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Table of Contents

Introduction

This just might be the best time in history to become a web developer. Over the past 6 months, the world has been completely indoors. Not by choice, but forced, due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Many have had their personal finances completely stripped away from them. However, for web developers it was a very different story. Almost the opposite, Web developers have had more work than ever before.

Web technology was the backbone of our safety net during COVID-19. And now people are starting to see the real value of becoming a Web developer in 2020. Let’s highlight some clearly obvious reasons why you would want to become a Web developer today.

Benefits of becoming a Web Developer

  • Work from anywhere
  • Ability to avoid crisis situations
  • Allows flexibility and moving to cheaper housing locations
  • Allows to exercise both creativity and logical thinking patterns
  • Global and often long-lasting work that gets noticed

These reasons have been collected by a developer selection pool. Working from home is good enough for most. People have been working remotely for years, but only now realizing more benefits than just working from a beach or Starbucks. It can remove you from dangerous environments, and remove distractions to allow higher productivity.

Difficulties that beginners have breaking into web development

Here is the problem that most run into head-first when just starting. They have no coding experience, or they know how to code, but no one is buying what they are selling. So the key to being successful as a freelance Web developer is making sure you can deliver what the client needs. I can’t stress this enough, and it will be either a make or break for you when starting out.

Web development in 2020 is extremely competitive. You are essentially competing with most developers worldwide - who are looking to create wealth from a global marketplace. So you must do something different, to stand out from the rest. I recommend specializing in a niche field, this will provide you with specialist knowledge. This is one possible way to earn a much higher income as a Web developer, with the ability to work less and charge more.

So you still want to become a Web developer?

Great! You have made the first step to a positive future. Mind you, it will be hard and there will be some ups-and-downs. Now, I will let you know what paths you can take to get started. I will always recommend choosing what you like.

You might have heard of AWS or Cloud, why not start a cloud trial account and spend 1-2 hours using the technology and see if you genuinely like it. Do this with as much as you can at the start, because you will thank yourself later. It’s very much a try-before-you-buy type of method. This can edge you closer to choosing a specialty, then sticking with it.

The next step for getting started is, choosing how you want to work:

  • #1. Work for yourself online (Entrepreneurial)
  • #2. Work for an online freelance Web developer platform
  • #3. Work as a Web developer for a business (not remote).

There are pros and cons to each of these 3 choices, and ultimately there is no right or wrong answer. If your main priority is to earn the most money, with the least amount of risk, then it might be worthwhile choosing option 3. Otherwise, you might select a combination of the three.

The last step is finding out what education you need (specifically) to get started. Do you need certification in your specialty to start freelancing? Or, do you need to go back to college to get a CS degree? For a fundamental understanding of computer science. Finding the answers to these questions will get you one step further. I can’t advise the best decision here as this is fundamentally up to you, but I can say this... time after time, there have been beginner Web developers making up to $120,000 after only 1 year.

Here are some great books to get started with learning how to code, and the various concepts that are involved inside the Software development world.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed some important aspects of web development in 2020.

Final Notes