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• IT PROFESSIONALS

A career in web development is one of the most sought-after career paths today. Besides being a good fit for people who are new to programming, it has something for everyone – the creative nerds who can’t get enough of design and programming and the geeks who are suckers for problem-solving. So, if you are curious to learn about all that lies in store for you as a web developer, then let us be your fortune cookie! 

In this article, we will cover the following topics:

1. What do web developers do?

2. Is web development a good career? How much can you earn as a web developer? 

3. How to become a web developer?

What do web developers do?

Web developers are responsible for every mind-blowing, good, bad, and awful website that you have ever come across. The behind-the-scenes of a website can be essentially broken down into 2 steps:

i. converting the website design into a website using programming

ii. ensuring the smooth functioning of the website by maintaining a smooth flow of data between the server and user browser.

The first step is called front-end web development, and the second step is called back-end development.

What does a front-end web developer do?

As a front-end web developer, you will be responsible for creating everything that the audience can see and interact with. For example, this page! While the look and feel is created by a web designer, it has been programmed by a web developer. If you view this article on a smartphone, it would look different. This is again the work of a front-end developer. 

Sounds exciting, right? So let’s find out about the web developer skills that you need to become a front-end developer.

Front-end developers need to be good at 3 programming languages – HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. 

All web pages that you see are essentially created using HTML and CSS. HTML defines the structure of a web page for the browser, which includes the header, paragraphs, and images. CSS adds glam to the web page with style elements such as fonts, colors, and layouts.

However, you can only create static pages using HTML and CSS. If you want to breathe life into your web pages with the help of animated text and graphics, or user forms, you will need to know the ropes of JavaScript.

Once you have become a polyglot with programming languages, the next skill you get to learn is working with frameworks and libraries. Both libraries and frameworks help you reuse code, which fastens the process of web development. 

A framework is a software that helps in implementing common functionalities like security, data validation, etc. Vue.js and React are the most popular frameworks for front-end development.

Libraries contain methods that you can call on instead of writing all the code yourself. The most frequently used library by front-end developers is jQuery, which contains various functions for JavaScript. 

All of these skills help the front-end developers to create a website where users can find the relevant information. To create a user-friendly experience, they may work with UX designers. Apart from web designers and UX designers, front-end developers work with the back-end developers.

What does a back-end web developer do?

The web pages that you see are a result of both the front-end developer and the back-end developer’s code. For example, the data needed to display a web page is stored in a web server. The back-end developer is responsible for fetching this data and giving it to a user’s browser so that a web page can be displayed. They also ensure that the code is optimised so that the loading time doesn’t test a user’s patience and the website functions smoothly. For example, maybe the page speed is low because of too many data requests to the server. This problem should come to the back-end developer’s notice who can then work on making the page faster.

This feat is accomplished by managing servers and databases, and building applications. To do so, back-end developers put different skills into use.

Since they work with the front-end developers, they possess a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Other than these languages, they work with one or more of the server-side programming languages, such as Java, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python, Node.js, and C#. They also need to know how to work with specific frameworks which will differ according to the project. For example, Django for Python.

Other key skills include knowing how to use databases and APIs.

In addition to front-end developers and back-end developers, the web development world has a third type of a web developer, full-stack developer. A full-stack developer is a web developer who is experienced in both aspects of web development. So, they can alternate between both the types of web development. They could also spearhead web development projects from end-to-end. Therefore, they must be good with managing teams and projects.