From mathematician to front-end developer. Where to begin?

Question

css

Good afternoon! The situation is as follows - I have a higher mathematical education behind me, now I am studying in graduate school. I am mainly engaged in theoretical mathematics, more precisely, abstract algebra. Over the years, the understanding began to come that, nevertheless, this is more an occupation for the soul, rather than capable of at least somehow providing.
Therefore, about six months ago, the idea came to mind that something needs to be changed in life and start reorienting, and web development has always been interesting. Of course, programming languages ​​such as Java and C ++ were studied at the university at some initial level, but it seems to me that at the moment it would be much more difficult for me to comprehend them.
So, about six months ago, the intensive htmlacademy.ru was completed, which, in principle, gave some necessary base, then relatively simple layouts were made up, it came to an understanding that it was necessary to delve deeper into everything, learn JavaScript and a lot of new technologies. But with their number of eyes just run up. Later, there was an urgent need to write articles for the dissertation and pass the candidate's minimum, and all study was abandoned for a couple of months.
Now I have a lot of free time to study. There are 4 months for 5-7 hours a day of free time. Ideally, by the fall I would like to find at least some work (internship) in the field of front-end. According to this question, what would you advise to study in the first place, if so far there is only a confident knowledge of HTML and CSS and the very basics of JavaScript?
Looking even at the most junior vacancies on websites, it seems that such a volume of necessary knowledge cannot be mastered for years. Where to begin? Should I start learning JavaScript from the books of Flanagan and Ilya Kantor? Or do you need something simpler first? Or am I generally mistaken that this is too difficult a level? I know that there are a lot of videos and various literature on the Internet, but it is difficult to separate what exactly is needed in the first place.
And regarding layout, in what order should you get acquainted with technologies such as Gulp or GRUNT? What should you choose from CSS preprocessors? There is some experience with bootstrap, maybe something else to pay attention to? And in general, what is the minimum set you need to have in stock to get an initial job in this area? I see no point in getting involved with any freelance at this level.
PS I speak English very well, I read technical literature without any problems.

Answer 1

And tell me, what for do you need a front-end? Are you quitting math because you're bored with it, or because you can't earn enough money from it? Judging by the post - the second, which means C ++ in your hands and go sawing algorithms where mathematics is needed. Any Yandexs and Googles love such people, and they will pay well.

Answer 2

I think you have a direct road to data-science, data mining, machine learning, neuro-technology, and similar near-scientific and math-based things, and not freelance, but normal full-time offices that deal with serious things, and not only in the Russian Federation, but also abroad, remote work is possible. and interesting, and close to you in direction and highly paid.
why do you need a web? change the awl for soap, moreover, with this soap you will lag behind other specialists who have been in this field for a long time. but with mathematics in the field of data processing, you will be on an equal footing, and maybe even ahead of others who have little mathematical experience. the only thing you need to learn is programming, algorithms, Python, C, C++, C#, R, Statistica, Wolfram, parallel computing, everything that is science intensive....

Answer 3

It's good where we are not :) If you look for topics that were also created here, then the same questions are asked by front-end people. Retrain and then you will also write what it is:
It is in the classes for the soul that people earn the most. You just need to figure out what to sell and to whom.

Answer 4

Author, look better towards Data Mining and the like, well, or into graphics programming, why do you need this children's frontend.

Answer 5

Vanilla javascript, leave frameworks to schoolchildren, schoolchildren do not know javascript, but it is very functional (in the sense of the paradigm). Modeling and rendering (SVG, canvas) - there is a lot of mathematics, it is in demand and few people know how (take a look at arborjs.org , paperjs.org )

Answer 6

And I have the opposite situation - I have skills in the frontend, and the desire to restore mathematics.

Answer 7

Go to data science. https://www.coursera.org/specialization/jhudatascience

Answer 8

Javascript, Go lang, node.js, wolfram lang

Answer 9

That is, you are such a cool mathematician that for the entire time of your studies at the university (4 + 2 + 4 = 10 years) you have not found a single problem on the solution of which you can earn money? Maybe remove the "mathematician" and just write "near it"-shnik.

Answer 10

Over the years, an understanding began to come that, nevertheless, this is more an occupation for the soul than capable of at least somehow providing.

It's strange... a mathematician friend of mine left for Portugal 10 years ago and still lives there.

JavaScript and many new technologies

what technologies are there? these are body kits / whistles over standard HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Over the years, an understanding began to come that, nevertheless, this is more an occupation for the soul than capable of at least somehow providing.

why did you have to study? what was the purpose of the study? did mom and dad force you? Strange somehow ... I scored a bolt on the tower and went to work. For I understood that V / O nafig didn’t rest on me. Why are you studying mathematics? For the soul? Lots of free time?

Answer 11

Watch the video of the Yandex interface development school, you will understand where to dig :) There is also a codeschool, frontender nanodegree on the udacity website.

Answer 12

With your knowledge and free time, you can get a front-end job after a month of study.
You are overestimating the difficulty of this lesson. As already correctly written, you are more likely to be in Data science, machine learning, and other cool areas. Come to Yandex, if possible, they really love and appreciate people like you.

Answer 13

From preprocessors choose libsass on node.js. You collect all this on Gulp.
Well, pump over JavaScript, any benefit.

Answer 14

Therefore, about six months ago, the idea came to mind that something needs to be changed in life and start reorienting, and web development has always been interesting.

Web development is not a very smart thing to do after pure mathematics (algebra). There, of course, you can sit and invent interesting puzzles for yourself, but it is not required there.
I myself needed a math when I did the implementation of aes128 (multiplication of polynomials over a Galois field) and when studying the method of inductive calculation of a function on the space of sequences (isomorphic mappings of equivalence classes).
If you write something mindlessly, it can lead to a dead end, so you need to understand how the algorithms work.
Do not be guided by work, such workers (and even the best at times) are a wagon and a small cart.

Answer 15

On freelance exchanges, I periodically see projects on R.
I advise, as they said above, to move towards data processing, in parallel to start freelancing. In such a science-intensive direction, you can not be afraid of competition with the Indians.