How Much JavaScript Do You Need To Know For an Entry-Level Job?

Nerval's Lobster writes: JavaScript is a programming language that's easy to pick up, but extremely difficult to master. Even some of its beginner-level functions are decidedly not beginner-friendly. When someone lands their first JavaScript job, they're going to want to know as much as possible, if only so they can navigate through some of the language's trickier aspects without needing to ask for help. Developer Jeff Cogswell picked through JavaScript and came away with a couple of lists of what he thought were the minimum baseline of skills for JavaScript use in a work context. That list included understanding how to use built-in objects, functions , closures, and DOM (Document Object Model). While his points are comprehensive, not everyone will necessarily agree with what he lists (and doesn't list).

Comments

Entry level job?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are no entry level jobs. Not for Americans at least.

Re:Entry level job?

[Anonymous Coward]

You should apply for Indian citizenship; it'll make getting a job in the US much easier than having a US citizenship.

Re:Entry level job?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are no entry level jobs. Not for Americans at least.

Elitist and racist comments that trigger the like reflexes pretty much everyone on slashdot right?
Buy American! Be American! lol

I see "Entry level" programers float in from the local community college every other day. They usually can't figure out how to use our vending machine, much less write a line of code. The people from India/Pakistan show up and just get shit done. They also bring awesome stuff to our pot lucks.

The problem isn't H1B visas. The problem is the rub stamp educational standards colleges have in this country and completely destroyed employers faith in what a US degree means.

No the problem is that you don't understand what entry level means. Someone fresh out of college should only be

expected to have a very basic understanding of a programming language. You will have to train someone for an entry level job.

If you're expecting them to walk in the door and work without training, then it's not an entry level job.

You're part of the problem in that you're hiring experienced developers from India and claiming you're filling entry level jobs.

The net effect of this is lowering wages for experienced programmers.

Don't get me wrong there are a lot of junk degree developers out there, but lots of places are doing what you wrote and you're just screwing your neighbors.

bullshit

[zr]

> JavaScript is a programming language that's easy to pick up

this statement is the single biggest source of damage to the ecosystem of javascript.

Re:bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been programming professionally since the 1970s. I cut my teeth on COBOL, ALGOL, FORTRAN, and PL/I. Then I did years of Ada, a few months of Smalltalk, some Modula-2, and years of C and C++. I very briefly used Objective-C on actual NeXT systems. Then came a decade of Java, with some Delphi, VB and Perl. That was followed by some time with PHP, Ruby and JavaScript. Of all of those languages, JavaScript was the hardest to learn, and even after using it for years, it is the hardest to use. It's just so fucking awful, and I've worked with some pretty awful languages in the past. So much of it is just plain dumb. It's the kind of dumb that just shouldn't happen. It's the kind of dumb that shouldn't be allowed to exist 20 years on, even if it was first introduced during a rushed release! What's dumber is when people defend the dumbness as if it's some kind of a feature or a benefit. It's neither of those. It's just dumbness gone wild. It's fucking idiotic that it has taken over 20 years for JavaScript to get something that barely resembles a usable form of object orientation. It's stupid that its standard library is so terribly lacking, and what is there is mighty shitty. It's beyond belief how bad its type system is, and how awful its automatic type conversions are. Something is really fucking wrong when a so-called 'modern' language is worse than the ones developed 20 or 30 years prior to it, back when programming language design was in its infancy. That's right: the people who developed the earliest programming languages managed to do a much better job at it than those who have created JavaScript, decades later. In the 1980s and 1990s, I never though I'd be dealing with a programming language as shitty as JavaScript, especially so far into the future. We could have done great things, yet now we're saddled with the worst programming language around.

Re:bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

Really, the greatest thing about JavaScript is that you're very unlikely to run across ridiculous things like an "abstract factory factory".

Instead, you run across every JavaScript developer trying their best to fake class OO using prototypes. Each one uses an approach that's different from every other developer, and each has its own set of serious limitations. Worst of all, none of them are compatible with each other.

Languages that compile down to JavaScript, such as CoffeeScript, TypeScript, and Dart, are so popular because they add real class OO. Hell, even ECMAScript 6 is adding real class OO. Classes, not prototypes, are the only practical tool. Prototypes are a detriment; they are a sham.

125 years of experience

[penguinoid]

also 90 years of experience with Windows 10.

Blinders

[Luthair]

I think the author is wearing blinders based on his previous positions. As someone who has spent the past 4-years 60-70% writing JS (and irregularly since the 90s) most of what he considers important is almost never used.

STFU Dice

[b1ng0]

STFU already Dice. We won't fall for your click bait articles.

Re:Ahh Dice

[Livius]

Followed by,

"I know all the languages; what else do I need to get an entry level job. Any job. I haven't worked in years -- I'm desperate! Please!"

High unemployment has a terrible social cost.

By definition, the answer is "none"

[melchoir55]

By definition, the answer is "none". An entry level position doesn't need to require experience in a given programming language. It needs to require some familiarity with programming, sure. There is all kinds of stuff you probably should look for in such an individual. Aptitude to learn (from your senior and mid level developers who you picked partly because they are good at sharing knowledge), existing understanding of symbolic logic, common software design concepts like when to use sets instead of lists, the list (pun) goes on.

It is really absurd how snobby software developers are about who joins their ranks. Part of the absurd job req ads in tech aren't just due to hr managers trying to game the h1b system. They are in part there because of clueless software devs who have been moved into management because that is (for god knows what reason) considered a normal career path. Don't respond with "it is better to have no one then to have a bad coder!". You're right, but inexperience with a given language doesn't mean they won't be productive with that language in two weeks to a month. This is the very definition of entry level.

Re:Crockford's JavaScript: The Good Parts

[maroberts]

The problem is that whilst Crockford will teach you to write good JavaScript, as often as not you have to wade through and understand the crappy JavaScript that has been written by someone who hasn't read that book, or any others from all appearances. And then to top it off, the sick bastard has minified and/or obfuscified the fuck out of it.