Data from Glassdoor suggests that a front-end developer earns $86,178 a year on average in the U.S.
If you’d pay a front-end developer that much, you must make sure they have all the necessary skills. Thus, before you hire front-end developers, know the top 8 skills front-end developers need to know in 2022:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- React.js
- Node Package Manager (NPM)
- Chrome Developer Tools
- VSCode
- Node.js
Note: the information is true at the time of writing. That’s January 2022.
1. HTML
If you wanted to build a house, what’s the first thing you’d do? Draw up a blueprint to get a structure, right? That’s what HTML is to a website. The markup language offers structure to a webpage.
Knowing HTML will help you to:
- Format your landing page, blog post, or emails. Remember the time when everything looked okay in the WYSIWYG editor but when you posted, the text wrapping is missing and the size and spacing are all over the place? That’s what HTML helps you solve.
- Tweak email templates. Because you won’t want to send the same email to all of your clients, right?
- Embed content to your site from other sites including YouTube videos and Facebook posts.
2. CSS
Imagine if you went out wearing tattered shorts, a shirt with holes in them, and a dusty boot. It’s inevitable that people will make fun of you. Because you lack style. That’s what CSS or Cascading Style Sheet offers to a website; style.
CSS helps you to:
- Specify the website layout.
- Design different pages of the website with different styling. CSS uses the page ID to design the pages differently.
- Create mobile-friendly websites. When you know 56% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, the feature becomes essential.
- Add animation to web pages.
- Customize content management systems such as WordPress and Drupal.
3. JavaScript
JavaScript tops the chart of programming languages worldwide for 8 years in a row. Furthermore, StackOverflow Developer Survey 2020 confirmed 69.7% of developers use JavaScript.
Want more reasons why front-end developers should know JavaScript? Here are a few:
- JavaScript allows you to run and test code in your browser. Furthermore, you won’t need any setup or special development environment as well.
- JavaScript can build both the front-end and back-end of a web application.
- JavaScript allows you to build mobile apps as well.
- JavaScript enables you to automate repetitive tasks such as regular updates.
- JavaScript works as the backend solution of blockchain technology.
4. React.js
React.js tops the search volume with 57.5% search volume as per Google Trends. Furthermore, Giants such as Netflix, Facebook, and Shopify use React.js. You’d want your front-end developer to know how to use the framework as well.
With React.js, you can:
- Develop apps faster. How? The JavaScript library uses declarative syntax instead of imperative syntax.
- React.js uses reusable components. Thus, the framework allows you to break down an interface into reusable components. The process allows you to build dynamic user interfaces.
- The JavaScript library is optimized for SEO. Thus, your website will rank better in search engines.
5. Node Package Manager (NPM)
Node Package Manager (NPM) hosts over one million code packages. The number makes NPM the world’s largest software registry. Furthermore, over 11 million developers use the software registry worldwide.
NPM comes with two parts — a Command-line interface (CLI) tool which publishes and downloads packages and an online repository for hosting JavaScript packages.
NPM is a package manager of JavaScript. Furthermore, NPM is the default package manager of Node.js as well.
With NPM, you can:
- Manage globally-installed project tools
- Download individual tools for instant usage
- Manage local dependencies of project tools
- Manage several versions of code and code dependencies.
- Show all the project dependencies. The NPM Offers package-lock.json for achieving the task.
6. Chrome Developer Tools
A comprehensive toolkit built directly into the Chrome browser. That’s Chrome developer tools for you. The tools help you to build websites faster, perform real-time webpage editing, and diagnose issues quickly.
Furthermore, Chrome developer tools allow you to:
- Modify the CSS of a webpage directly into your browser. Change fonts, color combinations, spacing — all of it without writing a line of code.
- Inspect page tags. The feature comes especially handy when you see pages with three H1 tags or the H1 tag as an unoptimized image.
- Write directly into the tools. The feature helps you to check if the copy looks good without altering the layout or spacing.
7. VSCode
VSCode (Visual Studio Code) is best suited for developers who use Java in the back-end. The editor for web development is quite lightweight and highly adaptable.
VSCode helps you to:
- Highlights keywords in the code in different colors. Thus, you can identify coding patterns with ease.
- Use the debugger in VSCode to scan every line of code. Furthermore, VSCode offers suggestions to complete lines of code and quick fixes for common errors as well.
- Change the look and feel of the VSCode. Pick your favorite color themes, fonts, and icons. You have hundreds to choose from.
- Compare versions of the code from different points in time. VSCode does so by offering a graphical side-by-side view.
- Run the code step-by-step. Furthermore, you can visualize and interact with the data, graphs, plots, and variables as well. The feature is especially beneficial for a project in data science or data visualization.
8. Node.js
PayPal. LinkedIn. GoDaddy. These are some of the giants that use Node.js. Why shouldn’t you?
If you’re still not convinced, here are some more reasons:
- Node.js offers a fast and organized synchronization process.
- Node.js makes the RTA scalable, lightweight, usable, and maintainable.
- Node.js offers high performance with fewer lines of code. The performance is far better when compared to C or Java.
- Node.js offers a rich package ecosystem. The framework comes with an in-built Node Package Manager as well. The framework offers over 60 thousand modules and the number is growing every day.
- Node.js allows you to send and synchronize data between server-side and client-side coding with ease. The process makes the source code more consistent and cleaner.
- Node.js streams simplify the I/O tasks. Furthermore, Node.js streams allow apps to consume less memory as well.
The Demand for Front-End Developers will Continue to Increase
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed companies in the U.S. need 17,900 front-end developers each year. Furthermore, the web developer employment market will grow 15% from 2016 to 2026.
Thus, if you hire front-end developers who have the necessary skills, it’ll help you upscale your business.
In this article, you’ve learnt:
- Why do front-end developers must learn HTML
- Why learning CSS is a necessary skill
- Why should front-end developers know JavaScript
- Why must a front-end developer learn React.js
- Why should a front-end developer know Node Package Manager (NPM)
- Why should a front-end developer know Chrome developer tools
- Why must a front-end developer know VSCode
- Why should a front-end developer learn Node.js
The information will help you make wise decisions.
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