How to be a Web Developer in 2k19 Part 1: Laying the Groundwork

So you wanna be a web developer? Maybe you’re a complete beginner who’s utterly confused on how to go about this whole web development thing or you’re someone who has been considering switching careers to web development for some time now and has finally got the balls to do so; then read on because this article is just for you, taking you on your developer journey, from being a complete beginner to an intermediate or junior level developer.

PS: This is the first of a two-part series about being a web developer in 2019. If you don’t care about the basics of it all and just want to jump into the nitty-gritty; what you should be learning already, then by all means skip this article and move over here. But you can broaden your horizon by spending a few minutes to lay off the groundwork and get yourself in the right state of mind.

Now you’re with me! So who am I by the way? Before I go on, I just want to talk briefly about myself (don’t worry I’m not gonna bore you with my life story). I’m Deekor Baribefe aka Befecertified, a web developer who has been in the field for not so long now but long enough to know my left from my right (if you know what I mean). I’m majorly a Front-end developer (If you don’t know what this means, it just means a web developer whose focus is on the look and feel of webpages and not really how things work behind the scenes) and I love JavaScript soooo much (who doesn’t love Js?). OK OK, that’s enough about me, wanna know more? Head over to bit.ly/Befecertified.

Before we get started on what your road map should look like, it’s good to have a foreknowledge about who a web developer is or what web development is all about and probably what it’s not. What then is this web development? Well, now you ask; it’s simply creating digital products and services on the web and for the web (Oh! I’m a newbie and that’s totally confusing). OK, what I simply mean is, web development is all about creating stuffs on the web, mostly websites or web apps as the case may be but there’s more to it than just that. You can create really sophisticated systems, services and programs on the web as a web developer, you can create games running on the web using some web technologies. Well, until you kickstart your career you won’t be able to get the full picture but as you continue on your path to being a world class dev (just short for developer) you will soon understand and get much more insight and your minds shall be open to so much possibilities. Web development is not hacking, there’s the security part to it though, but it’s entirely different from hacking, if you plan on being able to break security systems and protocols, this isn’t the career path you’re aiming at, of course like I said earlier, you can be a security expert as a web developer. It’s not just all about programming, there’s the programming part to it but it’s more than just that. It’s about solving problems with your programming knowledge and putting stuff out there that help solve a certain problem. You’re not just writing simple programs that run on your console and do nothing, but you’re developing stuffs, that’s where you’re different from the regular programmer; that’s why there’s a “development” attached to it. Now let’s move on to something more interesting.

What is the point of this whole thing? Why should I even be a web developer? I hear it’s difficult, is it even worth it? Am I guaranteed to land a developer job? What are my chances? Would I be ever good enough? Now these are some of the questions you might have been asking yourself or might have been asked by a friend or family or colleague or the like. I’ll take my time to answer these questions.

So what is the point of this whole thing and why should I venture into this career path in the first place? This, my friend is a very good and logical question as you shouldn’t be doing something that doesn’t give a return for investment or where the investments far outnumber the returns; the return for your time, money, strength and patience should be far greater than the time, money and energy you put in for it to be considered even time-worthy. Here I’ll give reasons why web development is worth your time, money, energy and all manner of resources. Before diving into any career path, one of the greatest consideration is, how would this career fare in the next 10, 20 years? Is there a future for this career or is it quickly dying out? You don’t want to start off a career that will become obsolete in the next 10 to 15 years, you do not want to start a career where jobs are unavailable, where you have to put in so many years before you can begin to make money and impact, and that’s where web development shines. It’s a career path that’s not dying any time soon but would rather evolve into greater things, as we all know we are in the digital age, everything is about computers, this is a highly technological age; businesses and everything need a space on the internet, everything is inter-connected and anyone or anything not out there is really losing out. It has never been easier to reach out to the world than now in this digital and information age, and as a web developer it’s your duty to put these products and services out there (that was why I said earlier that web development is all about creating digital products and services on the web and for the web, now you get a clearer picture). With these said you can see why web development as a field has come to stay and evolve, the world is faced with lots of global and national problems and as a web developer you’re a problem solver and can help solve some of these problems in a more modern and digital way and of course get paid for it, you help business solutions digitize, you also get to work for companies that are creating digital solutions to the world problems and of course can create such companies yourself (that’s another awesome aspect to web development, you can easily start up something great on your own with very little resources, all you need is a brain, lol). Asides these obvious reasons, in learning to be a web developer, you learn programming and some other branches of computer science which can help you kickstart a career in some more futuristic tech fields like Artificial Intelligence (AI) a.k.a Machine Learning (ML), Data Science, Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR and AR) and in hot industries like Game development, so you see the opportunities are endless. Any knowledge gained in web development can be carried into other tech related fields and you won’t feel like a total beginner (I hate that feeling).

Am I guaranteed to land a developer job? What are my chances of doing so? Would I ever be considered good enough and qualified for the job market? These are interesting and necessary questions before you even begin anything about any career. The good news being that you are guaranteed to land your developer job as long as you persist and stay consistent; as long as you learn the required and improve your skill set. As for the jobs there are just so many out there, there’s a study that says that in few years to come web development jobs would far outnumber the web developers; simply put, there would be a real shortage of developers, web devs would be in high demand. This wouldn’t be because people would lose interest in the career and there would be less people in the field but rather it is due to the fact that the number of jobs that would be available for web developers would far outnumber the available web developers thereby leading to a shortage. There would be so much jobs and so less developers competent enough to take on the jobs, that is why you should aim to kickstart your career as soon as possible (ASAP) and become good as quick as possible, as for the jobs there are just so many out there for you, guaranteed! Talking about being good enough and qualified; how do you know when you’re good enough? Well, simple! Learn the required technologies for the web development path you have chosen and be good to an extent, you don’t need to be a guru. Learn to think and act like a developer, learn to solve problems. Come to the knowledge that you do not have to know everything before you are job market ready, you just have to know some stuffs, how to read documentations (docs) and how to search out solutions. Learn to solve problems on your own without always running to others for help, learn to search out solutions to the problems you face. Practice Practice Practice! Don’t just learn concepts and theories alone, do what you have learnt, replicate what you have been taught and gain as much hands-on experience as you can. When you come to this point, then you can tell yourself that you are job market ready, also learn to solve algorithms (if you don’t know what this means, do a quick search, that’s what you’d be doing from now on. Getting stuffs yourself) as these would be required in your technical assessments. Then begin applying for the jobs, keep applying, don’t get scared, you have nothing to lose, if you get called and pass the technical assessment then you’re hired but if you don’t, then how do you get called and hired? Remember, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!

Now, that being said, here are some final thoughts. Web development is a really awesome career path; in fact, I’d argue that it’s one of the best out there, it’s a really rewarding field as well as a challenging one. As a newbie in this path, you’ll find it to be really challenging, at the initial stages it might seem so difficult, confusing and overwhelming all at once but never to worry this is only natural, it’s just your brain telling you it’s not used to this, it’s a sign of a change occurring, a change for the better; stick to it for a little longer and it will begin to feel all the more natural. There are times when you would hit a plateau and feel like totally quitting but don’t quit, keep going, then all of a sudden you would see you’ve made remarkable progress. If you can persist for the first few months, in less than no time you’d be smiling more often and would see how rewarding it could get; as you continue to make progress, your passion would increase and so would the cash. Soon you’d be living the dream, living your most comfortable life ever. All you gotta do, just keep being dedicated, don’t give up for no reason. Another thing worthy of mention is the fact that as a web developer you never stop learning; if you think you’d learn for a few months and then that would be all, you’re wrong and it would be in your best interest to banish such thoughts. The web development field is an ever growing and expanding one, new languages, frameworks and libraries, programming paradigms and the like are being released every day. So get ready to learn, learn and even unlearn as the case might be, of course it’s really awesome to do this while you earn, that is why you should aim to get job market ready as quick as possible.

Now where do I go from here? How do I get started? Check out the part two of this series!