On the U.S. News list of the 100 Best Jobs, Software Developer ranks at #3.

Naturally, people see that fact and believe that Web Development may be a good career option for them.

After switching my career from Hospitality to Software Development and spending 3 years in the field, here are 3 traits I think you need to have before you pursue a job in Web Development.

A Love For Learning

I remember about 6 months into a Full Stack Coding Bootcamp I came to a big realization about the career of a programmer: you are a forever student.

As technology changes and gets better, you will naturally be exposed to new things every day. You will many times find yourself encountering older technology that isn't used anymore. A good chunk of your work week will be dedicated to reading documentation and learning how to use new and different tools.

If you're the type of person that needs to "Master" a skill, programming is most likely not for you.

Creative

The creativity you get to use in Web Development, and programming in general, is nothing like I had ever experienced before - and it's why I was so drawn to the trade.

Once you begin to program, you realize that the possibilities of what you can create are endless. Even at times when you have to maintain existing code bases, you will always need to find creative solutions to problems without breaking any of the already written code.

You need a creative spark in you if you want to be a coder - it simply comes with the territory.

Persistent

Persistence, in my opinion, is the most important trait an aspiring Web Developer needs to possess.

There will be times where you will be staring at thousands of lines of code, trying to find a small bug - hours upon hours of your life looking at the same exact file. There will be other times where the code "works fine on your computer" but is broken everywhere else and it will be up to you to figure out why. You need to realize, this job is extremely difficult -otherwise everybody would do it.

Whether you are debugging or even starting your own Web Development business, persistence will be necessary on every step of your journey.