What does a Junior Web Developer do?

Junior web developer jobs are centered on the internal workings of websites. On the Internet, web pages link to, open, and display content according to a series of codes and commands. Web developers are technical professionals who write those commands. Most of the time, these professionals get their start in the entry-level position of junior web developer.

Creating Internet sites is a job with many parts. Most of the time, sites involve graphics, links, and internal content. They also sometimes have space for user-generated content, like user uploads and comments on posted material. All of these features must be specially designed and built into a web site by web development teams.

A junior web developer is almost always a member of a web development team. The designation “junior” indicates that the developer has training, but not much experience yet. Web developer training usually includes degrees in computer technology or engineering, as well as experience working with various web-building tools and software programs.

Much of the junior web development job is highly technical. While some of the job necessarily involves site layout, most of the aesthetic aspects of web design are the tasked to a graphic design team. Web developers build the mechanical structure of the site from the inside out. They build databases and information caches; they write code and route traffic. Often, they set up and manage e-commerce systems, website hosting platforms, and search engine optimization rubrics, and must sometimes provide user support and training, as well.

Web development teams usually have one or more junior web developer position in order to train new talent and to enable new professionals to get a broader perspective of the profession. There are no specific junior web developer duties that are universal to all lower level web developer jobs, but more often than not the job entails a lot of watching, practicing, and re-working. Junior web developers are frequently tasked with simpler assignments at first. They are called to assist more senior developers on harder projects, and to participate on small pieces until they have the expertise to undertake certain aspects of the development independently.

The junior web developer job description can vary depending on the employer. A web design firm that works on a variety of projects for a lot of different clients might be interested in hiring a junior member with a broad range of skills. If the web development team is located within a single company, however, the job description will often be much more specific, requiring knowledge of and experience with the systems and programs at use in that company. Whether there are hard-and-fast lower level web developer requirements depends entirely on the job, although hands-on experience, whether in school or past jobs, is always an asset.