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What does a web developer do?

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Web developers play a crucial role in our society. Responsible for developing and maintaining web pages, they’re behind all of our favorite websites, from Wikipedia to YouTube.

Today, practically every organization needs web developers to keep up with competitors. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, web developers have a rapidly expanding job market, expected to continue rising by up to 8% by 2029. But why are web developers so essential? What exactly do they do? Below, we’ll walk you through a web developer’s responsibilities and skills, with tips on where you can get started.

Web developer job description

Web developers build websites that meet their company’s or client’s needs. To do so, they need two things:

  1. The ability to create websites
  2. The ability to discern how to satisfy a client’s needs using a web page

Think of a web developer as a “solutions architect.” First, they determine the best way to address the challenges faced by their client. Then, they design a website that meets their objectives.

This is one of the key differences between web development and web design. While web designers focus on a page’s layout and aesthetic, web developers are more concerned with structure, functionality, and efficiency and ensuring everything stays within budget.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics explains how web developers “develop, create, and test website or interface layout, functions, and navigation for usability.” To achieve this, web developers need to:

  • Meet with clients and IT teams.
  • Understand the company’s web hosting and security architecture.
  • Work with decision-makers to attain more resources if needed.

What skills do you need to be a web developer?

To be a web developer, you’ll need a mix of technical and soft skills. Technical skills, like proficiency with different programming languages, are those you’ll use to actually build websites. Soft skills, like good communication, are those you’ll use to work effectively with others and drive yourself forward as a professional. Below, we’ll look at the different skills web developers need and explain how they play a role in their daily responsibilities.

Technical skills

Three programming languages lie at the heart of every web developer’s tech stack: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. HTML creates a web page’s structure, CSS adds stylistic elements like colors and typography, and JavaScript enables interactivity. Together, these three languages form the foundation of web development.

Along with the languages listed above, web developers also use libraries and frameworks like jQuery and AngularJS to expedite development and add greater functionality to their web pages.

Strong communication skills

Web developers need to be good listeners. To truly understand a client’s core objectives and come up with an effective solution, you’ll need a patient, empathetic ear. You’ll also need to be able to communicate your own ideas in a way that compels your clients to take action. This may require proficiency with presentation tools like Excel and PowerPoint.

Web developers also need to know how to express complex ideas in simple terms without being condescending. Just like how you may not know the best way to route an exhaust pipe for a septic system, your clients may not understand the basics of web development. But with good communication skills, you can explain anything, including how it helps boost their bottom line.

A passion for learning

Like all technologies, the programming languages, libraries, and frameworks web developers use are constantly evolving. Having a passion for learning makes it easier to stay on top of the latest developments in the industry. Plus, it helps improve your capacity as a professional and ensures your skills are always in demand. When a new language pops up and gains popularity among potential clients and other developers, you won’t have to waste time playing catch up.

What kind of jobs do web developers have?

Web development encapsulates several different roles, and all of them involve coding, using predesigned development tools, or a combination of both. Let’s take a look at some of the most common jobs in web development.

User experience (UX) developers

UX designers are primarily concerned with a website or application’s end-users, whether they’re members of the general public or employees using a product designed specifically for their company. UX designers fine-tune the design, functionality, and even the marketing of a product to ensure the target users get what they need.

Front-end developers

Web pages consist of a front end that people interact with and a back end with resources the front end depends on to function. Front-end developers create an attractive, functional, efficient interface for the user. While discussing his responsibilities as a front-end engineer, John Pham explains that the role is great for “someone who enjoys being at the intersection of art and logic.”

Back-end developers

Back-end developers structure the back end of a website to adequately support the front-end experiences of users. This involves structuring the core logic of an application, implementing APIs (application programming interfaces), and building and integrating databases that support the front end. For more information, check out our article on the role and responsibilities of a back-end developer.

User interface (UI) designers

UI designers set out to create websites that look good from the user’s perspective. They need to understand how colors interact with each other and trigger emotions and how fonts communicate brand-central messages. UI designers make their clients’ wishes come true by providing an effective and attractive site that meets their users’ needs.

How do I become a web developer?

The first step in becoming a web developer is learning how to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. But knowing is only half the battle — you’ll also need practical experience. Once you get these tools under your belt, use them to build a website. Having a portfolio of websites you’ve created will help impress potential clients and employers when you’re looking for a job.

If you want to build all the skills you’ll need as a web developer, check out our Career Paths. Our Career Paths are designed to teach you everything you’ll need to know to land an entry-level position in your desired field. They also include projects that you can use to create a portfolio and certificates upon completion for you to add to your resume. Ready to get started? Click any of the links below.

Word of the Day: tenable

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Word of the Day: tenable

: based on sound reasoning or evidence

_________

The word tenable has appeared in 30 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 18 in “What to Save? Climate Change Forces Brutal Choices at National Parks” by Zoë Schlanger:

Late last month the service published an 80-page document that lays out new guidance for park managers in the era of climate change. The document, along with two peer-reviewed papers, is essentially a tool kit for the new world. It aims to help park ecologists and managers confront the fact that, increasingly, they must now actively choose what to save, what to shepherd through radical environmental transformation and what will vanish forever.

“The concept of things going back to some historical fixed condition is really just no longer tenable,” said Patty Glick, a senior scientist for climate adaptation at the National Wildlife Federation and one of the lead authors of the document.

Can you correctly use the word tenable in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how tenable can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

What is Python used for?

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What is Python used for?

You’ve probably heard that Python is one of the most popular programming languages. Last year, Stack Overflow found that two-thirds of the developers who currently use the language love it and plan to continue doing so. But why is it so popular? What is it used for?

Python is a general-purpose programming language used in just about any kind of software you can think of. You can use it to build websites, artificial intelligence, servers, business software, and more.

Below, we explore some of the reasons behind Python’s popularity, along with its uses and applications in different fields. Or, if you’d rather jump right in and start learning it right away, check out our Learn Python 3 course.

What are the advantages of Python?

Python’s many advantages make it a favorite among amateur and professional programmers alike. One of its biggest advantages is its (relative) simplicity. Python’s English-like syntax makes it easy to learn and read, and unlike some other languages, it uses simple line breaks instead of symbols to define code blocks.

Python also helps speed up development, with built-in classes and functions and an extensive selection of libraries that make writing code quicker and easier. Plus, as an interpreted language, you can execute and test your code right after writing it without an intermediate compilation process.

Another advantage Python holds over other languages is its versatility. Python is a portable, cross-platform language — meaning you can write and execute Python code on any operating system with a Python interpreter. With some other languages, you’d have to modify your code for each platform.

What is Python used for?

Python’s versatility enables it to be used in a wide range of applications across various industries. Let’s take a look at some of the ways Python is used.

Data science: analytics and visualization

Data science is one of the most popular uses for Python. Data scientists and analysts use programming languages like Python and R to manipulate data for reporting, predictive analysis, and more.

Harvesting insights from data is no easy task, and data scientists don’t have time to waste with compiling and complicated syntax. Python’s simple syntax and extensive selection of third-party libraries make it a great choice for anyone considering a career in data science.

Machine learning

While arguably a subfield of data science, machine learning deserves its own category because of its unique algorithms. Machine learning involves training systems to learn independently by using algorithms that constantly update themselves based on input data. These systems gradually learn to handle new situations by generating an output based on past datasets. Then, based on the outcome of this new situation, they update themselves to deal with the new variables, thus constantly evolving.

Web development: websites and web apps

Python is also widely used for back-end development, where it runs in the server of web applications and interacts with databases and APIs after a user requests data from the app’s front-end in the browser.

Much of Python’s popularity in web development stems from frameworks and libraries like Django and Flask that extend the language’s utility.

Financial analysis

In a recent HackerRank survey, Python was the number one programming language FinTech companies looked for when hiring developers. But it’s not only FinTech enterprises that use Python code. Python is used everywhere in the financial industry because of its data processing capabilities and various third-party libraries designed for financial analysis.

Desktop applications

You can also use Python to build desktop applications. Many Linux and open-source desktop applications use Python. Plus, with GUI libraries like Tk, wxWidgets, and Qt, you can use Python to build cross-platform applications that run on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Business applications

Python lies at the heart of business software like Tryton and Odoo. These tools are used for enterprise development and can perform accounting, inventory, customer relationship management, and other tasks.

In short, many businesses rely on Python to do the heavy lifting. This has led to more and more startups including Python in their tech stacks for its ease of use and scalability.

Scripting and utility software

Python started as a language for writing utility scripts, and it’s still widely used for this purpose. Many of the utilities and scripts built into Linux operating systems are written in Python, and it’s also installed by default in the Mac OS. This makes Python the language of choice for automating tasks in an engineer’s day-to-day work.

Getting started with Python

As you can see, Python is a programming language with a wide range of applications, such as web development, data science, and financial analysis. Wanna start using it yourself? We’ll teach you the basics of Python programming in Learn Python 3. Or, if you want to take it a step further, we’ll show you how to:

For a full list of our Python courses, check out our catalog page.

Punk Rock Teens

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Punk Rock Teens

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

The band featured above, the Linda Lindas, is made up of four Asian and Latina teens and tweens who last week had a clip of a recent performance of their song “Racist, Sexist Boy” at a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library go viral. Did you see it?

Are you in a band? Do you have friends who are? What are your favorite teenage bands, whether you know the members personally or just admire the group from afar? And if you’re not in a band, could you imagine yourself ever joining one? If so, what kind of music would you want to make?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.

About Picture Prompts

• Find all our Picture Prompts in this column.
• Have an idea for a Picture Prompt? Tell us about it.
• Teachers, discover more ways to teach with our Picture Prompts and learn how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning.

Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Word of the Day: deforestation

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Word of the Day: deforestation

1. the state of being clear of trees

2. the removal of trees

_________

The word deforestation has appeared in 104 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 3 in “A 140-Year-Old Hemlock Was Lost. Now It Has New Life as Art” by Meredith Mendelsohn:

As she often does, Shin communicates that story through her materials — in this case, the poignant union of leather and hemlock by the artist. “This leather and this tree should never have found each other,” Shin said. Millions of hemlock trees died at the hand of the leather-tanning industry in first half of the 19th century, when the Catskill region prospered as its epicenter. Hemlock bark contains rich tannins used in the hide-curing process at the time, and tanners cleared nearly every grove of the conifer.

“I was so struck that this desire for leather goods led to mass deforestation,” Shin said. Church was also struck. “We picture the Church family looking out from the hilltop site of the main house at Olana, and they would have absolutely seen clear-cut swaths on the front range of the Catskills,” said Will Coleman, director of collections and exhibitions of the Olana Partnership, which manages the site with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Can you correctly use the word deforestation in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how deforestation can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

See How Aaron Revitalized His Career and Landed a Full-Time IT Role

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See How Aaron Revitalized His Career and Landed a Full-Time IT Role

Meet Aaron. Today, he is a successful Service Technician living in Washington state. Aaron worked hard for his success. He faced housing insecurity, a long pause in his education, and obstacles related to his mental health. He credits earning his Google IT Support Professional Certificate Program for helping him rediscover his passion for technology.

My name is Aaron Page. I am a Service Technician at a Managed Service Provider company in Washington state. My role involves answering phones and troubleshooting technical problems. What I love about this industry is coming across different problems that require unique solutions. I enjoy finding new ways to troubleshoot issues that may unexpectedly arise.

I often catch myself applying material I learned from the Google IT Support Professional Certificate Program on Coursera, which shows how applicable to real-life situations the skills are that I gained. 

Before completing the program, though, I was actually at risk of becoming homeless. I had been facing obstacles related to my mental health, and I dropped out of college after two and a half years. But I knew I wanted to get my life back on track. Having a solid support system helped me realize that I should follow my passion in the technology field. I had previous IT experience from a few internships, including one at my local school district, where I helped various schools prepare for an upcoming school year, and another at a local computer repair shop. 

Technology has always been a strong interest of mine, and I wanted to pursue the career goals I’d put on pause. What intrigued me the most about the Google IT Support Professional Certificate program was the opportunity to work at my own pace and schedule—all while being cost-effective.

Starting the program reignited my interest in technology and enabled me to go after a goal I had previously set for myself. I was able to learn new techniques that I am now using professionally. The program has challenged me to continue fostering my knowledge through learning new techniques and technologies that continue to be released. 

Shortly after completing the program, I received and accepted an offer for a full-time position! 

As I reflect on the Google IT Certificate, I can wholeheartedly conclude that it gave me the ability to revitalize my career and helped me reconnect with my passion for computers. If I could give some advice to anyone that is thinking about starting the program, it would be that taking the initial leap is the most daunting, but reaching that next level is worth it. No one else is going to do it for you—why not take that first leap?

 

4 reasons technical team training is a win for your whole org

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4 reasons technical team training is a win for your whole org

Providing your team with technical training is a great way to elevate individual team member’s skill sets, whether they’re looking to learn a new coding language or master a specific technical task. But technical training isn’t just beneficial for the individuals on your team — it can also improve the overall performance of your organization.

We’ve outlined four organizational benefits of technical training and how they enable your teams to work faster, simplify their workflows, and establish a baseline knowledge of technical skills.

Technical training helps minimize skills gaps

Organizational success depends heavily on the ability to minimize skills gaps, both internally within teams and externally in relation to the changing landscape of workforce needs.

When scaling teams, skills gaps between older and newer hires can be an issue especially in fast-paced engineering or product environments where these differences in skill sets can slow down collaborative efforts or cause workflow bottlenecks. Technical training solutions that are up to date and easy to personalize to the specific needs of new hires can help get them up to speed with the knowledge that they need during the onboarding process. Plus, junior and intermediate team members can continue to leverage technical training to efficiently build on their existing skills which helps nurture a well-rounded team with a consistent baseline of skill sets.

In addition to minimizing skills gaps within teams, technical training is a valuable tool for making sure that team members are always up to date with the most relevant skills for their role. The range of skills that a team needs to thrive is always changing due to external factors like market changes and business trends, and technical training can help your team members remain competitive in this landscape. When employees have access to educational resources that enable them to learn on their own, it promotes agility and continuous growth, minimizing both internal and external skills gaps to benefit the company as a whole.

Technical training also empowers team members to execute tasks on their own, which reduces dependencies within and across teams — this can be especially true for those in less technical departments such as marketing, finance, or business intelligence. Providing employees with the right tools to learn new skills helps them become more creative and take on meaningful initiatives in the workplace without relying or waiting on others.

Here are some examples of how different teams can work more independently through upskilling:

  • Business intelligence: Perform more advanced data analysis and querying using SQL / Python.
  • Marketing: Create and format landing pages or emails using HTML / CSS without relying on frontend teams.
  • Finance: Run financial analyses independently and create complex dashboards using SQL without waiting for data points from other teams.
  • Engineering and Data Science: New engineers can upskill to learn a language on their own to take on a new task without having to rely on a more senior engineer to teach them.

Technical training enables efficiency and automation

Across the board, technical training also helps to solve a critical business challenge: making sure that teams are able to make the most efficient use of their time and efforts. Technical training helps equip teams with the necessary hard skills to automate repetitive tasks, expedite cross-departmental initiatives, and adopt an agile approach to their work.

Here are a few ways that technical skills enable various teams and work more efficiently:

  • Finance teams with data analysis skills like Python or SQL can get from a financial diagnosis to the root cause of the issue, and quickly identify the correct team to address the issue with. This saves time compared to bringing up the issue across several teams to individually investigate and report back.
  • Marketing teams can simplify their workflow and quickly create and update landing page templates to speak to different audiences for paid marketing or other dynamic marketing campaigns.
  • Business operations teams can use Python or SQL to create customized reports by pulling specific data that matters most to the team.
  • Technical teams can learn to use automation and smart design to test applications, rather than testing manually.

Technical training empowers data management

Finally, technical training gives teams a leg up in managing and making the most of their data. Here are a few data sources that can be analyzed using skills like Python and SQL to inform strategy and provide better insights into performance:

  • Email outreach data: Analyze open, unsubscribe, and engagement rates, as well as A/B test metrics, to know what’s working and what’s not.
  • Inbound lead data: Examine inbound account data to better understand the customer base, popular use cases, and industry verticals.
  • Sales data: Conduct analysis on past sales data to predict future trends and inform accurate revenue projections.

While the individual gains of technical training may be the most obvious win, these overarching benefits can help move the needle forward in transforming your organization to be able to work quickly and efficiently.

If you’re ready to experience these benefits for your own organization, Codecademy for Teams can help with interactive, hands-on training to boost your teams’ technical skills. Whether a team member is interested in learning a new coding language or mastering a specific task, our curriculum can help them unlock their potential.

Fill out the form below to learn more and to speak with a member of our sales team.

How Much Do You Know About Yemen?

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How Much Do You Know About Yemen?

Can you find Yemen on a map? What else do you know about this nation on the Arabian Peninsula with about 30 million people?

20 Sites With Stunning Free Photos for Your Blog Posts

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20 Sites With Stunning Free Photos for Your Blog Posts

20 Sites With Stunning Free Photos for Your Blog Posts

Life can sure get hectic, and sometimes, as a blogger, you may not have the time or even the photography skills necessary to take stunning, high-quality photos for your blog. Today I wanted to share with you my favorite sites with free photos for the blog posts.

Free Photos for Your Blog Posts

When I’m looking for photos I usually go to places I know. Below you will find my top three sites that I visit almost every day.

#1 Pexels

Pexels is my first choice when I need free stock photos. They have a huge variety of high-quality images and videos you can use even for commercial projects. Most (if not all) photos you see in posts from our premade designs come from this site.

#2 Freepik

Freepik is a great place if you are looking not only for photos but also for social media graphics and graphics for your posts. All resources here are free however you need to attribute the author.

#3 Unsplash

Unsplash is a chuck full of stunning high-resolution images. These images are free to download and you can do whatever you want with them. You can peruse all of their gorgeous photos or you can narrow your search by category. Ten new photos are added every ten days.

If I really need some specyfic free photos for blog posts and I can’t find them on the sites above (what doesn’t happen foten) I visit one of those five links:

#4 Pixabay

One of the most popular sites with free stock photos. I definitely recommend checking it out if you do not know it yet.

#5 FoodieFeed

Looking for food-related photos? It is a perfect place for you.

#6 Picography

Modern looking site with unique photos.

#7 Magdeleine

On this site, you will find both free photos and those that require attribution, so make sure to check the license of the image you want to use.

#8 TravelCoffeBook

Great idea for the site. You will find here travel photos that are free to use. Make sure to buy the author a coffee if you will find his site helpful.

If you are still looking for more, below are other sites with free stock photos that will be perfect for blog posts. I do not use them, but since I keep the list, just in case, I thought it is a great moment to share it with you.

#9 Foca Stock – https://focastock.com/
#10 Startup Stock Photos – https://startupstockphotos.com/
#11 Pixjumbo – https://picjumbo.com/
#12 Gratisography – http://www.gratisography.com/
#13 Little Visuals – http://littlevisuals.co/
#14 Nomad Photos – https://nomad.pictures/
#15 Stock Snap – https://stocksnap.io/
#16 Realistic Shots – http://realisticshots.com/
#17 Cupcake – http://cupcake.nilssonlee.se/
#18 Skitter Photo – http://skitterphoto.com/
#19 Kaboompics – http://kaboompics.com/
#20 Snapwiresnaps – http://snapwiresnaps.tumblr.com/

I hope that this post will help you with finding free photos for your blog posts. If you know, any other sites that offer high-resolution stock photos, share them with us in the comments!

Introducing Coursera’s Asian Identities Employee Resource Group

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Introducing Coursera’s Asian Identities Employee Resource Group

By Crystal Chen, Product Marketing Lead, Coursera for Business

On 12-22-2020, a group of employees at Coursera established the Asian Identities Employee Resource Group. In just the first few months of its launch, we have been able to serve Coursera and create a stronger sense of community, inclusion and belonging. We were able to host our company’s first-ever virtual Lunar New Year celebration. We created Brave Space forums for employees to process the rise in anti-Asian hate and the tragic impact of COVID-19 surges in Asian regions. And we’ve staged countless events to showcase the many cultures, traditions and stories of the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora. 

The journey toward establishing this group started in January 2020—back when we were all still in the office. It was a Thursday evening, and we were screening the movie “Always Be My Maybe.” One of our longest-tenured senior engineers, Jon Wong, was sitting next to our CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda, in the front row of the screening room. Jon was chowing down on snacks and Jeff peered over and asked what it was he was eating. And that was when our CEO had Strawberry Pocky for the first time in his life. 

I love that moment, as I love all the other cultural celebrations we’ve had at Coursera. From Diwali to Mid-Autumn Festival to dumpling-making nights and movie nights, there are so many ways that we celebrate our Asian heritage with the people who mean so much to us. 

Last year, we opened 2020 with the first-ever official Coursera-sponsored Lunar New Year. It was a huge cross-functional effort and it was buzzing— there were 30 volunteers on the planning committee alone! There were events for a whole week, and decorations, and for those of us who couldn’t “go home” that year, a little sense of home.

The success of the event led us to wonder—besides throwing great parties—what else could we tackle together? 

What would it look like if we could balance cultural values with professional success? What if we could overcome the “model minority” and “worker bee” stereotypes? Could we drive broader awareness of underserved markets in Asia Pacific—and help Coursera build a truly global operating mentality? 

And what if we could be better allies to other groups at Coursera? 

During the police brutality tragedies of May and June 2020, my heart ached. I felt useless and clumsy, with zero clue how to help my Black friends and colleagues. Around that time we sent out an internal survey at Coursera about race dialogue at work, and many Asian respondents said they didn’t know how to think or talk about race. Many people also said they were only comfortable talking about race and equity with members of their own group. That moment was a wake up call for me. My feeling alone and useless wasn’t going to help anyone. Maybe if we could have a place to learn from each other how to talk about the tricky and hard things like race, diversity, inclusion, and equity, we could not just become better Courserians, but better allies, and better friends. 

That’s why I’m so proud and happy to share that the Asian Identities ERG now exists. 

The AI ERG exists to contribute to Coursera’s strength in diversity. 

To keep Asian and Pacific Islander people at Coursera; 

To teach us how to be better allies to our friends—

And how to advocate for ourselves;

To share with everyone the rich and varied cultures of which we are so proud,

And also,  

To bring Coursera to all corners of the earth

To reach learners with the good stuff 

That is going to change their lives. 

Building from those who came before us 

and to whom we owe our abilities—

we are here to begin again, every day, as our best selves.

Crystal Chen, on behalf of the AI ERG 

Cheri Kau (Chair) & Doug Kim (Co-Chair) & Richard Wong (Executive Sponsor)

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