5 Essential Skills Every Web Developer Should Have?

Web development is still one of the hottest industries, and it's not going away anytime soon. Web developer employment is expected to grow 27 percent from 2014 to 2024, much faster than the average for all occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With that in mind, we decided to compile a list of essential skills that every web developer should possess. Knowing where to improve is the first step toward greatness, so we hope you find some helpful information in this post.

Let’s go!

Constantly learning and improving

In a fast-paced industry like ours, staying on top of your game means never stopping to learn. Technologies evolve at the same rate as trends, and what is common practise today may be obsolete in a few years. You must stay ahead of the curve if you want to become a great web developer. This entails learning new technologies and programming languages, as well as keeping an eye on what customers want (and need) in order to maintain customer satisfaction.

Keeping up to date with the industry

Attending expos and conferences is also a good idea because you can network and gain many new ideas and insights. A good personal goal would be to attend at least one tech conference per year in order to keep things interesting and to get out of your daily routine. If you need help deciding which shows to attend this year, read our post about the 16 conferences in 2017 that no developer should miss.

Being able to manage time and prioritize

At times, working in web development can be extremely stressful and chaotic. Projects continue to pile up, and deadlines are always looming. It's critical to manage your time effectively if you want to stay efficient (and sane). Many developers struggle with this simply because they never took the time to improve their time management skills. Here are some quick actionable tips to help you become more organised and avoid missing deadlines:

• Make a to-do list and prioritise it so that the most pressing and important tasks are at the top. Other things will sometimes have to wait.

• Every morning, go over your list and make a quick plan for the day. Even if things don't always go as planned, having one in place will help you become much more efficient.

• Set reminders for important tasks and project steps that you want to complete at specific times throughout the day or week. Ignore everything else if necessary to meet your own mini deadlines.

• Apply the 80/20 rule to identify daily activities that consume too much of your time without producing enough results. You might be surprised at how much time you spend every day doing things that take far too long for the results you get.

• If you believe you will miss a deadline, notify your boss or clients as soon as possible. It's not ideal, but it's also not the end of the world. The sooner you notify them, the sooner they can prepare.

Understanding UX

One characteristic of a truly great developer is that they understand not only the technical side of their business but also the design and client-oriented side. To create fantastic apps and software, you must first understand how your clients and customers will use the final product. According to Niklaus Wirth, a Swiss computer scientist and programmer, "clearly, programming courses should teach methods of design and construction, and the selected examples should be such that a gradual development can be nicely demonstrated."

Before you begin working on a new project, take the time to consider the design and how it will be used by customers. During this step, you will frequently generate ideas that will significantly improve the product design itself.

Communicating well with others

Communication is essential in any job, but perhaps more so in web development. To create an outstanding product, the needs of designers, developers, clients, and customers must be perfectly aligned. This means that communication is an important part of every web developer's job and should be treated as such.

The fact that coding is difficult for non-developers to grasp adds to the need for good communication skills. It is necessary to be able to make other people understand technical problems, which can be difficult. A great way to improve your communication skills is to have regular conversations with people you know outside of work and try to make them understand what you're working on. Yes, they will most likely be bored, but that is also the challenge here: if you can tell your friends about your new project without putting them to sleep, you should be able to do the same with your next potential client. You will also greatly improve communication with your boss and coworkers.

There is always room for improvement as a web developer, no matter how long you've been doing it. Sometimes all you need is a little motivation to look at what you're doing and decide to improve something, and you'll reap big rewards later on. We hope you found this post inspiring and that it will help you become a better developer.

If you want to be a pro at web development, then take a online web development course.

Web Development: Career Overview

The creation and upkeep of websites fall under the category of web development. One of the industries with the quickest global growth is this one. A programmer who specializes in or is actively involved in creating client-server-based World Wide Web applications is known as a web developer. Web developers can be classified as either front-end, back-end, or full-stack.

Front-End developer

A front-end developer creates the web code required to implement a client's or design team's website design. They make sure that all of the website's content requirements are met in terms of clarity, visibility, and location.

Back-end developer

The code that governs how a website loads and operates is written by back-end developers. They must write the code and programs that run the server, databases, and any apps that the website may have.

Full-Stack Developer

Full-stack developers are in a great position to manage the complete process because they are knowledgeable about both front and back-end strategies and procedures. They are completely and in-depth familiar with front-end and back-end development.