Lagi Williams | Roadmap

My Roadmap

Goal $65,000+ · Junior/Mid Front-End Developer

Platform Pluralsight — Utah Tech Series

Timeline Mar 17 – Aug 31, 2026 · 24 Weeks

Target Hours 80–95 hrs · ~5 hrs/week

PHASE 01 Foundations Mar 17 – Apr 13

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PHASE 02 React 18 Apr 14 – Jun 8

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PHASE 03 TS + Node + APIs Jun 9 – Jul 20

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PHASE 04 AWS + Job Hunt Jul 21 – Aug 31

Week 1 · Mar 17–23

HTML / CSS Kickoff

Front End Web Development: Get Started + Career Kickstart. Take Skill IQ assessment first — may skip content already mastered.

Week 2 · Mar 24–30

JavaScript Foundations

JavaScript 2022 Path — variables, functions, arrays, loops, DOM basics, ES6+

Week 3 · Mar 31 – Apr 6

JavaScript Intermediate

OOP in JavaScript, async/await, Promises, functional programming, closures

Week 4 · Apr 7–13

Git + GitHub

How Git Works — branching, commits, merging, GitHub workflow

Checkpoint — April 13 Push a small HTML/CSS/JS project to GitHub. This is your first portfolio piece.

Weeks 5–6 · Apr 14–27

React Foundations

Components, JSX, props, state, hooks — React 18 Big Picture + Fundamentals

Weeks 7–8 · Apr 28 – May 11

React Deep Dive

State management patterns, hooks deep dive, React Router, data fetching

Weeks 9–10 · May 12–25

React + Redux + Testing

Redux state management, React Router, Jest, React Testing Library, Webpack

Weeks 11–12 · May 26 – Jun 8

React + Next.js

Next.js routing, server-side rendering, API routes, Vercel deployment

Checkpoint — June 8 Build and deploy a React app on Vercel or Netlify. Add it to GitHub portfolio.

Weeks 13–15 · Jun 9–29

TypeScript

Types, interfaces, generics, tsconfig, TypeScript with React — pushes from Junior into Mid-Level territory

Weeks 16–17 · Jun 30 – Jul 13

Node.js + Express

Node basics, Express.js, REST APIs, middleware, database connections

Week 18 · Jul 14–20

REST APIs in JavaScript

Fetch API, async data, CORS, integrating APIs into a React front-end

Checkpoint — July 20 Build a full-stack project: React front-end + Node/Express API. This separates you from other junior candidates.

Weeks 19–20 · Jul 21 – Aug 3

AWS Cloud Practitioner Warm-Up

AWS fundamentals, S3, EC2, IAM, core services overview

Weeks 21–23 · Aug 4–24

AWS Developer Associate (DVA-C02)

Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, Elastic Beanstalk, CI/CD pipelines — exam ~$150 (reimbursable by Aug 31)

Week 24 · Aug 25–31

Wrap-Up + Reimbursement

Polish portfolio, finalize 2–3 projects, submit cert receipt before Aug 31

Start Applying — Week 20 (Aug 4) Don't wait. Most hiring takes 4–8 weeks — your timing lines up perfectly.

Target Roles

Junior Front-End Developer $70k–$85k Primary Target

Junior React Developer $75k–$95k Strong Target

Associate Front-End Engineer $70k–$90k

Web Developer (Front-End) $68k–$85k

Software Engineer I $80k–$100k Stretch — after Phase 3+