Web Developers

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LiE

LiE

LiE

Caporegime
Joined
2 Aug 2005
Posts
26,367
Location
Milton Keynes
Anyone here work has a web developer? I'm considering moving into this area and would like to know what the job is like? what languages you primarily use? and if the pay is decent :) Thanks.
 
msm722 said:
Anyone here work has a web developer? I'm considering moving into this area and would like to know what the job is like? what languages you primarily use? and if the pay is decent :) Thanks.
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Sticks hand up!

I am now the sole Web Developer, Graphic Designer, Marketer and IT Support cover for the company I joined last October.

Web developing itself I find rewarding. Building a web application that works and makes things easier/better for everyone is great. I also love making it look great and hearing peoples comments on how my web designs look and feel always gives me a boost.

If you enjoy problem solving and coding then go for it. The pay should be good, but there are many factors there.
 
As solaris said, there's a lot of areas in web development, and firstly it's worth noting that a web developer !== web designer.

I work as a developer in a design studio, so a lot of my stuff is short, lightweight projects which are over and done in 2-3 weeks, although there's the odd grinder which goes on for 6-9 months on and off.

I personally work with:
Classic ASP
ASP.Net C#
MSSQL
JavaScript & jQuery
XHTML
ActionScript (Flash)

It would probably also help if at least you know your way around photoshop as more often that not you'll be given a PSD to build the site from.

*edit*
I've just noticed you're in MK - shame you didn't post this a couple of months back as we had a job going!
 
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Thanks for the replies.

Spunkey - at the moment I'm not skilled enough to do web development, and possibly not even design. So far I'm comfortable with photoshop, (x)html, css, sql and small amounts of php/javascript. The plan is to skill up in my weaker areas so I can get my foot in the door at developing, or possibly design.

Traditionally what type of projects do you work on?
 
msm722 said:
Anyone here work has a web developer? I'm considering moving into this area and would like to know what the job is like? what languages you primarily use? and if the pay is decent :) Thanks.
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I started off managing an intranet site for a large multinational many years ago when very few people knew anything about coding/web design and I was pretty much the only one willing to have a bash at it. I then went freelance for a year or so in Canada, came back to England, worked for a pokey little design company for about 6 months before the boss started ripping his employee's off (stopping salary cheques etc) and then moved on to my current role which I've been in for nearly 10 odd years.

It's a good job, but very competitive, I have a minimum quota of site's that need to be completed every month and my boss is a stickler for detail so it's not a case of just shunting rubbish out the door. Any custom backend work that needs doing for a site is done by me but we have two full time developers who'll always help out (they tend to work on massive renewable projects).

Most of the coding is done in PHP with MySQL, but in the average day I'll be writing javascript/Ajax/classic ASP with MSSQL/html (obviously) and very occasionally CF. I don't do flash/actionscript and have no desire to learn it either so I tend to palm that off on other colleagues.

The salary is good, basic is around 25K + commission on each site completed so there's potential to make 30-35K a year in a fairly low pressure environment.
 
I currently use:

xHTML
CSS
CakePHP
Wordpress
ExpressionEngine
jQuery

I also know my way around Photoshop for all the PSD->xHTML parts of a project and helping out with production things when I have time!

Pay as a junior isn't great but you can earn a nice amount after a few years. Best way of earning real money is working freelance or starting a studio and employing people to work for you.
 
I'd like to earn between 25-30k, but I understand I would need a lot of experience before reaching this pay bracket.
 
What I would suggest, is offer to design and maintain local businesses websites for them, and in return, use them for your portfolio.

Then, as you progress, you can move into Freelance work.
 
I hear the freelance gig is pretty tough to break into. Besides, starting up my own business isn't really an option with bills to pay. I need consistent income.
 
msm722 said:
I hear the freelance gig is pretty tough to break into. Besides, starting up my own business isn't really an option with bills to pay. I need consistent income.
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Non-specialist freelance work is getting a lot harder to get in to nowadays as everyone and their dog can design a web site. If a customer's business is relying on their site then I've found they generally go with either referrals from other people or companies with a reasonable reputation. Our company (for example) is very hot on customer service and staying in contact with clients and we get huge amounts of repeat business from the same customers and even more from recommendations they've given other people.
 
msm722 said:
What kind of projects do you usually work on?
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It varies, this morning for example I just templated one of our back end apps. for a new customer, re-jigged a load of code for Smarty, created a javascript random content fader and error checked a handful of site's waiting to go live.

On average I'd say each site is between 10 - 20 static pages + whatever's generated dynamically and has a PHP/MySQL back end either for e-commerce, searchable content or content management.
 
Cuchulain said:
Non-specialist freelance work is getting a lot harder to get in to nowadays as everyone and their dog can design a web site. If a customer's business is relying on their site then I've found they generally go with either referrals from other people or companies with a reasonable reputation. Our company (for example) is very hot on customer service and staying in contact with clients and we get huge amounts of repeat business from the same customers and even more from recommendations they've given other people.
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+Eleventy1

TBH unless you're in a very specialised field (which web development is definately not) I wouldn't bother thinking about starting your own business or going freelance just yet.

msm722 said:
What kind of projects do you usually work on?
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Going through my last few projects, they've been...

Website build + CMS
Webshop build + PROTX integration
Bespoke internal web based job quoting system
Mass e-mailing system (this is a biggie and has been on-going for the last 3 years)
PAYE Calculator
 
I'm freelance atm, but I work in niche market. Being a general web design is quite hard to get into and very competitive. I mainly use (x)html, css, jscript, php and mysql. nothing too complicated. Would love to start up my own studio eventually but I'd need more clients first :(
 
I originally started out by creating a basic HTML website for our department at work and it kept going on from there :) I'm the only developer/designer for our part of the organisation, so have to be a bit of a jack of all trades :)

I've used:

CSS
HTML
Classic ASP (older projects)
ASP.NET using C# (all current projects)
MS SQL

The last major projects I've been involved with were creating a public web site for our new training and education centre (advertising facilities etc), which took a couple of weeks and a custom built e-Learning/CMS tool, which took about 6 months.

I love the work but if £25-35k is an average salary for the industry, I'm paid well below that... I keep looking for jobs though ;)
 
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Smalltalk with Seaside web-framework.
PHP
JSP
Java

did a bit of ASP classic yonks ago.

Also do other programming for non-web.
 
I am. Though self taught isn't strictly true. T'Internet and it's vast plethora of knowledge (including various fora) was my material. :)
 
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