
Why is it to hard to find a front end developer? - steven2012
https://medium.com/@illyism/why-is-it-so-hard-to-find-a-front-end-developer-cb92848a7c6f
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nness
I think this article is pretty on the money. We've been looking to hire front-
end developers in senior positions all over Australia for the last few
months... and it has been tough.

What we often find is that people do a CompSci undergrad then find work in
.Net or Java — only to realise a few months later that they much prefer to
work as a FED (front-end developer) and didn't even know it was an option.
(front-end and back-end development are two very large and robust teams in my
place of employment)

A bit part of that, as the author touches on, is that the skills required to
be a good FED are varied (and not always specifically about programming). The
root of the problem in Australia is that the front-end development position
exists professionally but not academically.

Its difficult to find universities or courses which offer accreditation or
certification in a front-end specific skill-set.

~~~
fuzzywalrus
As a front end dev, I've noticed the steady increase in job offers. Most of us
had the benefit of growing with the technology. Its why when you see a group
of Front End Devs, you'll see a group of mostly early 30 somethings to 40
somethings, and not the usual crowd of young faces in other practices.

The biggest problem I see with Front End Development is the massive trove of
tacit knowledge it takes. If you have a portfolio that goes more than a decade
deep, a junior front end dev might run across a table based layout, or baffled
by transparent gifs used to position. Or perhaps its a site made 7 years ago,
and its locked on a 960 grid and the jr dev is throw by the "Clearfixes", used
to modern frame works that magically clear floats by psuedo elements, and
doesn't understand why her/his grid isn't working when she/he forgets to
manually clear the floats. It could be even a site that is 5 years old, and
relies on wurfl to do user agent detects the baffling usage of user agents at
all to detect mobile.

Anyhow, that's just scraping the surface. My standing theory is Front End
Development is only a few years away from being divided into more roles as the
current bar for knowledge entry is getting to be almost unattainable.

~~~
bottlerocket
I'd agree with your theory. Early this summer interviewing for 2 nearly
identical positions I was told from one I was too technical, they want someone
more design-focused; and I was too design focused, they want someone more
technical from the other. Both positions are still open.

Assuming I didn't completely tank both interviews, I got the sense in feedback
afterwards they both wanted a magical front end/back end/ designer dynamo and
are holding out/hoping for that person to apply.

I think companies initially define a FED role they need, and then in
interviews find everyone has slightly different but overlapping
skillsets/specialties. Someone says 'hey wouldn't it be nice if we could find
a dev that has all these" and spin their wheels endlessly searching for the
unicorn rather than hire 2 complimentary people. Especially when they're
already pushing their budget limits.

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DrScump
Already posted twice today. First here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10543668](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10543668)

