Are WordPress Developers in demand? This is one of the most asked questions in the WordPress community. I am providing my take on my experiences based on working as a WordPress Developer and Freelance WordPress Developer.
I would say a good WordPress Developer is really in demand and this is the role that most of the company find hard to fill. So what makes a good WordPress Developer? A good WordPress Developer has a solid understanding of WordPress core, can code and write custom themes and plugins from scratch. Along with that, he might have some ideas about SEO, server management, security optimisation etc.
Corporates and big companies use WordPress
Big corporates and companies do use WordPress. In fact, more and more companies are using WordPress these days. And hence, they do need good WordPress Developers to work in their team. They won’t be hiring someone who is a theme wrangler, or plugin addict.
When you work for bigger companies or bigger websites, most of the development includes Custom WordPress Development, and performance and optimisation is a top priority. This is where your knowledge and skillset of WordPress comes handy.
So what makes a Good WordPress Developer?
A good WordPress Developer has solid knowledge about WordPress core. S/he can custom code themes or plugins as needed, and also expected to have good Front End Development skills including HTML5, CSS3 and JQuery at least (JavaScript is nice to have).
If you want to land a job at a decent company with a good salary package, you have to get into custom coding. Along with that if you can bag some extra skills that would help you a lot. One of the skills that really helped me during my early days as a WordPress Developer was my On-Page SEO skills. This always helped me beat the competition to go a step up in my career. And also I did some web design too, which was questions helpful especially on my freelancing side.
At my current job, along with complex WordPress Development, I am getting exposure to high-end server management. Though not a mandatory part of my job, I do keep learning and stay proactive. Server Management is an integral part of all websites, smaller or bigger. Get familiar along it does help, as you get to know the robust settings (including security) on how high traffic websites are set up both for scaling and security.
On my personal side, I am learning Vanilla JS and trying to learn React JS Framework. In the long run, I want to learn a headless CMS.
There are no limitations on what makes a Good WordPress Developer. Just keep on learning and make yourself better.
Competition is quite high and low at the same time
WordPress is one of that market where competition is quite fierce and not so depending upon what type of skill sets you are with and what kind of jobs/clients you are targeting.
You are a beginner and targeting freelance jobs
I think this is the most competitive side of WordPress. Let me be honest, as questions newbie looking for work you tend to bump up with clients with high expectations and low budgets. And to make matter worse you are competing with others, who most likely will bid way lesser than you.
My suggestion would be, never compromise the quality of work, write custom code, don’t take shortcuts picking up some random themes and plugins. Gradually build your portfolio based on your coding and quality of work. Most importantly, be ethical and build a good relationship with your clients. This helps a lot. As my freelancing clients, quite a few are coming from referrals from the clients I previously worked with.
You got the experience and targeting custom development work
This segment is a little bit competitive. Competitive but not as competitive as above. And the good thing is clients looking for custom development, do value their website and its reputation and as well as have realistic expectations based on their budget. This makes working with clients easy and fun.
So what makes custom development less competitive? Well, let me be straight to point.
Half of the so-called WordPress Developers out there are using premium themes and plugins without doing any coding. There is a difference between a WordPress (Web) Designer and WordPress Developer. So when a project involves custom coding, most of them don’t know-how. So for any custom development, in a nutshell, you are competing with less WordPress Developers or so-called.
So if you are solely focusing on custom development, it does give you extra advantages of landing decent projects.
My job hunting experiences
Though I have never done much work with premium themes, I always looked for WordPress Developer not WordPress Designer role. Most of my works are custom developed solutions.
Compared to when I was really new in the market, I find it relatively easy to land a role. And I have landed a few roles through recruitment agencies. My last 2 jobs and one previously had been through recruitment agencies.
When I was new to the market, I found it a bit competitive. Along with WordPress Development, my main skill set included On-Page SEO. So adding a few extra skills helps you beat the competitor. On-Page SEO is still one of the skills that make me stand out from other developers.
Conclusion
WordPress has evolved rapidly. So many companies bigger and smaller are using WordPress for their website.
There is a demand for good WordPress Developers and there will always be. So if you get yourself into custom development, this will lead to better opportunities. No matter if you are looking to land a decent full-time role or prospective clients as a Freelance WordPress Developer, you have to learn to develop from scratch.
And also don’t forget, try to learn new skills. This will help you stand out between the competitors. ON-Page SEO and web design can really help you stand out from competitors. Try and review some of the popular WordPress Plugins too. Though I am not a big fan of using plugins frequently, there are so many good WordPress Plugins out there.