Living in the digital era, right now there is enormous emphasis on the digitalization of several industries and business functions. Digitalization of business means that you can be found through websites and apps easily on the internet and the rest of the user experience should be smooth and efficient as well.
For every app, website, and software we come across, there is a developer behind it with years of expertise and insights to bring success to the client’s business. Every business is hiring professional website development consultants to make the most of the internet like web development in New York.
While there are expendable growing opportunities in the web development field, it does seem like a complicated and inaccessible field. Currently, there are two categories of individuals who are considering web development. The first category is those individuals with an academic background in the web development field and the second category are those individuals who are aiming for a shift after the fluctuations in jobs in covid.
Despite the complexity of the field, the important question arises: where does the web development industry stand today, and does shifting your career is a smart move during the Covid and can you survive the post covid economy with a career shift?
To do Or not To do?
Shakespeare’s quote ” to be or not to be” is something that has turned into a simple mantra. To be or not to have pros and cons and based on which you make decisions and the similar theory should be applied whether you should shift your career or not.
So, what are the things you should consider before shifting your career to the development side?
- The current stability of the industry
- How the pandemic has affected the industry
- Adaptability in the field
- The time to learn and expertise required
1. The Current stability of the industry
As mentioned earlier, the economy is getting digitized at a fast pace, and individuals look forward to social accounts, sites, and apps to get done with everything.
Web developers luckily are behind our favorite social networking sites, online payment, or communication using software and collaboration tools, etc. Developers are not only responsible for creating a site or an app from scratch but they are also responsible for the upgrades and maintenance.
The importance of web developers is reflected in the job market as well. According to the bureau of labour statistics, the job opportunities for web developers will increase at least 8% by 2029 which is a higher average of all the job growth. On the other hand, according to Data forest, the industry is expected to grow by $295 billion by 2025. So the future stability in the field looks balancing.
2. How the Pandemic Affected The Industry:
As a result of the pandemic and worldwide lockdown, almost every industry is struggling to survive in the economy. However, industries related to technology have gone through a different kind of transformation. Due to the restrictions on in-person interaction, everything had to be shifted online to survive.
Organizations currently are heavily relying on digital tools to operate remotely. For everything to work smoothly, the consumer’s change is putting their trust in the team of people who build these technologies i.e developers.
The sector is expected to explode with a lot of growth and prosperity, in the upcoming years. As far as the short-term job stability is concerned for the freshers, you might struggle however, the long-term growth is impeccable. The industry might be a cruel place for the freshers, but remember this goes for every industry. The overall impact of covid on the developer’s industry is lesser as compared to other industries.
Web developer’s demand is likely to increase in certain areas as directly related to the products and services. sectors such as health care, entertainment, online banking/ money transactions, education, and all forms of e-commerce.
3. Adapting to the Field:
Truly, the web developers were able to withstand the storm and are conveniently serving the covid economy. However, there is a catch to the web development industry as well.
According to the digital trends, the industry is continuously evolving and influencing the methodology of the developers. In the field of web development, you continuously have to adapt the new trends and continue to learn over the years. You may learn one thing today and it will go outdated in the next week. Yes! That’s how fast the industry evolves.
Today the much-needed skills in 2021 are progressive web development, cloud computing, DevOps, and troubleshooting. These trends didn’t catch an eye back in 2019. As a developer, you should be a fast learner and in touch with technology, advancements to increase your career growth.
Oftentimes there is a debate that automatic developing tools will decrease the value of web developers in the market. But you need not panic about that. If you have read the famous debate of WordPress VS Wix, you will understand that even such tools to an extent require the expertise of a web developer. All a web developer has to do is adapt to the existing trends of the market.
4. The time to Learn and Expertise Required:
Web development is an umbrella term that includes several aspects such as developing websites, apps, e-commerce websites, CMS, and other kinds of portals required with custom changes by organizations.
As a web developer, you will need a handy grip on developing the client-side (UI/ UX including designs, layouts, fonts, colors), server-side (backend development including business logic, database architecture, and APIs.), and database technology. These are the main components that you should be aware of as the combination of these creates an efficient website, apps, and portals.
However, as a beginner you are not required to master everything but have the knowledge of all aspects, there are three categories of web developers as well. frontend developer, backend developer, and full-stack developers. Full-stack developers are specialized in both front and rear development.
Learning web development from scratch can take you between 6 months to a little over a year.
So, What Do You Think?
The web development industry is overall a good path to success if you understand the complexity of the coding. If you want more security, you can search for the roles of “web developers” or “full builders” in your area on sites such as glass, glassdoor, and LinkedIn. You will come across at least 26,000 easily. The expert level required on these posts is not as high as you might think.
Even better if you like, work as a freelancer.