What is Web Development?
Web Development is the process of building a website. A web developer may work alone or with others, but they’ll always be tasked with writing the code that makes the website work.
Skills You’ll Need
The best web developers have many talents, but knowing code is the most fundamental skill you’ll need. If you have not learned code yet, don’t worry, there are many great resources to help you achieve fluency - from free online classes to bootcamps.
To succeed in the field, you’ll need to hone your creative muscles. Web developers help to craft the formatting of a website and guide how it appears to users. They may have help from web designers, but sometimes the web developer does it all!
You’ll also want to be good at solving problems and critical thinking because web developers frequently need to fix bugs in the code and figure out new solutions to keep everything running smoothly.
Business skills, like empathy and customer service, are great to develop as well, because web developers work with clients and often have to anticipate their needs.
Web Development Salaries
Web developers work differently - some are freelancers, and others are salaried employees. Depending on where you work, how you work, and your experience level, the compensation can range quite a lot. Still, many web developers earn excellent wages and are highly in demand across non-profit organizations, private corporations, and government agencies & institutions alike.
When you’re starting out, however, the average yearly pay can be around the $65,000 - $70,000 range. Pay shoots up to $80,000 and over $150K in more senior levels and depends on where you live (e.g., San Francisco may earn more than Pittsburgh).
Finding Your Next Opportunity
There are many types of opportunities in web development, each with different pros and cons. You’ll need to first evaluate these and decide what type of path you want to pursue.
But whether you decide freelance or salaried work is right for you, you’ll need to boost your portfolio to help you break into the industry. You’ll want to take on many projects to hone your skills and have completed work to demonstrate your abilities to future employers.
Social media is a great asset, and so is your contributions to open source projects, which you can share across LinkedIn and via your GitHub account. You can build connections with people in the industry on LinkedIn and become part of the community on Twitter before you even have a job in the field. Some sites can help you demonstrate your work to prospective employers, and other sites where you can blog about your journey and contribute to the conversations surrounding web development.
You’ll also want to keep yourself from getting discouraged and remember that it’s a marathon, not a race! The right position will come around, even if it takes a little longer. And you need to keep up the search as you can. In the meantime, sharpen your skills so you can be ready for the job opportunities right around the corner. You can even consider a Code For America, a nationwide not-for-profit network of volunteers who apply their technical skills to a variety of civic challenges, to get some volunteer experience at a location near you (e.g., Code for Philly).
The good news is that CO.CAREERS can also help. We offer a multitude of roles in various positions, including remote opportunities. Our job board is well designed, intuitive, and easy to use.
How the CO.CAREERS Job Board Works
Use CO.CAREERS' Job Board to help you find a career and flexible job that suits your lifestyle by allowing you to search available positions by keywords or job titles such as Web Design, Designer, Web Development, or Developer.
Users can also choose from employment types, location, and job post time for finding the freshest jobs (e.g., jobs posted in the past week). Be sure to sign up for the weekly job notifications based on your search preferences entered to get weekly email notifications.
We only post careers with specific job functions from employers who meet human-centered criteria. The search then returns matches from vetted employers looking for top talent. The current job posting types you will see revolve around:
- User Experience Design and User Research
- Web Design and Web Development
- Marketing and Communications
- Sales
- Business Development
- Human Resources
Coupled with good jobs, we offer a no-cost Knowledge Center with up-to-date, practical career tips and content to help you find a career that suits your lifestyle.
Find Good Jobs and Access Practical Career Tips
CO.CAREERS helps you find good jobs by committing to displaying opportunities at organizations that put humans first, making meaningful roles accessible, and updating our job boards daily.
We envision a world where everyone can achieve economic opportunity without sacrificing their values to achieve both work-life balance and the pay they deserve. We are on a mission to make it easy to connect people and organizations with a private talent network and up-to-date practical career resources. Use the CO.CAREERS Job Board now to find a job that feels like more than a boring 9-5. Discover a career that excites you with benefits that appreciate your value.
Commit to learning all you can, presenting yourself and your work well, and using the CO.CAREERS Job Board, and you will be well on your way to a successful career in web development. Check the board each day to explore the available opportunities, and be sure to sign up for a free account so you can upload your resume, save your profile, bookmark jobs, and more.
Zoë Hicks is a dedicated copywriter and marketer. She has a background in journalism, and studied Political Science and Philosophy in college.