Here’s a fantastic post from Rebecca Murphey that lists the skill set front-end developers should be working to attain. Here’s her prediction of where things are headed:
Whatever it is, I think we’re seeing the emphasis shift from valuing trivia to valuing tools. There’s a new set of baseline skills required in order to be successful as a front-end developer, and developers who don’t meet this baseline are going to start feeling more and more left behind as those who are sharing their knowledge start to assume that certain things go without saying.
I’m primarily a back-end developer and her list works for me as a way to get up to speed on what’s happening on the cutting edge of front-end development these days. It’s great to see a lot of the techniques and tools that we’ve been using on the back end for years starting to benefit front-end developers as well. It’s no longer the benighted wasteland that I once perceived it to be.
April 12, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Excellent. Thanks for this.
April 13, 2012 at 9:46 am
Nope, no longer a benighted wasteland (good description!). The teams I’ve been lucky to be part of these past few years have invested heavily, a strong realization taking hold that front-end development is development and many of the tools and techniques back-end engineers have traditionally used apply. Shoot – it has been front-end engineers who have helped me get familiar with Git and Homebrew 🙂
April 13, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Thanks for sharing this link. Wish I had something like this a few years ago. My career might have taken a slightly different path, knowing the right tools to use, the right things to know to be an efficient, productive and thoughtful front-end developer.
April 15, 2012 at 7:28 pm
great link, this is why I like your blog, Rafe.
Stuff that’s helpful for the working dev with too much to do.