How To Become A Web Developer

The digital age is in full swing. Computers have become commonplace in our lives and have shrunk down to the size of wristwatches and continue to get smaller and more powerful as a product of Moore's Law. They've seeped and pervaded every area of our lives, with the aim to increase efficiency and conveniences while disrupting sectors as they go.

Today, nothing is the same as it was just 100 years ago. One-hundred years ago, life was drastically different. Imagine telling someone who lived back then about today's technologies? They would likely laugh and claim that it was some form of wizardry or magic. Well, that wizardry has come at the hands of futurists and computer scientists who have led the charge towards astounding technological progress.

Clearly, computers are leading the way towards a whole series of revolutions that have been silently brewing for years. In tomorrow's world, self-driving autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and augmented and virtual reality are going to dominate our lives. And what holds it all together is the interconnectivity that has afforded us instant, always-on communications from every corner of the earth -- the internet.

Thanks to the internet, we can communicate in realtime, access the globe's annals of information, and leverage worldwide expertise at a moment's notice. And as this behemoth called the web grows and becomes more entangled, it will require the inherent dexterity of seasoned web developers who will help it to transform it into tomorrow's world of wonders that we've yet to visualize today.

However, becoming a web developer is no easy task. And while the steps for learning web development might seem relatively easy or straightforward, it takes a monumental amount of cross-disciplinary knowledge and thousands of hours of effort to gain a foothold in this industry. Anyone who's serious about becoming a proficient and seasoned developer is most certainly in for a steep climb.

What Does It Take To Learn Web Development?

Most importantly, it takes a burning desire. Like any other major goal in life, becoming a web developer involves a significant amount of struggle. It won't happen overnight. But then again, nothing worthwhile ever does. However, there are some straightforward steps that you can take to achieve success in this field.

As a developer with nearly two decades of experience, people write to me all the time asking about things like web development, online marketing and search engine optimization, topics that I've written numerous books and published numerous courses about. And while I don't mind answering specific emails, I decided to streamline this information by publishing articles about the topics.

#1 -- Set Your Goal To Become A Web Developer

To learn web development, once you have that burning desire, you need to set a goal for yourself. It needs to be specific and it needs to be written down if you want to achieve it. What languages will you learn? We're not just talking about HTML and CSS here. There are a number of both client-side languages and server-side languages that you need to become versed in if you want to be competitive in today's market.

There's JavaScript and jQuery, which will give dynamic functionality to your code. Of course, there's also responsive design with a framework like Twitter's Bootstrap, to ensure that you're targeting mobile and tablet devices. And, obviously, we're talking about server-side technologies such as PHP and MySQL to develop powerful database-driven sites and applications.

And that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There's far more to learn than that. The point? Set a specific goal and pick a date on the calendar. An exact date. And all of this needs to be written down if you want to achieve your goal of becoming a web developer. Goals that are set on paper and are specific, are far more likely to be achieved.

Keep in mind that mastery, according to Malcolm Gladwell, takes approximately 10,000 hours in any field. And web development is no different. If you want to become a master web developer, you've certainly got a long and windy road ahead of you. But, understanding the broad strokes is not so frightening. Just set your goals and follow through little by little.

#2 -- Enroll In A Web Development Course Or Class

If you're serious about this field, watching random YouTube videos isn't going to cut it. You need some hand-holding in the beginning, especially if you're fairly new to the field. Find a good course or class and enroll it, and be sure to follow through. Be sure to grasp the basics first, and go from there.

If your journey is also going to involve web design, then you've got a bit more work ahead of you that involves learning the basics of Photoshop or Illustrator and porting designs from those platforms and slicing them up for the web. It's not brain surgery, but if you want to be able to do all of this from scratch, there is a bit of steep learning curve ahead of you.

However, all of this can be learned in time for those that don't give up. If your goals are meaningful enough to you, then you'll do what it takes to become a web developer. If not, then you'll likely throw in that proverbial towel. It all just depends on how much of a burning desire you have for following through, similar to achieving any other goal in your life.

#3 -- Build And Replicate Sites On The Web

One great way of learning web development is in attempting to replicate popular sites on the web without viewing the source code. Now, this won't help for server-side code such as PHP, but it will help you to develop sites and build out frameworks using HTML, CSS and JavaScript without having to copy code verbatim.

I used to do this all the time in the beginning. I used to find really popular sites and attempt to copy and build them out. When I was done, and I went back in to review their code, it gave me some unique insights into coding efficiently, but also gave me the realization that you could achieve the same end result with different code.

It's also important to institute some good programming habits that will allow you to build responsive designs, for example. Clearly, it's important that you build responsive designs because desktop usage is on the decline, and mobile and tablet are now outpacing desktops, according to Google.

#4 -- Gain Real-World Experience

Okay, so becoming a web developer involves more than just building out sample sites in your basement, for example. You need to gain real-world experience. Maybe you get out there and you find a mentor that can teach you the ropes, or maybe, just maybe, you work as an intern for a popular web development company. The choice is yours.

The point? Building projects on your own and working with real deadlines and paying customers are two entirely different things. If you want to become a respected web developer, you obviously need to work within the constraints of time and clients' budgets, so real-world experience is a pertinent prerequisite towards long-term success.

It's also important because dealing with people is a skill that's developed over time. It's not easy having to work with multiple personalities. But as a web developer, you'll be required to deal with clients. Whether you work for a big company or for yourself, this is a skill set that you're going to have to learn if you become a great web developer.