The wanky interview questions always make me laugh. Developers at their core are hackers, they know bits and pieces but not everything. A great developer doesn't know everything but knows what to type into Google when they need a solution to a problem. Collectively all of these tidbits create a cross-network of information developers share with one another. The questions that assume you are some all seeing, all knowing developer are a farce and you probably don't want to work at a place like that anyway.
The type of questions I would love to see being asked in front-end developer positions would be:
* What's the difference between display: inline-block and float: left?
* What is the default browser behaviour in a modern web browser when applying a padding left or right to an element with 100% with?
* How would you add a class to an element with the ID of, "content" via jQuery?
* Name two CSS browser vendor prefixes
* What is the difference between responsive design and adaptive design (bonus points for describing how and why one is easier and or harder than the other)?
* Which of these is not a valid CSS unit of measurement? px, pm, em, rem, %
* What is the difference between position: absolute and position: fixed?
These are questions good developers should know the answer too without Googling, they're not solutions they're somewhat basic things a front-end developer should know off of the top of his head.
Not:
* What are some of your favourite tech blogs to read?
* Can you please write a for loop that increments a counter?
* What web browser do you use?
* Can you recall a particular time when you found yourself solving a complex problem?
It's a tough economy and companies are always trying to get something extra for nothing. I've always had an issue with companies hiring so-called, designer/developers when we all know a true designer or developer doesn't fragment their time learning two crafts. You either become a great developer or a great designer not a mediocre hybrid who lacks full-understanding of each craft because you're too busy going back and forth with crafts.
A developer with no experience in design has a higher chance of missing all of the features and nuances that make a sublime design kick ass (often the details a designer will ask for will be viewed as esoteric or anal..or esoterically anal).
Hybrids will do things like, look at illustrator...look at html5 canvas...and then combine the two into something awesome like Ai to Canvas. Hybrids will cut down your transition between design and development (which can be huge). Hybrids can cut down frictional labor costs. Hybrids can cross pollinate ideas between the two fields.
Case and point is that Hybrids are a class of their own. No, they may not have the extent of "depth" in their skill that a single focused dev or designer would, but that's because they have a "depth" in something different. And that "difference" is often innovative and far beyond what sticking to the "master of one" fallacy will do.
It's better to educate the designers yourself than have them educate themselves because it's not guaranteed they won't still ask for a design that's borderline impossible to be cut up by tomorrow. The place I work at the designers design and the developers develop and it works great for us. The designers liaison with the developers throughout the entire process, it's not a simple matter of letting the designers have free reign and then expect you to develop it. I might be one of the lucky few, but this is how all places should work. Designers and developers should sit together not be isolated from one another and only speak via a project manager which is how it seems to be at a lot of places. It's an us vs them mentality in the industry.
A lot of places I've worked prior to the place I've been working for a few years now have had this mentality that the designers know best. While a designer who understands what is possible is a viable asset, a designer who considers themselves a developer and gets in the way of the process to the point they're telling the developers what to do is counter-productive rather than working with the developers not against them and vice-versa.
I've encountered hybrids who have adequately been able to do both development and design, not in an advanced capacity but I've encountered lots of designers and developers who can easily design and knock up a Wordpress theme, however I've never come across a designer/developer who can design a complicated interface for a web application and be able to build it as well. I could be wrong and I don't doubt there are some super-talented people out there capable, but I see too many advertisements for hybrids that assume they're as common as trees in a forest.
I find it unfortunate that companies don't hire designer/developers more often. I've worked professionally in design and development roles, but it seems most companies want to keep them distinct, so I get typecast into one or the other. I want to be able to exercise all of my skills, especially when they are so closely linked in modern software.
You are right that time is definitely not on your side to try and do it, but I've been designing since elementary school and programming since high school, and had jobs doing both before graduating high school. I had an easy decade head start compared to anyone who might try the same in college. If you believe 10,000 hours to proficiency, that makes a huge difference.
Truth be told, I'm not sure how to accurately quantify my own abilities. Perhaps I really am mediocre at best, as you suggest. People seem to love the work I do though, whether it be design or development, so that is reason enough to continue with them both. Hopefully one day we can find tolerance of those who have an interest in both, and stop assuming all programmers cannot design.
I wouldn't reject someone because they don't know what rem is though! I'd think of the question as a bonus I guess.
I learned CSS when IE6 was new and shiny. I think there's a gap in the market for books to update skills - e.g. a "What's usable in CSS since IE6?". I still find odd things I can now use as I only have to target IE8+...
If I were interviewing a candidate, I wouldn't expect them to be able to deeply recall most of that detail (though I'd expect them to be familiar with the basics). I'd accept an acknowledgement that floating an element takes it out of the flow, while using inline-block doesn't, as well as some further detail about what that means, what impacts/side effects it has on other elements and markup.
This is spot on, there are some JavaScript "advanced" topics that people should be aware of, but I don't think someone who doesn't know all the answers to this one: https://github.com/nathansmith/javascript-quiz/blob/master/R... is by definition a bad developer, yes variable scope is one of the things you have to know, and the meaning of "this", but there are things you can just experiment in the console, or as you said Google and not have to memorize and still be a great developer.
First thing is that many of these companies want something cheap, so they call around and get something built locally for under 10k or call India. The site, that should have taken 6 months to build, is still being worked on after 2+ years. The company finally realized they got screw-balled and now they want to post about as much as they could for insurance.
The other issue that this article ignores is that many times these half-assed dev houses actually do create a quagmire of development technologies that run the mill from WordPress / Magento / Ruby / and every new javascript framework that comes around, and yes, even a mix of HTML, XHTML, and HTML5. Companies could also be asking for this list of products because they want someone with experience. Someone that has been around the block will have programmed in HTML4.1 at some point.
The real problem isn't the customer. They shouldn't know about, or have to care about, technology any more than you should care about, or have expert knowledge, of your lymphatic system. You pay good money to doctors who know this stuff, and unlike the average mill web house, the doctor is actually educated and knowledgeable of the field.
The problem isn't the customer, the problem is that web development is a world of slick-tongued sales people and charlatans. Most of these morons can't code at all and they basically take the money and run. They run into edge-cases and they just pile poo on top of poo, or they just abandon the job when the going gets tough. Companies create these ads because they want to defend themselves from getting screwed over again, and they are hedging their bets the best they could. It's a sad state of affairs, but the web world sort of brought this on itself.
On one end of the spectrum, it means someone that can create and design UI mockups, and implement them using CSS and jQuery. For that type of job, asking algorithm questions makes very little sense. A strong portfolio would be a much better gauge of that person's skill set.
On the other end, it means someone who's able to engineer a web client using MVC frameworks and say, CORS. In contrast, algorithm questions make a ton of sense here.
For the other 2% of the gigs, yeah it's really important.
This definitely deserves extra emphasis.
