WWW: Beyond the Basics

7. Web Related Careers

7.2. The Job Title Confusion

Well-defined job titles in the computer related professions appear to be a thing of the past. What has happened to the times when job titles clearly defined the responsibilities of computer professionals? In the past, job titles specified what qualifications the employee had or the employer expected. There were the system analysts who did the planning and design of computer systems. The programmers implemented the design of the system by writing and testing code. If one was responsible for planning, design and implementation, then he or she was referred to as a programmer/analysts. Now we have the push toward client/server technology and a plethora of titles that come with it. Among the most prevalent is the title of "Webmaster". Therefore, with the new emphasis on the Internet and the World Wide Web, there has been a large addition to the confusion of job titles for computer professionals.

There are many titles applied to persons who are considered Web experts. Webmaster, HTML/CGI/Java Programmer, Web Site Administrator, Web Architect, and Web Page Designer are just a few. Notice that all of these names have Internet or Web attached to them. This is mainly due to the fact that the Internet and the Web are hot topics now. However, with each of these titles, there are some conflicting and overlapping job descriptions. The general view is that anyone with experience in HTML can be characterized as a WebMaster . This is a narrow view. Although there are many that carry one of the above mentioned titles, some of these persons may fit into other Web/Internet related fields. These other fields may require less or more specific responsibilities than a Webmaster. However, all of these professionals should be considered in the move toward the distributed information storage and access given by the Internet and the WWW.

In the ten subsections under "Popular Career Titles", we will cover some of the more popular Web related careers. Each career subsection will include the description, education requirement, and average salary demand.

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Copyright © 1996 Felicia Doswell, All Rights Reserved

Felicia Doswell <doswell@csgrad.cs.vt.edu>