Girl Gone Geeky

Back in the day, when I was a fresh graduate, applying for web related roles meant that you would fall into one of two distinctive camps. You were either a web designer, or web developer. A web designer role was simple…you knew how to use photoshop, you worked in flash (not necessarily actionscripting), you understood html, and knew how to use a package called dreamweaver. Developers would have to know Java, javascript, and either PHP, ASP or Coldfusion.

How times have changed. No longer are you able to fall in one of these two camps, because all these titles have emerged on recruitment sites:

• Web developer
• Back-end developer
• Front-end developer
• Ruby on rails developer
• Web designer/developer
• New media designer/graphic designer/developer
• Web master
• etc etc etc

It would seem that you need to be an uber geek these days to pass off as either a developer or designer.

I used to be one of those individuals that would try and dabble in a bit of this, a bit of that, and get caught up in the current version of a language, to only then realise that it was no longer applicable, and you had to learn the most recent version. (Yes I am referring to my attempts of mastering actionscripting in Flash 5!!!) Then I gave up, and decided to focus on what I knew, and master it well.

However, it seems that nowadays, being a jack of all trades is slowly becoming the norm…although I don’t know how people can manage to absorb that much! You must have all seen job postings where to be a designer, you should also be capable of writing in ASP.NET, XML, Javascript and XSL.

When people ask me what I do as a profession, I say that I’m a front-end developer. My business card may display the title “Web Developer”, but I find that it is somewhat misleading.

In my eyes, a front-end developer means that you are the middle person between the back-end techies and the designers. You are the one that cares about how a page looks as well as how it behaves/functions. The one that takes into account accessibility, usability, the use of css and xhtml in the correct way.

The title “Web Developer” can encompass the work of a front-end developer, but it can also mean a lot more. I recall introducing myself to a family friend last year, and they asked me what I do…I said that I was a web developer, and then they started asking me about java, asp, etc etc, at which point I looked blankly at them!

So what is the point I am trying to make? Well…the point is that working in an industry where new releases of languages and software are the norm, trying to bombard yourself with everything you think you need to know can be overwhelming and tiring.

Improve on the skills you have and find areas which are related, so that you can slowly make that transition successfully. Otherwise it won’t work well enough, if you just pick things up willy nilly for the sake of keeping up with the latest web trend.

Now I must dash, and read up on my CSS Mastery book

ps. Can anybody recommend a good javascript book to read?