Have you ever wondered how web pages are made? Did you ever get that urging curiosity to grasp the mechanism of how those buttons and links interact? Front-end web development might look intimidating at first and it will throw some people away. But is it really that difficult?
A career in front-end web development is one of the most attractive options for job hunters out there. However, most people grow hesitant form pursuing such a career path due to being daunted by its technicality.
Some might think they are not a good fit and that they will not acquire the right set of skills for such a domain. Some others might think that coding comes with a long learning curve and settle for another option.
It is evident that the web of 2020 is not that of 2010. New technologies just keep on emerging rendering old ones obsolete. Researchers and web developers are therefore required to keep their skills up to date and even learn new ones when necessary.
The front-end web developer job position will be our concern in this article. We will give you a list of the skills you need to become one in today’s competitive job market.
Testing and debugging
Testing and debugging refer to the processes of assessing code for flaws and remediating any bugs it might have. The two procedures play a major role towards the end of the front end development life-cycle as they mark the end of the pre-launch phase.
Developers will be required to run thorough tests and mitigate any problem that might occur. To learn more: https://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/SDPL03CD/page_02.htm
Problem solving skills
Having good problem solving skills is mandatory for any career path in the technology sector. Front-end web development is no exception to that rule as you will encounter problems on the job everyday. You need to be a creative thinker and adopt a “hack it” attitude to come up with unusual solutions to unusual problems.
You cannot develop problem solving skills from scratch but you can surely work on what you have. You can follow this short guide to develop a strategy for solving any problem you might face.
What is front end web development?
While front-end web development is not necessarily the most technical career out there, it is technical in its core and every aspiring developer will needs to master a few programming languages on your journey. What we see directly and interact with on a website is its front end which is usually built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These programming languages are used to turn visual designs into actionable, interactive web pages. Your main duty as a front-end web developer will be to turn visual design ideas into readable, functional code. In addition to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, employers might be looking for candidates with far less familiar skills. Here is a list of all the skills you need to become a front-end web developer: HTML HTML is short for Hypertext Markup Language. Seriously, this is a mandatory skill. There is no going around learning HTML if you want to become a front-end developer. You can’t make a single web page without using HTML. HTML is used to add text, images, buttons, videos, and other elements such as tables and lists. Luckily, HTML is not that hard to learn and you can master it over the course of a few weeks. Here is a great guide to get you started with HTML: https://www.w3schools.com/html/ CSS While HTML might be the most important skill to learn in front-end development, it is often associated with another skill: CSS. “HTML & CSS” – we know you heard that combination a lot before. The two skills are associated with each other and while you can create your website elements with HTML, you need to use CSS in order to style them. Cascading Style Sheets is indeed a very important craft in front end development. Codecademy has developed a thorough CSS course and you can view it for from from here: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-css JavaScript JavaScript has revolutionized front-end web development and has brought a lot of convenient functionalities to the table. Perhaps the most notable one being that it made web pages dynamic and interactive as opposed to them being static with HTML & CSS only. JavaScript technology made it possible for web developers to embed software applications into the web, web applications that perform functions in real time without having to constantly refresh web pages. It is very essential to learn JavaScript because static web pages are a thing of the past. Learn-JS is a website dedicated to those who want to learn JavaScript. Start learning for free from here: https://www.learn-js.org/ jQuery JavaScript coding can be primitive and daunting without the use of the jQuery library. This JavaScript library comes with a handful of plugins and extensions that can save web developers a lot of time. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you start a new project and JQuery was built to simplify JavaScript coding. To learn more, please check out: https://learn.jquery.com/ Front end frameworks CSS and JavaScript frameworks provide developers with some very useful shortcuts by defining the elements that appear constantly in different projects.By knowing how to benefit from these frameworks you are acquiring another skill that saves time and puts you under the spotlight of most wanted front web developers. Please refer to this list for information about the frameworks: keycdn.com/blog/front-end-frameworks Git It is not the end of the world if you messed up an update on your pre-existing code. You can always go back to previous versions of your code if you master the art of Git. Git is what we call a version control system and it allows developers to keep count of every change they implement upon their code. This can be very convenient during experimental phases to test new versions and go back to old ones if something goes wrong. To start with the basics of Git, follow this link: https://www.atlassian.com/git
Testing and debugging
Testing and debugging refer to the processes of assessing code for flaws and remediating any bugs it might have. The two procedures play a major role towards the end of the front end development life-cycle as they mark the end of the pre-launch phase.
Developers will be required to run thorough tests and mitigate any problem that might occur. To learn more: https://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/SDPL03CD/page_02.htm
Problem solving skills
Having good problem solving skills is mandatory for any career path in the technology sector. Front-end web development is no exception to that rule as you will encounter problems on the job everyday. You need to be a creative thinker and adopt a “hack it” attitude to come up with unusual solutions to unusual problems.
You cannot develop problem solving skills from scratch but you can surely work on what you have. You can follow this short guide to develop a strategy for solving any problem you might face.
