Our experts speak!

Do you only know them through many clichés?

Don't you know what are they really doing?

Don't you understand the lines of code they are writing?

Does that seem incomprehensible to you?

That's why we have decided to explain you their roles in more detail so that you can have a clearer idea of who the web developers are. Because they are essential!

According to Wikipedia:

“A web developer is a programmer who specializes in, or is specifically engaged in, the development of World Wide Web applications, or applications that are run over HTTP : CSS OR HTML from a web server to a web browser.”

Don't you understand?

Annie (Front end web developer at MG2) tried to explain it to you in other words:

"We reproduce the designers' models in real life by placing the elements (texts, colours, images). We also program the actions of the buttons and develop the different functionalities of the site according to the customer's requests for his website."

But there is not only one "type" of web developer.. each one has its own speciality:

• Developer Front end: develops on front end languages used by clients (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). We also talk about a web integrator since it deals with the elements of a site that we see on the screen and with which we can interact: forms, buttons, drop-down menus, etc...
• Developer Back end: takes care of all the invisible mechanics behind a site and it is the one who then makes the functionalities work. To do this, it develops on server languages (backend), such as PHP, Java, Python... And also makes queries to the database in SQL. In other words, it handles the information that is stored in a database that is itself stored on a server.
• Developer Full stack: this is usually a person who knows how to work on both frontends and backends. As technologies evolve rapidly, it is difficult to be an expert in everything and the Full stack developer must master the main technologies and programming languages.

Mathilde (web developer Back end at MG2) has written this example to illustrate the previous definitions. Here, let's take a contact form:

> The Front end will create the form, make it beautiful, make sure that the user can enter his data and that it is well formatted. Also, that error messages are displayed when information is missing.

> The Back end will take care of everything that happens when you click on the button to submit the form, i.e.: retrieve the information, format it, and finally send it.

As a result, versatility, autonomy, rigour (meeting deadlines) and also curiosity (learning new concepts and continuous training) are qualities that are sought after and even essential by web developers.

About the clichés:

1 - No, the web developer is not necessarily a man.

2 - No, the web developer is not necessarily a geek - associable.

3 - No, the web developer does not repair computers and printers.

4 - No, the web developer does not code night and day.

5 - No, the web developer is not necessarily an absolute Starwars fan.

For information !

Is this sector of the web only for men? WRONG, it's a common misconception!

For example, at MG2 there are 3 developers and 4 web developers. And Technovation Montreal has some great projects that aim to promote "girls in technology". This short video illustrates it well: