Web developers, also called web designers or webmasters, design and maintain websites. You might design and develop basic website layout or advanced interactive website features. Read on to learn more about the job duties, skills and education required of a web developer.
Job Duties
Your job as a web developer is to present your clients’ products and services to a wide audience by creating attractive, functional websites. You will likely be asked to identify potential site users and design a website to appeal to these constituents. Your work may include meeting with clients to discuss their desires for a website or discuss how to keep their website functioning and up to date. You might construct the layout of a website, creating a visually interesting home page and user-friendly design. You may also write the content for the website. After a website is up and running, you’ll make sure that the site is functional on all web browsers, periodically testing and updating it as needed. A client may also need you to include interactive capabilities on their site using Visual Basic or Java programming languages.
What web development skills do you need to succeed in the field?
Knowing that you have the natural characteristics of a web developer is a great start, but you won’t find success with those qualities alone. In order to excel in such a technical profession, it’s imperative that you master the hard technical skills to compliment the soft ones.
We used real-time job analysis software to examine nearly 140,000 web developer job postings from the past year. 1 The data helped us identify the top five technical skills employers are seeking in candidates. This will give you an idea of which skills you should focus on sharpening to become a hot commodity in this field.
Top 5 in-demand technical skills for web developers:
- JavaScript
- jQuery
- HTML5
- PHP
- JAVA
