CAREER PATHS FOR A WEB DEVELOPER

Introduction: Web Development As A Career Path

According to Spearman (2005, p.p. 3, 117) report known as “Get 2006“, there is an upswing in the job opportunity in the broader IT field in UK and the rise was about 14.5 percent in 2005. The IT sector is fast recovering after the slow down following the Y2K fear and the September 11 terrorist attack. The growth in the financial sector is leading this business recovery, where IT is an indispensable means. As part of this increase, more jobs are available and continue to expand in, among others, e-commerce, digital media and database. Employment opportunities for IT graduates come from public organizations, IT consultancy and in-house software development companies, and manufacturers. Due to expansion of businesses, employers are taking in more graduate than it used to be few years ago.
Apart from the business growth, developments in the fields of computer networks and web application architecture are important factors in making web sites and web applications important business medium. With the increasing capability of transport in networks and processing by computers, distributed program architecture is becoming more feasible. Thus, web development including dynamic and data drive web sites, web applications and web services has become an area of specialization in IT.
According to the very crucial graduate guide by Spearman(2005, pp. 117-121), employment in the web/internet service designer sub-area requires certain essential skills: analytical and problem solving, knowledge of programming languages and ability to learn, communication skills, team work and time management skills. IT specialists in this broader sub-area can get professional support, information source and professional focal points from such organizations as British Computer Society and the British Interactive Media Association. [Hobsons, no date, URL] From the various IT sectors, Web Developer role is an interesting one because it involves producing applications for a very wide ranging audience, potentially a global one. It is applicable in a number of organizational and employment settings. A web developer can run private business, specialize in providing consultancy service, take up a full time employment in businesses including media and public sectors.

The Roles and Job Functions of a Web Developer

In the software development process to be run on the internet, web developers use scripting and programming languages and databases. Following the common client-server architecture, web application developers use server side and client side scripting languages to make web applications more dynamic, user-friendly and interactive. From the server side, such interpreted programs as Perl, PHP, Vb script are used together with such compiled programming languages as Java, C++ and VB.net. From the user side, Javascript, HTML, CSS and DOM document manipulation are used to create web applications. Understanding at least one complete set (PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for instance) of these programs and the trend in their use is therefore an important starting point to carve out a career path as a web developer. [Wikipedia, no date, URL] Various view points have been forwarded from different sources regarding what “web developer” refers to. Therefore, exploration in to the potential career path and business opportunities of a web developer job requires clarifying ambiguities and discussing overlaps with related specialization fields as discussed in section 3 below.
A source of clue in the search for the essence of a web developer profession is a reference to “web developer” jobs advertised on the web sites of some of the major recruitment agencies. The skills listed in Graduate Prospects above are often mentioned in the randomly selected sample job adverts taken from Reed and the IT Job Board web sites for both web developer and web designer posts as presented in Appendix- A.
In terms of specific and regular roles and activities web developers handle, the following list by Schools in the USA web site summarizes the common tasks (no date, URL):

• Design, maintain and upgrade web sites and keep track reports on the sites
• Populating and/or updating the database of web site
• Run tests to ensure web programs and computer systems are working properly
• Meeting with the web designer about implementing a web page design

On a typical working day of a web developer, the activity profile could range from analyzing and developing websites, implementing designs, upgrading older versions to researching other sites for helpful information and clues. It is also the characteristic of the job that web developers can accomplish most updates and error fixing from centres or head offices instead of travelling for every task. [Schools in the USA, no date, URL] Employment opportunities for Web developers come from small and large businesses on contractual or fulltime employment basis. The fact that website and web applications should either run uninterrupted or be down for a very limited period of time, which would normally be time when users do not try to access them, web developers consequently have to work long and in some cases socially restraining hours. The common requirement to meet deadlines makes it a job for those who thrive in pressure. [ Kyrnin, no date, URL] Even if with the increase in size of web site and web application comes the need to use specialized and large number of web development professionals, in a relatively small to medium size organizations web developers have a chance to take part in the whole life-cycle of web application and system development. This includes preparing specification, produce designs to meet the specifications, implementing the system through program writing, testing the system and maintaining once rolled out as per need in response to the changing circumstances of the organization or business. This fact is clearly visible in the very few samples included in Appendix-A.
There are also professional certificate trainings that possibly help career progression though not an assured means. The important examples in this regards are like MCTS .NET 2.0 Web of Microsoft and SCP J2SE of Sun Java certificate. [CBT Planet, no date URL]

Web Development: Web Developer vs. Web Designer

The commonly observed example is confusing web developer for a web designer, which can be two different specializations strictly speaking. In terms of technical knowledge and programming concepts, web developers have to be more knowledgeable. For instance, web developers have knowledge about serve management, configuration and security as well as object-oriented programming. Web designers on the other hand, deal with design and layout of web pages and commonly they have to take training on programming languages and web technology to be web developers. [Schneider, (a), no date, URL] One of the most experienced and an official entity in exploring and defining, among others, the web developer roles is the Graduate Prospects, a commercial subsidiary of the higher educations careers service unit in the UK. However, the explanation on web development IT sub-sector does not make the web developer-web designer distinction. From the specific and typical roles listed for web designer, the web developer job is embedded with in the web designer job. [Graduate Prospects, no date, URL] In contrast to Graduate Prospects, the World Organization of Web Masters makes distinction between web designer and web developer. Accordingly, web designers are professionals that have skills for artistic and visual aspect of web sites and address user requirements through development of usable interfaces. On the other hand, web developers deal with the dynamic aspect of web sites and web applications in the interaction with the user. [Niznik, 2001 URL]

Web Developer Specializations with Career Progression

Despite slight differences on what web developer’s job is like, the career progression explanations point to the same direction. A web developer might progress in to becoming a web development team leader, senior web programmer, project manager, freelance writer and developer. [Wikipedia, no date, URL] According to Schneider ((a), no date, URL), there are two broader paths of career progression for web developers. The options are continuing writing programs of web applications or moving up to higher level of modelling and designing software systems. The designing role involves creating the model of the system and dealing the architecture of the web application. With accumulation of experience, another level of progression could be a management role either as software development project manager or as a specialized product manager as the later is common for example among eCommerce sites. As to the influencing factors to the direction of career progression, the organizational context and the individual’s or professional’s interest are the foremost ones.
Schneider ((a), no date, URL) also explains that apart from a formal training route, one avenue for software engineers with out web development experience to become web developers is through development of smaller web application components with the support and supervision of senior web developers. Another helpful starting process is either taking up an internship position and/or carrying out contract jobs. Practical experience in developing web application provides grounding to build the career up on.
All Computers Schools’ web site (no date, URL) discusses the potential areas of specialization web developers can take up and build in-depth expertise and skills. The specialization can be in terms of programming language, scale of web site developed and managed, or the type of focus of development. The most important programming languages as options of specialization include PHP, Java, mySQL and Linux. Also, the scope of web site development can be small scale site, e-Commerce site or big corporate web sites. In summary, the options are moving to back end programming, content developer and editor, project manager or system administrator.
Likewise, web developers can specialize in web application, web content or web-based database development. The specialization options depend very much on the set of skills the web developer amasses, experience acquired, interest and employing organization’s size and type of business. As an option, a web developer can decide to take a freelance developer route, which requires design, marketing, interpersonal and time management skills apart from technical knowledge about web sites and web applications.
Web developers can be web masters or web applications developer. The responsibilities of web masters are administering web pages, web site design and web applications development, which might involve working with a team of specialists depending on the scale of the context organization. [Wikipedia, no date, URL] Web developers get jobs in all sorts of organizations including the big players of the IT industry like Microsoft Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Oracle Corporation, Apple Computers and Google. [Schneider (b), no date, URL]

Conclusive Summary

Following the discussion made in the foregoing section, the list of remarks in this section try to summarize central points pertinent to the web developer career path choice:

• A recommendable starting point for career development of a web developer is conducting research in to possible employers, seeking career advice and assessing one’s skill profile to improve the chance of landing on suitable web development role and in the right context. An important information source in this regard is the Get Series carrying information on employers, jobs and many more relevant topics, which can be obtained from higher education career centres or at www.get.hobsons.co.uk.
• A career in web development requires such soft skills as analytical and problem solving, ability to learn, communication skills, team work and time management skills in addition to programming languages and design skills.
• There is a slight overlap between a web developer and web designer roles, which can be two different specializations depending on the context. Web developers normally get formal technical training and bring forth programming concepts and knowledge. In comparison, web designers deal with visual, layout and colour compositions aspects of web sites. There are also shared aspects of work like team work skill requirements, possibility to progress to team leader, project management and system modelling roles with accumulation of skills, experience and insights.
• Web developers can progress in to various career roles as a result of progression with experience including web masters or web applications developer. Also, the additional areas of specialization for web developers are like PHP and Java in terms of programming language or developing web site for small and medium size business or big corporations.
• IT specialists in the web development area can get professional support in the forms of newsgroups, discussion forum and conferences, information source and professional focal points from such organizations as British Computer Society and the British Interactive Media Association.
• There are also helpful professional certificate trainings that possibly speed up career progression. The important examples in this regards are like MCTS .NET 2.0 Web of Microsoft and SCP J2SE of Sun Java certificate. It is also important to keep abreast with such new technological developments as web services, xml and web 2.0 since these have direct bearing to the web developer’s roles.
• Employment opportunities for Web developers come from small and large businesses on contractual or fulltime employment basis as freelance consultants and developers. In terms of job advertisement samples, the boundary between a web developer and a web designer is often blurred since roles listed in the adverts cross over in to the roles of web developer and web designer indicated in section 5.3 above.

Recommended Web Sites

Important Organizations to Web Developers (And Others in Wed Development Careers)
International Webmasters Association (IWA)
IWA, a professional trade association, is the industry’s recognized leader in providing educational and certification standards for web professionals. IWA’s accomplishments include the industry’s first guidelines for ethical and professional standards, web certification and education programs, specialized employment resources, and technical assistance to individuals and businesses.
W3 Schools
W3Schools provides web-building tutorials, from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, SQL, database, multimedia and WAP.
WebDeveloper.com
Webdeveloper.com offers a virtual forum for web developers to share information and ideas.
WebmasterWorld
This site is a service to the website administrator community. It acts as a forum for members to share and gain knowledge in operating and promoting a website.
Web-Source
Web-Source.net is a complete website design and development tutorial site designed specifically for those doing business on the Internet.
World Organization of Webmasters (WOW)
http://www.khake.com/page17.html 24/05/2007 20:03:45
http://www.all-computer-schools.com/faqs/webdev-careers.php 24/05/2007 20:16:28
http://www.get.hobsons.co.uk/advice/it_today 27/05/2007 09:18:23
http://www.tapeless.com
A day in the life of a web master:
http://webdesign.about.com/cs/jobs/a/aa041398.htm
Professional Web Programmers Resources: http://webdesign.about.com/od/javascriptandcgi/p/bl_pros.htm