6 First Steps to Break Into Web Development - Learn with SkillUp

Web Development is one of the most sought careers in IT. There are a few reasons for the popularity:  

• the ever-increasing number of people using the internet
• almost every business or organization today has a website
• users form an opinion about a website within the first 0.05 seconds of visiting it
• 47% of users expect a website to load within 2 seconds
• in 2020 there are around 537 million active websites and only 23 million web developers

So let’s answer the question “How to Become a Web Developer?” once and for all.

1. Start with Web Development Basics

Web development is the process of building internet-based websites and applications. 

There are three layers of Web Development:

• Frontend - Client-side coding 
• Backend - Server-side coding 
• Storage - Database technology 

2. Formulate Web Development Portrait for yourself

We prepared for you the Frequently Asked Questions to deeply understand the tasks and knowledge of web developers.

Who is a Web Developer?

A web developer is one who:

• Builds websites and other web applications.
• Takes a web design layout and turns it into a website.
• Collaborates with clients, stakeholders, and designers to understand the vision.
• Specializes in either frontend or backend, or even full-stack.

What are the different types of Web Developers?

There are mainly three types of web developers:

• Frontend developers who build and maintain the client-side of a web application.
• Backend developers who work behind the scenes and manage the services of a web application.
• FullStack developers manage the project workflow and work on the required features of a web application.

Why do you want to be a web developer?

Reasons to become a web developer:

• money, money, money;
• a remote lifestyle;
• to be a creator;
• to train your brain;
• to be a computer geek.

How much do you expect to get paid?

If you are not sure about previous reasons, we prepared Web Developer Salary Trends for you.

According to Payscale, the highest software engineer salary in Europe is paid in Switzerland - $88,773, Norway - $60,934, and Denmark - $66,878 per year.

The average software developer salary in the UK is $40K and is the lowest among other countries. 

Source: DAXX

A person working as a Web Developer in Luxembourg typically earns around 4,310 EUR per month. Salaries range from 1,980 EUR (lowest) to 6,860 EUR (highest).

A Web Developer with less than two years of experience makes approximately 2,250 EUR per month.

Source: salaryexplorer.com 

What technologies should a web developer know?

We thought we’d put together a list of essential technologies that every web developer should know and use:

• HTML/CSS/JS;

• Other Programming Languages;
• Frameworks;
• GIT;
• SEO;
• Browser DevTools;
• API;
• DevOps and Deployment;
• and so on.

More information about technologies you can find in the next block. 

3. Learn Web Development Software 

Web developers have a wide range of skills to learn, but it all depends on their roles. Let’s dive into some of the essential skills of a web developer.

All of them should understand the interfaces of these design tools:

• Sketch
• Figma
• PhotoShop

Without them, web developers can’t create the same picture that is in a web design prototype.

Here are some of the skills that a frontend developer must have:

• HTML - A markup language for building web page layouts
• CSS - Stylesheet for styling HTML elements in a website
• JavaScript - Scripting language for more interactive and responsive web applications

Frontend Frameworks:

• ReactJS is a JavaScript framework used for frontend development
• Angular is a frontend development framework based on TypeScript
• And Bonus: webpack is an open-source JavaScript module bundler. 

The skills that a backend developer should have (at list one of programming language):

• PHP -  Backend language that helps to support all the work that happens on the back in a web application
• Python is a prevalent language that is used to handle server-side tasks in web development.
• Java is one of the most used languages for software development (Java & JavaScript are not the same.
• Database languages like MySQL and MongoDB are used for storing data for web applications
• NodeJS is a JavaScript framework used for backend development

Full Stack developers are all-in-one specialists and have the skillset that covers both frontend and backend development. Therefore, they are purple squirrels in the IT world.

4. More Practice Rather Than Read Theory

One of the most common mistakes web development newbies make is by focusing too much on theory, forgetting to practice coding. The important part of upgrading your career as a web developer involves creating dynamic websites that need more skills than just reading a book or article. 

We would like to suggest the first free lesson in SkillUp School. You will have a chance to lay out your first page. Furthermore,  you will understand whether you like this profession before our Web Development Course starts.

5. Become a part of the Web Development community

There are a few reasons why community is so important for developers:

• community inspires you
• you will find new knowledge
• you will be aware of different trends
• you will understand the pain in the work of web developers

With SkillUp School in Luxembourg, we can create a strong web development community. Don’t be shy and join us.

6. Take Your Skillset to the Next Level 

The final step you should take to become a professional web developer is to enroll in our Web Basics course that will help you take your frontend skills to a new level. This course includes both technical and non-technical information, the latest features, and more. You will learn how to: create websites from scratch, design animations, take your websites straight up into the search results.

Our ultimate goal is to teach you exactly how to think as a developer, so you’ll easily be able to create the best solutions for your projects.

At the end of the course, you will be awarded a certificate that increases your chances of getting a top job.

In this article, we explained how you can and should work and enjoy web development to the fullest! Stay up to date with the technologies and trends in the IT industry and become a great web developer.