Understanding the front end developer job landscape

Modern web design is not just about technology, art and design are an equally important and integral part of the development. This is why front end development is such a lucrative career path. As a large number of companies and organizations are aggressively investing in scaling up their online presence, there’s massive potential for front end developer career growth.

Front end development is the client-side graphical/visual development that users interact with. If you have a knack to bring a bold artistic vision to life through lines of code, you can explore front end development as a career. In this article, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive view of front end developer career landscape.

Career Prospects

Front end developers create user experiences whether it’s a static page like an Amazon search result page or highly dynamic web applications like Twitter and Facebook. It will be a gross understatement to say that as a front end developer you will be only responsible for writing user-facing code. You will be expected to create an immersive user experience by building scalable and fast applications.

In short as a front end developer, “you will be translating elements like logos, images and copywriting into a web-speak”.

Speaking of the prospects of choosing a front end developer career path, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates a 13% growth in demand for frontend developers between 2020 and 2030. The projected growth is much faster than any other occupation. In the US market alone there will be over 17,900 job openings for digital designers each year over the decade.

Whether you are just starting your professional life or embarking on a new goal, prospects for front end developer career growth are extremely promising in the industry. As the tech powering websites and web apps are getting complex, there is a possibility to create Web 3.0 which is driving the demand for not just front-end developers but also web integrators, web content strategists, and web app developers.

What skills do employers expect from frontend developers? 

Every frontend developer is expected to have mastery of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is the bare minimum requirement and to get started you must be familiar with frameworks like bootstrap, Backbone, Foundation, EmberJS, and AngularJS. These frameworks are mandatory for creating great-looking content irrespective of device. Additionally, encapsulation libraries like LESS and jQuery that help you make code more useful are important.

Responsive design principles are important to master if you want frontend developer job growth. These principles guide website designs that scale and adjust themselves such that users have a compelling experience, irrespective of the device they are using to access the websites or web apps.

Well, designing the basics and then adding a responsive skin to the overall application is alright, but users won’t enjoy the design if the app or the site will take forever to load. This is why frontend developers are expected to be fully aware of the principles of browser rendering. While we have linked to the resource where you can know about browser rendering in detail, employers expect developers to know critical rendering path, image optimization, and JavaScript minification at the least. These principles ensure the website is fast and efficient.

Finally, for frontend developer career growth you must know how to inspect elements and troubleshoot bugs. For better prospects, you must learn version control software like Git to save, share and maintain your code.

Many frontend developer jobs ask for AJAX experience. In simple words, AJAX is a widely used technique for dynamically loading pages with JavaScript without reloading.

Where to look for frontend development jobs? 

Once you have built your portfolio and have gained enough experience, you can choose to take your frontend developer career path to the next level. You can either choose to look at better companies or switch to a freelance career.

LinkedIn is the best place to search for frontend developer jobs. It is a professional network that offers you both freelance as well as full-time frontend development opportunities. There are 16,000+ frontend developer openings on LinkedIn currently.

Unicorn Hunt is a job board that connects you with opportunities in the European market. If you are interested in frontend developer roles at startups, Unicorn has over 10,000 job openings.

AngelList is another job board that connects you with some of the highest-paying jobs across the globe. It is the right place to look for a freelancer as well as full-time opportunities. Compared to other job boards, frontend developer openings posted here are fewer.

Toptal is the best job board to look for freelancer opportunities. With 10,000+ freelance frontend development opportunities, it can connect you with some of the best brands and startups.

Frontend developer salary

The demand for frontend developers in India is quite high across industries. Banking, eCommerce, education, finance, and healthcare are some of the sectors that actively hire frontend developers. Based on their job roles and the demand of the industries, the average pay base for a frontend developer in India is ₹487,445 per annum.

Depending on the experience and technologies you have mastered you can earn up to ₹2/3 Million per annum. For frontend developer career growth, you must portray an experience that highlights your work culture, achievements, and knowledge.

Furthermore, your skillset is something that makes you stand out from the crowd. To get maximum salary benefits and better prospects, some technologies are more important than others.

Here is the average pay scale for different frontend technologies:

As a frontend developer, you have the choice to freelance and go solo or work full-time in an organization and be part of a team.

Freelance frontend developers often work with smaller businesses and individuals to create new websites or update the looks of existing ones. As a freelancer, you get the freedom to choose your own tools and technologies that you want for a project.

As a full-time employee, you often work on products to fulfill your company’s mission. As you will be working in a team apart from specialization in technology such as JavaScript, you also need excellent communication and organizational skills.

Are you ready to make a switch? 

Frontend developer job growth can be immense if you have the right skillset. Talent500 is the platform where elite talent meets the right opportunities. If you are planning to make it big as a frontend developer, join us today. Sign up here.