The internet is growing at an astonishing rate, moving more and more private and commercial entities online. It appears, soon enough, there won’t be a person or institution that doesn’t have some sort of online presentation or interaction platform. Such market trend created a large window of job opportunities for web developers, especially those that have the necessary skills to create a working website on their own.

Since most developers orient their work towards the front end or back end development, those that were able to singlehandedly code the entire project became a valuable asset. These, so-called, full stack web developers made the development process more efficient due to simplified communication, and overall process time consumption.

If you’re looking for a way to become a full-stack web developer, and amplify your chances of landing a well-paid job, here is the ultimate guideline to becoming the “Jack of all traits” in the web industry.

Front-end development

Apart from having a computer, the first step to becoming a full-stack developer is mastery of website front-end development. It is basically the part of the website that’s available for users to see and interact with. There are three main components of front end: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

• HTML is basically the backbone of the website. In order to create the site structure and content, you need to learn HTML.
• CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and it has an HTML content control function. It allows you to adjust the content you created using HTML like background images, colors, font style and size, as well as a number of other HTML elements, no matter how these elements were defined through original HTML coding.
• JavaScript represents the icing on the front end cake. It allows you to add complex animations, web apps, and work on the interactivity of the website.

Learning these three languages puts you midway to becoming a full-stack web developer; the second half of the path includes enhancing your skillset with back-end development.

Back-end development

This aspect of web development includes working on what’s “under the hood” of your website. Unlike the front end which focuses on presenting your content to the user and allowing the visitors interaction with your website, back-end development deals with the site’s functionality, databases, data integration, and other core processes. The skills you need to acquire for back-end depend on your personal preferences and project requirements as there are various programming languages which one can utilize in order to work on the back-end portion of the website.

SEE ALSO: Cloud native skills needed! Report claims new cloud “skills crisis”

Some of the most popular, and therefore most practical, languages to learn include PHP, Python, Ruby, and a series of others. As we already mentioned, the code you’re going to use depends on the project requirements, but if you wish to become a full-stack web developer learning just the one language won’t get you too far.

It’s also possible to build back-end using JavaScript, however, this language can result in a series of performance issues, making your website appear slow and buggy. Since user experience plays a significant role in web design, it’s important to use a programming language which will allow the best performance and stability. Furthermore, the bulk of modern CMSs (Content Management Systems) like WordPress and others, use languages other than JavaScript, which intensifies the need for back-end coding languages.

Final touch

Clients expect quality performance and reasonable timeframes, especially if their entire project depends on your effort. Most full-stack developers don’t have the time to do all the work on their own, so they focus their efforts on one aspect of the website while the rest of the project is handled by third-party operatives. Nevertheless, full stack developers need to have comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of development. Otherwise, it will be difficult to delegate the work or dive in when help is needed. More importantly, you should be careful to whom you’re entrusting a piece of your project. When I was working on EduGeeksClub, I had a difficult time finding a back-end developer that could deliver the work on time so I had to put an extra effort in order to be punctual.

There are many ways to acquire the skills necessary to become a full-stack web developer, each requiring time and devotion as well as the affinity for programming. In case you’re not filling like applying for college, there are online courses and resources you can utilize.

However, the theory is not enough; you need to practice as much as you can in order to advance. Start your own projects to understand your weak spots. In addition, you can later send your best work to employers to show your skills.

Conclusion

Full-stack web development is not about “knowing it all”, it’s about being able to adapt your knowledge to project requirements. There is no fast track to becoming good in this industry; the road to success is paved with hard work, dedication, talent, and enough learning material.

The post How to become full-stack web developer appeared first on JAXenter.