This post is one that hits a little home with me from experiences I had working on freelance projects as well as on the job. I want to start off with a simple scenario/question. Have you ever worked with a client who was not sure of exactly what they wanted in a site and was very indecisive in choosing the direction or simple what they wanted. In fact, they may have seen something they seen on another site and said I want my site to look like that.As a front end web developer, especially if your just beginning, your goal is to begin producing income until you realize half way in the project you may be over your head, or moreover, the demand that the client request seems unreasonably whelming. This can lead to many frustrations. Sad to admit but this is no one else fault but yourself. Don't feel bad, I have been in this situation many times.That is why I wanted to address this situation and as you grow in your development skills. There is another skill that is imperative, and yes it can fall into the category of soft skills, but more importantly business. It simply boils down to the idea of expertism. I know that sounds so far fetched and may even be made up in its current tense, but it is important if you want to create the business you want to work on, in, or for.There are many variations that this word can take form from: expert, to master, and in the book "so good they can't ignore you" cal Newport calls it "career collateral". This simple means you create leverage where you are actually creating demand for yourself (market value).I also know the term of expert can be daunting because it usually refers to someone who has spent many years on their craft honing the skills with the support of their work to back up their credentials.However, I want to give a new perspective on the word expert and rather how to "position" yourself as the expert. Now before I move on I am not saying that you don't take the time and possibly years to develop your skills to the level of a true expert but to present yourself as the expert. I believe this can truly help anyone out, especially beginners, when it comes to how you approach upcoming projects and clients. So let's get into it shall we?
Being an expert does not mean that you have to wait 10 years to be considered an expert. In fact, this concept became fairly popular by the well known author Malcom Gladwell in his new York times best seller "Outliers" when his researched concluded that it takes roughly 10,000 hours , approximately 10 years, to be an expert in an area or skill. But I would like to deconstruct that idea and create new concepts that can help someone today and won't have to wait 10 years to be recognized. I do agree that to become really good at something it does take time but the application of a skill is immediate and the skill development is a process.What does that mean? Simply when you learn something new you can do it right now and you don't have to wait a long time to know it for it to produce results.Side note: one of the things that I think can trip people up when positioning someone as the expert is their confidence. Confidence is a skill in itself and is passed onto others especially when it comes to positioning. It really is selling 101. But I'll get to that in a few. Now Developers, let's breakdown the idea of expert. In its core foundation it means someone is well informed on a specific subject, in fact dictionary.com defines it as "a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area". If you notice it does not specify how long someone has had this knowledge. It does refer to someone with "comprehensive" and "authoritative" knowledge.What does that mean? Simply put you have authorship, ownership, or that you can write (be an author) and talk about the subject as if you've created it, and comprehensive which is a collection of thoughts and ideas that you have gathered from other experts or professionals in the field.Now with a basic understanding of what it is defined as how do you use that to your advantage? Did you know that being a professional in something really breaks down to you getting paid for a specific skill. So in the world of web design if you get paid for your services that means you are a professional web designer. Don't forget to put that on your next resume lol.Now with these concepts and new knowledge you just learned lets put these into action.
When it comes to becoming a fully realized expert there are a few principles that experts perform daily to develop their skills. We can take these core concepts and apply them now in the present to utilize them to our benefit when dealing with your next project.One of the things that experts do to practice and study is something called deliberate practice. Did you know you can do something for years, like 10 years for example and still not get any better. There will be a point where you just plateau and you gain no improvement. This is just called practice. Doing something over and over but no results of how to become better. Its almost to the point of insanity.Deliberate practice is another form of how you push yourself to learn a new skill until you've mastered that concept and then do it all over to learn the next thing.For example, when you were first started learning how to code it seemed like the hardest thing to learn, granted you were learning another language, and it seemed you would never get it. But you kept striving because you had a goal in mind right. Same principle. One step at a time with application and process. Once you felt comfortable enough you moved on to the next concept.Let's take these same principles and apply them to how you can position yourself. I am a big fan of the Pareto Principle which states that 20% of the work translates to 80% of your results. This boils down to what are the core fundamentals that can help you carry you along the way.So how do you use this to position yourself. Well now I'll ask this, how are you, or rather, what are doing everyday and consistently as deliberate practice to study your craft and skill so that when you meet with clients for projects you are able to help guide them down a better path for what they should include on their website.Remember they came to you to ask how and what should be best to design their website. You don't go to an electrician to learn how to make the best Monte Cristo but a chef who knows how to cook and can give proper directions.So what does this look like when your trying to get started. Ok I'll give an example of what I started doing.Not only did I want to know how to code and develop websites I wanted to know what elements was necessary when it came to web design and what users where looking for as they came to your site. The most important thing was navigation and how simplicity of the design leads viewers to what their looking for on any site, or what you want them to find. Then you can cater the design to the specific market your client is in. Remember you are doing business and you want to display how your skills can help a business and what elements are important rather than just putting a bunch of random things up.Now do you have years of experience in presenting this? No but do you recall that confidence idea. 80% of convincing the client that you know what your talking about is the confidence you have in presenting these ideas.
So I ask how confident are you in presenting the information your studying. You don't have to know everything when your first starting out either. This is the magic of the Pareto Principle. What are some core concepts that you can take and easily grasp from an article in your field that will help in your pitch every time you deal with someone new.Do you know what happens when you continue to do this over time. You begin to build your expertise and before you know it you not only positioned yourself as the expert but are truly on the path as one because you've built up the knowledge to share and present these ideas you've gathered.Side note: blogging is a good way to record these ideas especially since there is a place others can come to see that you are serious about your craft. Your creating authority on your subject. Its another way as support to add to your credentials as a developer.
So to summarize these concepts of how you can position yourself as an expert now is...
There you have it I think these are some ways that help guide you on your way to developing yourself as a front end web developer. Its not just about the code but how you can market yourself as a developer and how your skills are beneficial for others because if you let others run the show you will never be able to define what you want out of your career of life.A good resource for gaining more understanding can be found in some books I've read which can be found in my Goodies section. Also you can check out the books: "The Complete Software Developers Career Guide" as well as "So Good They Cant Ignore You". Good resources to add to your library.
