What are the main tips to start a web development career?

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The first step is skill acquisition. If you already have the skills you can skip to the next section. The best place to learn web development if you’re a total novice is to go to code school. At this point you might want to know which one is the best, but the reality is, any code school could only ever teach you 10% of what you need to make it as a web developer. The rest you have to learn yourself. So your best bet is to pick one that suits your personal needs, like schedule, budget, etc.

Once you’ve finished code school, or if you already have skills, you have enough to go on to the next step, which is to start contacting recruiters. If you’re in a hot market, you can post yourself up on Monster or LinkedIn and the recruiters will come to you. All you have to do is take their calls, do whatever they tell you to do, and show up for interviews they schedule you for, and do your best.

Just finishing code school may not be enough to land you a job. You need to keep learning while you are job hunting. Build and rebuild side projects. Chase your project ideas and turn them into reality as best you can, then show off your efforts in the interviews.

Eventually you’ll get a job offer. Don’t screw around, take the job offer. In this business, professional experience is king, everything else you do in the field, side projects, contracting, is inferior to the ‘street cred’ you get by having had someone else rely on you to meet their business objectives. You can get picky later after you’re already employed.

That’s how you start a web development career. If you’re froggy and do what I tell you, you can be making a $40–70k per year in 6 months. Six figures within a few years.

So, to sum up, the three things to do are:

1. Acquire skills
2. Let recruiters work for you
3. Take the first job offer you get.

It’s that simple.