[Guide] How to Become a Web Developer in 2026

I'm receiving more and more messages from people interested in the world of dev and wanting to get started but without knowing where to begin.

The goal of this article is therefore to clear the path and help you discover as many possibilities as possible, because there are as many different journeys as there are developers.

This article notably brings together many articles that already exist on the blog, allowing you to dig deeper into each topic.

Step 1: Discover

Before knowing whether your future career will revolve around programming for the web, there are several barriers to overcome to be sure you're making the right choice and not throwing yourself body and soul into a goal that, in the end, might not suit you.

Eliminating misconceptions

Depending on who you talk to, you can hear all sorts of things about the web developer profession, which can sometimes motivate you or, on the contrary, discourage you before you've even tried.

The first misconception is that to learn to program, you need to be good at math. A topic I covered in a dedicated article:

But we also hear the misconception that once you become a web developer, you'll never be unemployed.

That was indeed the case several years ago, but since 2018/2019 the number of schools (and bootcamps) specializing in training web developers has exploded, flooding the market with junior developers, making recruitment much more complicated for profiles without experience.

That said, it's true that demand for web developers with a few years of experience is still very strong, and salaries are attractive compared to other professions.

Understanding the reality of the job

In recent years, the developer profession has grown a lot in popularity, sometimes described in the press, often shown in movies, but most of the time we only see part of what the daily life of a web developer is really like.

Comfort, creativity, and pride are often highlighted, but it's also a job with a few drawbacks, such as the frustration of hitting a wall, mental fatigue, or pressure depending on the project.

I wrote an article in which I describe the daily life, the advantages and disadvantages of this very special profession, which I strongly encourage you to read before getting started:

Confirming your choice

Once you have a clearer picture of the daily life of a web developer, you'll be able to decide whether it matches your expectations, your personality, and the vision you have of your future career.

To help you, I tried to gather as many qualities as possible shared by the best developers, so you can see how well they match your personality.

Of course, this list remains subjective and shouldn't scare you, but it can help you determine whether web development can become your profession, or rather stay a hobby (which is perfectly fine!).

Otherwise, you can also reach out to developers already working in the field so they can give you more information!

Step 2: Experiment and test

This is, for me, the ultimate step before taking the plunge. You can read every article in the world describing the daily life of a web dev, but confronting reality is essential.

We have an incredible opportunity to practice a profession that can be discovered entirely online, so you shouldn't deprive yourself of that chance to make sure this profession excites you enough.

You'll find a list of platforms with courses on web development to start your journey from scratch in the article below:

Of course, I'm not telling you to start your learning entirely self-taught for hundreds of hours, but discovering at least some basic concepts and grasping the beginnings of programming logic can help confirm your choice!

Note that some schools will ask you to have already started this process to make sure you'll see the training through to the end.

Step 3: Get trained

As you might have guessed, the amount of things to learn to become a web developer is quite substantial. A few years ago, it was possible to enter this profession with knowledge of just one or two basic technologies in order to get hired.

But as technologies advance and become more complex, even the most accessible positions still require knowledge of a certain number of tools, languages, and sometimes frameworks, which require at the very least several months of (intensive) learning.

For example, here's an article (meant to be exhaustive) on the knowledge needed to become a front-end web developer (a role dedicated to producing what the end user has in their hands):

Fortunately, there are different paths that will lead you to sufficient initial training to get started in the profession, depending on your situation, your finances, and your preferred learning style.

University track

This is the longest version (2, 3, or 5 years after high school) and the most theoretical one, but it's also the path that will give you the most solid foundations for your future career. You'll learn best practices, the art of programming, and how computing and systems work in general, without necessarily focusing on the web.

In a traditional program, you learn how to learn, which is very valuable going forward.

For those who would like to follow a traditional path but want to minimize the amount of general coursework, going through an IUT (technical university institute) is a very good compromise between theory and practice, and these programs are generally of very good quality!

For the more ambitious, there are also engineering schools that can let you go even further technically.

Training centers and bootcamps

Often preferred by people changing careers, or by those who don't feel comfortable in the more "traditional" school system, short programs to become a developer have exploded in France in recent years.

The diplomas offered are professional certifications recognized by the state, the difference being that the training periods are much shorter:

• Web and Mobile Web Developer: 1 year, equivalent to a 2-year post-secondary degree
• Application Design and Development: 2 years, equivalent to a 3-4 year post-secondary degree
• Software Architect: 3 years, equivalent to a 5-year post-secondary degree

But be careful, the learning pace is often very intense, and the training programs are often built around certain specific technologies rather than around mastering fundamental concepts, which can slow down future growth.

Self-taught and online training

Of course, it's possible to become a self-taught web developer, because recruitment increasingly tends to focus on achievements (as in the design world) rather than on diplomas.

That said, there are two very important things to keep in mind:

• You need to be able to show unwavering learning discipline and motivation, otherwise it's too easy to lose momentum and give up
• As a self-taught learner, you often miss out on fundamental lessons or best practices that can prove lacking later on

Step 4: Specialize

Even though this isn't really a step in itself, but rather a long process that builds up during training and throughout one's career, specialization (or simply continuous learning) is part of a developer's life.

The world of computing being so vast, there is a huge number of different jobs, even within web development alone:

Of course, specializing doesn't mean closing yourself off from the other doors to the languages and technologies that exist, but since it's impossible to know and master everything, it's worth focusing on the technologies that resonate with you the most.

Step 5: Find a job

As I mentioned in the introduction, finding a job as a junior in web development isn't always easy, but it's not an impossible mission either.

You'll find all my tips on this topic in a collection of dedicated articles:

Conclusion

Despite what some people may try to sell you, it's very difficult to become a web developer from scratch in just 4 months.

Between the time spent reflecting, testing, training, and job hunting, I think you should count on about 2 to 3 years for the complete process to come out with a job and sufficiently solid skills!

That doesn't mean it's impossible—some people do it—but the risks of quitting and burning out are too high for me to encourage it... Take your time!