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The Web Development Skills Crisis
snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister raises questions regarding Web development skills in an era of constant innovation. Sure, low barriers to entry give underdog technologies ample opportunity to thrive without the backing of name-brand vendors. But doesn't this fragmentation of the Web development market put undue pressure on developers to specialize? Choosing one tool to be your bread and butter from a field this broad is one thing, McAllister writes. Recruiting talent for a Web project when your technology requirements eliminate most of the applicants is another. The result is a crisis, McAllister concludes, one in which maintaining a marketable skill set gets more and more difficult as the so-called state of the art changes on an almost daily basis."
Not me... I'm an Internet Application Developer. Web Developer is so 1990s...
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Real programmers don't care what language they need to write applications in. They write them in C.
HTML PROGRAMMERS WANTED
Real engineers can work in any language. ... except Java.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
I know what he means! I've put this job offer through our HR folks literally WEEKS ago and have not seen a SINGLE candidate's resume!
Wanted to hire, Jr. Web Developer.
Required Skills, minimum 10 years experience in the following:
Silverlight .NET
Microsoft(tm) AJAX(tm)
C-pound
SQL Server 2005
MySQL 5.0
ColdFusion
ATOM
IBM(tm) SOA
MS-Groovy
PRISM
Compensation: $14K/yr
I open up MS-Word. Type things in, move things around, paint borders, etc. etc.
then I...
File-->Save As...
web page
Ta Da! I'm a web designer
Maybe the compensation is set too high; it looks like you're kidding.
Full Tilt
We had no problem finding junior devs with those skills, but finding people with PhDs and 20 years of experience in Silverlight and AJAX proved problematic for the senior positions.
And chicks dig guys with skills........right?!?!
Website Hosting
unfortunately, it would seem that the 'smart computer geek' people cannot bear the thought of multi-linguistics, be it human or machine language, while jorje with a high school education from guadalajara has been able to learn a few words of english, become a foreman, and probably built the building you are sitting in. why? because he is smart and he picked up the important bits, and whoever is his boss is able to realize that and work around the language barrier.
as for kanye west... if christina aguilera, shakira, celene dione, and dozens of other singers can have hits in multiple languages,, then, yeah, he might be able to do it.
Yeah, he'd just rap on top of some guy reciting the RigVeda or something.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Nah, Chicks dig scars, or giant robots.
During the dot-com boom, I got my first job by answering a silly ad like that.
I just put the huge list of skills into the application email, and next to them just noted "yes, yes, no, no, sorta, yes, a little, yes, no, no, no, yes".
Turned out what they wanted was greatly different from that list, but the sheer fact I responded meant I was more or less the only applicant :)
Company name please.
"Piter, too, is dead."
No kidding. About a year ago, I saw an ad for a company that was looking for a Linux, Windows and Cisco system administrator (MCSE and CCNA required, CCIE desired, RHCE desired); who could code in C/C++, Perl, Python, shell scripting, HTML/CSS and Javascript; who could configure IIS, Active Directory, Apache, Bind, Samba, etc.; and who had experience maintaining Oracle 9i.
They were offering something like $40K a year.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
You seem a little....
IBM doesn't play chess with the Universe.
You're pronouncing it wrong you illiterate clod! It's Soosufoojyu (-) I bet the katakana doesn't post, based on preview, but man that's one funny comment right there!
I really like this post.
Although I'm afraid your drunken language might have blurred some of your points, you do have some very good ideas here.
The best part:
.SOMETHING. in language @#$%, then you learn something. Then read a book about it, and you will be better than any certified monkey.
Ok that is the drunk version, but I went to all kinds of trainings, and 99% was useless. Just write an app that does
I love it--learn by doing.
The worst part:
You sound too cool to be working with that crap. Come back to open source! We need you!!
Hooray sweeping generalizations!
While we're at it, engineers are fucking stupid. I mean seriously, if you look at their tepid applications of math compared to someone who is engrossed in abstract mathematical thought such as I, you wonder why they even charge for their "services." A mathematician is clearly the only one who can do the job right.
(PS I'm a CS major, and if you ever catch me saying this with a straight face I give you permission to hit me!)
I had a senior position open up and was seriously considering giving you a call. But since now I'm a prick I'll just go ahead and lose your number!
-KT