Why i love / hate web development

[Jeroen1322]

Hi guys! 

 

These are just my thoughts about my 'job'! 

 

 

So i just finished building a website for a pretty rich / big company and i realised some things..

 

So i have learned the basics of web development on Codecademy and made a website for my dad then mom then for myself.. and then a big company contacted me (Yes, i needed to change my pants..) i was baffeld and replied that i could make their website.. So i went to a meeting with the company and we talked about what they wanted and stuff.. So i started and made a design (They didn't want to make one themself) and the design got turned down and i just made a new one and they loved it after some tweaks! 

 

The website got hacked while i was working offline on the 2.0 version and ofcourse who got the blame.. I fixed it and went on with building the site.. But the website got hacked 4 times after that so i was like F that shizzle (I had to make a whole new website but they already had an website) so i tranferred the website to another more trusted and less shitty host and it never happend again! So yesterday i worked 6 hours straight (from to moment i woke up i got breakfast and jumped behind my computer) on the website.. That evening i had a meeting with the company and they were really pleased! I showed the website on one of their computers but they ran Windows Vista and IE 5 i believe.. So i installed Google Chrome because IE crashed and the host website didn't support such and old browser.. The company knows nothing about tech and we started to talk about their computers that they are really bad (Yes they are really really bad.. even for office computers) and before you know it they offered me a job to keep their hard/software up to date! 

 

 

Today i worked 3 hours and the website is finished but the boss of the company is on a 2 week vacation so i get paid later, but i get paid a freaking lot (for a 15 year old)! It is arround €200 + the some extra for "anti-hacking" their old website and switching host. 

And also i get paid for the job that they offered me! (ofcourse i accepted)! 

 

 

The fun stuff:

 

• Getting paid for doing something as a hobby
• Getting a job
• Exanding my resurme 
• Getting a bigger network of clients
• Work when i want 

Less fun stuff:

 

• Having a dead-line
• Getting a design turned down but they don't want to make their own
• Working in the weekends to make the dead-line
• Really repetative
• Gets pretty boring after a couple hours
• Looking for an error in the code that takes for ever

 

I hope i have a bright future in this buisness because i love it! 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

[ERSCreeper]

Yeah. I am starting to learn CSS and PhP at the moment. Following after my brother

[alpenwasser]

• Having a dead-line
• Getting a design turned down but they don't want to make their own
• Working in the weekends to make the dead-line
• Really repetative
• Gets pretty boring after a couple hours
• Looking for an error in the code that takes for ever

Most jobs ever, welcome to the real world!

But yeah, I did my dad's company website (small business, self employed), and

while I'm pretty damn happy with the result (I basically implemented a CMS

from scratch), when he suggested I do this for other people too I had to give

a very firm No. It's just way too much of a PITA in the long run, and I just

don't enjoy it enough for that. It has been an excellent learning experience

(learning about databases, getting some much needed coding practice, etc.), but

there's just too much stuff about web dev that I don't really enjoy to ever do

it professionally (the fact that every browser ever interprets CSS slightly

differently, the horribleness that is Javascript, although I'm using JQuery,

which mitigates that to some degree, and a few other things).

Anyway, congrats on moving up in the world I'd say!

[NielsKersic]

I'm also 15 years old and I make websites with one of my best friends.

 

What you're saying about repetitiveness, yeah, it's true, but if you do it for a while, you'll learn some tricks that make things easier. And searching through code for errors is a real nightmare, but again, after some time, and a lot of practtice, you'll probably see where the problem is right away. And as you said, working when you want, where you want, is just the thing every 15 year old wants. 

[Jeroen1322]

Most jobs ever, welcome to the real world!

But yeah, I did my dad's company website (small business, self employed), and

while I'm pretty damn happy with the result (I basically implemented a CMS

from scratch), when he suggested I do this for other people too I had to give

a very firm No. It's just way too much of a PITA in the long run, and I just

don't enjoy it enough for that. It has been an excellent learning experience

(learning about databases, getting some much needed coding practice, etc.), but

there's just too much stuff about web dev that I don't really enjoy to ever do

it professionally (the fact that every browser ever interprets CSS slightly

differently, the horribleness that is Javascript, although I'm using JQuery,

which mitigates that to some degree, and a few other things).

Anyway, congrats on moving up in the world I'd say!

Yes.. Javascript is the satan of web developing! 

[alpenwasser]

Yes.. Javascript is the satan of web developing!

Every time I look at some Javascript I wonder just WTF the guys

who made it were smoking when they did so. I mean, the language

is just so utterly ugly, it's almost disgusting (well, to me, at

least), and that in turn makes me very opposed to working with it

(I mean, I'm a code neatfreak, I want my code to me somewhat

pretty, and with JS that's just not freaking possible, ever!).

And this isn't even taking into accout the technical stuff I

don't like about it.

[Jeroen1322]

Every time I look at some Javascript I wonder just WTF the guys

who made it were smoking when they did so. I mean, the language

is just so utterly ugly, it's almost disgusting (well, to me, at

least), and that in turn makes me very opposed to working with it

(I mean, I'm a code neatfreak, I want my code to me somewhat

pretty, and with JS that's just not freaking possible, ever!).

And this isn't even taking into accout the technical stuff I

don't like about it.

I learned it but the only thing i really remember is how to make if / else statement and preforming actions and console.log'ing.. 

 

Then to think there are people that are really good at it! 

[Simmytu]

Wow congratulations Jeroen! I'm quite amazed that you did managed to get some well payed job for your age comparing it to working in a shop like in my area which it does suck 

Anyway, I hope that you continue with your passion and hopefully you enjoy it too (which I'm quite sure you are). 

I'm more of a hardware guy which puts me in the disadvantage, because most of the companies need someone who understands things like networking and management of a fully working system compared to someone who just advice and build systems for them. 

Well I'm still young and learning, so I'm whiling to start learning scripting soon. But I'm getting a bit off topic. 

 

I wish you luck with that company,   cheers! 

[Jeroen1322]

Wow congratulations Jeroen! I'm quite amazed that you did managed to get some well payed job for your age comparing it to working in a shop like in my area which it does suck 

Anyway, I hope that you continue with your passion and hopefully you enjoy it too (which I'm quite sure you are). 

I'm more of a hardware guy which puts me in the disadvantage, because most of the companies need someone who understands things like networking and management of a fully working system compared to someone who just advice and build systems for them. 

Well I'm still young and learning, so I'm whiling to start learning scripting soon. But I'm getting a bit off topic. 

 

I wish you luck with that company,   cheers! 

Haha thanks, and sucks to hear you don't have a good job! 

 

And you can always learn more so you know more about networking and stuff and maybe you really like it!  

[Simmytu]

Haha thanks, and sucks to hear you don't have a good job! 

 

And you can always learn more so you know more about networking and stuff and maybe you really like it!  

Yup that was my thought too. 

[Nallown]

I'm currently a web developer myself and got to develop a website for a quiet high up business (which I can't mention).

Believe me for every job you will ever get you will have a deadline, you will have co-workers helping you out to develop the product and also there are times where your deadline can be extended since when developing a product you will always encounter some errors and that's to be expected.

 

When I developed the website I got a several co-workers to work with, a server side programmer, a UX/UI Developer and a content developer who basically replaces the lorem ipsum with real stuff. With help of co-workers you'll be easily able to finish the product within the given deadline and I was able to finish the site 1 week early so we all just messed about in that week. pretty cool My boss brought over his xbox one and we played titanfall beta and I gave them ESO beta keys and played that and even had a crazy LAN party after work

[Stampkonijn]

Im so fucking jealous. Congratz brah

[Dredgy]

Every time I look at some Javascript I wonder just WTF the guys

 

The language itself is quite sound and even elegant to work with, though the default syntax highlighting for it in most editors makes it look quite messy. The main problem is f**kwits who can't use. Or use jQuery...thinking it is perfectly acceptable to slap 90kB (that's compressed!!!!) to do maybe a couple of lines of code. (My last project, I was using jQuery to create a lightbox viewer and to manipulate the <select> element to make it aesthetically pleasing, 150kB in jQuery...under 6kB for a more fully featured version in pure Javascript, that just ruins the client experience).

 

 People also misuse Javascript from a UI perspective - instead of using it for it's intended purpose of enhancing what is already there, they use it to create pointless things that don't have a place on websites. And half the website just fails if Javascript is turned off.

 

 

To the OP, congrats on the job. I started when I was 14 for that kind of money and it was the best thing in the world, even though I was godawful at it. Over the years (I'm 21 now) you learn so much that codeacademy could never teach you. Make sure to focus on things such as separation of content and style - learn the purposes of HTML and CSS and Javascript and keeping them separate. Learn good coding practices, develop strict standards and test test test. I know it is hilarious that the company was using older versions of IE - but so do most of them and they are important people viewing the page. That's why I test in IE5.5+, Opera, Konqueror, Safari, Chrome, Firefox and  mobile devices. (To be fair, I don't care what it looks like in IE5.5+/6/7, so long as it works and is usable). Most people will tell you that developing for IE includes a bunch of workarounds which isn't really true, it's usually lazy coding practices and ignorance of the nuances of IE. Take time to learn the specification and how each browser handles different elements and selectors so you can anticipate what its going to look like. Overtime this makes testing superquick.

 

Also remember responsive design - something that scales naturally to work on an iPhone, and iPad, a Galaxy Note, a full size desktop and a widescreen laptop. It's not easy to do at first but as you start learning what everything does and all of the subtleties and the excitement that goes into HTML and CSS and you will go far. NEVER isolate any users unless it absolutely cannot be avoided. 

 

Another important piece of advice is: "Clients are dickholes".

 

I say this from similar experience to you, and my own perfectionism and desire to see other people in the web development sphere do great things. I will tell you I was kicked out of school, but now, as all of my friends are graduating from university I've paid off my first apartment, get to travel the world, meet cool people, work for multinational companies and be mostly my own boss. Best of luck with everything!

[Maximation]

Great! Sounds like a pretty awesome job for a 15 year old dude

According to your name you're from the Netherlands, I'm from there as well. Maybe we can do some projects together? I'm the same age as you and none of my friends can actually code stuff, I believe that working together with someone can learn you a whole lot of cool stuff! Maybe you're not interested, but maybe you are..

Have fun

[Jeroen1322]

Great! Sounds like a pretty awesome job for a 15 year old dude

According to your name you're from the Netherlands, I'm from there as well. Maybe we can do some projects together? I'm the same age as you and none of my friends can actually code stuff, I believe that working together with someone can learn you a whole lot of cool stuff! Maybe you're not interested, but maybe you are..

Have fun

Haha yeah i'm interested!   What do you have in mind?

[loganryan99]

Every time I look at some Javascript I wonder just WTF the guys

who made it were smoking when they did so. I mean, the language

is just so utterly ugly, it's almost disgusting (well, to me, at

least), and that in turn makes me very opposed to working with it

(I mean, I'm a code neatfreak, I want my code to me somewhat

pretty, and with JS that's just not freaking possible, ever!).

And this isn't even taking into accout the technical stuff I

don't like about it.

 

I wouldn't mind Javascript much if it weren't for all the brackets, especially when using Angular.JS.

Seriously, almost everything is inside of an array and it gets confusing, messy, and easy to screw up. So many brackets.

[Paralectic]

Good to hear! nice job.

[Maximation]

Haha yeah i'm interested!   What do you have in mind?

 

Awesome to hear! I'm interested in almost everything related to computers, but it has to be technical enough . What projects are you working on at the moment?

[Jeroen1322]

Awesome to hear! I'm interested in almost everything related to computers, but it has to be technical enough . What projects are you working on at the moment?

Well out of school not very much.. Just finished my biggest project (The website) and now i don't really have anything exept a personal project to switch cases  

[Maximation]

Well out of school not very much.. Just finished my biggest project (The website) and now i don't really have anything exept a personal project to switch cases

 

Interesting. What kind of projects do you like working on?

[bufli]

Well out of school not very much.. Just finished my biggest project (The website) and now i don't really have anything exept a personal project to switch cases

 

Congrats.

 

From my experience if you want quick contracts try and get a hold of realtors or small business owners. They almost always don't have a website OR want to change it.

[LePawel]

For me CSS and JS is like Garlic for Vampires. Lethal. 

"So you made a mistake in your code? Here, let me not show where it is"

[Jeroen1322]

Congrats.

 

From my experience if you want quick contracts try and get a hold of realtors or small business owners. They almost always don't have a website OR want to change it.

Thanks, i'll try that!

[Jeroen1322]

For me CSS and JS is like Garlic for Vampires. Lethal. 

"So you made a mistake in your code? Here, let me not show where it is"

I don't have many problems with CSS, it can be annoying but not that horrible

[LePawel]

I don't have many problems with CSS, it can be annoying but not that horrible

Good for you, but after I got to program in a language and IDE that support proper debugging and had a chance to work in both for 2 courseworks at the same time, there's no way back for me.