Websites and apps form the backbone of the online world, where billions of people get their news, do their shopping, and form new relationships. By serving as virtual centers of commerce, community, entertainment, and information, websites not only have an important impact on the modern economy but heavily influence the behind-the-scenes of our lives. Consequently, it’s none too surprising that web development is one of the quickest-rising industries in America.
Web Developers handle things like layout, formatting, coding, and pretty much everything else that goes into building a website. Because web development is a broad term that encapsulates many different areas, many Developers specialize in one aspect of web development such as front-end coding or back-end coding. In addition to coding websites and apps from scratch with programming languages such as JavaScript, Developers work with content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, and may also rely on other tools to ensure the website remains up-to-date and works for the user.
While some Web Developers form a one-man band, creating all components of a website alone, it’s also common for Developers to work alongside a team of Web Designers, User Interface (UI) Designers, and User Experience (UX) Designers. Before a website is created, UX Designers often come up with an overarching concept, identifying essential content and designing a user-friendly flow to ensure the final product provides a great user experience.
Is It Worth It to Learn Web Development?
Learning web development is a worthwhile investment that comes with a myriad of professional and personal benefits. We’re living in a rapidly changing digital age, where even a small degree of web development knowledge can boost your career success. In addition to opening doors to remote development careers with flexible hours, knowing web development will equip you with additional tools to support your business ventures.
Business and ecommerce sites aren’t the only things you can create with web development skills, however. Outside of work, you can use web development to spotlight your passion projects, be it creative portfolios, hobbies, or fundraisers for the less fortunate in your community. In addition, apps and websites built with web development skills make great spaces for cultivating online communities outside of social media.
What Can You Do with Web Development?
It’s easy to assume that web development only involves coding websites, but the truth is, web development tools are far more versatile and can be applied to just about any type of coding project. Through web development tools, coders around the world have generated both mobile and web applications, along with software. In addition, web development is a popular means for beautifying a newsletter or other professional email.
Develop Websites
As the name implies, web development skills can be used to create high-end websites for personal and business use. While websites can certainly be created using just one web development tool, the best websites typically rely on a variety of technologies, which may include coding languages like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, along with purpose-built software like WordPress and GitHub. Building a website involves treating both the visual facade that viewers interact with (known as the “front-end”) and the behind-the-scenes architecture known as the “back-end.”
Develop Web Apps
In addition to websites, you can use web development to craft web applications akin to Google Docs, Facebook, eBay, and Uber. The biggest distinction to note is that while websites are built on a structure created by the Developer, web applications are governed by the data they collect from users, making them more of a living organism. These apps are commonly coded with tools like Python, JavaScript, Kotlin, Ruby, Java, Swift, and PHP. In addition to web development tools, application development often relies on prototyping and other UI/UX design techniques to create responsive apps.
Develop Mobile Apps
In many respects, mobile apps are similar to web apps but have unique scaling and security requirements due to the variety of different devices they’re created for. While many mobile apps are created with just smartphones in mind, some mobile apps are designed to work as hybrid web applications that scale for accessibility on both mobile devices and desktop devices. In addition, mobile apps often need to work with a larger variety of operating systems. Even though most bootcamps offer iOS-focused training, Android mobile development is becoming more important now that 70% of phones use this system. These apps are most popularly created using Python, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Dart, Kotlin, Swift, Java, C++, and C#.
Develop Software
In addition to more simplistic applications, you can use web development skills to develop intricate software such as antivirus software or operating systems. However, software engineering typically involves a more comprehensive skill set that includes full-stack development along with techniques not utilized in generalized web development.
Create Visually Appealing Emails
Through coding languages like HTML and CSS, you can develop responsive emails that inject life into your marketing through interesting layouts, images, and graphics. While you can certainly insert images and format emails manually without coding, this often leads to problems such as images being far too large or text running off the screen when viewed on certain devices. Luckily, however, HTML emails enable you to create unique emails that are scalable for every size screen.
Industries in Los Angeles That Need Web Development
Websites and apps now act as an important middle-man between clients and businesses, making web development essential to every one of Los Angeles’ top-grossing industries. As people increasingly look to digital sources for product recommendations, local businesses, and entertainment, demand for web development services continues to spike. Today, web development is as essential to fields like education and finance as it is to more obvious domains such as marketing and ecommerce.
Entertainment
Home to Hollywood, Los Angeles has a long history of entertainment production, with the area serving as filming grounds for 50% of all American films. While movie trailers play a big role in getting people to theaters, websites and apps make it possible for viewers to read reviews and buy tickets. As host to the annual Golden Globes, Grammy Awards, and the Oscars, Los Angeles also entertains billions of film tourists each year who explore filming locations and theme parks with the help of local websites. In addition to working for Los Angeles video production companies, local Web Developers can find steady work through digital marketing agencies.
Fashion and Apparel
Long regarded as the “high-end denim capital of the world, ” Los Angeles County is the top location for clothes shopping in the US and a landslide leader in makeup and skincare products. With more and more customers opting to shop virtually every year, locally beloved fashion brands like Guess, Lucky Brand, and Forever 21 are investing in ecommerce sites and apps that give customers a high-quality shopping experience from the comfort of home. As time goes on, web development is also becoming a vital tool for fashion design education organizations such as the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and the Otis College of Art and Design.
Education
While web development might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of education, there are over 780 schools in Los Angeles that utilize websites and apps to report grades, help students learn, and provide school news. Although education isn’t a major industry in Los Angeles, it still supports over 460,000 students. In addition, the Los Angeles Unified School District employs thousands of teachers. Many LA-based Web Developers work directly with schools, while others connect with schools indirectly through local EdTech companies.
Web Development Careers in Los Angeles
Learning web development opens doors to plenty of career opportunities. Los Angeles is a large city with a plethora of different businesses, which means the job opportunities for Web Developers in the greater LA area are widespread. Los Angeles has grown especially popular for new startups in recent years, and notable companies that hire Developers, like Snapchat and Hulu, got their start in LA. The growing tech scene has brought in tons of new opportunities for people looking to break into this hot and growing field.
Web Developers are among the highest-paid tech professionals, and most businesses need websites, so there’s never been a better time to get started. With the cost of living soaring, roughly 17% of people in Los Angeles are coping with daily poverty, yet web development skills enable others to match or exceed the median local income of $70,000. While many earn much more, the average Web Developer in Los Angeles reaps an income ranging between $69,000 and $112,000 each year.
On top of luxury and lifelong security, web development also offers a diverse range of specialties, making it possible for every individual to shimmer. By and large, the field includes three major specialties often referred to as “stacks, ” based on which tools a developer uses and why. Among them are Front-End Developers, who build out the interactive portion of websites and apps in exchange for salaries of $101,000 to $168,000 per year in LA. In contrast, Back-End Developers focus their efforts on the hidden server-side of websites and apps for a hefty wage of $128,000 to $188,000. Developers with expertise in both areas are known as Full Stack Developers and earn between $113,000 and $178,000 for their skill set.
In addition to approaching web development through stacks, you can also choose a coding language as your area of emphasis. In Los Angeles, Python Developers bank around $98,000 to $123,000 per year, while JavaScript Developers earn just under that, at $73,000 to $121,000.
Similarly, you can focus your career on specific project types. If you’re not interested in building websites but love mobile apps, you can opt to become a Mobile Developer for a salary of $87,000 to $163,000. Building complex software, Software Engineers require the most comprehensive skill set and earn between $112,000 and $177,000 in Los Angeles.
How Hard is It to Learn Web Development?
If you’re nervous about learning web development, the good news is that it’s one of the easiest coding careers to pick up if you have no coding experience. If you already have some coding experience, you’ll have even less trouble learning web development since you’ll simply be building on your existing knowledge.
That said, you’re more likely to get frustrated and confused while learning web development if you opt to learn with no instructor support. Although it might seem easier to try to teach yourself web development from free materials at home, you may actually save time and energy by spending a bit of extra money on a class. This is more true of web development than it is of many other topics in coding simply because web development is often confused with web design on the internet, and while the two fields share many similarities, they are distinct industries. Getting your training from experts is one of the best strategies for ensuring that you not only learn all the right skills but also have opportunities to ask questions when you’re confused.
How Long Will It Take to Learn Web Development?
Every path to mastering web development takes a slightly different arc but is generally a quick study. How long it takes to master web development, however, depends largely on what mastering web development means for you. For instance, even as a total novice, you can start writing your first HTML code within a couple of hours and may be able to master the language in a few weeks. However, if your goal is to learn full-stack development, it may take you several months to learn additional skills and tools.
Additional factors that may influence how long it’ll take you to learn web development include:
- Whether or not you’re building on past tech experience or starting from scratch
- How much instructor support you have to help you over hurdles
- The pace of your class
- Prerequisites
- Financial constraints that limit how often you can take classes
- Family, work, and other obligations on your time
- Disabilities that slow your rate of learning
- Self-doubt and mental illness
Best Web Development Classes in Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, where web development is among the top-paid skills for professionals, there are many local opportunities to learn web development skills. With numerous schools providing web development training throughout the city, you can tailor your learning journey according to your unique interests, goals, and time limitations. Some classes are very basic and only last a few days, while others are immersive bootcamps that last for several weeks. For more comprehensive career training, look for local web development certificates, which are discussed later in this article.
Committing to a training course is a big investment and can leave you feeling too intimidated to decide which class is right. To take the stress out of making the right choice, Noble Desktop created a tool that makes it easy to compare local classes back-to-back.
In addition to this tool, Noble Desktop offers live online web development classes that range from comprehensive certificates and bootcamps to niche courses covering topics like JavaScript and jQuery or React. If you’re looking for a thorough introductory course, their beginner-friendly Intro to HTML & CSS course is a great place to start your web development journey. Through a series of hands-on learning activities, you’ll get comfortable formatting pages, adding links, inserting images, and using attributes to alter tags. In no time, Noble’s expert instructors will have you scripting your own webpages and emails. Noble Desktop also offers a live online Python Coding Bootcamp that covers Python frameworks useful for back-end web development.
An option for learning basic web development coding in-person is through Ledet Training, a school based in El Segundo, CA. Their short Open Source HTML & CSS 101 class provides training on topics like background images, webpage layout (including multi-column layouts), styles, forms, and using FTP to import files to servers. While this course is open to beginners, Ledet Training encourages students to come to class with an elementary understanding of web development lingo.
Spanish speakers who are looking to learn web development in their native tongue can stop by Los Angeles City College(LACC) for in-person web development training. Open to beginners, the Crea Tu Propia Pagina Web course takes learners through the process of building their own webpage—from initial sketches in Photoshop to a finished website.
Ready to build on your previous HTML and CSS experience to create better webpage layouts? Try Practical Programming’s live online Flexbox, Grid, & Bootstrap course for a quick rundown of the top CSS formatting tools. In addition to helping you create layouts more quickly, these tools will enable you to generate layouts that are responsive and optimized for all screen sizes.
For students who want to learn everything there is to know about JavaScript, General Assembly offers bootcamp training both online and in-person in Santa Monica. While participating in their JavaScript Development course, students develop a functioning web application that uses APIs to connect to social media platforms. This practical learning environment allows them to build object-oriented programming skills appropriate for both web development and data-related projects.
In Manhattan Beach, Beach Coders Academy has advanced courses for experienced Developers who want to add new skills to their repertoire. Developers in their in-person Advanced Web Development: CodeWave. JS course can take their skills to the next level by participating in project-oriented training. This part-time class includes advanced JavaScript skills such as Node.js, React, and MongoDB.
Want to learn Python without needing to compete with students who already know a lot about coding? ONLC Training Centers offers a hybrid Python course that’s designed just for entry-level coders. When you sign up for Python Programming Level 1: Intro for Non-Programmers, you’ll be able to connect with other students at your same level while learning basic Python skills. This class is taught by a remote instructor but allows students to use ONLC’s labs and equipment, making learning more accessible when you’re new to the tech industry.
Through UCLA Extension, local Californians can participate in an online JavaScript course that’s geared towards web development. In preparation for learning JavaScript, participants build background skills such as HTML and CSS and learn how to debug JavaScript apps via Firefox extensions. From there, it’s not hard to add JavaScript libraries like jQuery and Dojo to the menu.
Searching for a cost-effective way to learn web development? It’s not too expensive to create a website for Fun, Profit, & Business with Colorado Free University’s online class. While this course doesn’t delve deep into coding, it explores beginner-friendly drag-and-drop design tools, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics, and social media marketing tips.
Should I Learn Web Development In-person or Online?
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for every type of student. Because everyone has distinctive learning needs and life commitments, most people find that one type of class works better for helping them meet their goals. In-person and online classes are both led by industry experts but have numerous differences that are worth considering as you compare classes.
In-person learning is a great way for socially motivated students to learn new skills because these classes provide face-to-face feedback and reciprocity. With in-person access to a teacher, you can ask questions as they come and get immediate answers instead of waiting on an email or researching the answer. Not everyone has time to attend in-person courses, and for some, it can be stressful or even impossible to travel to class.
Virtual learning is an excellent alternative to in-person learning for anyone looking to prepare for a new career, change careers, or simply upskill. Keep in mind that online web development courses come in several different formats, and not every online class will work for every person. Prioritizing flexibility above all else, on-demand (or asynchronous) classes provide self-study resources so that you can learn on your own time without interacting with an instructor.
In contrast, live online takes a hands-on approach that more closely embodies an in-person learning experience, but sans commute. Through platforms like Zoom, these classes provide interactive instruction that includes real-time discussion and group activities. Live online learning is now one of the most popular and effective methods for learning web development but will require you to shell out time to attend scheduled classes to get the full benefit.
Can I Learn Web Development for Free Online?
In theory, you can learn any mainstream topic for free on the internet. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t encounter problems in the process (such as web development being conflated with web design). With that in mind, even though it might seem more economical to learn web development through free online resources, web development classes are often the more efficient route to mastery. In addition to ensuring you receive all the most up-to-date information, web development classes provide you with supportive instructors and a slew of other resources to help you succeed.
What to Learn in Addition to Web Development
On its own, web development is a powerful and versatile skill set to have in your back pocket, but adding one or two additional skills to the mix can broaden your skies even more. Since web development has so many marketable applications, it’s important to choose skills that will complement your current skill set, giving you more tools to accomplish your goals. For example, if you’re invested in creating web products that provide a positive experience for users, you’d likely benefit from learning web design.
Depending on your interests, you may also want to explore skills like the following:
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Web Design handles the visual design components of website creation, and considers features like color, layout, and other elements that make a website visually pleasing. Top skills for Web Design include WordPress, UX/UI design, visual design, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
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UX Design centers on giving website and app users a good experience by ensuring that digital products are user-friendly, accessible, and engaging. UX includes skills like user research, prototyping, information architecture, and Figma.
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UI Design aims to create highly functional and interactive digital products by laying out responsive elements such as buttons, links, tabs, menus, scroll bars, sliders, search fields, icons, and animations. This skill set incorporates user research, prototyping, visual design principles, and Figma.
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Graphic Design can enhance any website, app, or software by providing high-quality visuals that can’t be achieved through coding. The leading Graphic Design skills include Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and the ability to apply design principles appropriately.
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Digital Marketing not only steers traffic toward websites and apps but may in fact be the reason for building a website/app in the first place. Popular Digital Marketing skills include SEO/SEM, email marketing, content marketing, digital analytics, and social media marketing.
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SEO plays a vital role in ushering traffic toward websites. This skill set involves optimizing digital products to rank highly in search engines like Google. Common SEO strategies include link building, keyword research, and publishing valuable content.
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Blogging is one of the most popular forms of content creation for website owners, making it a valuable skill to learn alongside web development.
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Software Engineering is a more complex skill set that includes both full-stack development and additional skills such as SQL, mathematics, logic, software testing, database administration, cloud computing, debugging, Linux, Agile, Atom, and source control management (SCM).
Web Development Certificates and Certification
Web development certificates and certifications offer benefits that go beyond what short web development courses can provide, making them ideal for career-track trainees. Designed to prepare you for a career, certificate courses are more comprehensive in nature and often include perks such as job support, one-on-one career coaching, and portfolio workshops. Additionally, thanks to web development certifications, taking classes isn’t the only way to progress in your career. With a simple exam score, you can move up in the world of web design overnight.
What is the Difference Between Certificates and Certifications?
If you’re speed-reading, it can be easy to confuse certificates and certifications for the same thing, especially since they share “cert” as a Latin root. However, if you want to avoid expensive errors such as accidentally signing up for redundant training or sitting down for a test unprepared, it’s worth taking the time to learn the difference.
If you understand how class credits work in high school or college, you’re halfway to understanding certificates. Rather than being your ultimate goal in attending high school, credits are simply a byproduct of your studies. Just like credits, web development certificates serve as markers of class completion rather than indicators of performance. Instead of thinking of certificates as a GPA to list on your resume, think of them as an opportunity to gain practical skills and experience. Ultimately, certificates don’t have as much bearing on job placement as the ability to demonstrate your skills.
Certifications differ from certificates in several respects, beginning with the fact that only industry-approved organizations can provide them, meaning that they can’t usually be obtained by simply participating in a training course. Rather, you’ll need to substantiate your web development skills by passing a proctored exam. You can treat your passing score like an SAT or GRE score, offering it to employers as qualitative proof of your aptitude. However, bear in mind that since training isn’t included with most certification exams, you may need to invest in a certificate training course first.
Examples of organizations that offer web development certifications include Amazon Web Services, CIW Certified, the International Web Association, Learn Microsoft, and WordPress.
Why Become Certified in Web Development?
With so many personal, social, and business activities now taking place on apps and websites, web development is a vital cog in the engine of today’s economy. Consequently, learning web development can be a profitable investment for anyone still on the market for a career, and can also make a fulfilling passion project with many applications.
Although simply learning web development can get you started down any of these routes, passing a certification exam can take you all the way. Web development certification is a fast-track ticket to the top jobs in the industry and can earn you a promotion at your present job. According to market research, certified Web Developers earn higher salaries than those with no certification. In addition to being highly regarded by hiring managers, certifications concisely sum up your skill level, allowing more space on your resume to elaborate on your experience.
Web Development Certificates in Los Angeles
If you’re committed to learning web development in preparation for a career, many web development classes will fall short when it comes to helping you develop skills, gain experience, and craft a strong portfolio. On the other hand, web development certification bootcamps are explicitly designed to ensure you’re equipped with everything you need to succeed in a Web Development career. Although these programs can last from a few weeks to several months—much shorter than your average college degree program—they provide the resources to enter a new career in an entry-level or higher position. Los Angeles has many intensive bootcamps, both in-person and live online that you can register for.
As one of the top tech schools in the world, Noble Desktop offers many Web Development certificates with time-tested curricula. Their live online Full Stack Web Development Certificate course is great for anyone looking to get started on a successful career. To prepare you for a full array of professional roles (including Full Stack Developer, Front-End Developer, and Back-End Developer), this course helps you gain skills in CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and Ruby on Rails, along with other essentials for front-end and back-end development. In addition to developing skills and experience in practice-oriented assignments, you’ll have chances to glean insights from experts during one-on-one mentorship sessions.
Noble Desktop’s most intensive web development training option is the Software Engineering Certificate class, which covers topics in the Full Stack Certificate course and more. After starting with the basics, HTML and CSS, you’ll move through Flexbox, Grid, and Bootstrap, before extending to JavaScript, SQL, Python, and Django. The course includes multiple web development projects, allowing you to cement your knowledge through hands-on practice.
If you’re only interested in building the visible side of websites, however, enrolling in a front-end web development certificate is a faster way to gain these skills. In Santa Monica (or online), you can learn a combination of front-end web development skills by participating in General Assembly’s course, Front-End Web Development: Let's Break It Down. This beginner-friendly class offers a helpful rundown of web development lingo to help beginners get oriented in the field before diving into HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Want to niche down even further? Focus on building JavaScript skills in ACTE’s live online JavaScript Training. In addition to teaching JavaScript coding, this expert-led course gets students ready to learn JavaScript by helping them build a necessary foundation in HTML and CSS. On top of professional-level tech skills, students also receive plenty of career guidance, including interview tips for better job placement.
As an additional option, Sabio also offers JavaScript-focused training for students preparing for full-stack app development careers. In their virtual Node.js Program, students work with a variety of web development tools as they master client-side programming and learn how to build data-powered applications. In addition to learning JavaScript and all the library shortcuts (like React and MongoDB), students learn how to use APIs to improve website functionality.
Know a high school student who is curious about web development? NextGen Bootcamp offers summer web development classes that enable younger learners to receive professional-level training for careers after high school. In addition to several Python coding classes, NextGen offers a live online UX & UI Design Summer Program exploring related skills like user-centered mobile and web application design.
For a course that focuses exclusively on web applications, check out the Full-Time ||CPN827|| Program from Fullstack Academy. This virtual course offers collaborative training in full-stack development technologies including APIs, vs. Code, Git, GitHub, HTML, CSS, SQL, JavaScript, and a variety of libraries. Students in the course learn Test-Driven Development (TDD) that hinges on prototyping and teamwork. While building a portfolio of web apps and participating in career coaching, students in this course also increase their odds of getting a job upon graduation.
Students who want to learn team-based software development at their own pace can sign up for Hack Reactor’s Intermediate Coding Bootcamp, an on-demand course that provides self-study materials designed to teach full-stack JavaScript, computer science, and software architecture. On their schedules, students in this course team up with classmates to build and test scalable applications, websites, APIs, and microservices using tools like HTML, CSS, JavaScript (including libraries), AI-powered GitHub Copilot, and databases. The course also includes a finale dedicated to networking, job coaching, and resume polishing.
Those who wish to leap into a new career with little to no experience may need something more pivot-focused. Sabio, with classes in LA and Orange County, specializes in intensive bootcamps that help students jump into new careers. Their Coding Bootcamp teaches full-stack development through projects designed to get students ready for a job. In addition to classic front-end and back-end development tools like JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, WebApi 2x, SQL, Caching, and ASP.Net, students in this course master database development and source control. The class also delves briefly into additional computer science topics including Big O, data structures, and algorithm classification.
Corporate Web Development Training in Los Angeles
Websites and apps are essential parts of modern business but aren’t simply something you can set and forget. Because these investments require constant upkeep to remain relevant, training employees in Web Development could be hugely beneficial for your company. Noble Desktop specializes in supplying high-quality Web Development corporate training, delivering courses live online or in-person. Their team of professionals can schedule classes at your place of business or teach courses live online using a teleconferencing platform such as Zoom. Additionally, Noble can customize content options to meet your business’s needs.
If you’re interested in taking the next step to improve your business by growing your employees with high-leverage skills, contact Noble Desktop to speak with a consultant.