Why You Should Learn JavaScript Right Now
Depending on who you ask, JavaScript is either the best programming language you should learn, or the one language you should stay away from. Here’s the truth: No language is perfect and JavaScript has its flaws. But for the most part, the people who say ‘don’t learn JavaScript’ really mean ‘don’t learn JUST JavaScript’. Diversifying your skill set (i.e. becoming a ‘polyglot programmer’) is definitely a better way to improve your career, your knowledge, and your credentials. But that doesn’t mean JS should be ignored. Far from it, in fact.
Here’s why you should learn JavaScript right now.
It’s Easy to Learn
Despite what some people will tell you, JavaScript IS easy to learn. All you need to get started is a web browser. It works on any platform – and we mean any platform. There’s an endless canon of resources, communities and libraries to mine information from. And it’s free! The basics of JavaScript are easy to grasp; especially if you already know HTML, CSS, or object oriented programming. Mastering it is somewhat more difficult – but everyone has to start somewhere, right?
With a good tutorial and a willingness to persevere, anyone can master JS basics in a few hours. From there it’s a matter of building on your knowledge piece by piece. Like we said, there is an incredible amount of support out there – so finding help when you’re stuck is never an issue. And once you get good at it, you have a foolproof set of skills that will be of enormous help if and when you do become a polyglot programmer.
Career Benefits
All coders, software/web developers, and those who work with programming languages on the daily are very well paid. It’s no secret. ‘Trendy’ languages come and go, along with astronomical pay packets. But JavaScript is one language that is consistently in demand, and JS developers are consistently the highest paid programmers. The average salary for a JS developer in the United States is $105,000.
With a high demand for heavily interactive websites, and with the sheer amount of daily tasks that people rely on websites for, it’s obvious that this demand won’t fade any time soon. People use websites to pay bills, shop, keep in touch, check weather, play games, keep track of live news, and basically anything and everything else. What makes them all function properly, look good, and be intuitive to use? JavaScript!
It’s Versatile
JavaScript is one of the most versatile languages around. While some argue that it’s archaic, and it’s true that it’s also one of the oldest languages around, you can’t ignore the fact that it’s still so ubiquitous after over 20 years. But. New JavaScript standards are now released every year, and browsers are also getting better year on year at handling JS code. Along with the language itself, the frameworks are also continually improving and developing.
What this means is that JavaScript’s capabilities are still growing. If it has anything to do with the web, this ‘old-timer’ language can do it. It supports both object oriented and functional programming, numerous languages compile to it, there’s a huge choice of frameworks, and it can even be supported server-side. Not bad for a 20+ year old language, right?
It’s Future-Proof
It’s often said that HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the ‘holy trinity’ of the world wide web. Well guess what, the web isn’t going anywhere, and that means JavaScript isn’t either. 99% of the top websites in the world use it, and there is no competition. There never has been and so far there is none on the horizon either. Even if there was a better alternative, it would take a long time for all of those websites to adopt it. No matter what the critics say, JavaScript is here to stay.
It’s Fun!
JavaScript has many uses, and plenty of useful qualities. But besides the excellent career opportunities, the power, the ease of learning and the versatility, JavaScript is just plain fun! Once you’ve mastered it, there’s no limit to the cool interfaces you can create, the awesome dynamic websites you can build, and a whole host of other opportunities that we can’t possibly fit into one short article.
If you’re interested in learning JavaScript, check out some of our online courses here: http://stoneriverelearning.com
Happy coding!