Surely, you also thought about why not “roll into IT”. But when changing a profession, you always need to consider some nuances and know what to prepare for. We will talk about this in our article.
First, let’s define terms. A web developer creates and maintains websites. Web development is conventionally divided into two parts: front-end and back-end.
Frontend is the appearance of sites, their behavior when a user interacts with them. The frontend is created by the best PHP developers at Peiko and JavaScript programmers.
The backend refers to the part of the site that does not take place in the browser. This is interaction with the server, processing and storing information in databases. The backend is handled by backend programmers.
Of course, there are specialists who know how to work with both the frontend and the backend. They are called full stacks.
Benefits of being a web developer:
1. If you decide to become a developer, then, definitely, you yourself are aware of the pros and cons of this profession. Many are attracted by high salaries in the IT field. But you still have to become a highly paid specialist, and a junior’s salary is not that big.
2. Web development is a promising profession. The recent quarantine has clearly shown that the Internet sphere will develop even more rapidly in the near future. And the demand for competent web developers will grow.
What to study to become a sought-after specialist?
To create a website, you need to learn layout: HTML and CSS, and then JavaScript. It’s better to start with pure JS and then move on to libraries and frameworks. It is worth learning React or Vue, these are the most requested front-end libraries.
There are more popular technologies in the backend than in the frontend, and there is a choice in which language to write. Most often, backenders work with PHP, Python, Ruby, and NodeJS. These languages have their own frameworks – for example, for PHP these are Symfony, Laravel, and Yii, for Python – Django.
It is better to learn technologies in practice: write code, do custom mobile app programming, debug. To achieve this, you need to create a working environment – an environment in which it will be comfortable to develop sites.
Foremost, these are code editors or IDE (development environment), and developer tools in the browser, in which you can view and debug the site code on the fly.
You definitely need to master Git – a distributed version control system. It sounds complicated, but in fact, it is a great assistant to a web developer. With it, you can write different versions of the code, and then merge them into a single whole; it allows you to rollback to a previous version if something goes wrong. And, what is especially valuable, it works not only for one developer, but also for the whole team. With Git, you have little to no fear of breaking your code.
The frontender needs to know how to work with the layout in graphic editors. Adobe Photoshop is still popular, but it is gradually being replaced by Figma and Zepplin. MacOS users have their own editor, Sketch.
To debug the interaction of the site with the server, you will have to install a local server and create a database. Don’t be alarmed, the web is full of tutorials on what it is and how to set it up.
Mastering the technology is just the beginning. Then it’s up to the tools and technologies that will help speed up the work. Preprocessors, project automation and assembly system, BEM methodology, virtual machine.
But that’s not all. A web developer is nothing without knowledge of libraries and frameworks. A library or framework is an add-on over a programming language that allows you to speed up the development process because it contains ready-made project structures and ready-made solutions for routine tasks. Sounds great. It takes a lot of effort and time to master these tools.
And finally, English. You will have to google a lot, read the documentation, and look for solutions on your own. Without tolerable knowledge of English, it will be difficult. A huge part of the documentation is written in English, as well as the stackoverflow.com site – is the developer’s lifesaver in cases where he cannot find a solution himself.
