Where Do You Stand in the Web Development Industry? Part I
We are interrupting your regularly scheduled Social Media program for a brief news announcement. This is Part One of a three-part series covering the results from the Web Design Survey 2010, brought to you by A List Apart.
Every year A List Apar (http://www NULL.alistapart NULL.com/articles/findings-from-the-web-design-survey-2010/)t conducts a survey on professionals in the website industry to reveal statistics on demographics, compensation, type of work, and quantity of work, among many others. As a web developer myself, I found the 2010 survey (http://aneventapart NULL.com/alasurvey2010/#age) to be quite insightful as a means of comparing myself to others in my industry. As with any statistical analysis, you have to be careful when reading the results so as not to draw any sort of false conclusions. However, this survey is at the very least a nice point of reference to work with to see what other people in the industry are up to and how you compare.
Demographics
Age
The statistics on demographics of individuals in the website industry are not all that shocking. For example, the results show that 91% of respondents are within the age of 19 and 44, with the majority of that population ranging in age from 19 to 29. Obviously the internet hasn’t been around that long relatively speaking, therefore it would make sense that the vast majority of the people that make up its workforce are younger individuals, who have grown up with the technology at their fingertips.
Image taken from the A List Apart Survey Results
Gender
The survey shows that the field is predominantly comprised of men, with 82% of respondents being male compared to 18% female. When the distribution is broken down by job title, women are more evenly matched with men in jobs that are more heavily focussed on writing and less on technology. For example, job titles such as content strategist, writer, marketer, and consultant are distributed fairly equally between men and women.
Image taken from the A List Apart Survey Results
Race
Nearly 85% of respondents reported being Caucasian, 6% Asian, and 4.6% Hispanic. The survey shows that statistics on demographics have remained fairly consistent over the past three years.
Job Titles
With the Internet developing at an astonishing pace, the array of different job titles for people who work in a web related field is quite vast. The reason being, as new technology emerges there is a demand for people to master it and share their services and expertise. Hence the 17 different job titles (not including “Other”) reported in the survey. The nice thing about the survey is that it breaks down most of the statistics by job title, for a more personalized interpretation of the results.
The largest percentage of the respondents report having the job title of Web Developer at 38%, followed by 12.9% with the title of Web Designer, with another 12% claiming Other for a job title. The remaining 46% of the respondents were spread out over 15 different job titles, including web master, project manager, creative director, web producer, information architect, marketer, and content strategist to name a few.
Image taken from the A List Apart Survey Results
Organizational Structure
People who work in this profession generally have the opportunity to work in a number of different organizational structures. Given the fact that this industry requires minimal overhead, individuals have more freedom to choose to work on a more independent level as a freelancer or self-employed person, or as a part of a large agency.
Are You a Loan Ranger or a United Front?
Nevertheless, people seem to prefer the safety and normalcy of working for an organization, according to the survey results. Almost 57% of respondents reported that they work for some type of organization or business, followed by 28% claiming to be either self-employed or freelancers. The remaining 15% claim to be a partner in a small business, partner in a large corporation, or work as a student or volunteer.
Image taken from the A List Apart Survey Results
Creativity Loves Company
I found these results interesting, but not surprising. While working as a self-employed individual has its perks and a great deal of freedom associated with it, I can see why the majority of people would prefer to work for an organization. While there are many reasons one might prefer to work as a part of an agency versus alone, I think a large part has to do with compensation. For the most part, there’s not a lot of pressure riding on an employee to bring in new business, maintain tax records, and vacation is usually paid for. Contrarily as a freelancer or owner of your own business, it’s up to you to find gigs, or you just don’t get paid.
Which brings me to my next topic, compensation. Join me next week for an in-depth look at salary information and compensation for the web development industry. We’ll take a look at salaries based on organization type and experience. Stay tuned for some revealing and useful information next week!
