Introduction

There are many paths to becoming a web developer and I’m going to try and explain the few paths that I’m acquainted with. Many people think that to become a web developer you need a degree in computer science, information technology or any courses related to computer science. I beg to differ from this notion.

You can still become a web developer without attaining any degree or attending formal school. Be not mistaken you will still need to study, read and code, albeit not in formal schools where you’re awarded certificates, diplomas or degrees. And the most beautiful thing is that you can study, learn and master web development concepts at your own pace and in the opportune time.

With essentially every industry depending on the web to carry out their business operations, web development is a fundamental industry, and it can open doors to for you to many open job opportunities. Learning how to build your career in web development is the first step towards a successful life.

With the debut of No-code apps and platforms plus other platforms that abstract the complex stuff in web development to enable users use blocks and templates to build websites faster like webflow, Wix, elementor, wordpress and squarespace among others; it might appear that understanding the inner workings of how websites are built and how they are run is easy. However that is a task that will need more than just no-code tools. It will require dedication, zeal and passion if you are thinking about building a profession in the web development space, and you’ll need a solid foundation in website development principles to start off well.

If you’ve read this article thus far, I take it that you are serious about building a career in website development, However you have to be committed to perpetual learning. You’ll always have to be in a learning state, continuously learning, relearning and unlearning.

Technology changes and adapts to new changes and market demands and user preferences with time, much of your learning will have to be self-directed and through self-discovery.

Are you ready to learn web development and prepare for an exciting career? Before you begin your journey to becoming a web developer, it’s important to understand what web development is and what a web developer does.

What is Web Development?

web development gives you super powers... You possess the language and power that enables you to speak with browsers and tell them to display any beautiful website that you have built using your skills.

Web development is a broad field that plays a role in almost every industry. As a web developer, you could work to design websites or program the latest web application. You could create cloud-based progressive web applications that help businesses run more efficiently or be responsible for the user experience of an e-commerce website.

In fact, websites that load slowly lead to a $2.6 billion loss in revenue worldwide every year thanks to customers who won’t wait to make a purchase, according to an article from WebFX. The same article also reported that 89% of users shift to your competitor after having a poor user experience on a company’s website.

The need to be able to build applications that handle employees working from home and still maintain back-end systems with the business’s data — that’s where you get a lot of people who are going to be needed for web development,” Frank Manning said.

With web developers in demand across many industries, it’s important to understand the types of web development available and what these developers do.

What Does a Web Developer Do?

Web developers design and create websites, e-commerce sites, web-based applications and more. As a web developer you may be responsible for the look of a website, the technical aspects of a site’s function in the background — or both. Basically what we call front-end, back-end and — fullstack respectively.

Some developers handle all the aspects of a website’s construction, while others specialize in a specific area of the project. Web developers can work in virtually any industry, at anytime from anywhere in the world. We are limitless, all thanks to the power of the internet, we live in a global village.

With a career as a web developer, you could find yourself working on an API for a software firm based in Paris while you’re seated in Kampala, cataloguing and adding new items for an e-commerce website in California yet based in Nairobi or designing new UI sketches for organizational websites for a variety of clients across the globe. Developers can also work as consultants to guide businesses through a web design project or as project managers to help businesses identify the scope of their website needs, technologies they need to build their websites, resources needed and how long it will take.

Web Development Career Paths

The most common types of web development jobs typically fall into these categories however there could be more fields introduced in the near future with the new Web3 protocol: Back-end web developers: These developers are responsible for the technical construction of a website. They create the basic framework of a website and ensure that it works as expected. They also establish procedures for adding new pages, posts, blogs and all other updates to a website. These guys handle the inner workings and complex side of the website. In a restaurant; these qualify as chefs or kitchen team.

Front-end web developers: These developers are responsible for how a website looks, what we call the front-end; this is what a client interacts with. They create a website’s user interface and incorporate all the necessary multimedia components like images, graphics, audio files, svg’s among other functional features that enable a user to navigate a website with a smooth experience.

Full stack web developers: These developers manage both the front- and back-end of a website or web application. They integrate the features in the interface with the functionality in the server; for example a contact form has to pick data entered by a user and should be sent to server in the back-end. Full stack developers are in high demand, particularly among smaller businesses that may not be able to hire a large web development team consisting of both front-end and back-end developers.

API developers: An API, or Application Programming Interface, allows applications to access data and interact with other external software or operating systems. APIs are critical to many of the online processes, and organizations build API’s so they can manage customer-side operations and back-end operations efficiently, they are also built to encourage innovation in an ecosystem and is a growing area of web development.

UI developers: these developers are also often referred to as product designers; they work on designing and creating beautiful product UI’s and prototypes, and are found to use tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, among other tools.

UX developers: these developers deal with collecting user feedback and improving their user experience, from interacting with and using the website. Their area of focus is on creating a great user experience and this demands a user interface that is both visually appealing and functional. With more businesses shifting their operations and activities online, these roles have increased and are in-demand.

Before getting started in one of these web development careers, it’s important to understand how to become a web developer and the steps you need to take to break into this growing field.

How to Become a Web Developer

No matter what area of web development you hope to work in, your career will need to start with education, either in a self-imposed virtual classroom or in a coding boot camp with an education institute in the real world or both. Even if you’re not enrolled in a computer science degree program, you can start learning web development right away.

There are a myriad of tutorials to be found online, on platforms such as YouTube, Coursera, Pluralsight, Udacity, w3c among others where you can learn to start building your first web page. It’s that easy. With the resources we have available on the internet, you don’t need to memorize anything, you just need to know it can be done and you can learn how to do it. You’ll probably become a frequent visitor of the Google search bar because you will find things that will necessitate it for you to Google. Still, while you can learn a lot through online tutorials, videos and blog posts, it’s important to note that if you want an accreditation or recognized certification for a professional career in web development, a College/University degree will be required.

1. Learn Key Programming Languages

While your degree’s web development courses will offer many of the technical skills you’ll need to work in the field, you may need to master additional programming languages or specific software for certain jobs — particularly as these technologies grow and evolve.

Some of the most common programming and markup languages used in web development include:

HTML: HTML in full is Hypertext Markup Language; it is a markup language that is used to code, structure and display static web pages on a web browser. Its syntax is easy to learn, use and memorize. Most of your time as a junior web developer is going to be spent playing with this markup language

JavaScript: JavaScript is often abbreviated as JS is a programming language and it is used in many core aspects of web development alongside HTML and CSS to make websites interactive, and to add functionality to features that receive data and feed it into the back-end.

CSS: CSS in full is Cascading Style Sheets; it is a styling language; it is used in conjunction with HTML to add styles and beautiful appearances to text, images, borders and a lot more on a website. CSS can be used to style HTML elements like cards and make them more appealing to look at.

Java: Java is a powerful programming language that can be used to start making websites by using JSP(Java Server Pages) which allows you to embed HTML in java code files to create dynamic web pages. In order to successfully compile and serve JSP’s; you will need a web server that can run Java classes; it is called a servlet container.

Python: Python is one of the simplest programming languages that can be used to create a website with the aid of various frameworks that use python. One of the frameworks commonly used is Django; it is open-source (which means free as is) and it encourages rapid development and a clean pragmatic design for virtually any website need. Python has been used to build websites like Netflix, Spotify, Google and the back-end of Instagram is also built using python.

SQL: SQL(Structured Query Language) is a database query language that is used to develop, manipulate and control client-side databases when your website needs and uses large amounts of data.

PHP: PHP is an open-source programming language often used on data-heavy websites and web-app development. It has popular frameworks like Laravel, code igniter and symphony among others.

.Net: .Net (pronounced dotnet) is a programming language is developed and used along with the .net framework by Microsoft and primarily runs on Microsoft windows. It is helpful to develop a wide variety of applications, including web, mobile and Windows-based applications.

2. Enhance Your Learning with a Web Development Certification

One of the best ways to highlight your knowledge and experience with programming languages and other professional skills is by seeking industry certifications. Certifications are important because they show that you have the theoretical and functional knowledge about how things work to the point that you could pass the test, a certification demonstrates that initiative to want to go deeper in your career and to certify your skills. Certifications show a lot of things — not just technical competency — but initiative and commitment to the field.

There are a wide variety of computer science, information technology and web development certifications available. And the certifications you seek will vary depending on your interests and the jobs you hope to get.

Some popular certifications available for web development professionals include: CompTIA Security+: In today’s world, website security is a top priority for all businesses. And a web developer with proven knowledge in cyber security is a valuable asset to any company. The CompTIA Security+ certification is one of the top cyber security certifications available.

Google Developers Certifications: To become a Google Certified Developer, you can take a series of certification exams that test your knowledge in a variety of areas, including: android development, mobile web development, data engineering and cloud engineering. You will become an associate developer first before you can become certified.

Zend Certified PHP Engineer: This certification requires passing an exam that covers PHP language, syntax and data types, along with support for web-based input and output, web features, security topics and more. Training lessons and a certification study guide are available here.

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner: If you’re interested in API development and want to work to develop cloud-based software and other applications, this certification can help you stand out in the industry.

Adobe Certified Expert (ACE): Adobe makes some of the most popular tools in the graphic design and web design industry. Adobe offers a variety of certifications, including Magento Commerce Front-End Developer and Magento Commerce JavaScript Developer.

3. Focus on Real-World Experience

Education is key to a web development career, but even the most highly educated professionals with great academic documents will have a hard time finding a job and keeping it without proven real development experience.

We have gone long past the time when you could get interviews by having a tuned up resume; you need to show prospective employers what you’ve done and what you can do. That is the biggest key to being able to break into a career in web development. Even if you have never worked in web development professionally before; there are many ways to show your experience and expertise. One of the best ways to do this is by building an online portfolio of your work.

This online portfolio can include work you’ve completed for your web development courses, but should also include projects done outside of the classroom. These projects you build outside class can either be for fun or for businesses to showcase your skills. Document these projects in an online portfolio. This portfolio can be built as a website and deployed on many free sites like Github Pages, Netlify, and Vercel. Stack Overflow, GitHub and CodeRanker are some of the many sites that monitor and record the time a developer spends developing or working on code. This thus turns out into or converts into experience considered and that can be computed by most employers today.

Finding internships, volunteering to work on web development projects for local nonprofits or even completing self-directed projects can all give you lots of experience you can include in a portfolio of your development work. There are also many opportunities to find freelance paid work as a web development student, giving you key professional experience working with clients and meeting project requirements.

4. Develop Key Soft Skills

Getting real-world work experience doesn’t only enhance the technical skills you need to succeed in web development. It can also help you develop key soft skills that are in high demand in the web development industry. A lot of people, when they think of web development, they think of someone sitting at their computer all alone, but contrary to that thought usually these projects are done in teams. You have to be able to communicate ideas, collaborate and work well with others.

Some of the most important soft skills for web developers are: Communication Collaboration Critical thinking Problem-solving Data analysis Creativity

Whether you’re collaborating internally with a web development team, thinking critically to find a creative solution to a development problem or communicating a web design project to a client, these soft skills are critical to your success in a web development career.

5. Earn a Web Development Degree

Some people can still insist on doing things the conventional or normal way even with the availability of other options or paths. So if you really feel you need a degree here you go.

Educational requirements for web development jobs will vary depending on the setting you work in and the type of work you do. While an associate degree may be enough to get some entry level web development jobs; many employers will require at least a bachelor’s degree.

The degree you choose for your four-year university/college journey — and the web development courses you take — can also vary. Web development degree options include:

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science: In a 4-year computer science degree, you’ll work to solve real-world problems in courses that focus on the design and development of computer software. You’ll take courses on topics including programming languages, software security and full-stack development. Bachelor of Science in Information Technologies: A 4-year information technology degree will help you understand the principles of computing and how they relate to business operations. An IT degree with a concentration in software development includes courses on programming languages and also explores the software development lifecycle.

Bachelor of Art in Graphic Design: If you want to work on front-end web design and user experience, having a creative eye and solid design skills is important. A graphic design degree — especially one with a concentration in web design — can offer web development courses including interactive animation, user interface and experience and advanced digital publishing.

While most web development jobs require a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree in information technology, computer science or software development may be required if you’re seeking a highly specialized web development job or want to manage a team of developers.

A master’s degree can help provide the bigger-picture view of web development and its function as part of a business that you’ll need to work in a leadership role. If you have interest in management, then the master’s degree will give more of an abstract view on technology and how to use it as a tool to empower your team and their operations. But you can still have a great career with a bachelor’s degree alone.

Web Development Career Opportunities

With a technology or product design degree and web development courses under your belt, you’ll be able to stop wondering how to become a web developer and start figuring out where you want to work because there’s a ton of open opportunities only waiting to be taken up.

Web development is a growing field, and there are a wide variety of work opportunities to put your degree to work, including: Development agencies Software companies Consulting firms Small businesses Large corporations Self-employment or freelance

Web developers are especially in high demand at small to medium businesses as companies continue to rely on more technology and web-based software to manage their businesses.

You have an opportunity in a small business to build relationships that will help you progress throughout your career and get referred to your potential employers in future. No matter where you choose to work as a web developer, web developer jobs and other similar careers are in high demand across many industries — and offer competitive salaries.

Employment of web developers is projected to grow 8% from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations.

Finally…

If you want to build a successful career as a web developer, your learning can’t stop after you’ve earned a degree, you’ll have to do more than the degree. Because technology changes all the time, you’ll need to commit to finding new opportunities to practice your skills, learn new technologies and network with other developers.

Find developer forums, hobby projects, virtual meetups and other ways to continue to invest in your technical abilities and think about technology holistically. It’s not enough to just learn about coding. You need to think about the many factors that affect what you code and how you code.

You need to learn to become a problem solver.

Anyone can learn to write code that computers understand but it takes a wonderful programmer to write code that is understandable and relatable to other humans.

one of my mentors called Samson Kapeeyi said

Focusing on continued learning not only opens up more career growth opportunities, it can also help you build a more satisfying career and a fuller, richer life.

You get out of it what you put into it. If you put the effort into it, you’re going to have a much more successful career and you’ll find that you’ll be able to be the best version of yourself as that developer, coder, software engineer, web designer or web developer or even programmer. If you do that you’re going to be happy going to work in the morning, or waking up to code because you love what you do. It’s not just a job or career it’s a lifestyle.

If you’ve loved this article and would love to talk about tech and more, connect with me on my socials. Twitter