How to Become a front end developer

Who is a front-end developer?
Front-end developer has to develop and maintain the client-end of the websites and web applications. They use HTML, CSS and Javascript to do this.

They are responsible for the way the user sees the website and how they interact with it. Front-end development is implementing the design on the web site. It is an important part of full stack web development. 

The front-end developers make sure that the web sites or web applications are displayed correctly across multiple devices and across various browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and others. 

The front-end developers connect the web designers with the server side programmer. The design is brought into the practical screen with all its issues worked out by the front-end developer. User-experience is the focus of these front-end developers. 

The factor of user experience is gaining more and more importance. Innovations are made with this goal in mind. A lot of technology has been developed which facilitates the UI developers to easily develop interactive and flashy web sites.  Learn more on the technologies and tools for web development. 

We offer both online and Full Stack offline courses for your convenience.

Why become a front-end developer?
There is a huge demand for talented front-end developers.

You get a handsome salary with a good skill set and experience.

It is easy to learn. Most coders are usually familiar with HTML, CSS and Javascript which are the basic requirements for the front-end developers.

There is a continuous learning curve. there is a lot of innovation going on in this field. More new technologies are being introduced. So you will need to keep yourself updated with the latest trends to make yourself stand out from the crowd.

With a lot of opportunities available, you can specialize and climb up the ranks or go the other way with a broad opportunity as a freelancer.

You get a chance to showcase your creativity and talent and maybe get recruited by the industry giants who pay top salary for their expert employees.

Use our road map to web development and figure out requirements to become a front end developer or full stack web developer.

How to become a front-end developer
There are some basic skills that you need to master to be known as a front-end developer. You need to be an expert on some of these. And then there are the desirable skills. A mixture of both when matches with the requirement of a company, you have high chances of getting hired as a front-end engineer. These jobs may also have the title UI developers. You get to learn the below mentioned skills by yourself using the material from the net. But this is going to take a lot of time. The better option is to do an online course on web development and get certified as well. 

A list of the must-have skills

HTML

CSS

JavaScript

CSS frameworks

JS frameworks

JS libraries

Browser development tools

A list of desirable skills   

CSS preprocessors

Version control

Text Editor

WordPress

Image Editors            

General requirements

Analytical Skills

Critical Thinking 

Communication skills

Innovation and creativity

Role of a front-end developer in an organization

The requirements of each job vary as does the technical expertise and experience. But, there are commonalities among the job role which may be required for this job. Here, we will mention a few of these that make up a job description of a front-end engineer.

With your expertise in HTML, CSS and JS- you should b able to create a website implementing the design concept.

You should modify and maintain web applications and web sites according to the company requirements.

Maintain software management workflow with Git.

Test site under development and fix bugs. 

Create tools when required to make development easy.

Customize user experience.

The salary earned by the front end developer

The front end developer job is an in-demand job and pays well. On average, a front-end developer in the United States earns $77,908 per annum. In India, a front-end developer gets a salary of Rs.5,43,417/- per annum. 

Source: Glassdoor

Some of the good to know and learn front end technologies

Typescript

 It is a language based on Javascript. It is a superset of JS which compiles into the plain javascript. It allows JS developers to use static checking and code refactoring using development tools. Types are not a mandatory part of the code. Even a small type inference can potentially save time. They define interfaces between various components of the software. They are used to build components that are robust.

AJAX

AJAX is an acronym for Asynchronous Javascript and XML., that is, Javascript + XML. AJAX is a Rich Internet Application(RIA) technology. You need to know XML in addition to HTML, CSS and JS. It is used to create interactive web pages. It is independent of web server software. It follows the data-driven model.

ASP.NET

It is an open source cross-platform framework. It is built and maintained by Microsoft. It is used for building dynamic web apps and services. It is written in .NET and C#. You can write ASP.NET code in any .NET coding language. It can be integrated with Apache web servers. To use this framework, you should have a basic knowledge of some .NET languages like VB.NET as well as HTML, CSS, JS and AJAX.

Bootstrap

 It is a CSS based framework. It is developed and maintained by Twitter. It is powerful and follows the mobile-first approach. It is a framework developed for faster and easier web development. It needs prerequisite knowledge of HTML, CSS and Javascript. It supports responsive design. It works across various platforms like Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It has good documentation and is easy to learn.

Foundation

It is a CSS based framework. It is used to design highly responsive web applications. The framework is considered to be advanced. It also follows the mobile first approach but is great across all devices. It provides HTML,CSS and JS plugins. It is built and maintained by ZURB. It uses SASS compiler and is faster compared to others. It provides customizable HTML templates.

Angular

It is a JS-based framework. It is open source and cross-platform. It is a powerful framework. It is used to design single-page applications. It extends HTML with attributes and increases response. You should know JS well other than HTML and CSS. AJAX skill is good. It is maintained by Google. It is used to create Rich Internet Applications(RIA).

React

It is a JS-based front-end library. It is maintained by Facebook. It allows developers to create UI components which can be reused. You should be good with CSS, JS and JSX. If you are not familiar with JSX, then HTML will help. It gives high performance. It improves readability and overall saves time and reduces lines of code written. It becomes easy to build and maintain large apps using React

jQuery

It is a JS-based library. It is used to simplify AJAX It is lightweight and small. It supports various platforms like Windows, Linux and Mac OS. It is used for rapid web development. You should have a sound knowledge of HTML, CSS, JS, AJAX DOM and some text editor. it is also used for event handling and animations.