ALT-1 A Day in the Life of a Web Developer
This can be as varied as the people who are professional web developers, but for the seriously dedicated and independent web developer a day in the life can involve an all-consuming dedication to one's computer terminal. As I've gotten further into the field I have found it more and more easy to take on additional tasks and projects to the point where there simply aren't enough hours in the day to do them all. With that in mind, here is a typical day in the life:
A typical day can start out something like this: stumble out of bed after a few hours of sleep and stagger over to the coffee maker. If there is still coffee in there from yesterday, well, just put a cup of it in the microwave. Then go over and load up the computer and log in - should take about as long as the coffee does.
Next, check on any high-priority projects - particularly freelance work where a client might be expecting something from you - first. This can take anywhere from a half-hour if all is well to all day if there is an emergency somewhere.
Then start combing over various 'pet projects' you have set up - typically the newest ones first, because they are the most likely to need attention. Make some adjustments to pages or marketing strategies as needed.
After that, start working on what you might call actual development: creating content. In other words: do things that start really changing, improving and adding to what you already have.
Finally there are always new ways to get exposure for existing work, so start going out and finding ways to have your sites listed in reference directories, or make forum posts, or work on SEO - anything to get more visibility.
If you are highly dedicated and a workaholic this can be done for the rest of the day, and result in staying up into the early hours of the next morning, and then crashing hard when it becomes difficult to focus on the screen any longer.
Then the cycle begins again!
This sounds gruesome and like slave-labor but the work can easily be diverse enough to remain interesting. In reality, being a web developer can be a very generalist profession, particularly if you are working independently, and very rewarding both personally and financially as you watch your projects slowly grow.
