What is the difference between a front end web developer and a

[lexijensjacejack]

Front end web developer and a application developer? 

 

is one better than the other?

 

also is getting a 1 year certificate in one of the above with lots of experience in relation to designing and coding land someone a job in this field?

 

Is a degree nessesary right now? in order to get a job in one one of these fields or  can one do that part time wile working but holding a certificate in one of these fields with freelance experience

 

 

[KevinM1]

A front end developer is someone who primarily writes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.  They may also have a hand in the graphic design for a site.

 

An application developer is a person that, well, helps create the actual guts of the application.  They create the part of the site that actually does the bulk of the work.  So, that would mean a lot of work storing, editing, manipulating data, writing the processes that do all those things, etc.  It's more generally server side work, with databases and languages like PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, C#, etc.  Not always (Google uses a ton of JavaScript in their apps), but generally speaking.

 

One isn't 'better' than the other.  Both are necessary when creating websites.  I'd expect application developers to be paid a bit more, since they handle more sensitive data and may have more managerial responsibility, but that's not a rule written in stone, and it's not like either is a bad job.

 

And in America, at least, good luck getting your foot in the door of any company without some sort of degree.  That degree doesn't necessarily need to be tech related, but a college degree shows that you can handle pressure and deadlines and assignments.  A college degree today is what a high school diploma was to our parents - the minimum requirement in having most white collar companies even looking at you.

 

A certificate can have value, depending on where it's from.  No employer would give a w3schools certificate any weight, but something from Zend likely would have value.  But, a certificate will never be as valuable as a solid portfolio.  That's how an employer gauges whether or not your claims of experience match reality.  You can say, "Oh, I've been building sites for five years," but if they suck that means it's not five years of professional grade experience, which is what they want.