Front End Developer: Job Profile and Role

Almost every business has a digital front-of-house, so to speak, this being their online presence/website. Typically, a website has both a front end and a back end, with the front end being what a company’s customers see first. And since first impressions count, this front end needs to be top-notch – and to get it to this stage, it needs the expertise of a front end developer.

This job is what we focus on in the following blog. To help you decide whether the job of a front end developer could be right for you, you find out what it takes to work in this profession. You also find out how much being a front end developer in the UK pays and who employs you. Lastly, you get a few practical insights into a working day before we give you three tips for thriving in front end development.

Short Summary

• As a front end developer, you develop coding for building a website’s front end which is an important part of web development.
• As a front end developer, you strive towards designing and implementing a user interface design that offers the best possible user experience.
• As a front end developer, you test and debug a website’s front end to ensure smooth and fast site speed.

Job description

Your job as a front end developer in the UK is to design and implement a user-friendly interface that offers an engaging user experience (UI and UX, respectively). It is also your job to ensure optimal site speed which you guarantee by regular testing, debugging, and necessary adjustments. This task is also known as cross-browser compatibility where you test and debug codes across various browsers, for example, web and mobile device browsers. Lastly, you collaborate with other departments and IT experts, such as the back end developer of a website who is just as responsible for a website’s “birth” as you.

Responsibilities

• Deployment 
• Version Control
• Web Development
• Agile Development
• User Interface Design
• Testing and Debugging
• Mobile Website Design
• Site Speed Optimisation
• Engaging User Experience
• Cross-Browser Compatibility

Different types of Front End Developers

• Progressive Web App (PWA) Developer
• Front End Performance Engineer
• Accessibility (a11y) Specialist
• HTML/CSS Specialist
• UI/UX Developer

Salary

If you are interested to work in front end development in the UK, you can look forward to an annual salary ranging from ￡32,000 to ￡53,000. Note that these numbers refer to salaries paid to full-time front end developers, with the lower salary being your typical starting salary. As you can see, your annual wages are affected by both your form of employment and your work experience.

In some cases, your qualifications can be another influence. Keep in mind that this salary-affecting list can be extended to your location and your employer. Currently, the highest front end development wages are being paid in London where you can earn up to ￡67,000 per year.

Working Hours

Regarding your working hours in front end development, you should factor in between 37 and 40 hours a week, most of which will be spent in front of a computer, laptop, or mobile device. Your working hours tend to be from Monday to Friday, usually from 9 to 5. Keep in mind that you need to be flexible during peak times, for example, when a project deadline needs to be met. Here, you can be asked to work in the evenings and on the weekends. These work hour “rules” apply to any form of employment, be it part- or full-time or self-employment.

Employers

If you jump back to our introduction, you may already be able to deduce where you can find employment as a front end developer in the UK. Almost any professional business attracts customers through a website, meaning that these companies need you as their front end developer. Be it retail, e-commerce, financial institutions, healthcare, or government agencies: they are all options where you can look and apply for a job. Besides, you can offer your services as a freelancer, either with your own company or by working for digital agencies that place you with a company.

Qualifications

Since the job of a front end developer is highly technical and based in IT, you should strive to earn IT-related GCSEs and/or A levels if you want to work in this profession. These can include computer science, mathematics, design and technology, and information and communication technology (ICT).

Although there are no educational requirements to work in front end development, you may want to approach your career by first undertaking an undergraduate degree or an appropriate apprenticeship. Also, future employers may ask you to have finished your secondary school education, including doing sixth form. Moreover, you should look into attending web development boot camps where you are trained in front end development.

Besides, you need to gain in-depth knowledge of HTML, CSS (including server-side CSS), jQuery, and JavaScript as well as being proficient in frameworks, libraries, and search engine optimisation (SEO). On top of that, you should have strong knowledge of WPO and web performance optimisation. Gaining these insights tends to be part of prior education and training to become a front end developer in the UK.

Skills

A strong interest in IT and anything computer is essential if you want to succeed and thrive in your front end developer job. With this interest, you have one of the skill requirements most employers are looking for. As with any job, you must always check which competencies are expected of you when applying for a job. If front end development is your chosen career, you should also have the following skills.

Coding Skills

A great deal of your daily tasks involve coding for a website’s front end. Therefore, you need to be proficient in all coding languages and software used in web development. The most important ones are JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. Your coding abilities must include writing skills that, naturally, apply to writing clean and coherent coding semantics. This particular competency furthermore extends to your knowledge of the connected libraries and frameworks. And do not worry – even if you are not a master in this skill, you will learn all you need to know during your training.

Teamwork/Collaboration

As a front end developer, you not only design, implement, and maintain a user interface to ensure an engaging user experience. Your finished, tested, and debugged front end is only one half of a website. It will only work with the matching back end, meaning that you need strong teamwork and collaboration skills as well. To ensure smooth running and optimal site speed, your front end development needs to be integrated into the back end – and this will only work if you communicate with the responsible back end developer.

Customer Understanding

Creating and providing an engaging user experience or UX implies that you understand your employer’s customers. Let’s assume you work for a retail company whose target group are female shoppers. Understanding their needs depending on the targeted age groups is vital to come up with a user-friendly design that attracts said shopping groups. The same applies to any customer a company is trying to attract and to bind. Therefore, this competency needs to be a part of your skill set.

Career Path

What the first step on your career ladder is is something only you will know. You can become a front end developer in the UK from whatever other job you have trained for. However, it makes the most sense to approach this career with an IT background since you already have a lot of the required hard and soft skills. With further training gained in boot camps, you can start working in front end development. Here, you can choose between part- or full-time employment or offering your services and expertise as a freelancer/consultant.

Educational Background

As long as you have or gain the relevant training in front end development, you do not need a specific educational background. However, having completed your undergraduate degree in IT, computer science, or software engineering gives you an advantage when applying for a front end developer job. Not only does a Bachelor’s degree show your research abilities, but it also shows a willingness to learn and to start your career with an above-average knowledge.

The same applies to an apprenticeship, such as the following: a software development technician Level 3 advanced apprenticeship, a software developer Level 4 higher apprenticeship, or a digital and technology solutions specialist Level 7 degree apprenticeship. Besides theoretical knowledge, you gain valuable work experience. Keep in mind that a college course or T level offers you the same opportunities.

With your prior education, you should then attend bootcamps which are offered by various accredited institutions. Some such options are the Flatiron School, Le Wagon and Northcoders which have two campuses in Leeds and Manchester.

Entry Level/Training

You can become a front end developer from any career direction – as long as you have a passion for IT and are willing to undertake the necessary training. Appropriate boot camps are offered by the above-mentioned institutions. If you decide to partake in a Northcoders boot camp, you can complete a data engineer or a Java development boot camp, for example. Either course takes 13 weeks to complete and gives you both the knowledge and the qualification needed to work in front end development. Excellent career options are also possible by completing Le Wagon boot camps which, at 9 weeks course time, are shorter than Northcoder boot camps.

Continuous Learning

A great deal of your front end development learning has already been covered by your prior education and your boot camp training, respectively. Advancing your career highly depends on you continuing to learn and improve. As you have seen from our qualifications section, you should be proficient in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. For the latter, you can look into options offered by Microsoft, for example, a JavaScript Developer Associate qualification. Similar qualifications are also offered by Oracle, Google, and Scrum. 

Besides, you can invest more time – and also money – into a postgraduate degree, especially, if you have already completed an undergraduate degree. Although a Master’s degree in computer science or ICT is not essential to work as a front end developer, it can benefit your career in the long term.

A Day in the Life of a Front End Developer

Needless to say, you will spend most of your working day in front of a computer where you write and design coding. Depending on your employment and/or your employer’s policies, this can be both in-office or remotely. Let’s take a look at some of your typical tasks in front end development.

Coding/Code Reviews

Coding and code reviews tend to be a major part of your working day, albeit not necessarily daily. Writing code involves HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and each of these coding languages needs to be written coherently and precisely. This ensures a smooth installation of new website features, the improvement of the overall functionality, and helps to fix bugs and other potential disruptions. When you are done with this task, you should ask for code reviews from your colleagues. This is a good way to find remaining issues that need fixing before a front end can go live.

User Face Development

Working on the user face is another important task in the life of a front end developer. It includes anything from easy-to-use menus, buttons, and touchscreen options that make a customer’s online journey satisfying and successful. It is equally important that you liaise with the design department to ensure that the visual aspects of the finished website work well with your coding. It is also a good way to brainstorm new ideas that further improve the user (inter)face.

Implementation and Testing

After these tasks have been completed, you can start to implement your written HTML, CSS, and JavaScript coding. This is followed by testing and debugging – the only way to ensure that a website does not continuously buffer, regardless of the end device it is viewed and used on. Testing your coding enables you to make important adjustments and is also a regular task after a website has been launched.

Tips for Thriving as a Front End Developer

A website needs constant attention and work to contribute to a company’s – and, therefore, your – success. Since you are about to become an expert in front end development, you already know that search engines tend to change almost daily, making the need for adjustments vital. Keeping on top of changing algorithms that affect the customer journey is one way to thrive as a front end developer in the UK. What other tips advance your career is what we will look at in this section:

• Soft skills improvement
• Accessibility standards
• Project portfolio

Soft Skills Improvement

Although most of the required competencies revolve around IT knowledge and skills, you must never forget other important soft skills. When working in front end development, problem-solving and communication skills are just as important as IT skills and analytical thinking. After all, you need to discuss your client’s expectations and needs regarding an existing or new website as well as debriefing said client and communicating all tasks to other departments. Therefore, working on this and other relevant soft skills is a sure way to thrive as a front end developer.

Accessibility Standards

A knowledge of the current accessibility standards is another way to thrive in front end development in the UK. These standards outline the necessary tools and access options for people with temporary or permanent disabilities and impediments. As a front end developer, you must ensure that website accessibility is possible for any user, which is why you need to be aware of WCAG 2.1 – web content accessibility guidelines – as well as the regulations of the 2010 Equality Act (EQA) and the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations.

Project Portfolio

Whether you end up working for a digital agency or as a freelancer: it never hurts to build and work on your front end development portfolio. It shows which projects you have successfully worked on – and yes, the more high-profile your former client, the more prestigious is your portfolio. It also shows the range of your abilities, especially, if you have worked on projects from all sorts of areas. The greater your abilities and tackled subjects, the more interesting you will be to future employers.

Become friends with a Potential Enemy

To conclude this blog, we have one more tip for you: become friends with a potential enemy – AI. As you may already know, AI is rapidly turning into a proper nemesis to anyone involved in digital work – be it copywriters, SEO experts, or front- and back end developers. Instead of seeing Chat GPT etc. as a threat – which it can undoubtedly be – embrace it and invest time into understanding AI and how it can help you become an even better front end developer.

Frequently Asked Questions