Employment in America: WTF is going on?

Re:Employment in America: WTF is going on? by nostrademons on Tuesday October 29, 2013 @11:16PM (#6639235)

The problem is that even at the junior dev level, you're delivering solutions, not skills. And you really do need all those skills to build a useful frontend webapp. The only two that you could possibly cut out are Data Structures and Algorithms & Photoshop, and both of those definitely help.

The way I would approach it if I were gunning for an entry-level frontend dev position would be to just start building webpages. Start with HTML, and layer on CSS. Make it interactive with Javascript. Now serve it up from the backend with Django/RoR/PHP, which will also teach you Linux. Work with it for a while and you'll see the reason to learn Design Principles. You don't have to learn everything about those topics at once, but as you face new problems with your webapp, you layer on new skills.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Employment in America: WTF is going on? by ryanSrich on Wednesday October 30, 2013 @02:22PM (#6642143)

Eh. I'd have to slightly disagree.

Having some experience in one of those frameworks is certainly useful but it's not really a requirement of being a front-end dev.

As long as you're intelligent and can use Google you'll pickup working knowledge of a language or framework quickly. This is why the best companies hire people based on who are they are, not what they know.

There is also the semantic issue of how deep one must understand a language or framework. For example; I build custom WordPress themes and have a general knowledge of PHP but I'd never put on my resume that I know PHP. Not because I don't want to work with it, but because working knowledge doesn't constitute extensive knowledge.

[ Parent | on HN ]