Website still remains at the forefront of the digital brand roadmap of most companies. If you think that the emergence of native apps has taken the luster out of top web development companies in India as a career path, you are absolutely wrong. In fact, every time the web is challenged by a new technology it has transformed itself into something entirely new and innovative.
The accelerated mobile pages (AMP) and progressive web apps (PWA) represent the latest two web technologies that made the web competitive to native apps. The cloud-based web app suites still empower most enterprise operations. The `cloud-based web apps in fact blurred the distinction between the web and mobile apps.
Cross-platform technologies like Flutter and React can be used to build apps that run on all mobile and desktop platforms as well as the web. A business can hire Reactjs developer to build a web app that runs on all mobile and desktop platforms.
All the latest customer-focused technologies have their first exposure on the web before making inroads to other interfaces. Naturally, web development as a skill is likely to thrive with career and growth opportunities for years to come.
How to make a great career in web development? Here we are going to explain that. But before this, let us explain the roles of web developers followed by the key reasons to choose a web developer career and lastly the steps to become a successful web developer.
What does a Web Developer do?
Being A web developer is the professional responsible for designing and developing a website. Depending upon the particular areas of expertise in a web development project, they can be categorized into full-stack web developers, front-end developers, and back-end developers.
The full-stack developers are capable of building both the Backend and frontend of the website and they can take the responsibility of building a website from start to finish. The front-end developers are basically responsible for building the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). The backend developers basically develop the server-side functions of a website.
The web developers apart from their core responsibility of programming the frontend and backend decide on the technology stack, third-party tools, and information architecture. They look after every technical aspect of the website project and make sure that the website smoothly runs on browsers without any performance glitches.
Why Should You Choose Web Development as a career?
Web developers face high demand because most businesses now focus on digital presence and online footprint. Websites became the de-facto channel for businesses and their audience to communicate. Naturally, web development offers an array of lucrative career choices. Some of the key reasons to choose a web development career include the following.
- Staying at the technology forefront: As a web developer, you can always stay tuned to the latest technologies and trends that are going to have a bigger impact.
- Awesome flexibility: A web developer enjoys awesome flexibility in respect of job conditions and responsibilities.
- Creative scope: Every website tends to be unique and different from others. This pursuit for a standalone and unique user experience opens up great creative scope for web developers.
- PWA and AMP for new opportunities: Progressive Web Apps (PWA), Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), and cross-platform cloud-based apps, together they represent the latest range of web technologies that are kin to mobile app development. These are new frontiers with fresh new career specialties.
- Standard web technologies are everywhere: The three principal web technologies such as Java, CSS, and HTML are already widely popular and are used pretty much across all digital platforms. So, as a web developer, you already inherit some of the most demanded skills of the tech world.
Programming Certifications Web Developers Need to Opt for
Based on the career goal and skills to command as a web developer, you need to be proficient in the most popular programming languages and frameworks such as JavaScript, HTML, Ruby on Rails, Python, PHP, AngularJS, ReactJS, VueJS, NodeJS, and a few others.
Web developers for good career opportunities should opt for the most popular certifications such as the ones mentioned below.
- Adobe Certified Expert (ACE): Adobe Certified Expert is a certification from Adobe to specialize in multiple Adobe suites, widely used by web developers in their projects.
- Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer: Microsoft offers a wide range of certification programs for web developers and web administrators. This certification program focuses on key programming skills such as HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3, ASP.NET MVC web app, and Microsoft Azure cloud platforms and Web Services.
- Zend PHP Certification: This widely acclaimed certification is great for aspiring PHP developers and trains the candidates on PHP basics, web features, web security, object-oriented programming, and many other aspects.
- W3Schools Certification: W3Schools offers a whole array of certifications in web development across a variety of skills such as HTML, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP.
- CIW JavaScript Specialist: This JavaScript Specialist program can help you get rigorous training on JavaScript language essentials, JavaScript coding, and JavaScript website deployment.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) Certified Developer: The AWS Certified Developer program offers in-depth training on developing and handling cloud-based web apps. It requires one year of prior experience with the AWS platform and basic skills with at least one language.
- Certified Ruby Programmer: This certification program from the Ruby Association develops your design and development skills for Ruby-based systems.
- Professional Scrum Developer: Offered as a certification program by Scrum.org, it trains aspiring web professionals who develop software programs by using the Scrum method.
How to become a successful web developer in India?
If you are not an IT student with any degree or academic qualification in web development, you are very likely to find this blog post helpful. Here we are going to explain the ways you can become a successful web developer in India.
Choose a Development Specialisation
Web development is a vast and multifaceted field of expertise and every different element of a website represents a certain skill or specialization. This is why for becoming an expert developer in the field of web development, you need to choose a specialization or expertise.
You can be an expert PHP developer or you can choose to be an expert in HTML or JavaScript. You can also have your command on JavaScript frontend development frameworks such as AngularJS or ReactJS which are very popular for web development projects.
You can opt for specialized expertise in website backend development with frameworks like NodeJS and ExpressJS. You can also choose to be a full-stack web developer with proficiency in both frontend and backend development.
Learn the basic skills
For web development, one needs to learn the core languages that rule the web such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Apart from that, it is also recommended to have a good command of responsible and mobile-optimized design, Git commands, GitHub, various operating systems, relational databases, operating systems, and some popular UI frameworks. With these skills, you can turn out to be a beginner-level front-end web developer.
Enroll in an online course
You can enroll in an online course easily for learning the basics to intermediate level skills for building websites. Over the internet, you have an array of free courses to learn the intricacies of web development at your own pace.
Create websites with drag and drop tools
Once you have a fair command of the key languages and skills for web development, it is advisable to try your development skills first by using a drag and drop development tool. Use various templating engines and practice customizing things by tweaking a portion of the source code. Practice and access community resources for further guidance. This is the best way to get hands-on training for web development.
You also need to make a Github account so that you can post your code there and get feedback and opinions. As you develop your skills the same platforms like GitHub will also help you be discovered by employers simply because of the code and projects you showcased there.
Participate in various open source and community projects
Instead of waiting impatiently for the right career opportunity or job to get on your way, continue taking part in community-based web projects or hackathons or coding events and meetups. Such endeavors will also help you know about the new skills that you need to acquire and update.
Launch an Online Portfolio
As a web developer, you need to present your skills and capabilities to your employers and this requires creating a portfolio of some successful web projects and applications that you have developed or have been part of the development team. Initially, you can create your portfolio with the demo projects covered under a certification program.
Conclusion
Web development continues to be the most opportunity-laden field for IT, career aspirants, with no technical background. You have an unparalleled scope of trying creative things and experimenting with tools and approaches to sharpen your skills and acumen.