Websites are central to our modern lives. Think of how many things in your life require you to use a website. Do you pay your bills online? Perhaps you seek out information about restaurants or shopping through a search engine? Websites like these, and in fact all websites, require a web developer to keep them running smoothly.
The field of web development and web development degrees in particular suffer from a number of misconceptions. Read below to see four of the most common assumptions debunked.
1. "Web development is about content."
One of the most common misconceptions about web development is to confuse it with web design. Web development is not the creation of content for a website, the skills to form an appealing design for a page, or even the ability to direct that content over time. All of those skills are the province of web design. Development is about functionality. A web development degree will train you to create and maintain code for a website, to resolve problems in a website's implementation, to do any work related to the operation of the website.
2. "After I build the website, I'm out of a job."
If you look at web development as being only related to the initial design and construction of a website's code, then this could be a reasonable fear. Thankfully, web development is so much more than just performing the original set-up on a website. An easy way to understand the relationship between a developer and their website is by analogy with an auto mechanic.
If a client hires an auto mechanic to build them a car, they will build the vehicle and make sure it runs well. But their work doesn't end there. At regular intervals, small things will come up for the car: oil changes, tire rotations, spark plug replacements. In all likelihood, a major component will need to be replaced at some point. For all these situations and more, the mechanic will be needed to keep the car running at peak efficiency.
In the same way, a web developer is still crucial for the successful operation of a website. As technology changes over time, new updates to software will need to be worked into the website. Any number of parts of the website may need to be updated or recoded to work with the constantly changing ecosystem of browsers, servers, and other web technology. A web developer's work is never done.
3. "I don't need to be a good communicator."
The stereotype of the web developer as working alone, isolated from anyone else in their company simply isn't true. While it is absolutely true that programming skills are by far the core of any web developer's skills, communicating with other members of the team is on a level only slightly below them.
A successful web developer has to learn how to communicate project needs and goals to the people around them, and this is a skill you will need to acquire during the pursuit of your degree. Opportunities to work on group projects or practice communicating about a project are not extra assignments or unnecessary work, they are essential to your success with a web development degree.
4. "No one hires developers anymore."
Too many people believe that the prospects for a career in web development fell apart after the 2008 financial recession. With many companies forced to downsize all around us, many people have a quite natural fear that a degree in web development will not give them a strong position from which to build a career.
Thankfully, this is not the case at all. Web development, with its focus on creating functionality and maintaining usability, is as in-demand now as it ever was. Beyond that, the job market for web development is only projected to grow, to the tune of 20% between 2012 and 2022. Not only are there expected to be more than 28,000 new jobs created in that time frame, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, web development jobs have a median salary of $62,500.
Best Decision I Ever Made â Onandi a Web Development Graduate of ECPI University http://t.co/JOD36q4JSM
â priya (@PriyaYadav6010) January 21, 2015
So if you are interested in taking the first steps to becoming a web developer, get in touch with ECPI today to learn more about getting your Bachelor of Science degree in Computer and Information Science with a concentration in Web Development. With ECPI Universityâs year-round schedule and focused coursework, you could earn your bachelor's degree in as little as 2.5 years! Take the first step todayâit could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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