Web design jobs and what employers ask for

01Read the advert like a checklist

Job adverts can feel scary. They list ten tools you've never heard of and ask for "2+ years of experience". Take a breath. An advert is often a wish list, not a wall.

Read each one with a pen, or a note on your phone, and sort every line into three groups:

• I can show this now, with a live site or a project on GitHub
• I've used this a little, and could talk about it honestly
• I haven't touched this

Then do the same for ten real adverts. Look on job boards, LinkedIn, company websites and the careers pages of agencies near you.

After ten adverts you'll see patterns. The words that keep appearing are what to learn next. The ones that appear once can wait.

02The skills that keep coming up

Every advert is different, but for junior web design and front-end roles, a few things appear again and again. Here's what they mean in plain English.

The basics of how the web works

HTML is the structure of a page: headings, paragraphs, buttons. CSS is how it looks: colours, spacing, layout. JavaScript makes it do things: open a menu, check a form. Employers want to know you understand these, even if an AI writes most of the code. If you can open a file, point at a line and say what it does, you're ahead of many applicants.

A modern framework

Many adverts name a framework: a ready-made foundation that developers build on. React and Next.js are common names, and Tailwind is a popular way to write CSS. These are the tools you build with in the course.

Git and GitHub

Git keeps every version of your code, so you can go back if something breaks. GitHub stores that history online and lets a team work on the same project. In a team, you'll use Git every day. A GitHub profile with real, regular work in it tells an employer a lot.

Sites that work on phones

Responsive design means a site that looks right on a phone, a tablet and a laptop. An employer may well open your work on their phone first, and so will a small business's customers, often on mobile data. Make sure it holds up.

Putting a site live

Building on your own laptop is one skill. Putting a site on the internet, on a real domain, is another. Being able to say "here's the live address" is stronger than "here are some screenshots".

Working with a back end

Some roles stay on the front end (what visitors see). Others want you to understand the back end: the database, forms that save data, emails, logins. Even a basic understanding helps you talk to the rest of the team.

Communication

This one appears in almost every advert, in some form. Can you explain what you built, ask a clear question when you're stuck, and take feedback without taking it personally? Your messages and your interview will show it.

03AI tools: say how you use them, honestly

Employers differ here. Some want to see that you work quickly with AI tools like Cursor and ChatGPT. Others want proof you understand the code without them. Be ready for both.

What almost nobody wants is someone who pastes an AI answer they can't explain. The skill that matters is directing the AI well and checking its work: giving it a clear brief, reading what it changed, catching mistakes, fixing what breaks and keeping secrets out of the code.

An employer isn't hiring the AI. They're hiring the person who can tell when the AI is wrong.

In an interview, describe your process plainly: "I plan the page in ChatGPT, build it in Cursor, review every change before I keep it, and test it on a phone." Then be ready to open your code and walk through it.

04Show it, don't list it

A list of skills on a CV is easy to write and hard to believe. Live work is the opposite. Aim to have:

• your own site, live on your own domain, that works well on a phone
• one or two projects with a working back end, such as a booking or ordering site, clearly labelled as concept projects if they weren't for a paying client
• a GitHub profile with regular, real commits, not one upload the night before you apply
• a short write-up for each project: the problem, what you built, and one thing you learned

If you've done any paid work for a client, even one small site, include it with their permission. It shows you can deliver for a real person with real deadlines.

Never claim a skill you can't show, and never include someone else's design or a project you didn't build. One fake detail can undo everything real on the page.

05Applying and interviewing

Your application

Keep your CV short and specific. Lead with your live work: links at the top, not hidden on page two. For each job, write a few lines about why this company, and point to the project of yours that's closest to what they do.

The interview

Expect to be asked to talk through something you built. Practise explaining one project out loud in two minutes: what it does, how it's put together, what went wrong and how you fixed it. Some employers also give a small task, like building or fixing part of a page. If you're allowed AI tools, use them the way you normally would and explain your steps as you go.

When you don't know an answer, say so, and say how you'd find out. That's a real skill, and interviewers notice it.

Remote roles

Some companies hire remotely from other countries. If you apply from Ghana, be clear about your time zone, your internet setup and the hours you can work. Check how you'd be paid before you accept anything, and be careful with any "job" that asks you to pay a fee upfront.

06Freelance work counts as experience

You don't have to choose between a job and clients. Building a site for a local salon, a church or a relative's shop gives you exactly what adverts ask for: a real project, a real deadline and a real person to satisfy. You can do client work while you apply for jobs, and talk about it in your interviews.

07Build skills you can prove

The course is built around the skills above. In Stage 1 you set up your tools, learn the prompt system and launch your own site on the internet. Stage 2 starts with Module 4, Read the Code, where you learn to read and explain what the AI writes, then goes on to fixing things, Git, databases, emails, logins and security, the parts that make a junior developer useful to a team. The course can't promise you a job, and nobody honest can. It can give you skills and live work to show for them. Watch Module 0 free, then get the course when you're ready to build.