Hey everyone, im a 23 years old software engineering student from Brasil, I’ve picked up coding as a hobby since I was 14, and started softw.eng college at 18. Since then, I’ve had to work on multiple projects in colllege ranging from Chrome extensions to full-stack web systems with React and Node apis. Basically, a whole lot of javascript mainly (we’ve worked with java, c and c++, and python for other classes but the bigger projects were all JS) and it’s what I am comfortable with.
After this intro, my issue right now is that I just landed my first job ever, as an intern web developer on a firm that mainly works with WordPress+Elementor. I’ve been working on multiple client sites with them, from static landing pages to more complete institutional sites and some e-commerces.
Our sites are bloated with pre-made themes the firm suggests us to use, and tons and tons of plugins. I am doing just fine, but there are other people working with me who have ZERO programming knowledge and they do exactly the same as me. I wanted to know HOW exactly could I leverege any html/css/JS knowledge I have to my favor in this job, how could I optimize my work, make it stand out, have better rankings on google’s page speed insights, etc?
I have suggested before about using Nextjs for some of our static sites, and they were open to it, but would it really be worth it?
Sorry for the long text, and any help, suggestions or offensive comment is all welcome, thank you for your time!
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It will depend in the client needs, i mean, you can probably do a lot more than your co workers but if the client needs a simple landing page with their information, you will not be able to do much more than that. Seo wise, they probably have plugins to add the necessary meta tags, speed wise, use webp and correctly sized images, don’t overuse JavaScript, have a cache plugin and a cdn if it’s necessary. (But most of this will depend on your agency workflow)
If you learn php you could make your own custom themes eventually but your agency will be hesitant to let you use it, because it’s their business, others will have to learn how to use it, specially if you leave.
Using custom fields, doing custom dashboards, replacing complex plugins with a simpler and personalized solution will probably be beneficial to the site speed and you will learn a lot, but again, the agency will want at least, documentation on what you do, how does it work, etc.
In my opinion, learn in your free time, do your own complex sites and eventually, start your agency or look for a job more aligned with your studies!