Becoming a Web Developer: WordPress, My Way Into the Trade

The StartingUp Summer. Can you learn web development through WordPress, and turn it into a career? While reopening our drafts drawer to sort through the questions AI made obsolete, we dug up this 2022 text that answers from lived experience. The story of an entry into the developer trade through the WordPress door, republished as is, worth rereading now that AI is reshuffling how web development is learned.

In 2005 I was 15, and the web was still largely decentralized for many people. This was before YouTube, Facebook and the like emerged and later absorbed a large share of the content produced by internet users. Back then, if you wanted to share content, you didn't have many options: either go through blogging platforms (SkyBlog, Overblog...) which didn't offer much customization and were stamped "Hobbies", or have your own self-hosted site, which you could then evolve however you liked.

Plenty of entrepreneurs launched into blogging around that time: think of Korben.info, Eric Dupin or Loïc Le Meur (makes you feel old, doesn't it?). In that context, a teenager's whim, I wanted at all costs to "have my own site" too, to be able to share my finds there, and to show the rest of the world the extraordinary skills I thought I had.

Back then, two blogging engines were at war: DotClear, the historic French one, and WordPress, the rising star. I tried both, and my limited technical knowledge at the time made me prefer WordPress. It was on version 1, ran on PHP 3, and looked nothing like it does today. I'm talking about a time when Internet Explorer 6 ruled the schoolyard, when you couldn't do border-radius or display: flex in CSS, and when my father accused me of having installed a virus on the computer after seeing the Mozilla Firefox icon, which didn't reassure him much. That's how I ended up using WordPress for the first time, with no idea I'd still be using it nearly 17 years later.

For years, I tinkered alone with this tool, publishing small sites for people I knew and short-lived blogs where I shared nonsense. At that age, making money was far from a priority for me; all that mattered was the thrill of seeing my content accessible to a potentially infinite number of people. To me, it felt like magic. I never would have imagined back then that I could one day be paid to build websites.

I studied communication and ended up doing my final internship at an agency specializing in web search-engine ranking. My meager WordPress knowledge had let me get a foot in the door with them, and skills that turned out sturdier than I thought let me build small showcase sites for their clients on my own. For someone who a few months earlier was still flipping burgers at McDonald's, I couldn't believe I was earning an internship stipend - actual money! - for what I then considered a slightly nerdy hobby.

The machine was launched, and being the agency's only web developer, I had to find answers to all my questions on my own. That pushed my WordPress knowledge forward like nothing else: I learned to spot the right plugins to use, to cleanly override the CMS's internal behavior, then that of the third-party plugins we used, to build my own themes, my own plugins... Let's be honest, the quality of those sites would make people smile today in terms of design, performance or technology. But the one thing I kept in mind was a single mantra: "Always keep improving, never give up." The idea was to manage whatever was asked of me.

Fired up, I decide to launch into entrepreneurship with 3 friends, in a gift-box business: TheCoffret. The e-commerce site would run on WordPress, with the WooCommerce plugin. It moves fast; while I build the site, my partners enter products at a relentless pace.

Development is long and full of twists. For the first time, I start to see the limits of WordPress: I struggle to build things that seem simple, especially around routing and server load. In my view, I make a lot of compromises and feel like I'm pushing the CMS to its limits. After a lot of effort I manage to build what I have in mind, but I struggle to convey my intentions in my code, which makes it hard for my team to make it their own. That's the time I start building my own plugins, often unable to find a tool truly suited to my needs and unwilling to compromise. To ease our finances, we launch a small web agency in one afternoon.

With TheCoffret, we manage to make a good thousand sales in a year... A priceless succès d'estime, but far too little to pay ourselves or interest a buyer. The adventure ends, with a certain relief I must admit. I sometimes look back on it with nostalgia... Above all, it will serve as a stepping stone for what comes next, and as a friend once pointed out to me: I certainly "learned more, and for less, than in a year of business school." Clever.

In 2015, I finally join a web agency in Lyon as Lead Back-end Web Developer. A title that's honorary at first since we're only two, but that will take on real meaning as the team grows. I click very quickly with the rest of the team: life is good and the atmosphere is exceptional. The Paris-based company has strong references at the national level, including major franchises that advertise on TV: for the first time I can tell people I know "oh, that brand, I'm the one who built their site," and I admit I feel a small sense of pride about it. Imposter syndrome fades away little by little.

Project-wise, I'm challenged on new problems, mainly lead generation through eye-catching sites. My WordPress level climbs another notch, becomes more professional. I work in a pair with a front-end developer, while I mostly handle the back-end. We exchange and learn a lot from each other.

After three years, the agency takes a strategic turn that pushes web development into the background. At the same time, I run into trouble on a project: the company wants to do everything with WordPress, even a project that really doesn't lend itself to it (a social-network-type platform), and for which I suggest a better solution, which isn't chosen. For me it's time to reclaim my freedom, and like a lighthouse in the night, the urge to build my own thing pokes its nose out again.

I leave my job in June 2018 and it's a running start: I put in 4 months of intense work, three days a week subcontracting for a web agency, the rest of the time and evenings for my other clients.

Things go very well financially, and after a few months I decide to slow down to take time to train. I always have progress in mind, and the urge to set WordPress aside a bit to make progress on Symfony. I do personal projects, build tools and have a lot of fun. But I struggle to validate these skills, even to myself: my imposter syndrome, which had faded away for WordPress, clearly resurfaces for this "new" skill.

Wanting to validate my progress on Symfony, I let myself be approached by a recruiter on LinkedIn who offers me a job close to home, at a small SaaS software publisher. I go there at first out of sheer curiosity... And I find a friendly atmosphere, and above all one at the extreme opposite of the agencies I'd known until then.

Their final offer is a ridiculous salary, honestly the lowest since my time at McDonald's ten years earlier. But I'm won over by their pitch, which is a change from what I know; I'm going to be able to validate Symfony experience, and I'm curious... I accept their offer and my income is cut in half in the process (though I negotiate keeping my freelance activity going). Yes, all of that out of curiosity and a wish to learn. In my head I tell myself it will be like an internship that pays a bit better, staying a few months: training courses are expensive, so might as well be paid a little while making progress!

And it pays off. Building on my WordPress experience, I make more progress than ever on Symfony, PostgreSQL, REST and especially on front-end technologies (JSX, SCSS, WebPack), parts I used to delegate to other members of my team.

In parallel I keep working for my own clients, evenings and weekends, but wisely decide not to take on new ones. So I keep developing on WordPress despite it all. The problems I solve on Symfony during the day give me new ideas for WordPress tools in the evening. It's around this time that I get the idea of integrating Symfony's WebPack Encore into WordPress.

I decide to leave this company for a new entrepreneurial project. The reasons for my departure will probably be the subject of a separate article one day.

So I come back to business, now wearing two hats: Expert WordPress Developer, and Symfony SaaS Developer. The two aren't opposites, whatever some claim. To me, Symfony and WordPress serve different purposes, and my knowledge of one enriches my appreciation of the other. And it now lets me build bridges between the two. And to choose whichever is best suited for each new project.

A domain name reserved in 2014 because I liked the name, "one day I'll make something of it, for sure."

Freelancing works, I finally have the freedom to choose my clients. Being frank and direct with them scores me points. I'm no longer caught in the pincers of calamitous management, a culture of presenteeism or a petty tyrant with glasses. And above all, covid happened. Clients appreciate it and, even if difficulties keep coming up, I feel it's time to grow, to give this structure resources, an identity, communication and a sales strength worthy of the name. The most fitting shape: a company.

StartingUp officially launched in late 2024 to brand an activity nearly 20 years old.

The goal stays the same but I finally feel aligned: staying on the lookout for what's new, solving the business problems of my clients, partners and circle, and working day to day with people who share my vision and values.

And once again, WordPress is one brick in the building. But it no longer holds it up; we use it when we need it, and we now also know when to do without it, it's no longer the answer to everything.

Discovered in 2005 at age 15, WordPress has been a formidable springboard in my professional life, one that has opened many doors for me and that I will keep using in the future. Starting out as a small blogging engine, it has grown into a genuine ecosystem, powering a substantial share of the web.

If I've sometimes doubted it, discovering its limits and sometimes preferring alternatives, the fact remains that it's very often the sensible choice for a great many projects. I now know when it's the right call to use it, and when it's better to avoid it: the upside is, I get to choose!