Is this "Web Developer" work?

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Mar 8th, 2022 10:51 am

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Mar 2nd, 2022 11:39 pm

Thorkell [OP]: Deal Addict; Sep 28, 2006; 1409 posts; 1533 upvotes; Toronto

Mar 2nd, 2022 11:39 pm

Is this "Web Developer" work?

So for the last year or so I have found myself volunteering for small time non for profits and small businesses and cleaning up their e commerce platforms and web pages for them. They were a freaking mess. They are mostly using those low cost or free content management platforms to build their pages. No coding required so far.

I don't even know if this counts as web development, but does it? Can I add that on my professional profile and indicate the no coding part? What I mostly did was, organized pages in a logical manner, something that I felt would be a great experience for the end user. Organized page layouts, cleaned up the imagery, applied company branding/colors themes etc, built user forms for a better experience and so on.

It's not even my career path, but I thought about putting it as a community service part in my professional profile. My main objective was to help out, get some exposure to building websites and the different content creation platforms.

Thanks

19 replies

Mar 2nd, 2022 11:54 pm

nocwia: Jr. Member; Nov 20, 2021; 105 posts; 102 upvotes

Mar 2nd, 2022 11:54 pm

Web dev is html/css/js. If you know those 3 you know basic web dev.

+1

Mar 3rd, 2022 8:30 am

Sarc: Sr. Member; Sep 28, 2003; 715 posts; 371 upvotes

Mar 3rd, 2022 8:30 am

Not really. If you end up landing an interview and they ask you about this, you'll be screened out quickly unless you have other experience that is real web dev. Although, this sounds more like web design because it's making the site have a coherent flow for visitors and making it look nice.

Also, if it's not really your career path then it does make sense to add it to a community service section or whatever miscellaneous section to round out your profile. It definitely doesn't sound like it would belong in experience if it's irrelevant to the job.

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:22 am

Guest032984237: Banned; Mar 7, 2007; 5347 posts; 3014 upvotes

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:22 am

Yes, include it, this is very valuable work you are doing, specially if you are not a web developer.

But I am not sure how to capture it / write it up.

______________________________

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:37 am

MaxGor: Newbie; Jul 4, 2006; 50 posts; 22 upvotes; Markham

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:37 am

Thorkell wrote: ↑ I don't even know if this counts as web development, but does it? Can I add that on my professional profile and indicate the no coding part? What I mostly did was, organized pages in a logical manner, something that I felt would be a great experience for the end user. Organized page layouts, cleaned up the imagery, applied company branding/colors themes etc, built user forms for a better experience and so on.

If you did no coding at all or didn't build any websites, I would classify that as more marketing / SEO work / user experience design work at best.

Not sure about what CMS, you worked with but in my opinion, if you wanted to say you were a "Wordpress developer" the minimum would be to be able to make your own theme.

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:37 am

bhrm: Deal Fanatic; Jul 13, 2009; 5134 posts; 3372 upvotes

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:37 am

Web UX/UI.

Mar 3rd, 2022 1:12 pm

enwhyRFD: Deal Fanatic; Dec 31, 2007; 5148 posts; 1756 upvotes; Richmond Hill

Mar 3rd, 2022 1:12 pm

IMO first step towards web dev. There's still a long road ahead for you to qualify as web dev.

"Buy now, think later. This is the way."

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:42 pm

canada85000: Member; Sep 25, 2020; 447 posts; 303 upvotes

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:42 pm

Junior web analyst

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:50 pm

Thorkell [OP]: Deal Addict; Sep 28, 2006; 1409 posts; 1533 upvotes; Toronto

Mar 3rd, 2022 9:50 pm

My question was, arent these new content management platforms making web development roles less code based?

Or is there a whole side Im not seeing

+1

Mar 3rd, 2022 10:12 pm

canada85000: Member; Sep 25, 2020; 447 posts; 303 upvotes

Mar 3rd, 2022 10:12 pm

I used a Web content management system 15
years ago during my first summer job at a medium sized company. So this is not new.

The website layout is already designed. All I do is paste information into a textbox, save it, it goes onto staging, then publish live. Its almost like using Microsoft Word. Type something, use formatting options (bold, italicize, etc). Marketing guys just buy photos from somewhere and we just upload it.

Coding is not required.

High Demand for Website designers during the late 1998-mid 2005 when internet was booming. Now, I think website designer is a dying field from my opinion. 1 website designer for each company is enough just to manage the site. Which means it is hard to find a job after all.

+1

Mar 3rd, 2022 10:15 pm

canada85000: Member; Sep 25, 2020; 447 posts; 303 upvotes

Mar 3rd, 2022 10:15 pm

Might be easier to find a job as a UI developer or User experience designer for a company that develop software then a web site designer for a company.

Mar 3rd, 2022 10:29 pm

nocwia: Jr. Member; Nov 20, 2021; 105 posts; 102 upvotes

Mar 3rd, 2022 10:29 pm

Thorkell wrote: ↑ My question was, arent these new content management platforms making web development roles less code based?

How do you think it'll turn out if you don't use any code to build redflagdeals? Or kijiji, or cbc.ca, or td.ca, or realtor.ca? What about Twitter? Facebook? Google?

Most of the interesting stuff is happening behind the scenes. A web developer's job is usually to integrate tightly with those backends that's providing the data.

Your no code web builders are fine for building out your personal blog, or some read-only marketing page. But if you need more control over the content of what's being presented, or you need to customize the way these things are being presented in a way that's not supported out of the box, you're going to need code at some point.

The world of front end development is vast. Anyone can build their own websites with these no code web builders. When they are hiring for web developers however, they are usually looking for somebody who can code, preferably in a web framework the company might already be working with. E.g.:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/112 ... works-web/

+1

Mar 4th, 2022 3:41 pm

Redsanta: Deal Addict; Dec 16, 2015; 4534 posts; 4489 upvotes; Toronto

Mar 4th, 2022 3:41 pm

nocwia wrote: ↑
How do you think it'll turn out if you don't use any code to build redflagdeals? Or kijiji, or cbc.ca, or td.ca, or realtor.ca? What about Twitter? Facebook? Google?

Most of the interesting stuff is happening behind the scenes. A web developer's job is usually to integrate tightly with those backends that's providing the data.

Much better news media scripts out there than cbc lol

Your no code web builders are fine for building out your personal blog, or some read-only marketing page. But if you need more control over the content of what's being presented, or you need to customize the way these things are being presented in a way that's not supported out of the box, you're going to need code at some point.

The world of front end development is vast. Anyone can build their own websites with these no code web builders. When they are hiring for web developers however, they are usually looking for somebody who can code, preferably in a web framework the company might already be working with. E.g.:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/112 ... works-web/

Rfd uses a premade script, used to be vbulletin now phpbb.

Theres many premade scripts like kijiji but so much better out there.

True for truly customized large enterprise website, but for SME, theres many premade solutions and its only going to get easier and more automated.

To the moon

+1

Mar 4th, 2022 5:08 pm

nocwia: Jr. Member; Nov 20, 2021; 105 posts; 102 upvotes

Mar 4th, 2022 5:08 pm

Redsanta wrote: ↑ Rfd uses a premade script, used to be vbulletin now phpbb.

Theres many premade scripts like kijiji but so much better out there.

True for truly customized large enterprise website, but for SME, theres many premade solutions and its only going to get easier and more automated.

That's not a script, it's a webserver, which you need to provision infrastructure to run on. So gotta bring up your own linux boxes, db instances, buy a domain, provision and install certs, etc. When you need anything customized that's not supported out of the box, then you'll need to fork the repository and add your own features. If you're savvy tech wise you don't need any help. If you're not you're probably gonna hire someone to do all this and maintain it for you.

In any case, people don't typically hire web developers for these small sites. It's not web development work.

Mar 4th, 2022 9:50 pm

Redsanta: Deal Addict; Dec 16, 2015; 4534 posts; 4489 upvotes; Toronto

Mar 4th, 2022 9:50 pm

nocwia wrote: ↑ That's not a script, it's a webserver, which you need to provision infrastructure to run on. So gotta bring up your own linux boxes, db instances, buy a domain, provision and install certs, etc. When you need anything customized that's not supported out of the box, then you'll need to fork the repository and add your own features. If you're savvy tech wise you don't need any help. If you're not you're probably gonna hire someone to do all this and maintain it for you.

In any case, people don't typically hire web developers for these small sites. It's not web development work.

lol no its actually quite simple...i did that in earlier 2000's when i was in middle school/high school...running vbulletin forum + news feed + manga reader + torrent video streaming (precursor to crunchyroll)

To the moon

Mar 4th, 2022 10:00 pm

nocwia: Jr. Member; Nov 20, 2021; 105 posts; 102 upvotes

Mar 4th, 2022 10:00 pm

Redsanta wrote: ↑ lol no its actually quite simple...i did that in earlier 2000's when i was in middle school/high school...running vbulletin forum + news feed + manga reader + torrent video streaming (precursor to crunchyroll)

No one said it was hard? It is easy if you know just a bit of tech. It's not gonna be anything of a popular site though without any work.

Mar 5th, 2022 9:14 pm

Thorkell [OP]: Deal Addict; Sep 28, 2006; 1409 posts; 1533 upvotes; Toronto

Mar 5th, 2022 9:14 pm

nocwia wrote: ↑ How do you think it'll turn out if you don't use any code to build redflagdeals? Or kijiji, or cbc.ca, or td.ca, or realtor.ca? What about Twitter? Facebook? Google?

Most of the interesting stuff is happening behind the scenes. A web developer's job is usually to integrate tightly with those backends that's providing the data.

Your no code web builders are fine for building out your personal blog, or some read-only marketing page. But if you need more control over the content of what's being presented, or you need to customize the way these things are being presented in a way that's not supported out of the box, you're going to need code at some point.

The world of front end development is vast. Anyone can build their own websites with these no code web builders. When they are hiring for web developers however, they are usually looking for somebody who can code, preferably in a web framework the company might already be working with. E.g.:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/112 ... works-web/

I used this thing called dreamweaver back in High school. I really enjoyed that part of the course but I dont remember much. In web development, where does dreamweaver fall into play?

Mar 5th, 2022 9:42 pm

nocwia: Jr. Member; Nov 20, 2021; 105 posts; 102 upvotes

Mar 5th, 2022 9:42 pm

Thorkell wrote: ↑ I used this thing called dreamweaver back in High school. I really enjoyed that part of the course but I dont remember much. In web development, where does dreamweaver fall into play?

I don't think it's used much today. Maybe I'm wrong.

I'd recommend starting with react if you want to dive into development.

Mar 7th, 2022 8:37 pm

raywired: Member; Oct 16, 2013; 253 posts; 112 upvotes; Toronto, ON

Mar 7th, 2022 8:37 pm

Thorkell wrote: ↑ My main objective was to help out, get some exposure to building websites and the different content creation platforms.

How does this line up with your main work? In order for it too boost your profile, it has to match up. For instance, if you're a Marketing Communications Manager by day and knowledgeable of website administration, it makes sense because you're lending your expertise at no cost.

This doesn't apply to all volunteer positions, of course. For example, volunteering at a soup kitchen or religious organization doesn't require this type of "matching up".

Since what you're doing requires some level of technical expertise, you don't want to damage your credibility (or theirs).

---
"If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into committees. That'll do them in."

Mar 8th, 2022 10:51 am

Sarc: Sr. Member; Sep 28, 2003; 715 posts; 371 upvotes

Mar 8th, 2022 10:51 am

Thorkell wrote: ↑ I used this thing called dreamweaver back in High school. I really enjoyed that part of the course but I dont remember much. In web development, where does dreamweaver fall into play?

It's a very specific tool for web development and has evolved over the years. If you wrote a lot of code with it back when you used it then your coding skills are what you care about. Dreamweaver would be just another tool to write code. A good developer doesn't need a specific tool but has increased productivity with good tools. With a good understanding of web development, you can create websites using various tools and languages. It could be Java/Node.js/Python/whatever for back-end and React/Vue/GWT/whatever for front-end. It doesn't matter if you used Dreamweaver/VS Code/IntelliJ/whatever to write the code. Although, an employer might use a specific set of tools for business reasons (tightly coupled to the tools or cheaper licenses). If you can only use Dreamweaver, you're marketing yourself for jobs that require Dreamweaver.

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