I understand jobs specs can vary… i.e all of the above, frontend and backend. But the question is more about when is it, that you’re deemed competent enough to be employable in each language?
I’ve had no formal training but spent the last 9 months learning all the above languages (creating a social network). I don’t think I’m employable, but others seem to think I am.
I’m perfectly fine with writing a page in CSS/HTML but may flick between google for some CSS3/HTML5 aspects. I’m also aware of caniuse.com to which i visit frequently.
My Jquery skills are very simple but I can close/hide, style and select elements with .click(“”). i.e I understand the fundamentals for basic interactivity. I’ve also played around with ajax for:
An interactive svg map that runs from a php script. 2) Infinite scroll triggered by a ‘view more’ button. These took me a long time to work out, but succeeded.
I can write simple PHP relatively fast and moderate PHP quite slow… but practice makes perfect right? I’ve combined PHP with ajax (in last paragraph). Created a login/register page (from a tutorial) and armed with the knowledge, built a settings and addEntries page for inserting/updating stuff in the database.
I’m quite fast at css/html but not so much at the rest… but I love the logic with PHP/Jquery and really want to improve. I’m worried about applying for a job since I’m not completely aware of best practices and required skill. Based on the above am i employable and what skills should I improve?
Have a look through some web developer job adverts and some projects on freelance websites and take a look at their requirements. Don’t apply or bid for them but do the project by yourself anyway just to see where your skills are at. Also look at programming forums such as this one, see if you can answer some of the questions that people are posting.
Also for the website that you built already, you can ask around for reviews.
I’d say just go for it now. Nothing beats learning through experience. Just do not lie during the interview. Hiring a person for technical skill is about 75% and 25% is based on your team work compatibility. As long as you are willing to accept below average salary then you have a very good chance of getting the job. For example, they may look for someone who writes Javascript Unit test using Jasmine or Protractor. Or even volunteer to be a smoke tester / junior programmer.
by the looks of it a webdev job will have to go on hold. Can only work 6 months max and my social network/portfolio is stuck on a PC which I can’t afford to fix >:|. Anyhow, going to look at getting an unqualified job and skill up on my weak areas in spare time.
Skills that are low (or lacking) that I wish to improve are…
0) - layout (limited understanding of best practices)
HTML H1-6 (never used, need to rectify for SEO)
HTML formatting (best practices)
ID/Class naming (best practices)
HTML5 (Everything) CSS3 (Lot’s)
CSS formatting
Directory design (CMS)
PHP formatting (best practices)
PHP variable/function names (best practices)
Javascript (ditching Jquery until sufficient in JS)
Basically I’d be much happier to apply when the above are ticked.
Are there any good (pro/in depth) guides that help with 0,1,2,3,5,6,7 and 8? (4 and 9 just a matter of practice.)
And any recommendations on a way to benchmark ones skill level (bit like an exam to test competence)? (I like to combine graphs and numbers :p)
It is an impressive list and wish you the best of luck. I think that it is an ongoing process and there are lots of articles around. Sometimes, best practices are not real best pratices but personal preferences from those who post it and sometimes workflows of people with lots of experieces.
I would suggest that you read the stickies of each forum in SP (at least, design, CSS and HTML) because they have lots of resources that you may find interesting.
Also, regarding HTML and CSS, I would say that learnable’s courses are quite good, including Sass . I would also include Javascript too in that lot.
Webs like alistapart.com also help with best practices in terms of design, HMTL, CSS and Javascript.
I must say you cant specify any job you are employable for or not. if you are an fresher you should start from entry level and you will gain experience as progressing career.
So far I agree with what has mostly been said. The things I look for in a candidate are 1) their experience up to the point they apply, 2) have they worked with a team before?, 3) how truthful was their resume when I interviewed them, and yes, I’ll ask you questions about each technology you list.
With that said, don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know, as I never ran into that situation/scenario when I worked in that technology”. But don’t stop there, explain why my question wasn’t relevant, what scenario/situation did you use the technology in? Even if you don’t fully understand why your scenario wasn’t relevant, explain to me how you used the technology and let me come up with why it wasn’t relevant. Maybe it was because you were just the low-man on the totem pole, and the more experienced users were in charge of 99% of the work in that technology (and you simply fixed the bugs).
Be open about your experiences (the good and the bad). When you start talking about the bad, end your experience with what you learned from the bad experience. We’ve all had bad experiences, all I care about is you learned something from it to help prevent that experience from coming around again.
Lastly, show that you are always willing to learn/continue to learn. Our industry changes yearly (sometimes monthly). You need to stay on top of it. Tell them what websites you visit to get news about our industry, RSS feeds you subscribe to, etc. (Hint: If you aren’t doing this, start now!)
If you reflect all of the above, you have a good chance getting hired by me.