DIGITAL CAREERS

JOB GUIDE

WEB DEVELOPER
Like in the old days
of the American frontier...

We have a misrepresentation
of the business world.
First, because we have been scared of unemployment,
crisis and globalisation. And then we had to face this
unbearable acceleration of progress.

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The truth is, there's no monster in the closet. These stories
are fables and the reality is quite different.

It's just like the American frontier again, but in the West,
today is digital.

The business world, like other fields, requires an

adventurous mind. And it's no coincidence that Silicon
Valley is in California: the digital pioneers have kept the
nature of their forebears.

You may have more assets than you think--because

you’re digitally native.

In other words, the digital world is your natural territory.

It’s time to conquer it!

This guide is designed to help you find your

way around the tech industry.

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Tech is the new employment gold!

According to the state of European Tech 2019, Tech is the

engine for GDP Growth. The European tech sector has
produced nearly four times the job growth rate of the
general economy, resulting in a talent pool of workers
surpassing that of the United States.

5X
Europe’s tech (software) industry is growing 5x faster
than the rest of the European economy, a level that has
accelerated in recent years. Source: Eurostat

4%
The European tech workforce grew 4% in 2018 (source:
LinkedIn), significantly more than overall EU employment
growth of 1.1%. (source: European Commission)
The demand for e-skills keeps growing at a tremendous
pace. According to the report conducted by European
Commission, by 2020, there will be 756.000 unfilled
vacancies for ICT professionals in the whole European
economy. Yet, 39% of companies report having difficulties
finding suitably skilled ICT professionals to hire.

While some jobs are disappearing, new ones are being

created. It’s what we call the “creative destruction”,
theorized by the economist Joseph Schumpeter.
It is much easier to realize that something is disappearing,
especially if it has been there for a while now. But if you
think about it, vocal assistants’ boom (Alexa, Siri & Cortana)
will sooner or later be questioning the voice sound. In a
couple of years, we will probably observe conversational
designers appearing.

You see, this world is full of opportunities.

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In the digital instrustry, the power balance is reversed. We
often have the opportunity to choose our employers
rather than the contrary. As a consequence, we can select
companies that offer more money, better benefits, or
more fascinating projects.

A new way of learning

Today, the world is full of jobs that few people were

trained to perform. Ten years ago, none of these jobs
existed. Some jobs just appeared in the last 5 years.
What can we say about the ones that will emerge over the
next 5 years?

This is the Wild West! Rules are just being set. We still
have work to do.. As tech evolves, we have to rethink the
training industry. A 3 or 5 years course doesn’t make
sense anymore. It’s even possible that the knowledge
acquired could become obsolete before the young
graduate starts working.

The solution is vocational training --

short, intensive, and in close
collaboration with industry.
We should not think that other people are better
prepared. Those who learn to code ten years ago
constantly have to keep up to date. Those who learn
digital marketing 5 years ago can forget a large part of
what they have learned.

What matters most is choosing who we want to become

and pushing ahead. The time when long studies were our
only option is over.

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It’s kind of like one of those westerns films where the hero
grabs a colt for the first time, goes out into the yard and
starts practising shooting at cans.

Well, actually, it's a little more complex than that.

We do a lot more than just shooting cans at Wild Code
School. But you get the idea.

No, it’s not for genius in maths!

If you are good in maths, great for you! But if you aren’t,
you can still thrive in the digital industry.
The only criteria required to join Wild Code School’s
training courses is to be over 18. We don’t care whether or
not you have a master degree or if you left high school
before graduating. In fact, 15% of Wild Code School
students don’t have a degree at all.

Above all, no prior computer science

knowledge is required.

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We are only looking for certain qualities:

1- Motivation and autonomy

Our programme is particularly intensive. We expect high
motivation, a genuine desire to succeed in technical
positions, and the capability to work and learn
independently.

2- Passion and creativity

You are a maker & a hacker. You like contributing to and
experimenting with new ideas.

3- Team spirit
Many digital jobs require collaboration with different
teams. Being a team player is huge plus to make the
difference in the digital wild west.

4- Communication
Listening and speaking to an audience are also valuable
skills for certain digital jobs, such as data analyst or
product manager. You should work on your oral and
written communication skills.

Now, let's take a closer look at the Web Developer, one of

the most sought-after jobs in the digital world.

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Web
Developer
the internet
architect
In this job guide, we give a general overview of what it
means to work as a developer: the role, the position in
the company, the daily life, and more...

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Everyone knows who web developers are. They are the
pimply geeks with big glasses who spend their day in front
of a computer screen. Unless... you think of them as the
guys who revolutionized the world in the back of their
parents' garage and eventually became billionaires.

How about we go beyond clichés?

Today, the web developer’s job is more accessible than

most people know... even if you don't have big glasses and
don't like hanging around in your parents' basement.

Web developers are part of a big family that also includes

Software developers and Robotic developers.

Job title: web developer

Other possible names:

Software Developer, Computer Programmer

Do you speak web developer?

Application
before the term simply referred to software, but today, it
refers more to a mobile application (i.e. software on the
phone). More and more often, the term "application" means
online platform, as web applications are replacing
software.

Example: Before you used to install Outlook on your

computer. Now you use Gmail.

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Database
an entity in which data can be stored in a structured way.

Back-end
refers to the platform only accessible by the administra-
tors who configured the website. It’s the hidden part of
La
thepénurie deyou
iceberg (if profils
want de
to data analyst
compare a website or web
application to a big ice block).

Front-end
refers to what is visible to the user. You got it, we're talking
about the tip of the iceberg. The look of the Facebook
News Feed, the design of the Netflix website, the
interface of the Evernote app...

Full-stack
the term is less and less used, but still searched for. It's a
developer who knows how to do everything. Is this a
Human Resources utopia? Today it’s just impossible to
know everything from A to Z, from creating databases to
putting them online on a server, from back-end to
front-end technologies. Jobs are becoming more and
more specialized.

The IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

in computer programming, a development environment is
a set of tools that increases the productivity of
programmers. Some environments are dedicated to a
particular programming language, such as the languages
used by web developers.

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What does the web developer actually do:

What does the job consist of?

First of all, developers create applications available on

the Internet, for computers and for mobile phones.
Developers are able to build an application on the
front-end as well as the back-end.

Developers must identify customer needs and assimilate

them. First, what is the priority? Then, they will technically
address these needs - with code. So before coding,
developers need to think!

Part of the job is based on transposing real needs into

algorithmic logic. A web developer is a kind of a
human-machine interface.

What kind of customer needs can a developer

meet?

A developer has the ability to create projects connecting

people together: speakers and conference organizers,
drivers and people who need to go from one point to
another, etc... A big trend among websites these days is to
bring people together based on specific criteria or
requests.

What are the different tasks performed?

First, a developer analyses the needs of the client.

They start by designing what they will need to do using a

diagram. However, a web developer is not taking care of
the graphic design, which is rather entrusted to a web
designer.

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Then, a developer tackles the functionality part: making
sure that all necessary interactions for the application are
well developed.

For example: what could be the behaviour of the buttons,

how could we manage user behaviour, what’s the
recording and circulation of data in the application?

Then comes the integration task: making sure that the

graphic design created by a web designer is coded to be
displayed in a browser. Having a blue banner, the size of
the banner, it's all code. A developer has to turn the whole
graphic aspect into code. Remember The Matrix? When
Neo gets a look at the architecture of The Matrix?

Well, then the application is deployed, which means it’s

going online.

In parallel, a web developer must regularly do some

monitoring. This way, they can keep up to date with what's
new in terms of technology and how to write clean code
that another developer could take over afterwards. The
code should meet certain standards to make sure that
software bricks can communicate with each other.

What tools or machines does the job require?

You need a computer - and if possible, a laptop, as

remote work is growing fast.

A developer often needs a second screen to watch the

code on one screen and the outcome on the other. Some
people even have a third one to show off!

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A web developer should master a programming
language: on the browser side, JavaScript, HTML for the
display structure and CSS. On the server side, one of the
following languages: JavaScript, PHP, Java, Python ...

To avoid reinventing the wheel, a web developer uses the

millions of lines of code that have been written already by
other developers. They use frameworks and libraries of
code.

A developer also uses IDEs (set of tools) which can be

called code editors. With a single software, they can
manage any update, development, visualization and
online publishing of code. The software can also record a
history of the code.

IDEs are a great help, especially thanks to autocomple-

tion. A developer starts typing a piece of code and it
automatically suggests the rest, saving time and avoiding
typos. IDEs also offer a nice colouring: roughly speaking,
this type of keyword will be this colour, this type of
keyword this other colour. You can visually see if there are
errors in the code. Are there any truncated sections?

For example: I should have a keyword in purple because it's

a function. But it's not in purple. Maybe there's a mistake in
the code.

There are also tools like Github to save a history of the

code: what did we do? What did we do? When did we do
it? If we realize that the new version is less powerful than
the previous one, we can always go back.

It is also necessary to master software servers for

deployment.

A web developer uses versioning tools, which allows

them to share code and work together. For example, Git:
it’s similar to a Google doc where you can see who did
what. It allows you to manage versions. We can compare
them, and even merge them.

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Long story short, it's almost exclusively a technical job.
There's a creative part, but what we expect from a web
developer is to create something that works and meets
the specifications.

Where does the job fit in the company hierarchy:

does it have superiors? Does it have
subordinates?

In fact, web developers have a rather special position.

They are subordinates. Above them, they have project

managers. At the same time, as they have a specific
technical knowledge they benefit from a certain freedom.
Developers are quite autonomous in their work, as they
can hardly be controlled from a technical perspective.
Let's say web developers are sole masters in their
kingdom.

However, today, there are different levels of developers.

A lead developer has more experience: they are

accountable for the work of the other developers in their
team, and also for technical choices.

Above them, the CTO (Chief Technical Officer - often a

former developer) can be number 2 or number 3 in a
startup.

In the agile methodology - which is a methodology of

designing a product - the developer will interact a lot with
a product owner.

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Does the job require teamwork or working
alone?

Developers are gregarious animals.

They must know how to work on a team, receive

feedback, improve, and help others grow. Communica-
tion is crucial, as well being able to quickly join a new
team.

This is very important. Technical skills are not enough.

Web developers must adapt to the business world.
Sometimes the best developers fail because they can’t
collaborate. Others, less technically advanced, will
succeed because of their soft skills.

The geeky and misfit developer is rarely a reality.

Even if developers can work alone as freelancers, they

collaborate on projects with other people. They are in
contact with graphic designers, integrators, product
owners, CTOs, etc.

Beyond that, becoming a developer means belonging to

a huge community with its rituals & platforms--a
community without borders. Web developers are similar
to motorcyclists. When one of them breaks down on the
road, you'll always see other bikers stopping to help.

This community is based first and foremost on open

source work. Today, all the developers rely on the work of
all the other developers through code sharing platforms.
All developers can contribute to libraries.

Example: REACT is a JavaScript library used for building

user interfaces. It was originally designed by a small team
at Facebook. Today, everyone has adopted it. There are
REACT conferences with competing companies who come
to present their contributions to this library. Facebook feed
is made with REACT, just like Netflix or AirBnB

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It's not uncommon to see developers working for
competing companies helping each other on forums.

This global community is based on 2 platforms:

Github
a source code hosting platform where everyone can
participate. Github hosts almost every code that is created
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today. You cande hostprofils de and
projects data analyst
they can be viewed by
developers from all over the world; and they can
participate. You'll find REACT there, discussions about the
problems that developers are having. It's a forum and a
social network for developers too. One of the first things
students do at Wild Code School is create a Github profile.

Stack Overflow
the 2nd platform you must know. If a developer meets a
problem - error message they can't solve on a line of code
- that's where they'll go. They can open a topic on this
platform and, just like a broken-down biker on the side of
the road, other developers will come and help. They'll pick
up the bike and fix it!

Finally, rituals. One of them is the hackathon. It's an event

where developers get together and work together for
several days on a collaborative computer programming
project.
Quell.

The thing to know (which is not always

mentioned)

You don't need to be a genius in math! What is required is

logical thinking. If you need to apply mathematical
formulas, you will find them on the internet or with your
client.

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A day in the life of a web developer

It starts with what is called the "daily scrum": a morning

meeting where everyone lists what they have been
achieving the day before and what they will be working
on during the day. What are the problems they have
experienced? For everyone, it’s a great way to know
where everybody stands and to identify if someone has a
similar problem already addressed by another. They can
share their experience.

Then developers start their to-do list and exchange with

their colleagues whenever they need them for advice
and proofreading.

There are lots of interactions with other developers

during the day, and lots of research on the Internet, in
code libraries or in self-help forums.

Required skills (hard skills, soft skills)

On soft skills:

• communication
• able to put yourself in the users’ shoes
• listen to the needs
• be patient, even stubborn: be ready to spend 2 days on
a detail. It takes real tenacity to get to the bottom of a
problem.
• be rigorous and think logically
• be curious (for everything related to tech), or you can
quickly become obsolete.

On hard skills, you need to master one language: Java,

JavaScript, PHP, Python, etc.

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Salary

• A junior web developer’s salary is usually in the range of

25K to 40K

• This salary can double after 3-4 years of experience

What's the difference between a web developer

and a software developer?

Software developers won’t be dealing with network

issues. Software is designed to run on a PC, on a desktop.
Web developers should be aware that they communicate
on the Internet.

Web developers must think about the following

constraints: are the users on a smartphone or a PC? Do
they have a 4G connection? Is it an Android phone? An
iPhone? They have to anticipate and adapt to undefined
users.

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Wild Code School
training course

becoming the coolest web

developer in the west
We have designed an extremely effective training program
that allows you to acquire the maximum number of skills in
the shortest amount of time.

We achieve such efficiency by using digital learning tools,

by having a project-based teaching approach and
providing personalized support from our instructors.

Request the training program!

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 wildcodeschool.com

become

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