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Self-taught web developer here. I managed to get a job after 11 months of learning of my own. For me, the sheer amount of resources was overwhelming and sometimes got me thinking to give up, but I kept at it and managed to get a job and find out how web dev looks like in real life.
Eager to hear your stories.
Thanks, Alin R.
A great way to meet people who can give you guidance is through local meetups. For example, you'll likely find people with web development experience at any Python meetup. Finding a good mentor will save you a lot of time.
There are a lot of tools and frameworks out there, so it's tough to know which ones to get started with. There are a lot of terms that don't make much sense until you just go ahead and start using them... HTML, CSS, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, Ruby on Rails, Django, HTTP, API, SSL, Angular... it's really frustrating to figure out what's what when you are just beginning, but once you do figure out, you realize that it's…
This is the point where you need to do some kind of a deep dive into UNIX or the command line of your OS and figure out what the hell is really going on. Processes, files, permissions, networking, security, etc. When you pull back that curtain a bit and realize you know almost nothing...
For me the hardest part was slamming into that wall where you've been working at a very high level of abstraction (HTML, CSS, a web framework of some sort, an IDE) and you realize you have very little idea how computers work or how they talk to each other. This is the point where you need to do some kind of a deep dive into UNIX or the command line of your OS and figure out what the hell is really going on. Processes…
Edit also understanding the first language and framework you learn is just the beginning, there will be many. That's something that surprises many.
I started around '08 on a Django-based stack with really only university courses and prior Python programming experience. I was very active reading about the tech stacks which helped substantially.
When building mostly static content, I relied heavily on templating. When it came time to add interactivity, jQuery was right there waiting for me. When more complex behaviors were needed, I had to figure out how to write actual javascript rather than string callbacks together. Then learning to manage dependencies and assets became necessary, ... and so on.
A mentor would have been an enormous benefit. I was very lucky in that I got a wide berth to work in, and much opportunity for greenfield work.
The sheer amount of stuff you have to learn other than just the programming language you picked up. In fact it feels like as much, if not more, time is spent understanding tooling, distribution, packaging and hosting options for you web app. Little of which feels satisfying or enriching to learn because so much of it is simply endless administrative minutiae. No-one seems interested in simple, easy alternative methods.
This won't be a popular opinion, but I'll say it anyway...I am learning Python at the moment, and I can completely see why so many people start with PHP for web dev. Python - the language - might be easier and friendlier PHP, but Python's 'eco-system' for deployment and distribution is horrible, fragmented, clumsy and not easy to learn (or documented well).