We cannot do without websites, and every website has a number of web developers working behind it. Get some great tips to make it big in this lucrative career.
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Summer is the perfect time for students to explore and learn new technologies. With smartphones in almost every urban hand, it is safe to say that websites are our new library. From e-commerce, social media, education, entertainment to promotional and information-based, we come across so many websites every day.
But do you know who writes each and every page of the websites? Yes, the web developers. A website is essentially built by web developers who write the source code to build a website. Visit your favorite website and press Ctrl+U (for Windows) or Cmd+U (for Mac) to see what’s called the source code of a website.
What is web development?
Web development is all about building, creating, and maintaining websites for hosting via intranet or the internet. It includes aspects such as web design, web publishing, web programming, and database management.
Job role of web developers
Work of front-end web developers: When you land on a website, what you see on the website is the work of a front-end developer. Developing the user side of the website is their main concern. They make sure that the website looks good and makes sense to the user. They use HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and often jQuery to turn a static website design into a workable website on the web.
Work of back-end web developers: Connecting the server to database and server to the website is the work of back-end developers. Back-end developers are less concerned with design and more focused on security and server performance. They make sure all the moving pieces are working together smoothly behind the scenes. For this, they use PHP, Ruby, Python, and other server-side languages.
8 tips to start your journey as a web developer:
1. Build your own website: The best way to learn is to come up with ideas and build a website around it. For example, if you are a foodie, make a website for food reviews!
2. Do an internship: You will get a chance to work on building websites that would be used by thousands of people, not to forget the contacts and practical lessons you would gain!
3. Practice: The best way to master web development is to practice. You can use sites like CodeChef, Hacker Noon, HackerEarth to participate in various coding contests and sharpen your programming skills.
4. Participate in a hackathon: There are many reasons why hackathons are a must for a programmer. Hackathons are a great place to try your hands on new projects and compete with other web developers.
5. Do freelance projects: Once you gain some confidence on your skills, take up some interesting projects. Freelancer, Upwork and Project4hire offer some amazing projects that you can work on.
6. Contribute to an open source project: Open source refers to a computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and modification. Open-source code is meant for programmers to improve upon the source code and share the changes within the community. You can try some of these open source projects.
7. Put your code on GitHub: GitHub is an essential platform for every web developer which allows them to save code online and lets others see what changes you have made. You can also discuss the issues with your code with other developers.
8. Stay updated: Keep yourself updated about the new features, trends, and methods by following blogs like Tutorialzine, DeveloperDrive, and Tuts+.
Training material and resources for budding web developers
Google’s developer training is one of the most useful courses available for students. Apart from that, there are online training platforms for learning web development from the scratch where you can learn HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, PHP, and MySQL.
As a beginner, you would find yourself stuck with a problem, use Stack Overflow and seek help from other programmers out there during that time. You can also find great snippets on Codepad if you’re looking for HTML/CSS solutions to common problems.
Future scope of web development as a career
With cheaper smartphones and affordable internet, Indians are moving online. Business are becoming a part of ‘Digital India’. At the same time, with India evolving into a startup hub, web development has become one of the most sought-after skills. Web development is a huge industry with ever-growing career opportunities. So start learning coding this summer.
— Authored by Sarvesh Agrawal, Founder and CEO of Internshala
[Source”pcworld”]
