Dev Tales is part of a Heart Internet blog series showing that web developers are humans too. Any resemblance to any duck themed imagery, fictional or non-fictional, is pure coincidence. Honest guv.

For some people, writing line upon line of complex and intricate code causes a wave of nausea to come over them. For others, myself included, it induces a feeling of joy bordering on masochistic in nature. With that said, not everyone wants to do it for a living – some individuals prefer to just tinker and dabble, creating the occasional bit of functioning code to make their lives simpler. I was one of those people until the beginning of this year, when I decided I wanted to make a full-time career out of it.

The field of web development is not an easy one to enter by any means; every man and his dog has read and written enough HTML5 or dabbled in enough jQuery to create an aesthetically pleasing website. It is another matter entirely to gain the skills to create and maintain well-written and useful code. The life of a web developer can be difficult, it requires knowledge of multiple fields and multiple roles, and each of these fields has technology that is evolving at breakneck speeds.

This is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down.

I currently work as a Front End Developer for Heart Internet, but my journey to the developer’s office was anything but typical. I started out as a first line support agent, standing on the front lines accepting and solving call after call. Being a hobbyist coder, I realised quickly that I could quite easily create several small tools and scripts that would make me far more efficient in my work.

Naturally, this small series of tools evolved in to an all-encompassing suite of features that are now used company wide. Eventually, some of the development team at the time were curious about the code, and asked to have a look. One of the team took me under his wing and mentored me for much of my journey, challenging me to study and practice my skills and eventually encouraged me to apply for the position I am in today.

But where to start? Between projects, studying and networking, there just isn’t enough time in the day!

Pet projects can be an incredibly efficient way to try out your skills. The majority of the time you will have control of the full stack, from the system administration right through to the end user experience. While it will rapidly progress your knowledge in multiple areas, it will also prevent you in most cases from truly excelling in one or two of them. I thought I knew JavaScript well, but once I began looking beyond the usual “beginner’s guide” books, that there was an immensely deep and complex language beyond. As a result of specialising I now feel far more confident in JavaScript than I did just six short months ago.

Unfortunately for some of us, hard study is a non-negotiable reality when it comes to development, and you will never stop studying. The key to doing it effectively is to find a way to do it that you enjoy. I recently attended Second Wednesday in Nottingham and watched a talk on gamification and its effects on studying, which reminded me of a fantastic site for gaining a general knowledge of all things web based. The guys at Team Treehouse do a fantastic job of educating and entertaining, and it is still one of the greatest ways to spend $25 a month to progress your career, in my opinion.

If you prefer the more traditional lecture based formats, I also enjoyed good success with Coursera who provide (for free!) a range of courses from universities around the world. The downside is that they usually run on the universities regular schedule, meaning that the course you want may not be available when you need it.

Reading is a great way to expand your knowledge within a limited timeframe. The great thing about this approach is that you can do it literally anywhere. I read a couple of articles on the bus to work, while waiting for a friend and while I walk to the shop on my lunch. I personally use the Android app Feedly and subscribe to blog posts from some of the foremost people in our industry.

If I had to pick the single thing I did that had the largest impact on my career, it would be getting to know one of my fellow developers and having him as a mentor. Between one-on-one training, him setting me challenges and simply having idle conversations about the future of this technology, or the impact of that technology, my skills came on in leaps and bounds. However, we are notoriously reclusive as a group, so finding people to help you out can be a challenge. I suggest looking locally for developer meet ups, go to social events and meet the people involved in our industry. You never know, one of these guys might be your future employer.

At the risk of the plug being shameless, for anyone in the Nottinghamshire area I highly recommend Second Wednesday to meet lots of local people from across the industry!

By far, the most difficult part of becoming a developer is continuing to learn and cement the fundamental skills, while also trying to keep up and learn all of the rapidly evolving technology. Without a doubt, getting the basics down is a hundred times more important to your long term career, but sometimes it can be interesting and nice break to see what the future of our world is going to be like.

Finally, knowing when you are ready to take that massive step in to the real world of development and putting the agony of freelancing and client work behind you is equally difficult. For me, that moment came when I recognised my own competence, and the confidence from recognising my own skill was boosted by a job offer from Heart Internet. There is no set checklist or repertoire of skills to have beyond the basic programming knowledge, but constant practice and study naturally make you ready to take on the job. It is a long, arduous road to landing that dream job in web development, but with the right attitude and a good deal of effort it is entirely possible.

So, knuckle down and get to work, we’re expecting you!