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Gabino Garcia
4,407 PointsWhy companies always want those with Wordpress knowledge?
Hi,
Seems like every web developer position I find it always looking for those with knowledge of wordpress, or drupal, or any of them CMS. So apart from learning web design and web development I got to learn these too before I can find a job in web development?
It's rather discouraging seems like it would take years before my first paycheck
Can you share your thoughts about this?
thanks
4 Answers
Aurelien Schlumberger
6,127 PointsI currently live in China and I know most of the major Web design/development agencies here. They are for the most part selling their services to build CMS websites including Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla.
A lot of their clients are really happy with these CMS websites because they are easy and quick to build and therefore agencies can propose a better price. Also a lot of these CMS websites have an enormous library of extensions that clients are savvy for. Finally, clients are happy that they won't need to rely on the agencies to update their content. With the WYSIWYG editors and simple UI of these CMS, clients learn quickly to manage their own website... until they don't need you.
The three websites above require some knowledge in HTML, CSS and Javascript libraries for the web design part, and PHP, SQL and sometimes XML for the development part. Knowing PHP is really handy when you want to create a module/extension/plugin, so its good to have some understanding of how PHP works. Also a lot of PHP code will be necessary in the template files.
I have built a lot of websites using these CMS or even e-commerce websites with Magento, and despite the ease of creating a general purpose website, they are not great when you want to build a website with a specific purpose (a web application). It would be one hell of a task to replicate the Treehouse website with Wordpress... For specific purpose applications, frameworks like Ruby on Rails or Scala, become handy. You only focus on what you really need. Also due to the popularity of these CMS, they are always under threat of hackers... I keep on receiving security update emails for Joomla and its a hassle to update dozens of Joomla websites (Just got one email today again!).
Not everyone is proficient in every language, and some are more skilled in some tasks than others. Agencies need a team of diverse background to create really great websites. So whatever you decide on learning, you will find opportunities. It is also good to try learning things that others don't do ;).
I hope this answer is clear and helps you. Good luck!
Darren Healy
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 23,565 PointsGabino,
Don't be discouraged! You definitely won't need to wait years for that paycheck; maybe a few months at most! It always seems like there's a lot to learn, so you need to keep at it, learning anything new comes with a learning curve. I would advise you to look at the Wordpress Tracks here on TreeHouse to get you going. You should also set up a WordPress blog and familiarise yourself with the layout and how it works generally.
Christian Andersson
8,712 PointsI think if you have good knowledge in HTML, CSS and the like then you shouldn't be too worried about having no/little Wordpress knowledge. Wordpress is not all that complicated and is very easy to learn if you already know the basics of web design.
I'd say that WP is just a plus to your CV if you are looking for a job in web design/development. Completing the course here on TTH should be more than sufficient - provided you already have good grounds in HTML and CSS of course.
Eric Amundson
19,530 PointsThe reason? WordPress powers ~23% of the web, creating a huge demand for an insanely popular and well-supported platform.
Zac has terrific courses here on Treehouse and there's a lot of helpful documentation on WordPress.org.
If you've got some solid front-end fundamentals, learning to be functional in WordPress shouldn't be hard. A weekend on Treehouse and you should be well acquainted with the basics.
Have fun!