Software and technology
What does a Web Developer do?
Building and keeping running the systems other people work in.
What the day is like
- Indoors, under a roof.
- A screen and a keyboard.
- Largely on your own.
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $99,520 a year, median
- Web Developers and Digital Designers, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
- A year or two, often while earning something.
- Jobs
- +5% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing slowly
What is good about it
- It pays well against the rest of the work on this site.
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
What people find hard about it
- Clients with vague ideas
- Browser and device quirks
- Price competition
Easier to enter than software development, and more exposed to automated tools.
Will machines take this job?
What machines will do to this work. Writing routine code and first-line support are the most exposed parts; system design and accountability are not.
How to find out whether it suits you
Build a real site for a real person, to their deadline.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.