While there is work to be found with HTML and CSS, learning complementary skills can help you stand out on the job market and be more valuable to employers. What you learn next depends on your interests and strengths, but these are a few avenues you can take to get better jobs using your knowledge of HTML and CSS:

Learn JavaScript:

To make websites interactive and to add more functionality, you’ll need to know JavaScript. Also referred to as “Vanilla JavaScript,” or “Vanilla JS,” the basics of JavaScript can make you much more valuable to a freelance client and to a development team.

With JavaScript, you can do projects like: building out maps, creating cursor hover animations, login authentications, and much, much more.

You may notice that most front end developer job listings include at least one JavaScript framework, such as React, Vue, Node.js, or Angular.

On top of learning a JS framework, getting comfortable using JavaScript libraries, like jQuery, is a smart way to stand out in the job marketing. It’s also just a good step towards making your life easier! JS libraries are collections of scripts that you don’t have to build from scratch. They allow you to incorporate JS into web projects without reinventing the wheel.

Get comfortable with Git and GitHub

Learn other soft skills.

Being able to fit into a team of developers is a big factor to succeeding on a tech team, and it’s something that hiring managers value. How can you prove you’ll be able to work well with a team of developers? How can you show that you’ll know how to use your HTML and CSS skills on a larger project with other designers and devs? Besides Git and GitHub, “you need soft skills like time management, project management, communication (oral and written), organization, and critical thinking,” says Tasha. “They need to be able to work in teams as well as be a resourceful independent worker.”

Get really, really good at CSS.

“Often, front-end engineers that enjoy the visual output of their work might specialize in deep CSS knowledge,” says Whatmoor.

Get design skills.

If you’d like to be more of a designer-developer, you can build on your HTML and CSS knowledge with design skills. Getting great at visual design and user experience design can open you up to a whole world of creative roles.