How to Succeed in a Web Development Career

Web development is a lucrative profession that’s in high demand but what does it take to be truly successful as a Web Developer? Here are nine tips to help you excel in your web development career:

1. Continue Learning

To have a successful career as a Web Developer, you need to keep an open mind, invest in your skills, and continue learning. It’s unwise to think that once you have your first web development job, you have all the knowledge you need to succeed throughout your career. While whatever initial training you received was valuable, it’s not enough to sustain you over the long term. The field of web development is notorious for changing at a rapid rate. To have a successful career and remain competitive, you need to keep up on all the latest trends and continue to expand your knowledge base.

2. Be an Active Team Member

Considering the stereotype of Web Developers as loners who work in isolation, this second tip might come as a bit of a surprise. The reality, however, is Web Developers are a vital part of a team that works together towards a common goal — to provide the customer with a useful, engaging website to help them reach their business goals. Potential team members working alongside Web Developers could include Project Manager, Inbound Marketer, UX Designer, Content Specialist, and Editor, just to name a few. If you find it difficult to work with others, it’s more likely that your career will stagnate and not reach the heights that it could. To improve your chances of becoming a successful Web Developer, it’s important to communicate with those you work with and become an active, contributing member of the team.

3. Ask for Help When You Need It

Even if you continue honing your skills throughout your career, there’s no way you’ll be able to learn everything there is to know about web development — it simply isn’t possible. That’s why it’s important to be able to ask questions. Yes, it can be uncomfortable to admit when you’re unable to resolve whatever problem it is you’re facing but you need to put your ego aside and acknowledge your limitations so you can find a workable solution to the issue at hand. If you put up a front and try to act as if you already know everything, you’ll likely end up making costly errors that will take a substantial amount of time and energy to fix; this is likely to disappoint your customer and fellow team members and negatively impact your career.

4. Think Beyond Coding

You might think that working as a Web Developer means you simply sit down and code all day long, but to have a successful career, it’s important to understand there’s so much more to the profession than just coding; the work you do provides value to your customer. Yes, it matters whether or not your code is well-written, but even the most beautiful code in the world is pretty much useless unless it serves a purpose. You should always keep that in mind — your primary goal is to provide creative solutions that serve both the customer and the end user.

5. Embrace Challenges

To have a successful career as a Web Developer, it’s vital for you to know that problem-solving is an integral part of the job. Whether you’re working on the front or back end, developing a website from scratch isn’t an easy task; there are many issues that need to be resolved and solutions aren’t always easy to find. That’s why success in this field requires the ability to embrace challenges and remain persistent. Giving up whenever you’re faced with difficulty isn’t an option if you want to succeed. You need to be able to confront challenges head-on and continue looking for a solution until you find one that works.

6. Build Your Network

The next tip is good news for extroverts, but bad news for introverts: if you want to excel in web development, you should actively work on expanding your network. The reason is simple — the more people you know in your field, the more opportunities you’ll have access to. For example, if you want a job with a specific company, the best way to get your foot in the door is to have someone who already works there recommend you for a job. And you can’t meet or get to know that person if you don’t build your network.

There are various ways to meet more people in your field including attending local meet-ups, seminars, and conferences. You might also be able to network with other local tech professionals at a nearby coworking space. If you don’t have the time for in-person events or if they’re too far outside your comfort zone, you could always make connections with other Web Developers online; there are thriving programming communities online at Stack Overflow, Reddit, and Dev.to, just to name a few.

7. Find a Mentor

A mentor can help guide you throughout your career by giving advice on projects, reviewing your code, offering constructive criticism, helping you foresee any potential problems, and providing you with career advice. The only complication is that good mentors are hard to find.

There are some training schools that match you with an industry professional to provide you with feedback on your work and help answer questions you may have about entering the tech field. Once you start working as a Web Developer, however, it can be difficult to find someone willing to take on that role.

The good news is mentorship doesn’t have to be done in an official capacity. If you’re unable to find someone willing to mentor you, there are other possibilities you can explore. For example, you could pair program with someone who has more experience than you and learn from them that way. To learn through pair programming, the less experienced person writes the code while the experienced developer looks on and provides immediate feedback.

If pair programming isn’t an option, you could simply seek advice and feedback from others in your circle such as a boss, co-worker, friend, or someone you meet in an online programming community. Regardless of where or how you find guidance, learning from the experience of others is pivotal to advancing your career.

8. Work on Open-Source Projects

If you really want to excel at web development and improve your career prospects, it’s important to develop your reputation as a programmer and raise your profile in the industry. The best way to get your name out there and expose your work to as many eyes as possible is by contributing to open-source projects. You can find a wide range of open-source projects available on GitHub. Some of the top open-source repositories on GitHub include VS Code, React Native, Azure Docs, and Flutter.

If you’re just starting out in web development, check out the freeCodeCamp and First Contributors repositories, which are excellent for beginners. Though you may be reluctant to contribute to open-source projects as a beginner, doing so will help you mature as a Web Developer; while working on these projects, you’ll receive valuable feedback from experienced programmers and hone your current skillset while expanding your skills even further.

9. Update Your Portfolio

As you continue to learn and grow as a Web Developer, don’t forget to update your portfolio to reflect your progress. An online portfolio provides you with the perfect place to showcase your skills to prospective employers; it establishes you as a professional Web Developer and gives you a forum to highlight your experience and display your best work. If you want to improve your employment prospects and enjoy a successful long-term career, you must keep your portfolio up-to-date.

Learn the Skills You’ll Need for a Successful Web Development Career

To have a successful career in web development, you’ll first need to acquire all the necessary skills at a reputable training facility. The most efficient route to a career in web development is to enroll in a web development bootcamp. Bootcamps are intensive skills-based programs that are designed to get students ready for a new career in a relatively short amount of time.

Thanks to their focus on skills acquisition, bootcamps can be completed in just a few short months; that’s considerably less time than it would take to complete a university degree. Bootcamps can be taken either full or part-time. There are even web development bootcamps available live online for those who prefer learning from home instead of commuting to an in-person school.

If you’re interested in expanding your web development skillset but aren’t ready to commit to a full bootcamp, another option would be to enroll in individual web development classes. Depending upon your location, you might be able to find web development classes in your area, though class offerings may be limited.

Noble Desktop offers a wide array of web development classes live online and in-person at their New York facility that can help prepare you for your new career as a Web Developer; for an even wider selection of courses, you can use Noble Desktop’s convenient Classes Near Me tool to find relevant courses available in your area and online.