Web development is an exciting career path with great potential. With approximately 17,900 web development positions opening up every year, there’s never been a better time to pursue a job as a Web Developer. But how exactly do you break into the field? What can you do to make sure you land a job? Here are nine things you should do to improve your chances of getting a web development job in 2022.
1. Select a Specialty
The first thing you need to do to ensure you can find a job is to select an area of expertise. Web development is broken down into three specialities: front-end, back-end, and full-stack web development. Front-end web development deals with all the website elements that users can see and interact with such as the text on the page, drop-down menus, images, and forms. The job of a Front-end Web Developer is to program the outward appearance of the website according to project specifications while making it responsive, easy to use, and error-free.
Back-end web development relates to elements on the server-side of a website where data is stored and arranged. The role of a Back-end Web Developer is to create, test, debug, and maintain all the technological components that support the front-end of a website and allow it to operate. Full stack web development is the combination of both front-end and back-end web development; that means it deals with both the user-facing elements of a website plus all the technological components behind the scenes that users don’t have access to.
Why Choose a Web Development Specialty?
There are two reasons why you should choose a specialty: it’ll be easier to find jobs and you can make more money. Let’s look at finding a job first. If you just start searching for jobs as a “Web Developer, ” you’re less likely to find decent prospects. Most employers are looking for someone with a specific set of skills and advertise positions based on whether that person will be working on the front-end, back-end, or full-stack. If you want to increase your chances of finding a good job, you should definitely specialize.
Now let’s consider the money. If you look at the salary data provided on Indeed, you’ll see that people who work as Web Developers typically earn around $67,000 per year on average in the United States. The earning potential is much higher when you start looking for jobs that target the three main specializations; Front-end Web Developers earn an average yearly salary of $100,000 in the U.S. while Back-end Web Developers earn $115,000 and Full Stack Web Developers make $106,000 on average.
How to Choose a Web Development Speciality
There’s a high demand for Front-end, Back-end, and Full Stack Web Developers. Any of these options would be a lucrative career path, but how do you know which one is right for you? It’s important to align your chosen specialty with your abilities, skills, and interests; otherwise, you may find yourself frustrated and overwhelmed because you ended up in the wrong field.
People who work in the three specialties tend to have different strengths and interests. To find out which area is right for you, just ask yourself the following questions:
- Are you a creative, visual person?
- Do you want to improve how users experience a website?
- Are you interested in creating websites that are beautiful, functional, and dynamic?
Answering “yes” to these questions indicates that front-end development is a good match for you. If you mostly answered “no, ” then let’s determine if back-end development is a better choice by answering the questions below:
- Are you detail-oriented and technically-minded?
- Do you like solving problems and overcoming challenges?
- Are you interested in working with servers, databases, and applications?
Positive responses to these questions are an indication that you’re better suited for back-end development. If you answered “yes” to questions in both sets, then you might consider working in full-stack development, which combines elements of both front-end and back-end development.
2. Be Sure You Have the Necessary Skills
To get a web development job this year, you need to make sure that you have the necessary skills. There are some basic skills that can be applied to anyone working as a Web Developer while others are specific to the speciality you’ve chosen.
General Skills Needed to Be a Web Developer
In many ways, the skills you’ll need depend upon whether you choose to focus your career on front-end, back-end, or full-stack development but some basic skills apply to all potential Web Developers, including:
- Computer literacy
- Teamwork
- Attention to detail
- Problem-solving
Skills Needed to Be a Front-end Web Developer
When you look at the different specialties within web development, the skills required do vary a bit. Those interested in working as Front-end Web Developers should have (or learn) the following skills:
- A solid grasp of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- An understanding of user experience (UX) principles
- An interest in creating websites that are beautiful and functional
- The ability to test code, find bugs, resolve issues, and track changes to the code
- Familiarity with front-end tools such as libraries, frameworks, and content management systems (CMS)
Skills Needed to Be a Back-end Web Developer
Anyone who’s considering a career as a Back-end Web Developer should have or acquire these necessary skills:
- A capacity for writing high-quality code using Python, Java, PHP, and JavaScript
- The ability to create and manage web applications
- Knowledge of database, hosting environment, and server management
- The ability to analyze problems, find solutions, and make corrections to the code
- An understanding of accessibility and security compliance
Skills Needed to Be a Full Stack Web Developer
As a jack of all trades, Full Stack Web Developers need to acquire skills from both the front and back-end. If you’re interested in learning full-stack web development, it’s best to start by acquiring the necessary front-end skills then adding the back-end skills later.
3. Grow Your Network
If you want to land a web development job in 2022, it’s vital that you be an active member of the web development community and network with others in the industry. The more people you meet who are already working in web development, the more job opportunities you can learn about and have access to.
The good news is that the web development community is thriving, both on and offline. For in-person networking opportunities, you can find various groups through Meet-Up, attend tech conferences, or join a local coworking space. The top places to go online are Stack Overflow, Reddit, and Dev.to. Not only will these connections help you land a job, but they’re also excellent sources of information; if you ever find yourself stuck on a project, just search for the answer on these forums or ask your question if it hasn’t already been addressed. Chances are you’ll get a response from fellow Web Developers fairly quickly.
4. Build a Portfolio Website
If you don’t already have a portfolio website, you’ll need to build one if you want to find work as a Web Developer. Why is a portfolio so important? Because it gives you an outlet to showcase your skills, personality, and expertise to prospective employers—it’s the best way to demonstrate that you’re fully capable of doing the job you’re applying for.
Ideally, your portfolio will include four or five samples. Try to choose those that best represent your work and highlight your range of skills. If you’re just starting out as a Web Developer and haven’t completed any paid projects yet, don’t worry—there are plenty of ways to get samples to complete your portfolio. For example, you could build your portfolio while taking web development classes. You could also volunteer to do projects for friends and family or ask local businesses to hire you at a reduced rate to get more samples for your portfolio.
5. Get Feedback on Your Work
Another important step towards a job in web development is to get feedback on your work, especially from more experienced Web Developers. Ask some of your Web Developer friends or others in the web development community to look over your portfolio and underlying code to see if they have any suggestions for improvement. You might even try pair programming, where two people work together on a project. In pari programming, the less experienced person writes the code as the experienced developer looks on and provides immediate feedback. Regardless of how or where you find guidance, getting feedback and learning from the experience of others is pivotal to improving your web development skills and landing a job.
6. Update Your Resume
Just because you have a portfolio doesn’t mean you can bypass the résumé altogether; you’ll need both if you want to get a job in web development. Résumés are still a large part of the hiring process. Reviewing résumés provides potential employers with an easy way to scan applicants’ skills and experience to separate those who qualify for the position from those who don’t.
If you feel like you’re a little light on experience, don’t worry—you can structure your résumé in a way that highlights your skills while downplaying how long you’ve had them. For example, you don’t need to specify that you acquired your web development certificate just last year; all you need to do is state that you have one. Likewise, you can list all of the relevant skills you have without providing the year you acquired them.
7. Apply to Relevant Jobs
Once you’ve got your portfolio site up and running, received feedback on it, and polished up your résumé, you can feel free to start applying for jobs. But don’t fall into the trap of applying to just any job; be clear about what type of company and position you’d like then focus most of your efforts on applying to those positions. Why bother wasting your time applying for a job that you could end up hating—apply only to companies that offer the working conditions you’re looking for.
For example, if you don’t want to commute to an offsite office, only apply to jobs at companies offering remote work. You could also target a certain type of company or a specific industry. What industry would you most like to work in: marketing, tech, education, manufacturing, government, hospitality, finance, construction, entertainment, or something else? Are you open to working for a start-up or would you rather find a job at an established company? Whatever your standards are, determine them in advance then use them to filter job prospects.
8. Prepare for Interviews
After submitting a few applications, you’ll start to get requests for interviews. If you want to improve your chances of getting a job, make sure that you take time to prepare for interviews.
Most interviews for web development jobs include coding exercises or a technical test of some kind. This gives potential employers a chance to evaluate your skills, ensuring that you’re capable of doing the job. It also provides them with an opportunity to see how well you can solve problems while under pressure, something that commonly occurs while working as a Web Developer.
While this entire process may sound intimidating, you can prepare yourself for the interview by practicing beforehand. Deliberately seek out coding challenges on sites like TopCoder, HackerRank, CodeChef, Coderbyte, LeetCode, Codewars, and CodinGame to help hone your skills. By taking these challenges, you're not only preparing for job interviews, you’re also improving your coding skills, learning new algorithms, and becoming a better problem-solver.
9. Continue Learning
The tech industry has a reputation for being dynamic with changes being made at a rapid pace; that means you must be adaptable and open to learning new things if you want to work as a Web Developer. Don’t think that once you know how to use a few of the most commonly used libraries and frameworks you’ll never have to learn another one again. On the contrary, trends and technology change all the time; what’s popular this year could easily be replaced by something even better next year. In order to keep up with emerging technologies and improve your chances of finding a job, you must keep up with ongoing changes in the tech industry and continue developing your skills.
How to Start a Career in Web Development
The best way to start a career in web development is to enroll in bootcamp. Often viewed as a viable alternative to university education, these skills-focused programs operate on an intensive, abbreviated schedule to get you career-ready in just a few months. That’s especially good news when you consider how many open positions there are in the field of web development; you can start to earn back your financial investment shortly after graduation.
Noble Desktop offers a variety of web development bootcamps including a front-end web development bootcamp, a full-stack web development bootcamp, and a language-specific JavaScript bootcamp. You can even take these web development bootcamps live online from the comfort of your own home; that’s much more convenient than having to navigate to an in-person school through busy rush hour traffic.
If you’re not ready for a full bootcamp, you could start on your new career path by enrolling in individual web development classes. Noble Desktop has a wide array of both front and back-end web development classes available covering languages and tools such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Ruby on Rails, Git, Flexbox, React, and more.