So You Want to Be a Web Developer?
Find out what you need to learn to succeed in this growing field
13% job growth for web developers through 2030 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a mean annual wage of $90,000 in California.
About 13,400 openings for web developers and digital designers are projected each year, on average, over the decade.
Find a path to your development dream career below.
Front-End Web Developer
You are responsible for creating well-written, efficient code using technologies such as JavaScript, HTML5, and a host of other frameworks and development tools.
What Languages You Need to Learn
Javascript: a language designed to add functionality to web browsers to support more flexible and dynamic webpages
jQuery: a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting
HTML5 and CSS3: languages that code and style webpages
Other Tips
- Build a portfolio site.
- Contribute to a source-code repository like GitHub that shows off your coding skills.
- Participate in open source projects like OpenMRS.
- Increase your techie network at a hackathon. Major League Hacking offers a great list of hackathons for university students.
- Jump into the Berkeley Coding Bootcamp and become a web developer in 24 weeks.
Back-End Web Developer
You are responsible for managing the interchange of data between servers and users. Your primary focus is development of all server-side logic, definition and maintenance of the central database, and ensuring high performance and responsiveness to requests from the front-end.
What Languages You Need to Learn
Java: a general-purpose, high-level language designed to be hardware neutral and portable
Other Tips
- Build a portfolio site.
- Contribute to a source-code repository like GitHub that shows off your coding skills.
- Participate in open source projects like OpenMRS.
- Increase your techie network at a hackathon. Major League Hacking offers a great list of hackathons for university students.
- Jump into the Berkeley Coding Bootcamp and become a web developer in 24 weeks.
Full-Stack Web Developer
You work across multiple layers of the application stack with responsibility for everything, from database object model creation, REST API interface implementation and RPC server implementations. Code and maintain the site in a fast environment.
What Languages You Need to Learn
Javascript: a language designed to add functionality to web browsers to support more flexible and dynamic webpages
jQuery: a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting
HTML5 and CSS3: languages that code and style webpages
Java: a general-purpose, high-level language designed to be hardware neutral and portable
