Web Development
Santiago Fernandez
Job Description/Education/Outlook/Salary
Web developers have many other task besides just sitting and coding, although that is what most of the job consist of. They meet with clients, discuss what the site will look like, deadline, etc. Even when a website is finished they have to keep an eye on it to debug applications on the site and monitor web traffic. Before you can even get to this job, there are some skills and requirements you obviously need to meet. Creativity and Customer Service skills, and being detail oriented are very important. Understanding HTML and CSS are also very important, it is helpful to know coding languages such as Javascript, or SQL along with experience with other languages. It is also important to know basic media tools. The education requirements are reasonable. If you're really knowledgeable in coding and are really good, some companies may hire you even if your highest education is a high school diploma. Although, an associates or bachelor's degree in web development, Information technology, or a related major is usually required. The job outlook for this career is bright because of the amount of technical jobs increasing. It is expected to grow 20% from 2012 to 2022. The average salary is $62,500. Usually Web developers work full time.
Career connections
Melissa Suzno is a senior front-end web developer and on her website she explains why web development is a great yet busy career, " I work with my team to make sure that the engineers build look good and provide a good user experience for the customers who will eventually be using it. I write code to ensure that all of the features and web pages are responsive, which means they'll look good and work on any devise and browser that we support, ranging from tablets to Windows computers to Macs." This is someone that is really successful in this career letting people know a little bit of what to expect when getting far into this career. Along with her, Liz Abinante is a great web developer and she gives great advise on how to get started and such, including her perspective of the whole career, saying it's a good career choice, "Learn HTML5 and CSS3 right off the bat. They're not that difficult to learn, although CSS can be a bit fiddly. Definitely try and use some Javascript or jQuery if you're feeling brave." So overall, right now it seems that employees enjoy what they do although it takes a lot of learning.
High School Preparation
High School is a great place to get started on learning a little about what you need to know before getting into your career. For example, I am signed up for Coding and Computer repair, which should be a great class to get me started on coding. Web Design is another class I plan on signing up for because it should be a great class as well to get me started on practicing the whole design process. So depending on what classes your school has, take the ones that are most relevant to programming. Clubs are also helpful for getting more practice. I am currently in Computer club and want to join app development club. Employers don't really look at grades and all that stuff. During your high school career you should get a side job that can improve your coding skills. It can be something like working with the school website, or since this job does require great customer service skills, I plan on getting a retail job that can help me improve that.
References
Most employers are going to want to get a hold of past employers you've had so that they can ask them more questions about you. That's the reference, somebody that can give a little more information about you are as a worker, or just your personality, etc. They are important because the person that is considering hiring you should know what type of person you are before hiring you. For me, I chose my councilor because she knows what I look for in classes at this point. I also would choose my access mentor because I have known him all year and he knows the personality side of me well enough, and the Computer club adviser because he would be able to tell what I know on the technology, when I join.
Post secondary Education
For a web development job, depending on if your really good or not, your least education can be a high school diploma and the most you would need is a 4 year degree in web development or something related to it such as Information Technology, web design, etc. Some college options are Depaul University, they have an information technology major, or Devry University, they have a web development program, Art Institute might not seem relevant but web developers need to have good skills in multimedia tools such as in PhotoShop, flash, etc. Depaul University has internship opportunities at Aon Corporation, Oribtz, etc.
Web Developer (Episode 88)
Sources:
Web Development Information:
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htmColleges:
http://www.depaul.edu/academics/undergraduate/majors/Pages/itbs.aspx (DePaul)
http://new.artinstitutes.edu/schaumburg (Art Institute)