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I've worked as a web developer for ten years on websites with millions of monthly views (e.g NFL, HowStuffWorks, etc.) while living in Los Angeles. I've also hi
by jameshush 4y ago
I've worked as a web developer for ten years on websites with millions of monthly views (e.g NFL, HowStuffWorks, etc.) while living in Los Angeles. I've also hired and managed a remote team of developers while living in Asia.
I'm working on a website for my girlfriend's Chinese teaching business. We paid a premium for branding, logo design, and photography. Even though I've worked in the publishing industry for years, making marketing pages full time for much of that time, the website I'm creating is with a Leadpages template with the company's brand colors.
If you want to brand yourself as an excellent frontend developer, here's what I'd suggest:
1. Skip trying to go the agency route to find clients. Clients want a full-service agency (design + development + managing ad spend) or agencies specializing in specific social platforms. Development is always an afterthought or a cost center in these examples.
2. Find an established company or startup and reach out to their MARKETING team, not their engineering team. Marketing teams are the ones looking for static websites the most. I have a close friend who's a MASTER at CSS. Best CSS person I've met in my life. He's made an excellent career, getting San Francisco salary while working remotely in the middle of nowhere in Canada. He couldn't write a unit test or do a leetcode problem to save his life, but the marketing team loves him more than anyone else.
3. Be EXCELLENT at front end. Invest in some high-quality online courses for CSS. Be able to center divs in your sleep. This strategy will only work if you're excellent, especially if you're trying to get USA level pay remotely. If you're only average, or even great, you're competing with thousands who are equally as good as you.
The good news is being EXCELLENT is incredibly doable. Lots of engineers (including myself) switch from a frontend focus to full stack/backend because they're not fans of design, so their CSS skills deteriorate.