Front-end developers create website interfaces that we interact with every day. There are thousands of businesses with their own front-end development teams, so there’s no shortage of vacancies for front—end developers. However, there is a shortage of qualified front-end developers who can write clean, error-free code. In this article, we will discuss how to start working as a front-end developer in 2022.
Learn necessary skills
Many companies are expecting front-end developers to have a college education, but majority of companies will hire you without one. One main important prerequisite is that you must demonstrate a strong knowledge of necessary skills.
To get a basic front-end developer job, you need to be proficient in three programming languages: HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
You can start learning via online courses, go to bootcamp or even hire a developer to mentor you. There are literally thousands of options for learning front-end development.
Practice writing code
Being an effective and efficient web developer comes down to writing error-free code. Debugging and fixing errors can take too much time. You can achieve mastery of any programming language by practicing it.
HTML is fairly easy, but CSS and especially JavaScript require many hours of practice to fully master.
Gain a competitive edge
Front-end development is a lucrative career, which means that there are a lot of candidates competing for junior positions. Starting a job as a junior developer is especially competitive because all employers are looking for experienced front-end development. There are only few positions where companies want to invest time and resources into developing a junior talent.
Having a competitive edge over other junior front-end developers can help you get the job and then advance your career faster than others. For example, it’s a very good idea to specialize in one JavaScript framework like React. You can go even further and learn features of React. For example, concepts like Virtual DOM, rendering, component reusability, or applying conditional className values.
Get experience
Experience doesn’t have to be of working at a full-time job. Start working on your own personal projects or, in ideal scenario, contribute to open-source projects. Becoming a contributor to one of the open-source projects can be prestigious and interviewers will look at it favorably. These projects usually have requirements for maintaining codebase and gradually adding code. Creating these open-source projects is a team effort, and if you’ve successfully established yourself as a member of a team, it means you can become a productive member of their developers team as well.
Create a portfolio
Having a portfolio of projects you worked on can be beneficial. You can show hiring managers the code you wrote and your CSS designs, for example. Needless to say, your portfolio should include the projects you’re most proud of. Creating projects for your portfolio can be an opportunity to practice. It takes time, but a good portfolio can significantly improve your chances of landing a job.