Top 5 Skills Of A Successful Web Developer
We’re not going to list the technologies needed for a web developer. This time the experts of writemyessay USA company are going to dig deeper and talk about basic skills.
Of course, we can’t do without technological knowledge, but this knowledge is very specific. Some of them are constant – the whales of the Web: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, HTTP, databases. Some change too quickly, like the popular JS libraries. Every season there’s a new fashion and it’s hard to keep up.
Technologies appear, disappear, fit for a particular project, replace or complement each other. Web developers are among the most in-demand IT specialists. The average starting salary for a college graduate is $55,260. And then the salary depends on your skills. Successful web developers have very different technology skills because they work with different stacks.
Knowledge of technology is certainly important, but it’s not the only thing that characterizes a web developer as a professional. Let’s talk about the basic skills of any web professional.
Skill #1. Understand the user
Why is it important?
Everything on the web is done for the user, so the first task of a successful web developer is to understand his client. Every aspect of product creation should be focused on the end-user experience.
What’s there to learn?
Designing
It is necessary to start already at the stage of application design. It is necessary to think over the design, filling, and user ways even before the realization.
UX
The user experience is the most important aspect of a product. The more user-friendly the interfaces, the happier the customers are.
Pay special attention to accessibility for users with disabilities. Accessibility compliance is a great practice, supported by law in some countries.
When dealing with system bugs, don’t show the user technical messages you don’t understand, but at the same time explain the situation.
Remember that there may be various obstacles between your app and the client, like disabling javascript or cookies.
SEO optimization
Search engines are an immense source of customers, so SEO should not be neglected. Properly compiled robots.txt, a sitemap, and competent linking are important conditions for success.
Analytics
It is very important to analyze the use of the finished product, making changes if necessary. When you find that more than a third of the traffic comes from mobile devices, you will think about mobile optimization.
Analytics tools like Google Analytics help you gather key customer metrics. Be sure to learn how to work with them.
Skill #2. Work with quality
Why it’s important?
Creating a quality product is important in any business. In web development quality means choosing the best solutions, testing, and debugging code.
What’s there to learn?
JavaScript and layout
When creating the client-side of a web application, keep cross-browsing in mind.
It is very useful to understand how web pages are rendered, how scripts, styles, images are processed and applied, how resources are cached, and most importantly – how it affects performance. The faster a program is, the more comfortable it is to work with, so optimize!
Testing
Validating your code with tests is the best programming practice. Eighty percent of the time a programmer maintains code once written, so write it properly. Special libraries and frameworks, such as Selenium, can make this hard work easier.
Ideally, you should have one or more testing environments, so that no changes get into production untested.
Automate testing as much as possible, because it is not the most exciting process in the world. Maybe you can use continuous integration tools like Jenkins with lots of useful plugins.
Git
A version control system allows you to manage projects of any size in a virtuosic manner. With the organization and reliability of git (or a similar system), you can create a quality product.
Skill#3. Keep security in mind
Why is this important?
Most users use your application quite nicely, but some may try to use it with malice. Perhaps the skill of security is the most important one for a web developer. All data coming in from the client-side needs to be verified.
What is there to learn?
If you are serious about securing web applications, take a look at the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
Understand the different types of attacks and stay up to date on new vulnerabilities:
- Cross-site scripting (XSS);
- SQL injection;
- Cross-site request forgery (CSRF);
- Clickjacking;
- Hijacking.
Use web security best practices:
- Intelligent restriction system.
- Authentication systems.
- Rules for handling online payments.
- Protection of database-connection information.
- Least privilege principle.
- Password protection.
Skill #4. Keep your finger on the pulse
Why it matters
The Web is evolving rapidly. New, more convenient, or more powerful technologies are constantly appearing, research is being done, discoveries are being made.
Yes, the web developer must constantly learn. This skill serves as the foundation for all the previous ones. Only with a pumped-up curiosity you can keep up with new trends and take the best of the progress.
What to learn?
Choose your sources
Some articles, books, or video tutorials are worth a dozen others, but they are not easy to find.
Learn to constantly monitor the IT sector of the web for quality materials.
- Regularly review new articles published on major portals.
- Subscribe to interesting newsletters, it is a very convenient way to receive information.
- Listen to podcasts, watch professional speakers, screencasts, etc.
Interact with developers
Answer questions on StackOverflow, Github, and other IT forums. Summarizing, systematizing, and substantiating concepts will help you get a deeper understanding of the topic.
Feel free to ask for yourself. Get answers to some particularly tricky questions only from people who have faced the same problem.
As much as possible, attend conferences and meetups in your specialty. You can even speak at them, talking about your experiences.
Skill #5. Know how to relax
An extraordinarily important skill that is always forgotten.
Most web developers are happy people who love their work and can do it all day long. But there are a lot of deadlines. Always remember that only a healthy, energetic, rested programmer can be successful.
- Learn to plan your time and set priorities.
- Do the most “burning” tasks first.
- Shift routine work to the machine, you are a programmer!
- Remember the 80/20 rule, stop doing time-consuming but inefficient activities.
- Be a “lazy” worker – do things so that you don’t have to redo them.
If you are tired and have no time at all for writing assignments while studying, delegate them to an experienced essay writer. Then you will have more time for the practical application of your knowledge.