Some resources and pointers which I shared with someone considering breaking into the industry (I work professionally as a web dev in UK). Thought others might a) find it useful; or b) chip in with any big ommissions. This is targeted at an entry level junior job in UK.

Pointers

A.  There are many kinds of software development, but my focus is on web development, because it is the one with the most opportunities and flexibility professionally, probably the fastest growing, and it's the one I know best

B.  Web development = software development. Everything you used to devise for desktop computers, or even machines, can now be run entirely on the cloud, like gmail, and things have advanced to the point where people use web development languages to program non-web stuff entirely running in your desktop or your phone.

What you need to know in order to work as a professional software developer:

1. Core programming languages. It used to be that you needed one primary language for the back end (e.g. PHP, Java, Python), and JavaScript for the front end (the primary language used by web browsers). Today both browsers (what is called the web api) and JavaScript have evolved so much that you can do both the front and back end of software development in JavaScript. You also used to have to learn different languages for programming in Android (Java) and iOS (Swift) - but you can now also use JavaScript.

 This means that if I was starting today from scratch, instead of learning PHP and JavaScript to start with, I would probably focus on just learning Javascript for both the front end and back end (Node.js). That way I learn one language properly that will help me learn future languages, but which makes me employable and able to build pretty much anything.

2. Support languages/scripts: For the database (SQL is the most widely used by far, so worth focusing on first, but Mongo is often used in JavaScript heavy environments, so also worth considering). HTML and CSS for the front end.

3. Core programming tools: Git (essential for virtually every professional job); an IDE (Visual Studio Code or WebStorm); some basic unix/bash commands to interact with your machine or server. Some sort of deployment platform, like Heroku, Digital Ocean, AWS. Programming frameworks (Vue.js, Node-Express, etc).

4. Programming concepts, patterns and good practices: Object Oriented Programming is essential for most languages although it is implemented in less typical ways in JavaScript. Unit Testing. Design Patterns.

5. Configuration: of your computer, your IDE, and the tools you interact with

6. Working with (REST) APIs: the way you harness all the web technologies out there into your own application.

7. Working and collaboration practices: Using git flow to collaborate with others (and with yourself!); a basic idea of what agile working is like (very much like our action-reflection cycles), particularly scrum. Not many companies implement it properly, but most are inspired by it in some way.

8. Joining professional programming communities, primarily through meetup.com, slack and reddit.

Obviously there is a lot more. But this I think would be what a junior developer could expect to be acquainted with on a first job.  To get a brief bird's eye view of the programming environment explained with great simplicity, I found this useful: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/cddd9k/eli5_backend_technologies_and_how_they_relate_to/ettcymq?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

Resources:

To know what to learn, this is a pretty comprehensive guide. Because it is comprehensive it can be intimidating, but you don't have to learn everything there, it is just a map of what's out there. It suggests routes for three specialisations: front end (someone else looks after the data and the engine, so to speak, you focus on making things look amazing, work on mobile, be accessible, etc.); back end (you let others work on the looks, your focus is the brain of the application); and what he calls Dev Ops but is more precisely Systems Administrator (you focus on the infrastructure itself, where your app will run). The yellow highlights are a useful roadmap: https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap/blob/master/README.md

This is a great starting point as an open source JavaScript course https://www.theodinproject.com/home Follow the full stack track (mixed front and back end).

This is one of the most respected and widely used JS trainers and courses https://wesbos.com/courses/ . Communities:

Face to face:  

https://www.meetup.com/ Look for software meetups in your locality. Free pizza, good talks, a sense of the culture of programming, and networking with a potential recommender, mentor or future employer.

Slack:

https://codebuddies.org/

https://devchat.devolio.net/

Reddit (worth also checking their FAQs:

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnjavascript/

https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming

Nuff to get started! Feel free to send me follow up questions.

Edit: I've updated the gitlab link to the roadmap which had changed and was broken. It works now.

Anyone explain??

It's unrelated with JavaScript (I know), but I can't hold it and I have to share it. After like 50 rejected resumes for the past 3 months, I just got a phone call from my recruiter that I've been chosen for the front-end internship.

I can't believe what's going on. I mean, miracles have been happening since I woke up this morning. Got a job, a date on Monday and my favourite artist dropped an album. Be patient guys, everything will work out.