon hope to add a personal dashboard that lets you visualize which features and libraires you've learned over time.
4. You're (Statistically Speaking) More Diverse
It's no secret that programming demographics are a bit skewed towards white men; and this is sadly even more true when it comes to the survey.
It might be tempting to dismiss this with the classic "well nothing is stopping group XYZ from becoming programmers!"; but how will we know if that's true if that group's voice is not even being heard?
Thankfully, there might be a solution, and that solution is YOU! As the last State of CSS survey shows, respondents with less than a year of experience are a far more diverse crowd than their more experienced peers:
Now there's two possible interpretations to this, one good and one bad:
- People starting to learn programming today are more likely to come from a more diverse background.
- Newcomers have always been diverse, but the industry makes non-white-men quit after a few years.
So which one is it? Well we don't know yet… but the one thing we DO know is that if you just got into programming and you're part of a minoritized group, your voice is doubly valuable just because you can contribute such a unique point of view.
I Get It Already, Where's That Survey?!
Right this way!
And don't worry: the JavaScript ecosystem might appear messy and confusing right now, but once you have over a decade of experience under your belt like I do… you'll realize it actually is messy and confusing!
Sheep Photo Credit: Andrea Lightfoot on Unsplash
