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RSSHiring Managers! Do You Know What You Want?
Feb 4
Article AJAX, back-end, back-end development, cross-browser, cross-plaform, CSS, CSS 2.1, CSS 3, CVS, DHTML, DOCTYPE, DOM, Dreamweaver, Drupal, ECMAScript, front-end, front-end design, front-end development, hiring manager, HR, HTML, HTML 4, HTML5, Java, javascript, Linux, Mac, MySQL, mysql scalability, OOP, PC, PHP, polymorphism, Ruby, SEO, Subversion, terminal, WordPress, XHTML, XHTML 1.0, XHTML 1.1, XHTML 2.0, XHTML Strict, XHTML Transitional No Comments
99% of you do not know what you’re looking for, what you want, or the specific needs of your company when it comes to web design or development. That may sound harsh, it may be a high number, agree or disagree if you will. Many have no background in web design or development. All they know how to do is print, turn the computer on, work a mouse, and use Microsoft Office Suite programs like a skilled assassin.
AJAX Methodologies are the same as writing down DHTML/HTML/XHTML/CSS/Javascript in your job adverts. DHTML is NOT a language… let get that straight, first off. Many think it is an off-shoot of HTML. Wrong. DHTML, is a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language (such as HTML), a client-side scripting language (such as JavaScript), a presentation definition language (such as CSS), and the Document Object Model. So says Wikipedia. Please know the difference.
Please know the difference too with Java and Javascript. There IS a difference.Java is a programming language developed by Sun Microsystems and is a integral part of their Java platform. JavaScript was influenced by many languages and was designed to look like Java, but to be easier for non-programmers to work with. Javascript is a dialect of ECMAScript. Programmers use both, but they are in separate classes by themselves. Please know the difference.
HTML/XHTML, yes, there are subtle differences, please know them. There is also HTML 4 & HTML 5, XHTML Strict and Transitional (among others), 1.0 & 1.1, even 2.0 which is dead in the water at this time. Tags close differently in XHTML than HTML. Please understand that difference.
PHP & MySQL is NOT a front-end language. It does help for a front-end developer to know some, but it is not crucial that they know JOINs & SELECTs, they should know a little OOP, but it’s not vital that they understand polymorphism or mysql scalability by heart.
It DOES help if someone knows the basics of the terminal or CVS/Subversion.
A CMS (Content Management System) is a great way to fix your cluttered site and trim those huge, hand-coded pages down. Do your homework when searching for a CMS, make sure your needs are addressed and that CMS can match your needs with solutions for those needs. WordPress is great for smaller sites, maybe it is great for your huge company sites, Drupal is another which I find better for larger sites with hundreds or thousands of pages of information.
CSS 2.1 is still widely used, CSS 3 brings us on the threshold of something wonderful in the world of front-end development. Mixed in with HTML 5, it’s going to be a beautiful thing. Please understand the difference when your developer or designer is using (and I do hope they are using) !DOCTYPE. Strict is fine, Transitional is also, use one, stick with one, please don’t use more than one on your site like I have seen before. and please hiring managers… make sure your business understands where the web is headed.
There are many people out there that are trying to steer people the right way and make the web a beautiful place for all of us that use this medium to not only browse, but communicate and share experiences. Don’t shut out users because your company uses a PC and that’s all you develop in, understand there are cross-platform issues and there are cross-browser issues as well. There is more than one browser out on the market today, understand that as well please. Just because Internet Explorer 6 is installed on your machine, doesn’t make it the only browser in existence.
Companies, please make sure your HR or hiring manager knows the differences when it comes to not only front-end design and development, but back-end development as well. This will only make things smoother for your company and your turnover rate, if it is unusually high, will only shrink because your people are in the know.
SEO is a myth. It’s a bunch of snake-oil salespeople trying to make a quick thousand bucks off of you & your company. SEO is not just tags and placing hundreds of words between your <head> tags and hundreds of other useless meta tags or ancient meta tags they use with their version of Adobe PageMill, it’s also about how you use your markup & structure. If you want to waste money spending $4,000/month on some “SEO Expert” that just places tags in the head of your documents and then call it a day, you’re getting fleeced. 75% of the designers and developers out there that know what they are doing and that have the experience should know a lot of SEO and that the search engines that matter, don’t blacklist your site because of the program you’re using because Snidely Whiplash, the SEO expert told you to bomb the heck out of the search engines each month.
Hiring managers should know what the company needs. Not just a bunch of resumes and then going through to see which one has the longest list of expertise. I’d prefer the guy that has 3 years experience with web standards and the matching skills to amange my web department rather than the guy that has 10 years coding expertise and can code PHP/MySQL/Ruby in his sleep, yet he still delivers Dreamweaver templates from the design he downloaded from Free Web Templates and they’re laden with inline tables, scripting, styling and hundreds of lines of commenting.
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