Introduction
These days there are so many career choices to take in the programmer world. But one of the most successful and important ones is Web Development. There are so many companies out there that are on the constant look for web developers and designers. And the good thing is that these companies and businesses are increasing every day. That means that there are so many job opportunities out there, and there will be even more. What most of these companies are on the lookout for is web developers and designers that are passionate and eager to learning new stuff and expanding their knowledge about the field in which they work. To keep it simple: becoming a web developer is one of the best career choices a person can make. Let's also not forget that it is a well-paid job. A web developer with 3 to 4 years of experience gets paid over 100,000$ annually.
If you don't know what a web developer does, don't worry. We will explain the 3 main types of web development: Frontend, Backend, and Fullstack. Hopefully, this post will help you choose which one interests and suits you the most. Let's get to the first type of web development:
Frontend Development
If you are wondering what frontend development is, it's pretty simple. These developers help make the different websites you visit everyday look the way they do. They create all these awesome designs for all those countless websites on the internet. Frontend developers are also called Web Designers. The main languages that they use are:
HTML
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. Technically, it isn't a programming language, but you wouldn't be able to create a single web page without it. With HTML, you can give your website information. For example, you can add an 'a href` tag and make it so that they get sent to your Twitter account if someone presses a certain button or text. You can add all the information you want with HTML. You can think of it as the skeleton of your website. This skeleton is the structural layer of the website.
CSS
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Just like HTML, CSS isn't a programming language, but without it, you wouldn't be able to make your website pleasing for your eyes. CSS is used to specify your website's style. It changes its colors, its page layouts, its text fonts. With CSS, you can give your website a makeover. So if the HTML is the skeleton of the body, then think of CSS as the skin of the body. This definitely sounds weird, but just think of it as the way the body actually looks, with brand new clothes and a brand new haircut. This is the presentation layer of the website.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language. FINALLY! We are getting down to some action. This doesn't mean that HTML and CSS aren't meant to be taken seriously. This just means that you are getting to the next level if you don't already know about all this stuff. HTML and CSS are the structure and style of web pages, whereas JavaScript gives the website interactive elements. Now imagine JavaScript as the muscles and brains of the body. You need something to make the body that you have created move. So think of JavaScript as the muscles and brains of our body that we have created. It can also be used as s Backend language, thanks to technologies like Node JS.
jQuery
jQuery is a JavaScript library. What this means is that with jQuery, you can write a few lines of code, which are equivalent to a ton more. It makes common tasks that need many JavaScript code lines to achieve and wraps them into predefined methods, which you can call with a single line of code. So jQuery makes your life much easier for some things.
Even though a lot of people would argue and say that it is not worth it to learn jQuery in 2020/2021, I believe that it is still a good idea to at least have some basic knowledge and understanding of jQuery as it used to be very widely used by many projects and companies.
Frontend Developer Path
There are still many more languages that you can learn and use for Frontend Development, but these are a few of the most basic ones.
Here is a great representation of the skills that you will need to learn in order to become a Frontend web developer:
Next, let's get into our second type of web-developers.
Backend Development
Backend development mainly focuses on how the website works and the logic behind each action. Backend web-development usually consists of three main parts: a server, an application, and a database. Backend developers do the stuff that no one sees. They write code that connects the database information to the end-user. Here is a list of some of the languages that Backend Developers use:
PHP
PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. Some people say that it is a 'dying' language. It most definitely isn't. It is a very powerful language that can be embedded with HTML. The main areas in which developers use PHP is server-side scripting and command-line scripting. So overall, PHP is a pretty easy language to learn if you are already familiar with HTML.
Once you know PHP well enough, it is a good idea to learn a PHP framework like Laravel for example!
Phyton
Phyton is one of the most popular languages at the moment. Phyton is the language you will hear most about because of how much it's trending right now. It is a scripting language that is designed to be highly readable. It is an overall easy language to learn because it uses English words quite frequently, whereas other languages use punctuation a lot more. So it will be easier to read the script you've written and edited. There are lots of companies that are on the constant search for Phyton developers, so this language will be of advantage to you.
C#
C# is pronounced C Sharp. This language has been around for 20 years. It is a general-purpose language designed for developing apps on the Microsoft platform. It is also used to create games with it using the Unity game engine. So if you are a Microsoft fan, it will be beneficial to add this language to your resume.
SQL
SQL stands for Structured Query Language, and you need SQL in order to communicate with a database.
To add, process, or access data stored in a computer database, you will need to learn how to use a database management system like MySQL. It can store anything from a daily planner to vast amounts of information in a corporate network. MySQL is one of the newer database managing systems, and it is used mainly because of how fast it is compared to some other systems. And it is open-source, which means that it's free to use and modify.
Backend Developer Path
There are still many more languages that you can learn and use for Backend Development, but these are a few of the most basic ones.
Here is a great representation of the skills that you will need to learn in order to become a Backend web developer:
Next, let's get into our second type of web-developers.
And now let's talk about the last type of web-development.
Full-Stack Development
A Full-Stack Developer is a developer that works with both Frontend and Backend Development. This means that they can make their own website, write the information they want in HTML, then add style to the website with CSS, and make it functional with JavaScript. And after doing this, they can upload it on a server and set everything up so that the website can be ready to be used by the users. So overall, Full-Stack Development is the most complex one of the ones we listed out. This doesn't mean that the other types of development are not as challenging as this one, but these developers require a lot more skill to do all of these things.
Conclusion
Becoming a web-developer doesn't mean that you have to force yourself to learn all these languages. It means becoming someone who enjoys creating or contributing to the fantastic projects around the web. Everything may seem hard in the beginning at first, but with consistency, anything is possible. Even becoming a Full-Stack Developer. No matter how hard it seems. Truth be told if you enjoy doing this, then you can achieve anything! You can check this Developer Roadmap on GitHub.
If you don,t know about GitHub, be sure to check out the link below because learning how to use it is very important if you're planning on becoming a Developer: