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"Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:07 pm
by volomike
I turned my AM radio dial the other day to listen to a talk show host. He said something the other day that struck a bell with me. He just hung up a call with a diesel mechanic out of San Francisco or something. He said, "Where are our diesel mechanics these days? Are they even training in this field these days? Who will be left to run our country's most important parts of our infrastructure in the future? It seems that every kid I talk to these days wants to be a..." {and get this!} "...a web developer."

You know, I never really thought of it that way. I've been using computers since 1979. I was like one of the first few kids in my county to use a TRS-80 computer and an Apple II with Integer Basic. My parents never believed me when I first said I could write small programs on computers. My dad even got mad at me that day as if I was fantasizing! He said, "Guys who want to work on computers wear white coats and have to train for years to learn how to write programs for them. There's no way I'm going to believe you know how to write programs, and there's no such thing as a computer that sits on your desk." I had to drag him to my junior high school to show him the new computer, and he reluctantly didn't want to do that. I then loaded a small program I wrote and played it for him, and he was stunned. He said very slowly, "I guess I was wrong, Mike." My parents were very poor in 1979 -- they were paying for their college educations and playing "catch up" on that and the bills. So, they could never afford a computer for me until like my senior year in high school. So, I was so fascinated with computers that I would carry a book on BASIC around with me and write functions on paper. And then when I could get a hall pass to the library, I would type the programs in and watch them run. When I got to college, same story -- couldn't afford a PC -- so I carried around a book on C and would go to the computer lab to run the programs. When other guys were reading books, I was reading computer manuals. I was learning C before even my college professors were -- they were still focused on Fortran, RPG, BASIC, and *gasp* Pascal. I tested out of Pascal 1 my second week in class because I <span style='color:blue' title='I'm naughty, are you naughty?'>smurf</span> off the teacher, answering all her questions she asked. At the end of class, she said, "Everyone go here except that guy in the back with the blue sweater. I want you to come forward." I came forward and she said, "So, you think you know this Pascal, eh?" I said, "Yeah, I've already read the book on it." She then said, "Okay, want to take the final? Think you can do that? If you can take the final, right here, right now, up in my office with an hour-long time-limit while I grade papers, and you get nothing less than an A, then I'll let you pass this course and move on to Pascal 2." And that's exactly what I did. I even passed her bonus question with flying colors.

So, writing software? Heck yeah. It's what I do.

But it didn't dawn on me until that talk show host said that statement that, yeah, kids these days are growing up on Facebook and MySpace, and are walking around with iPods and iPhones that can surf the web sort of effectively, and we serious web developers here who are trying to make a living will have this challenge now, and in the future, by these kids. These kids, at their least, are learning how to paste in some Javascript or do a little HTML. Others are learning jQuery. And some more may start to play with PHP, but probably through Windows.

And the situation is now worldwide of course. I'm seeing some amazing software work. And for those who think English is a barrier -- I'm seeing some extremely well-spoken, well-written English speakers in places other than the UK, Canada, Australia, or the USA. Just today I met another PHP and Linux developer from the Netherlands, now relocated to Spain, and his work is impeccable, top notch. And, better than me, he's got a lower debt-to-earnings ratio than me and plans to keep reducing that through environmental means (solar power, organic farming, etc.). (See what I mean about alternative passive income sources? Was not so far off, after all.)

I mean, why go to 6 to 8 years of college to become a chiropractor, doctor, or lawyer, or even 4 years as an accountant or what have you, to get out and suffer through the regular economy and its lack of jobs, its traffic, its layoffs, and its slow cycle of career promotion? Some may want to just do 2 years of college at an institute after high school, and then just go out and earn cash in the web economy, which, to me, seems far more resilient to crisis than the regular economy. In fact, I almost wish now that I never wasted time beyond my first two years in college and just jumped out to do software. But I didn't have the web back then and its fast-paced access to cash for those who find their niche. Kids these days, do.

Food for thought...in fact, I could probably do myself a favor and write some doom-and-gloom book about this like you see on the shelves in bookstores about the future...and get rich from it. Ha!

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:29 am
by jaoudestudios
I agree with what you are saying, these kids now a days have the latest computers and have internet all the time - which is a great benefit (online tutorials, collaboration etc). But what I have noticed is they just want stuff to work and look good, not paying much attention to standards, efficiency and security - this is where we have an advantage (obviously that is quite a generalisation and I do not mean it for every new developer, but for the majority it is true). Plus we have experience on our side :D

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:41 am
by matthijs
The more people get in this business the more competition there will be. Not bad in it self, but it will make it tougher. If you have a lot of experience that should give you an advantage, in theory.

The biggest danger is the effect it has on the value of web development services. If too many people get into the business, without an equal increase in "demand", the value of our services will diminish. Simple economics.

But something I also notice: it's a lot easier for many people nowadays to use their computers to do stuff. People can photoshop their pictures, upload them to a gallery, with a few mouseclicks start a blog at wordpress.com, etc etc. That's a good thing of course, but what I suspect is that this changes their image of what "web development" means. They expect everything we do to be just as simple.

So I get questions from people like: "I want to add a map to my website, very simple so I think I can do it myself. I only want to ask you what kind of "tool" or "widget" you'd recommend me to use." Then, when I ask them what this "map" should look like, it should be a complete functional Google-map like thing, with user interaction possibilities and dynamic data inserted from an excel file they have, etc etc

So people expect this should be very easy to build, maybe even do it them selves. They can't imagine having to pay a webdeveloper XX hours to develop this "simple map". When they can start a blog in 3 mouseclicks at wordpress and change the theme of it in 2 clicks, why would they pay me $2k to develop a website?

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:31 am
by volomike
matthijs wrote:So I get questions from people like: "I want to add a map to my website, very simple so I think I can do it myself. I only want to ask you what kind of "tool" or "widget" you'd recommend me to use." Then, when I ask them what this "map" should look like, it should be a complete functional Google-map like thing, with user interaction possibilities and dynamic data inserted from an excel file they have, etc etc
I had to laugh at that one. I can't tell you how many oddball requests I get from a guy who is like 20 and does affiliate marketing, and he says, "Yeah, I want a website sort of like YouTube." When I ask what kind of ballpark budget he has, I get an answer, "Oh, $400." (That's $400 USD for my international friends. $400 is about the cost of very cheap laptop.) Needless to say, forgetting cost, security, bandwidth, disk space, and video translation drivers, you know what a kid would do with a site like that. They'd say, 'Thank you very much,' and then turn it into a pr0n site.

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:29 am
by Eran
The increase in developer population is not only due to it being easier to get into now, but also due to increased demand - the Internet is still growing rapidly in terms of market penetration, budgets and possibilities.

I believe the gap will become more pronounced between professional developers and aspiring developers who think that they can build a site just because they completed a w3schools tutorial. There is already a very wide scale of developer proficiency - and there are not that many at the higher skill levels.

I do think that professional developers, especially freelance developers, need to come to terms with the marketing side of their business - conveying their value to prospective clients. I know this is something most developers try to avoid, but it will become more critical to business success. I have a draft post in my blog on this very topic which I hope to finish in the next couple of days ;)

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:31 am
by Syntac
Truly skilled web developers like us are hard to come by these days. :wink:

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:08 am
by volomike
I think it comes down to differentiation. Well, I don't want to go the certification route because I probably would disagree with the exam questions the program would want me to study. For instance, it would probably have a question like, "How do you make a Singleton?" And here's my controversial answer:

Code: Select all

global $oSample;
 
if (!isset($oSample)) {
    $oSample = new Sample();
}
So it comes down to getting better and faster at what you do, putting design, code, and jQuery examples on your site, and letting clients make an informed decision.

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:43 am
by onion2k
10 years ago it was "Web Designer". Then people realised good graphic design is hard.

In a few years people will realise writing good code is hard too, and the "job de jour" will move on to something else. I'd guess everyone will be calling themselves "professional blogger" or "guerilla marketing writer" or something.

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:56 am
by Eran
I'd guess everyone will be calling themselves "professional blogger" or "guerilla marketing writer" or something
:lol:
It's funny cause it's true ;)

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 8:37 am
by papa
Personally I haven't seen a trend of people wanting to become web developers/designers at least not where I live. Mostly they only focus on games and things like that and are not remotely interested in what's actually going on behind all this stuff, which got me interested in the first place.

I totally agree with what's been said, even though I'm not a true developer.

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:09 pm
by alex.barylski
The market is way over saturdated...unfortunately that will drive down some developers income.

Supply and Demand. 10 years ago I would freqently see job offers which paid 60-100K/year now I see mostly job offers for web developers that offer to pay $10-16/hour. It's a joke. You might as well go work at McDonalds.

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:31 pm
by Eran
10 years ago - would you be referring to the dot.com bubble? ;)

I noticed that despite the economy, web development is one of least hit sectors. Over the past couple years demand has been constantly on the rise. At least that has been my experience.

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:37 pm
by jaoudestudios
I have noticed that it is on the rise too. More and more people are becoming aware that the web is the way forward. Even now when times are hard. I guess it is cheaper to have a website than to rent a shop.

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:15 am
by onion2k
jaoudestudios wrote:I guess it is cheaper to have a website than to rent a shop.
That depends on what you're selling.

Re: "Everyone Wants To Become A Web Developer These Days"

Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:29 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Everything is moving towards the web. Applications that once were things you'd only run locally on your desktop are now being ported to run on the web. Just look at Cappuccino, effectively allowing Cocoa (OS X) applications to be ported to the web with relative ease.

Layers and layers of abstraction are making it easier to do things like this and the easier it gets, the more people demand.

I still stand by my decision to keep out of the freelance world ;) I see people here all the time struggling because they've taken too much on and aren't getting paid enough for it (partly their own fault). Work for a company with a salary and you know that your days are now going to be 8 hours then you can go home, and you know when (and how much) you'll be paid each month. I also think I get a lot more out of my job than if I was working for myself... I learn a lot from the people I work with.

I'm not sure how much of a threat the recent influx of wannabe developers is. From where I see it (as a developer) not much. Basically I just see a lot more "script kiddies" who want copy and paste solutions... I'm not seeing a big influx of professional developers... I actually find it refreshing when I see a new forum member here who's clearly clued up in the industry. I'm not a small business looking for a "web guy" though!