Considering a career as a web developer
 

Well, I talked to my college guidance counselor today, and it looks like I'lll have to take 2 whole semesters of prerequisite classes before I can even begin SQL/PHP programming classes :( I was really bummed out when she told me, which led me to question being a website developer. Do any of you all have any advice/input on the advantages/disadvantages of being a website developer?

Tell me anything positive because this is really what I want to do. I just worry about it not being a job that will bring in enough money to support a family.

Developement can be a great career, if that's what you are interested in. You will most likely not be doing much php or mysql professionally as most companies don't use that on a corporate level. Still, SQL (as you mentioned) is heavily used and a decent developer can do quite well with it. I think if it's something you are really interested in that you should go for it. :)

Well what I want to do is more along the lines of a freelance web developer, kinda like a stay at home job. I have some aspirations of creating a company with a buddy of mine, but I didn't know if that would bring in the same amount of money as working for a corporation or large company would. Thanks for your feeback :)

Well if you are interested in doing PHP/SQL work, you should consider either coupling that knowledge with XHTML/CSS, or team up with a mate good at this. Although your paycheck might not be as steady as if you were working for a large company, you will be able to work with exactly what you are interested in. Depending on the extent of the work (and how greedy your mate is :p), the individual paychecks may be more frequent or larger than the case of a large company (this of course depends on your rank within the company, and other factors Im unfamiliar with).

Note to the record that I am not an educated Webdesigner, I do not speak from experience but common sense. I am going Webdesign with my edu as it is what Im interested in, not just because of the money it can bring in.

I hear that-I love web design, and that's the reason I want to pursue a career in it. It would be awesome for me to do something I love, while bringing home the bacon. ;)

Learn PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Solaris and Oracle.

this magical combination will see you able to enter most organisation as a Web App Dev. (don't ask me why but they're hired left right and centre and for good money) of the course the latter two are just a matter of flexibility and look good on your CV especially if you're gonna work in the financial district, and leave your options open for moving into DB Administration.

It just so happens that all of those languages are on my curriculum :D Thanks everyone for all your comments and advice :)

PHP won't get you anywhere in most companies, nor will MySQL. However, Oracle, JSP, ASP, and MS SQL will take you far given they're enterprise-level products. PHP is poorly suited to such tasks, as is MySQL.

it all depends he may get picked up by jelsoft all php/mysql work there.
i know of other co's that wont higher anyone who knows asp in my town. i know they are a rarity but still it exists. but for the most part big co's love ms crap because they pay 10k for a software package so they think oh we have this expensive os now lets higher someone for 50k that will offset the costs of the software that you can get on linux virtually free... go figure... i dont understand most companies when it comes to software purchases

Well, it's really about integration. Like them or not, MS integrates most of their software with eachother which is very attractive to corporations. Filburt is dead on, php and MySql are great for what we like to do with it but there is no place for it in the corporate world, at least at this time. I know that they are working on scaling MySql that direction though, it would be nice to see it grow to that level.

Yep, there aren't many jobs in the real world for PHP/MySQL developers and the jobs that are there are fiercely fought over :) PHP is a great language for starting out with but I'd reccomend learning C# or something more advanced that has lots of jobs around for.

Hey man I am in the same situation, they got me taking all sorts of stuff before I even get to learn any code, I'm looking at 2 years of boring work to before I even enter my first class in Java.

My advice it to start learning php/mySQL now, by the time you enter class you will have alot of experance with it and have a jump on everyone else. Otherwise stick with the boring stuff, I messed around when I first got in and have three withdraws (wasted money and time!) to show for it. Don't end up like me ;)

I will also go with what others have said, php/mySQL is nice, but learning C++/MS-SQL/Oracle/etc etc will take you much further.

You all say that, but i've seen five great jobs in industries like 3D Film Design for a web application developer for php/mysql.

That's exactly what I'm doing. I just bought three books; one called Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide (because I'm not too familiar with it), Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, and Learning PHP5. :glasses: I've began reading them and so far everything makes sense to me. Lets hope everything else will..

Five... not thousands like you'll get with something like C#

What good will a job do if we hate doing it? Money isn't everything. Every one of us want to get home to our girl and tell her about your great day, not sink down on the couch with a cold one and say "what a goddamn, [insert array of cuss words] day, argh!" ;)
And yeah I can see the similiarities between C and PHP, but considering their area of use is quite different, I still consider the 2 different enough to warrant me posting the starting paragraph :)
Plus a great vB coder and/or vB designer can reel in a fair amount of money ;)

Statistically speaking, knowledge of PHP and MySQL is useless against enterprise-level languages and databases. The only primary reason that vB uses it is because the majority of web servers had that. However, large companies run their own servers and can put whatever engines they want on there, which is something scalable like JSP or ASP. PHP is a fine language for simple tasks but it's horrible for large-scale, scalable projects.

Yeah I don't really care that much about money, the only reason I care somewhat about it is because (yeah I know it's kind of stupid) I want to show my parents that all the time I spend on the computer is because I am trying to better my future, and by pulling in a pretty good income, they'll be able to see that. But also I want to be able to support my family (if I have one) doing something I like to do.

[high]* Guest190829 adds C# on his thing to learn before college list...[/high]

It's not stupid, as it's EXACTLY what I want as well. My mom is always on my ass for spending too much time on the comp, and she calls it "gaming" despite my best efforts of persuading her Im coding to learn XD

This has absolutely nothing to do with money, it's to do with jobs on the real market. PHP/MySQL at enterprise level (forgetting working freelance from home) has hardly any openings, C#/Java and others do :) Simple as that, and that's why I'm going to start learning a bit of C# and .NET next year.

Why is PHP isn't suitable for enterprises and ASP \ JSP is?

They are faster and allow you to do more most of the time. PHP is developed for the web, C# is not. For example I'd be curious to see someone develop something along the lines of GTA using PHP and some other interfaces :p

Varying what languages and skills you have to offer will ensure you get a good job - You need to mix and match web languages with some enterprise level languages...

Something like:

PHP, MySQL, CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, Java, JSP, ASP, .NET, C#, MS-SQL, Oracle

Its a good spread of languages and shows you have the ability to adapt to other languages, not just one or two...

This is good, because if a company is looking for an experienced coder with expertise in, lets say VB, and they are going to look at you, even though you have no official experience in these languages, and their first thoughts will be "he shows he can learn other languages" - This will lead to them believing that you can adapt and learn VB in a fairly short period of time, and someone who comes along with only experience in VB may not get the job just because he fits the requirements ;)

Remember - They may be looking for VB right now, but in a few years time they will probably want to broaden their development, and maybe explore ASP or C# or even PHP, and the fact that you have a multi-language base to work from will make you more attractive to them for the future as well as the short-term ;)

Satan

ASP and JSP (Active Server Pages and Java ServerPages) are designed to scale to large-scale purposes. They are also extremely object-oriented and integrate well with other enterprise-level engines like Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. PHP is not designed for these purposes.

I would venture to say that if vB was written in JSP or ASP with a comparably enterprise-leveled database server, you would not be hearing these stories of sites running dozens of servers to run vB. The solution to a problem is rarely to throw more hardware at it.

If I major in Computer Science, what should expect to learn? Java and Perl I know are on the curriculum...any others?

Most CS courses only teach Java and a bit of assembly (in the UK anyway).

I am a CS major, I expect ot learn about zilch from my university. They are considered about top 20. I would actually suggest computer technology or a dual major. Because a large amount of universities do not teach you much about any of the commonly used languages, just teach you the languages that are basic. Such as C++. Which is used way to much.

The computer technology courses could help in the skills need for design and build.

You'll probably be taught C, C++, and assembly. They're also finally getting a clue and teaching Java as well. You may learn useless langauges like Lisp and Prolog, too.

Most universities have finally dropped C. C++ and assembly are still used heavily (unfortunatly) at my university.

I've worked freelance and at a web design firm in a nearby city and I can tell you that it's definetly not easy. First of all,

Freelance is very random. The money is not consistant so sometimes you are struggling for a new job, other times you are too busy to accept new ones, either way it makes it a juggling act of bills or jobs.

Working for a company usually yields low pay - they know a ton of people know the basic web languages and everyone is dying to get that type of job so you feel like a dime a dozen. I did a 6 month internship at a company ( www.pbhs.com ) and I just got treated like a script junky, like nothing almost.

I'd suggest being very sure about going for this career, it can be very frustrating at times ( although fun and rewarding at others. )

Good luck to you!

LOL I was forced to learn ADA. :(

Yes, it is a joke some of the things that they try to teach. But I understand why, They are trying to lay a foundation for you to learn the basics than when you get a job they expect the business to pay for you to learn more. (Which does happen)

If I was going to decide what to do. I would go security right now

I see even more growth in this area. Especiallly with possible legal actinos down the road for companies that are hacked and user information is leaked. Such as what happened recently with a major credit card company.