Overview
Web developers produce websites by coding, designing and laying out an organisation’s webpages. They’re responsible for implementing content, graphics, applications and overall performance and capacity. With experience in graphic design and computer programming, they utilise software to convert written, audio, graphic and video content into web formats.
Duties and responsibilities
- Create websites using content creation tools, scripting languages and digital media software
- Maintain websites by checking for bugs, glitches, graphics and security breaches
- Update website content by publishing a mix of evergreen and relevant content
- Design and install website security measures, like firewalls and encryption
- Run tests to ensure a superb user experience
- Back up all your files to local directories to ensure instant data recovery of the website
- Meet clients to determine technical requirements and overall layout of the website
- Troubleshoot problems with applications, systems and webpages
- Collaborate and confer with others to resolve issues affecting the website
- Proofread code to make sure that it is properly put together, meets industry standards and is universally compatible
- Analyse project data to make sure that it is in line with the website infrastructure
- Renew domain name registrations
- Register websites with search engine indexes, create searchable indices and produce basic search engine optimisation (SEO)
Skills and knowledge
Working conditions
AVERAGE WORKING HOURS
40hweek
TYPICAL SCHEDULE
Full Time
Standard business hours
Although the position is full time and will mostly involve a typical 9am–5pm schedule, web developers can anticipate working evenings, weekends and holidays on occasion. This is especially true if critical problems need to be solved or deadlines must be met. The benefit, however, is that a lot of the web development tasks and resolutions can be done remotely, meaning the job can be done at home.
Salary prospects
BOTTOM 10%
$38k
MEDIAN
$69k
TOP 10%
$120k
Annual salary estimates are based on percentile wage data collected through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey of US workers.
Entry requirements
EDUCATION LEVEL
Undergraduate
Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field
TRAINING TIME
4years
To become a web developer, you generally need to possess a bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or programming. That said, you might not need to hold any postsecondary degrees or certifications if you already maintain a strong acumen in HTML, programming languages, multimedia tools and other back-end development tools.
However, it would be prudent for your career advancement to take coursework to keep up with the newest tools, software and techniques, should you choose to abstain from college or university.
Also, in order to attain employment, it would be beneficial to develop a portfolio of your work.
Job outlook
PROJECTED GROWTH
13%
NEW JOBS
20.9k
AUTOMATION RISK
21%
Career advancement
A web developer has many career routes to explore after working in this position for a long time. Some of the advanced positions typically offered to web developers are related to management or senior positions, such as that of a project manager or senior back-end developer.