How to become a web developer: requirements, pay, and what hiring managers check
To become a web developer, build and deploy a few working projects with public source code, and match your skills to what each posting asks for. Requirements differ from posting to posting, so read every posting closely. To check pay, the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program produces employment and wage estimates annually for the nation as a whole, for individual states, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.
By I start Monday team · Published October 25, 2026 · 9 min read
A web developer builds and maintains websites and web applications. Depending on the role, the work can include writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript or server-side code, testing changes across browsers and screen sizes, and having teammates review the code. Front-end work generally focuses on what the user sees: layouts, forms, accessibility, and page speed. Back-end work generally covers servers, databases, and APIs, and full-stack roles combine some of both. Reading existing code, fixing bugs that users report, and talking with designers or product managers about what a feature should do can also be part of the job.
The work suits people who like solving small, concrete problems over and over and can stand being stuck for an hour on one misbehaving element. It helps to be patient with documentation, comfortable asking questions in writing, and in the habit of checking your own work before someone else does. It can also suit career changers who are ready to show what they can build and explain. If you want a job whose skills stay fixed, this is a poor fit. Frameworks and browser features keep changing, and part of the job is keeping up.
Licenses and certifications
Before you apply, check whether any license or credential applies to the role, and treat the job posting as the real list of requirements. Read it closely, because two companies hiring for the same title can ask for very different things.
If a posting names a certification, such as a cloud platform credential for a role that deploys to that platform, treat it as one of that posting's requirements. For U.S. jobs, also see the USCIS page on Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.
| Requirement | Who issues or sets it | Required or optional | Where to check the current details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Occupational license | Check your state and the job posting | Confirm for your state and role | Your state and the job posting |
| Education (diploma or degree) | Listed in each job posting | Check each posting | The job posting |
| Portfolio of deployed projects | Hiring managers and interview panels | Check each posting | The posting's application instructions |
| Vendor or industry certification | Technology vendors and industry groups | Check each posting | CareerOneStop |
| U.S. work authorization (Form I-9) | Federal government; form published by USCIS | Required for every U.S. hire | USCIS Form I-9 page |
What it pays and where the jobs are
You can check wage estimates yourself. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program produces employment and wage estimates annually for approximately 830 occupations. These estimates are available for the nation as a whole, for individual states, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. This page doesn't quote figures because the estimates are produced annually.
To compare industries, check the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. In addition to estimates for the nation, individual states, and metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, it makes national occupational estimates for specific industries available.
CHECK YOUR FIT
Before you apply, work out your match ratio. Copy the posting's required skills into a list, then count how many you can back with a specific project, job, or repository link. Divide the skills you can prove by the total listed. For example: a posting lists 8 required skills and you can prove 6, so your ratio is 6 out of 8, or three quarters. At two thirds or above, apply and lead your resume with the skills you matched. Between one half and two thirds, apply only if you can finish a small project that covers one missing skill this week. Below one half, build that project first and apply after.
Resume must-haves
The items below are ways to show on your resume that you've shipped something real and can work on a team. Each comes with a sample bullet you can adapt. For more on how to word and order them, see resume bullet points that get read.
- Working links at the top. Put your portfolio URL and GitHub or GitLab profile in the header, and link every project to a live demo. Sample: "Built a recipe search app in React and Node.js; live demo and source code linked in header."
- A stack line that uses the posting's own words. Name languages and frameworks the way the posting names them. Sample: "Stack: JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Git, Jest."
- Measured performance or quality results. Sample: "Cut product page load time from 4.2 seconds to 1.9 seconds by lazy-loading images and splitting the JavaScript bundle."
- Accessibility work. Sample: "Audited a nonprofit's donation form against WCAG guidelines and fixed 9 issues, including missing form labels and a keyboard trap."
- Evidence of code review and teamwork. Sample: "Reviewed teammates' pull requests each week and wrote the team's first front-end testing guide."
- Real users or clients. Sample: "Rebuilt a local bakery's website with online ordering that the owner now updates without developer help."
- Testing and deployment habits. Sample: "Set up automated tests and a GitHub Actions deploy pipeline so every merge reached staging in under 10 minutes."
Keep the layout plain so applicant tracking systems can read it correctly. ATS-friendly resume formatting covers the details. Then tailor your resume to each job description by reordering the stack line and bullets to match the posting's wording.
How to get the first interview
- Ship two or three small projects that solve a real problem, and deploy them publicly. For example, build a booking form for a friend's business and add a README that explains your decisions.
- Contribute to an open-source project. Start with documentation fixes or issues labeled for newcomers. A merged pull request shows you can read someone else's code and respond to review.
- Search beyond software companies, including agencies, in-house teams at non-tech companies, and government offices, and filter postings by the stack you already know.
- Ask for referrals with a specific request. Message a developer at the company, mention one thing you noticed about their product, and ask whether they'd pass your portfolio to the hiring manager. Keep the message to a few sentences.
- Practice walking through your own code. A first interview may include a screen share of one of your projects, so be ready to explain one decision you'd make differently now, and why.
If you're coming from another field, use that history. Support, design, marketing, and operations backgrounds all show that you understand users. Writing a CV for a career change shows how to frame past work so it doesn't bury your new skills.
Try it
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Frequently asked questions
Do I need a computer science degree to become a web developer?
It depends on the posting. Some postings list a degree and some don't, so read each posting's requirements line by line before you decide whether to apply.
How long does it take to become a junior developer?
There is no official timeline, and it depends on how many hours you practice and what you already know. A more useful test is readiness. Can you build and deploy a small app on your own, explain your code, and match at least two thirds of a typical junior posting's required skills? Once you can, start applying.
Should I list a coding bootcamp on my web developer resume?
Yes. List it under education with the program name and completion date, the same way you'd list a college. Then put the projects you built there in their own section with live links, and give the projects more space and more detail than the program name.
Is freelance work a good way to get web developer experience?
It can be, if the work is real and you can show it. Small sites for local businesses or nonprofits give you clients, deadlines, and results to write about. Get permission to link the live site, keep a short note on what you built and why, and list it as freelance work with real dates.
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