Ask HN: Best developer machine; and what to learn to become employable?

Hi.

I intend to learn web development on my own during and after the summer. Mainly because there aren't any bootcamps over here in Ireland with a proven track record.

While I would love to learn web development, I am afraid it will hinder me to do back-end work, if that is something I end up finding interesting in the future.

My question is basically, what exactly should I learn to become employable in Europe? Preferably England or Switzerland. I have no degree, and I would be creating a portfolio from scratch. Exactly how low are the requirements?

At the moment I intend to learn: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, HTML5 CSS3, Javascript, jQuery. Is that really enough?

Get the best MacBook or MacBook Pro you can afford. It obviously runs OS X (Unix) but you can also run Linux in a virtual machine and boot into Windows if necessary; you can also run Windows in a virtual machine if necessary.

Not only is the hardware topnotch, you won’t have to worry about graphics driver compatibility, power management, wi-fi support and all of the other stuff that can make running Linux as your primary operating system… challenging.

Don’t worry so much about creating a portfolio; pick a project you’re passionate about and do that. Or pick an open source project and start making useful contributions.

I would add Sass (or some other CSS preprocessor) to your list: http://sass-lang.com

The threshold for having learned something is subjective, at least in the context of software development.

If the intent is just to attain a basic understanding that enables one to complete projects and pass muster as an intern/junior developer, then it's likely possible with enough effort.

If the intent is to do a "deep dive" on each topic, or even attaining mastery during the course of a summer, then that's another matter entirely.

On that note, the concept of mastery is similarly subjective. Even the lowest definition of mastery for a single one of those topics lie far beyond the timescale of a single summer, at least for most people, and especially if they lack previous experience. Fortunately, very few people are masters of anything.

I am not sure Ruby On Rails stuff is the optimal choice if you want to work in Switzerland (for the local company). You either work at Google in Zürich or at some bank or manufacture. Hence you'd better look at Java Enterprize, IBM solutions, learn German / French, get some credibility (degree). With RoR / no degree / no proficiency in local language you'll have more chances at startups, international tech companies. It means Berlin, Amsterdam, cities in England.

Machine doesn't matter, but I recommend Linux or Mac as most of the tools are built with, and are easier to work with on unix-like machines. Invest in an SSD as well, as running a dev server as well as tools do hit hard on the disk.

As for languages, master vanilla HTML, CSS and JS. It's handy especially if you have to work around stuff, or just want to do bare-metal code instead of high-level. But you should have a standard stack in order to finish stuff quickly. The usual choices would be:

- UI: Bootstrap or Foundation

- Rails + Ember

- Express (Node) | Flask(Python) + Backbone | React | Angular

- You could also roll your own combination and be proficient with it.

Portfolio? Don't bother. Just run a Blog and Tweet about it. Join meetups in your local area and be visible. Get involved in open source by doing bug reporting or documentation. Eventually, you'd end up knowing a lot, and actually help in code. Use those as your credentials, as they are more credible because others can vouch for you.