To become world-class at anything requires dedication and a real passion for learning. It’s certainly not something that happens overnight. In this short article, I will explore what it takes to become a world-class Craft CMS developer, no mean feat. Full disclaimer here, I certainly don't see myself as a world-class developer, far from it, I’m writing this if I were going to become better and extremely good at web development, some of the traits I’d adopt and things I’d do to achieve that.
Set aside time
To become 1% at anything requires focus and dedication. Becoming world-class does not come easy to anyone in any field. You need to work at it and work extremely hard at it. I’d suggest setting aside a few hours every day to focus on your craft, no pun intended. Each day that passes, you learn something new and improve your skills. Time passes very quickly, and with this dedicated time, you build skills and techniques in no time.
Use different technologies to build
If you are used to using Sass for your CSS, try out other available technologies such as Tailwind. This will increase your skills and knowledge of the technologies that others use for building sites. If you hear of this new tech, in your dedicated time, noted above, try it. You may decide that it’s not for you, but you will have explored and learned strong reasons why you do not like that new bit of tech. You are becoming more knowledgeable as a Craft Developer just by experimenting. Again, learning and building your skill set.
Multi-site, GraphQL, Headless with Astro
If you have never built a Craft multi-site, then I would do just that. It would be good to increase your knowledge in, and it would add another string to your bow. The same goes for headless, you may believe in traditional HTML & CSS, and for full SEO benefit, not to go near JavaScript solutions such as Astro, but that could be hearsay, you want to try these technologies, increasing your knowledge and knowhow as you go. Finding out for yourself is the best way to learn.
Migrations from different platforms
There seems to be a lot of movement from the WordPress community over to Craft. You would learn a lot by taking an example WordPress project and porting it across to Craft. You would become more knowledgeable and learn the ins and outs of a conversation from one to the other. It wouldn't be a bad idea to build a WordPress site, either. WordPress powers roughly half of the internet, and an astonishingly high number. You will find out why so many people use it. You would increase your knowledge of Craft by building a WordPress site, because you would see for yourself the reasons that Craft outguns it, and where it falls short.
Security
A world-class Craft CMS developer knows about and is highly competent when dealing with security issues. By knowing more than the fundamentals and really understanding security concerns with Craft. Not just keeping up with the latest patches, but having knowledge of why these attacks have happened and what hackers are doing to expose these flaws.
Build plugins
Undoubtedly, there is a lot you can do with native Craft, but plugins are used on just about every Craft site. A highly skilled Craft developer should at least know the most popular plugins inside out. They have a very good knowledge of most plugins and what’s available and what’s not. World-class developers would have a good few plugins of their own available and probably for sale too. Knowing multiple plugins extends Craft skills enormously.
Curiosity
You need a mindset of curiosity to become a leader in your field. Learning all of the above technologies requires a mentality of constant learning. If you don't enjoy something, you are unlikely to put in the hours needed to become the 1%. You really need to love learning and be curious about all aspects of Craft. If you hear about a different way of creating a certain part of a site, you want to know how to do that. Again, learning as you go.
Resources
There are some great resources for learning Craft. Ryan Irelan has done a fabulous job with Craft Quest, and for the price of a few cups of coffee per month, most Craft devs have an account on there. There is the Craft Discord, which many skilled Craft devs hang out in. The knowledge some of these guys have is vast, and it’s a great way to solve problems.
Answering questions
TThey say the best way to learn is to teach, and whilst you don't need to create the next Craft Quest, answering questions on the Stack Exchange and the Discord is a great method of learning and increasing your skills. You will find a lot of the top Craft devs are generous with their time and will admit to learning a lot, even about their own plugins, by answering questions.
As this article has set out, becoming world-class requires dedication and a passion for knowledge. By learning every day and having curiosity, it is possible. It just won’t happen overnight.
Good luck.
Written by John Macpherson