Tags for this article: advice, c++, career, css, javascript, layout, perl, php, programming, web design
If you want to decide what kind of Web developer you would like to be, this question is very tricky. There are several options where you can choose from.
Design:
It includes “Layouts” and “CSS” as well as “Graphic Designing”
Programming:
Writing “Flash Applications” or “Ajax Web2.0 Applications or “CGIs”
Content:
In this there will be creation of images and also writing the text that will be displayed on Websites.
Databases:
“Database Administration”, “Working with XML” and “Connecting Sites to Database”.
Information Architecture:
“Setting up of informatics behind Websites” and also “making the Websites easier to navigate and use”.
Metrics:
In this it is only to watch the page views and to track in order to validate the efficiency of “Web design work”.
There are many more options where you can choose from
If you want to be a Web Programmer, some of the languages like Perl. C++, JSP, ASP, Java or PHP will be heavily featured in your works daily. But, usually content writers and Web designers do not use these languages at all. C++ is one language you may use to write scripts and CGIs in order to make your WebPages more interactive and to have dynamic look.
In the field of Web, there are several other jobs that will not require any kind of programming and these jobs will be having the titles like program manager, designer, content co-ordinator, information architect and several other titles. Here you can choose either programming or non-programming route. Here you will be working with designers who will know programming and also with designers who will not know programming.
Money and job prospects in this Web Programming
It may or may not be true that only Web programmers are the ones who could make more money than Web designers and other than these both DBA would make more money. If you do Web programming only for the sake of money, you will not be able to do it and if you do it also, you will not be good at it. Here you will not be making money like the people who really loves doing Web programming and also the person who is really good at Web programming. This is also true with Web designing and with DBA as well. Before taking up any job, you have to be interested first.
When you take up a particular job, you have to even work on all the segments like content, code and design where you have to do some part of the equation as well. If you work with designers who do not know code writing, they will come up with the design the way that you might work and also the designs that they want to look. Then you might work on building some of the codes (JSP or CGI or other languages) that will be used to make the design work.
You have to focus on some parts of the job and have to enjoy working and you will get better.