It Takes Lots of Water and Steroids to Grow a Web Developer
I had a conversation with a programmer friend yesterday morning that got me thinking about what it takes to be a successful programmer. Programming, whether it be for the web or software, is a unique and difficult business. The tough thing about being a programmer is that it is impossible to know everything you will encounter and the make-up of the industry and each language is constantly evolving. To be a successful programmer you have to know and communicate with other programmers. A strong personal network is to a programmer what steroids are to a baseball player.
I have been messing around with web development for 10 years. In this time I have learned a lot about the web. I have moved through HTML to XHTML, added CSS, learned to program and since have programmed in several languages. In that same 10 years websites have changed immensely. They have gone form simple online pages to complete applications. They have gone from simple catalogs of information to interactive social communities.
One thing the web development industry has always offered is a strong online community. If it wasn’t for the documentation other programmers offered, online forums, and help of other programmer friends there is no way I could have learned what I now know. You can’t be an expert in everything, but thanks to a strong online web development community you can always find someone who knows more about a particular function or topic than you do. The help and goodwill of strangers has helped me to complete many difficult projects.
If you’re just starting out in web development I strongly suggest you hop on the juice now. Join some forums, subscribe to some blogs, share, and learn. I started this blog as a way to give back. Cataloging what I learn in a single place in turn helps other programmers who come after me. I encourage each of you to live open source and find ways to use and give back to the web development community. Without such a strong community our jobs would be much more difficult. Don’t fear, you can use web development steroids as much as you’d like without fear of testicular shrinkage.
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Comments
As an aspiring Flash/ActionScript developer, I appreciate the insight and advice that you gave in this article.
“You can’t be an expert in everything…” particularly resonated with me, because it reminded me that a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ candidate (which I’m sure many self-teaching, self-motivated people desire to be) will often be overlooked in the hiring process.
I agree that it is rare that anyone is truly exceptional at all trades, if they know many, so specialization in one or two related trades seems more prudent.
That being said, Rich Internet Application development job descriptions that I have encountered seek a candidate with both a technical and creative mindset. Do you have any advice on a good next step for someone who has a background in graphic design, but has more recently been teaching themselves ActionScript, Flex, and ColdFusion, and desires a career in Web Development?
Wow! I am writing a research paper that is due tonight and I just wanted to say thank you! I’m not a web developer but I have worked in IT for about 10 year, and have worked with a few developers and I must say I don’t know anyone that can not only generalize web development, but IT in general like you did in this post. Thank you for what you are doing. I’m looking into web development as a very serious hobby and I can tell you I’ll be back to your site to read all I can…