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? The result is a crisis, McAllister concludes, one in which maintaining a marketable skill set and hiring for a particular Web project gets more difficult as the state of the art changes on an almost daily basis.
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Member since:2005-07-17
He seems to be pointing to the end of the Wild West web developer. It's neat that the web is a level field, individuals can enter and shake it up overnight, but for large companies with long-term budgets that's a liability not a blessing. Companies like things to be around 5 years and to hire people with specific experience in XYZ that have stepped up the food chain in neat little rows. Web programming is all about breaking conventions and inventing new ones something "professional" organizations try to weed out. Not having conventions regular management can understand is holding back many projects from even starting. Even most IT managers are ill-equip to handle the fast paced changes that happen overnight in the web world.
Member since:2007-05-12
Member since:2005-07-05
Member since:2006-11-17
But most companies go thru recruiters nowdays and all recruiters know is buzzwords. I think some of them do a word search on resumes and if you don't get a certain number of hits, no interview. Sad.
When I look into learning a new language, I look at how it will work with what I already do. That's what attracted me to Adobe's Flex. I can put a pretty shiny interface on some php or perl I wrote 10 years ago and management eats it up.
My vote for favorite obscure languages: Expect (yes, I know it's an extension of Tkl).
Member since:2005-11-09
Answer.... hire people who are smart enough and motivated enough to learn the technologies needed when you start up, then hire on new people that are smart and motivated and give them time to learn the technologies, and continue on, pretty soon, if a new tech is worth its salt, the market will have people who are trained to use the technologies you are looking for since other companies also followed this strategy.
Member since:
2005-07-05
The author asks, "If you're in charge of a Web-based software project, how do you go about recruiting development talent?"
That's easy. You throw out any resumes that only show one or two languages (especially if they are languages like VB, C# or Java).
When I hire somebody, I look for engineers who have programmed in languages like Python, Perl, Lisp, or Ruby, or some obscure language, and ignore programmers who have only used mainstream, corporate languages like C# and Java.
Why? Because engineers who only know C# and/or Java tend to be career engineers who are in it for the money, whereas the others tend to be in the field due to their love of technology. Those are the people I want because they tend to be more knowledgeable, flexible, and creative.