Web development classes, certificates and bootcamps in NYC

Given that there are three main kinds of web development, it shouldn’t be surprising that there are three main professions for web developers: Front End Web Developers, Back End Web Developers and Full Stack Web Developers. While all three kinds of web developers work on the implied aspect of web development, they are also employed in different capacities by different organizations and companies, so differentiating them is a bit more complex than it might initially seem.

Front End Web Developers are far more likely to work as freelancers or out of a development studio than their back end or full stack counterparts. This is because once the front end aspects of a website have been completed, there is minimal work to do until the next time that an update is required or something breaks (and, in most cases, breaks can be handled internally without needing the original developer on hand). This means that front end specialists are less likely to stay on any single project for a long period of time and even in-house front end developers are likely to frequently move from project to project. They are the least well compensated web developers (though they still earn well above the average salary in NYC) and they will likely have to learn the least amount of programming languages (JavaScript has become so versatile that most front end bootcamps focus solely on HTML & CSS and JavaScript). They are also likely to work more closely with web designers, since they are tasked with making the theoretical design of a website into a reality.

Back End Web Developers are more likely to spend a significant amount of time working on individual projects and they are often employed by single companies or institutions to maintain their systems. Back End Developers are also more likely to work in administration roles, since their work overlaps with things like password administration and authorizing access to certain databases. Back End Developers will need to learn more programming languages than their front end counterparts (especially given how many websites and web applications use JavaScript to shortcut certain back end functionalities). Back End Developers are also well compensated for their work, since they are more likely to have long-term employment with a single organization and they are tasked with learning more programming languages (and more complex programming languages) in order to fulfill their duties. They are also more likely to pick up skills that will have them working in cybersecurity adjacent roles.

Full Stack Web Developers fall somewhere in-between the two poles in terms of their expectations and employment opportunities. Full Stack Web Developers tend to learn more programming languages, but they are also more likely to focus on specific programming languages, mostly for ease of integrating front end and back end capabilities (which almost always means learning JavaScript and its most significant libraries, the MERN stack).  They make significantly more than the average salary in NYC and they are more likely to do freelance work than back end specialists, but less likely than front end specialists. Full Stack Developers may also find themselves working for smaller companies that employ fewer individuals on the tech side of their projects.

In addition to these general kinds of web developers, there are also specialized Python Developers, SQL Developers, JavaScript Developers and more (essentially for all major programming languages). These specialists spend less time working on practical web development projects and more on improving and expanding the functionality of programming syntax so that other developers have an easier time building functional, practical websites. Very few professionals start out in these roles, but knowing that they exist can be helpful when choosing what kind of web development training to pursue.

In a web development class you are most likely to spend most of your time learning programming skills and languages. This includes practical, introductory work, such as how to compile code, use code editors and debug code and specific programming work, such as learning how to write code in JavaScript or Python. What skills you learn will depend on how focused your training is on one aspect of web development.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the two foundational programming languages that serve as the backbone of virtually every modern website. HTML controls how the web browser distinguishes between different kinds of text and images and web browsers read the HTML in order to display the website. For example, the website you are reading uses HTML to inform your web browser what should be part of this paragraph and what text should be part of the heading of this section. CSS controls how the text is displayed, including things like style, color and font. More important, CSS ensures that modern websites are displayed in uniform fashions across the nearly limitless number of different screens and display monitors that people use to access websites (for example,CSS is not only ensuring that this text is the same font on every device, it is also what lets a web browser properly scale the page so it can be viewed on either a smartphone or a 65 inch monitor).

While they have been updated, HTML and CSS have been utilized in more or less the same form since the mid-90s, so websites that only utilize these two languages have a decidedly “retro'' feel to them and because they are focused mostly on display and hyperlinks, you can’t add much more complex functionality than embedded links and the occasional video. If you want to learn how to make a website feel like a user expects (and not like a website designed before they were born), you’ll need to learn other programming languages.

JavaScript is one of the most versatile and popular programming languages in use today and it is the primary driving factor behind user features on websites becoming more and more sophisticated. JavaScript was originally developed for Netscape in the mid-90s with two goals: make websites less static and create a programming language that was accessible to non-technical specialists. At its most basic level, JavaScript is used to add live updating features to websites, allowing dynamic content, ranging from basic information like live updating sports and weather tickers to more complex embedded videos, pop-up ads, live-streaming media and personalized content (and data tracking). Owing to this, JavaScript is also heavily utilized in software and application development, since it is the tool that best allows programs to access HTML & CSS code outside of a web browser.

More advanced JavaScript lessons are likely to cover the “MERN stack,” the colloquial name for the four major JavaScript libraries that allow the language to be used to compile complex, full stack code. These include node.js, express.js, react and mongoDB, all of which add different layers of functionality to JavaScript code. This allows skilled developers to program websites that have database systems and full back end features while primarily utilizing JavaScript. These skills are essential for any full stack developer or aspiring JavaScript Developer and they will help on any software engineering projects that you happen to find yourself working on.

Python is the most popular programming language in the world and it is arguably the most important language for creating functional back ends for modern websites. Learning how to code with Python will be essential not only for building databases that allow users and administrators of a website to store vital information, but Python is heavily utilized in data scraping and other data analytics applications. If you want to build a website that adequately tracks user behavior and responds to that behavior, learning Python will be essential. Python is also utilized in applications that allow multiple web browsers to engage with one another (like DropBox) and it plays a key role in artificial intelligence and large language model programming, which is becoming more commonly utilized on websites for things like chatbots and automated recommendation algorithms.

While not a technical skill, learning web development will require you to learn to think in new ways and solve problems with creative solutions. The reason that programming languages are called that is because they have a syntax, vocabulary and grammar that a browser or computer “reads” to know what it is supposed to do. However, unlike human languages, which are idiomatic and full of odd but understandable quirks, computers are dumb and read everything as literally as possible. This means that you’ll need to learn how to provide precise instructions and follow logical patterns to get your code perfect. In addition, you’ll need to work within the limitations of the languages you have access to, since not all languages are equally adept at all tasks. This means you’ll have to learn how to approach all of your development problems as a kind of evolving puzzle.

While the two might sound interchangeable, it is worth remembering that web design and web development are largely different skillset (though the professional responsibilities of designers and developers may overlap in freelance contexts or in small organizations). Web design primarily focuses on building the appearance of a website and the anticipated functionalities of that page and this is almost all taken care of in the planning stage. By contrast, web development is the act of writing the code that makes the original design go from a theoretical website to a working website. When their responsibilities don’t directly overlap, the Web Developer isn’t responsible for deciding how a website will look, they are responsible for making it work.

In this way, web design is a more creative process that will require less coding knowledge than web development (though having an understanding of front end development is still important). By contrast, Web Designers will be expected to know how to use a different set of creative tools, like UX design applications (such a Figma) and digital creative tools (like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator).

Given how ubiquitous web development roles are in the professional world, there are a lot of different kinds of classes for students to learn everything from the basics of HTML & CSS to advanced JavaScript techniques. Choosing the right learning format is an important step in ensuring that you succeed at your long term goals, so you should consider a few important factors when looking to enroll in a course.

You’ll first want to gauge how much experience you have with web development skills (and adjacent ones like coding) and how much time and energy you know you want to commit to your training. If you are very confident that you want to become a professional Web Developer, then you should take the plunge and enroll in a professional development program that aims to teach students all the skills they need to find a job upon graduating. If you are less certain that web development is the career path you plan to follow, you may want to take a few shorter, introductory courses, since career-focused bootcamps and immersive programs are fairly expensive and time consuming.

NYC is full of great training centers and tech education schools that offer in-person courses, but there are also a lot that offer online classes that are just as effective at teaching essential web development skills. With recent developments in online pedagogy and improvements in live streaming technology, online classes are no longer simply worse versions of their in-person counterparts and there are affordances and limitations to each model.

In-person courses offer students the intimate and direct way to learn web development skills. While most students don’t immediately focus on it, there is something to be said for being in the same room as classmates and their instructors as a benefit to facilitate learning. In-person learning affords students the chance to work directly with their instructors and get immediate feedback on their work. While this is still possible in an online course, the distance created by the digital space can make it harder to work around, particularly when it comes to quickly reading and examining code.  The drawback to in-person learning tends to be logistical, since you need to find a training center that you can physically attend and you need to take the steps to get there for each of the lessons. This might not seem like a big deal (especially in a city like NYC) but the cost of travel (both money and time) can quickly add up when you enroll in a longer class (like a bootcamp that could last several weeks or meet regularly for a month).

Online classes, by contrast, let students learn from anywhere (including courses outside of NYC or courses taught in NYC for anyone living too far away to commute). They also let students work in their home office on their own devices, which can be a significant boon for anyone looking to freelance or work on their own projects from home. These classes are taught as live online lessons and students will work with their instructors and classmates in real time. With new technological developments, instructors can even interact directly with a student’s desktop, giving them even more personalized feedback and guidance. The drawback to these classes is that students will need to put in more effort to stay on top of their work and will need to ensure that they don’t be distracted or disengaged. Students may find that, despite being just as immersive, online classes “feel” less real and therefore easier to treat as inconsequential, which is a good way to burn money and time.