After attempting to recruit a great “web developer” someone who can take a design, cut-and-code it pixel perfect, and spit out superb HTML/CSS, and maybe even dabble in a bit of Javascript/AJAX, I’ve decided that there are very few, if any, people that have superb skills and are looking for this type of job - essentially filling the gap between UX/Visual Design and back-end programming.

I have a theory about why folks don’t like to live only in this middle world: it’s tedious and not very creative, and requires a high degree of skill - two sets of things that don’t match well. If someone is skilled enough to do it well, they are likely creative and move on to more challenging jobs(like UX design or back-end server systems). People that move on quickly lose the entire spectrum of skills and are left with a good knowledge of part of the center stage. Those who are more naturally designers move towards UX/Visual design and end up knowing HTML/CSS, but not Javascript, and people who are more naturally inclined to code move toward back-end programming and may or may not stick with their Javascript knowledge, but most certainly abandon their HTML/CSS skillset.

So, web developers are by their very nature meta-stable. Once they are good enough to be really useful, they roll towards one end of the spectrum.

If you disagree with me, prove me wrong - show me a great web developer, and if I hire them, I’ll admit defeat and buy you a beer.

Comments(4)

1. Great observation, and I completely agree. It reminds me of my early days managing testers. Talented testers are also very hard to keep because its tedious and pressure filled. Testers who have aspirations and skills to be developers stay a year, learn the product, and move “up” to development. Those who care about how the product is used by customers move out to systems integration and product management roles.

   But of course, if I find that great web developer first, I’m keeping ‘em, and I’ll buy _you_ the beer !

   Posted by allan t. on

   June 27th, 2008 at 10:36 am
   
   

2. You’re saying that it’s generally human nature, but perhaps it’s also American culture. Coming from outside of the US, I’ve always known Americans as mostly Specialists rather than Generalists. Specialists meaning to be very good or an expert in one skill set, Generalist meaning to be good at a variety of skill set on the surface, and perfectly happy about it. To be a Specialist is a way to survive in this US job market, I think. Have you tried outsourcing? :-))

   Posted by rrrooosssaaa on

   July 22nd, 2008 at 11:43 am
   
   

3. Rosa, I think you are correct in your assessment of specialists and generalists. I have tried to outsource this type of work, and the problem is the quality has been too low. The issue is that to get the required quality, one needs a specialist. A generalist simply cannot fulfill the requirements.

   Posted by Owen Johnson on

   July 22nd, 2008 at 11:52 am
   
   

4. Hey Owen,

   I think it is somewhat true and I also think companies can start shaping the workforce as well.

   Especially with the new shift towards lots of smaller tech companies and not just large players. We do not have the luxury of hiring specialists for the most part as we need folks who can do it all.

   I have made a good living being the middle guy and have skills in backend servers all the way up to html/css. It has been a conscious decision on my part cause like you found out there is always a job out there. I find being a specialist boring.

   At our company while I am the head of technology I still spend 90% of my time programming in all areas of the application. We have a small small small IT team and try to hire people that can move about in the code.

   I had our UX guy learn svn and how to check out and start up our application on his laptop. Now he can help with any html/css problems in the app. I figure it is his design for the most part so he should be the one in the code making the html perfect. This takes a lot of stress off me as I find html/css work a little tedious at times and can now rely on him to help clean stuff up that I may not have time for. It has also made the job much more interesting for our UX person as they are now actually in the codebase and do not have to wait for a developer to move something a few pixels. Also having him insert full html mockups into the app has saved us tons of time.

   I feel it is time to demand more out of the UX folks and trying to get some jscript training going for him as well.

   It goes the other way as well. It is also time to start getting those server guys out of there shells and into the frontend some as well. Much harder to do but I feel to be a truly customer focused company everyone should be involved with all aspects of how the customer interacts with your product.

   It is hard though to find the right people. We have not had much luck but going forward I am going to be more willing to hire smart inquisitive folks that may need some training. At least that way I can make them into the perfect web developer…

   -sean

   Posted by Sean Ransom on

   July 24th, 2008 at 8:58 am
   
   

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