How to Become a Web Developer
Becoming a web developer is very easy these days, the three basic things you need to learn are HTML, CSS and Javascript. HTML is templating language which is understood by the browsers, CSS is used for styling various HTML components and Javascript is a client side scripting language which is used for performing some kind of logic within your web browser. Basic understanding of these three can get you started as a web developer, although to get more in depth of this field you will need to get specialized in a separate area of web development such as frontend, backend or fullstack.
These are the three basic kinds of web developer. A frontend developer mainly focuses on the design and user experience, it is the job of a frontend developer to make sure that all users find it easy to operate and navigate through the web application without difficulties. The backend developer is mostly familiar with server side scripting languages such as PHP, .NET, C#, etc. with the help of these languages, a backend developer creates links to databases and handles users data with queries to specific tables and databases. The backend developer is also in most cases responsible for the deployment of the web application and setting up its hosting and server. Frontend and backend developer both work hand in hand to build and scale web applications. A full stack web developer is one man army, he/she can handle both the tasks of a frontend developer and also the backend developer. More and more companies are focusing on acquiring full stack developer these days, as the cost to production is minimized with full stack developers, one full stack developer can do the job of two or more front and backend developers.
The role of all these developers is crucial and becoming anyone of these developer requires basic understanding of all branches and processes of web development. Throughout a project a web developer might be asked to do things that aren’t his or her area of expertise, especially if the development team is small. Hence, it is the job of a web developer to always be ready for surprises and be able to fulfill unrealistic expectations as well. A good web developer knows how to deliver things on time which are related to his skills or ask for more time to get the required skills that he doesn’t possess yet.
Demand of web developers in 2019
In 2019, the demand for web developers have increased drastically. Many online job forums have shown rapid rise in the demand for web developers which shows that the field itself is growing too. There are always new frameworks or libraries that keep poping up in web development, any one of which may rise to the top in the coming years, so the web developers always keep enhancing their skills. VueJS is one of these frameworks that have shown spikes in search trends, meaning more people are learning Vue and many large organizations are also shifting towards VueJS. Other than this React and Angular both are still on top of the frontend technologies list. Javascript have dominated the frontend development in 2019, and has been doing so for almost a decade now.
Web development industry is increasing along with the number of professionals in this field. Although a college degree is nice to have, but most fresh talent also rises and dominates within web development. Many new beginners who have just come out the web developer bootcamp land a good paying job based on their skills. For this very reasons many beginners try to enroll in the best IT certification boot camps as well. But in the end all that matters is how good skills you acquire and that is what companies look for.
Tips on becoming a professional web developer
A web developer by nature is a person who is willing to create things, destroy already working things and recreate them according to new requirements without any tension. Most organizations follow agile process, in which requirement keeps changing every week if not everyday. A good web developer understands the importance of his/her time and work and tries to reuse already available code. Here are few similar tips or key points that help professional web developers in their workflow, and can also help beginners to understand the job better and deliver better results.
- Write minimal and clean code.
- Understand the problem before solving it.
- Pick your favorite tools (i.e, code editor, formatting plugins, etc).
- Reuse code as much as you can.
- Don’t be scared of bugs, they are a part of the process.
- If nothing works, propose alternative.
- Focus on the requirements first, then dive into making everything look pretty.
- Respect the deadlines.
- Always keep yourself updated with new trends in web development.
- Check out the forums for answers to problems that you can’t solve on your own.
- Contribute to the society. If you solve a problem that others might face, let people know in forums and they will respect you for that.
- Always keep trying to make code better, keep finding more ways to write the same code.
These are just some tips that web developers have on the back of their minds whenever asked for tips. Most experienced web developers follow these in their everyday routine and these make their work easier.
Conclusion
Most professional web developers give these same tips to new beginners as these have helped them throughout their careers as well. And by following these tips early in your web development career you can quickly get the hang of things and move upwards in the career track with less hassle and unnecessary tension.
Although every single developer is different and each one brings something unique to the table but some traits of most developers are same and almost all developers want to make their work easier and swifter. Thus, most of the experienced developers give similar tips on the domain, following which surely benefits beginners.