Who wants to be a web developer?

This post is largely inspired by feedback from Brahyne and AJ who have left some very kind words on my personal profile. Of course the other being that the title was chosen based on the TV Series, “Who wants to be a Millionaire?”. I had been thinking about this for a while and I hope this will be the beginning of a series. I can probably spend some time writing about a particular job you might be interested in; talking to my lawyer friends, managers, freelancers, businessmen and of course those in other fields of IT. I can already see that the next one in this series will be “Who wants to be a doctor?”

Anyway, there are no right answers to this question but these thoughts are based on my personal experience and my own ideas on what it would take for someone to start a career going down the web development path.

I must admit, I never really started out thinking that I would be a web developer or at least to be an IT professional.  My childhood dream was to be a Civil Engineer or to be an Architect.  Life would have it that I ended up with computers instead of a drawing board.

1.  Study towards a university qualification. If you can get into university for a formal degree, please do!  Many may feel this work just needs you to be talented and know HTML.  Believe me, get a university qualification as it does open doors when used correctly.

Then its time to focus on the skills you would need to acquire to be a web developer.

1.  Study HTML.  Start small, do not immediately jump into complex things.  Grasping the basic concepts of HTML and coming to the realization of its limits and power will help you to understand why web developers have looked to other languages, platforms or frameworks.  For me, understanding that it was static, that the first websites I built on HTML needed me to go into the code to change things allowed me to wish for some dynamic way of generating content.   It was then that I gravitated to PHP/MySQL and eventually to Content Management Systems.

2.  Study Cascading Style Sheets. Understand the language of the designer, CSS.  Knowledge about CSS is often underestimated but too many programmers who produce functional websites, great web applications are lousy designers and will often give you an interface that promotes functionality over looks.  Every once in a while, it does pay to create the perfect website or application then determine how it looks too.

3.  Pick a framework and language. Pick a language you will be comfortable with and find  a corresponding framework.  I picked PHP and I have yet to choose a framework of choice.  A framework, however, does not make much of a difference but it does enhance productivity.

4.  Acquire some knowledge about databases. Almost all content on websites the world over is dynamically generated.  So acquiring some basic knowledge about how databases work and how to modify them will surely enhance your skill set.

5.  Learn some computer graphics. Pick a design suite and master how to use it.  Just because everyone talks of Adobe Photoshop does not mean you would have to be a Photoshop guru too.  There are also many great open source alternatives such as GIMP (Photoshop substitute) and Inkscape (Illustrator substitute).  Having an eye for design, color coordination and layout are important attributes of a great web developer.

6.  Understand basic networking and Internet concepts. It would be very helpful if you can understand IP addresses, know TCP/IP, FTP Internet protocols that you will deal with almost everyday.  You would be amazed by the number of people who design a website and then do not have the faintest idea on how to publish it.

7.  Read a lot of online materials. There are many blogs but perhaps one of my favorites and one I strongly recommend is Smashing Magazine.  Inspire yourself by keeping up to date with the latest trend in web development.  Reading renowned blogs like Smashing Magazine helps you stay motivated.

The work environment.  Pick an IDE, if you are in the Linux world Eclipse comes highly recommended.  Windows, you can use the simple Notepad to something as big as Visual Studio and in turn also find time to tinker with Adobe Dreamweaver.

Know that not all browsers conform to strict industry standards.  Design for compliant browsers like Firefox first before testing your website on other browsers.  Make exceptions for other browsers while at the same time ensuring that your website does not break.

Pick handy development tools to complement your work.  A great example is Firebug, an extension for Firefox which when installed helps you to examine and understand how your favorite website may have been built.

Those are at least some of my random thoughts on what one would need to be a web developer.  The rest of everything like most things in life, is about your own talent and knack for doing things.  Hope you enjoy these thoughts.  Enjoy developing your website.