Magento is one of the most popular open-source eCommerce platforms. It’s currently being used by millions around the world. It’s famous for its amazing features such as reliability and flexibility that makes it a good platform for building e-commerce stores.

If you’re interested in becoming a Magento developer, you have chosen a career that comes with many benefits. The demand for Magento development and usage has increased dramatically over the last few years.

It means there’s a big need for Magento developers in the e-commerce world and this need is still booming. This results in delivering hundreds of new jobs in the market.

To become a skilled and professional Magento developer, you have to invest time, money, and be committed to yourself. However, there are a few ways you can use to faster your process of becoming an expert.

Here are the top 6 ways you can become an expert Magento developer.

1. Start with basics

The first to take is to learn and understand the basics of Magento. Magento is a little complex open-source platform so you have to understand it properly. If you have basic coding skills and an understanding of languages like HTML, CSS, JQuery framework systems, and JavaScript, learning it won’t be that hard.

Apart from that, become an expert of PHP language as well, especially its PHP 5.6 version and 5.7 version. That’ll help you work better on the latest version of Magento, Magento 2. To master that, get familiar with the MVC architecture, OOP, and modular development rules.

A few hands-on skills of MySQL will also help in solving problems. Also, learn to utilize cache techniques to help you improve your skills as a Magento developer.

Besides coding, learn at least the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’ll help you understand the e-commerce platform in a better way and how you can build stores that are optimized for both search engines and users.

2. Learn how the platform works

Learning about how Magento works is the best approach towards your mastery in Magento. In simple words, if you’re not familiar with the platform you’re going to excel at, you’re probably gonna suck. There’s no better way to learn anything rather than doing it yourself.

No matter how much you have read or know about if you don’t have practical knowledge, it’s not worth it. By doing this, you can practice it anytime, anywhere you want and start to learn it your way.

It’s time to practice all the things that you have learned so far. Go through the platform and practice your learning. Try to set up new products, try using different shipping methods, defining shopping cart rules, or catalog pricing rules, whatever you want. 

Test the checkout process and see how it shows to the customer, learn how to understand the user experience and know how it works for customers. To learn more about it, you can use Magento’s official documentation to learn more about its features and components.

As you read the documentation, practice that knowledge to excel in it. If there’s still something you can’t get along the line, ask questions on Quora, Reddit, Stackexchange, or Magento forums. This will help you prepare yourself for better and fast learning.

3. Take courses and learn from industry experts

Having the basic knowledge of coding and the platform won’t be enough. To further improve yourself, invest in a good course that’ll teach you the deep secrets of Magento like how to re-build an abandoned store, how to win clients and advance strategies that the pros don’t share online. But, why should you enroll in a course when you can learn online?

A course is something that teaches in-depth knowledge driven by the practical experience of experts in the industry. This is where you’ll learn things like front-end customization, store management automation, managing different clients at the same time, etc.

4. Work as a freelancer for some time

After all the learnings you had till now, it’s time to practice that. Get a couple of projects as a freelancer and aim on learning first, rather than charging big bucks. Why? It’ll allow you to gain more experience by getting more projects at a lower price.

Don’t run after big profits, get fully skilled first and gain experience. You can publish your gigs on freelance networks like Upwork or Fiverr to start with it.

Or, try getting in touch with a Magento Development company, try to reach both local and international companies to have better chances of work. By working with such companies, you’ll not earn a good starting income, but it also gives you a good working experience.

We suggest you try both, because freelancing will teach you how to work alone and handle tough problems, and working with a team teaches you about teamwork and builds a great team spirit in you. So, when you start your job at a company, it’ll be easy for you to co-op and work in a new environment.

5. Earn certifications

Besides other non-certification courses, consider enrolling in a course that offers certification. It allows you to perform different development tasks at a better scale and be more proficient. Having a certificate is a validation that you’re a true expert and knows the ins and outs of Magento.

6. Attend annual events and conferences

Magento held different events throughout the year at different times. Attending these events can benefit you in so many ways. Because these events teach you the upcoming trends and changes in the platform, allow you to network with other Magento experts that can create more career opportunities for you.

Check out Magento’s official website regularly for the latest news and upcoming Magento events. Attending these events gives you countless opportunities to interact with other experts, developers, and companies to share your ideas and work on something greater in the future.

Conclusion

Starting your career as a Magento developer is a great deal as it allows you to excel in different aspects of running online stores. If you’re interested in becoming a Magento Developer, follow these steps.