Slashdot Mirror
Web Development - A Tough Job to Have?
frank_tudor asks: "Hey everyone, I have been a web developer for seven years now. I have had some moments of success, but mostly down moments with low pay, less than stable work, and unemployment. I love what I do and I don't mind the trends and technology changes that come with web development, but I am getting older and have been mulling a change in professions. But to what? I an wondering what those of you on Slashdot think about web development as a job, and what professions they think would be both stable and challenging to consider?"
I was in this boat a few years ago and saw where the industry was going and prepped myself for the changes.
.NET and Java haven't got a clue as to what they want. Don't bother with these guys (unless they happen to be a hosting company and you do happen to be multilingual).
I specialized in LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP). This skillset will cover the vast majority of jobs on the market. Knowing Photoshop and Flash helps but isn't necessary. You should have OOP running through your veins and understand what MVC is and use it daily. As a web dev, you are also expected to be a sys admin to a certain extent setting up cron jobs, checking security, etc. Also, knowing how to build an e-commerce site, build your own SSH certs and manage public and private keys helps as well.
Basically, you are a sys admin with a specialization in the web.
Focus on this kind of skillset and you will be set.
Also, don't take any job that requires you to know Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Visual Basic; these are red flags that tell me the job won't last a month and that the employer doesn't really want a web dev and isn't sure what they are looking for.
Which brings me to another good point. People who ask you to know IIS, Apache, Windows, Linux, Visual Basic, PHP,
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
As long as you don't have to start the project that way. To really get things moving, have the developers, the designer and the database guy sit down and decide what needs to be done, then have the database guy create the core database, the designer come up with the stylesheet(s) and some mock-up pages, and the developers create (or set up) the framework, then everybody gets together to make everything work together. Once that's done, then the developers get to play with the database, the database guy gets to write some code, and the designer gets to tweak the layout and gather content and fsck up the developers by designing pages that require jumping through hoops of flame to populate and validate.
At least, that's the way the best projects I've ever worked on went...
Just junk food for thought...
I've been using Dreamstime.com quite a bit lately. Their site is not quite as polished as istocksphoto's, but their prices are lower and you'll see many of the same photos.