Very often you can get into a conversation with people about what kind of web work they do. I love when people bill themselves as “Web Consultants” because they’ve played in Front Page and maybe have an ISP with an HTML page up (generated by Front Page) and a giant image of text with no alt tag.
I try to educate people – try to explain that search engines can’t exactly read images (”that’s why we have alt tags if you really, really love that font and don’t care it’s a few hundred k for your image”). I try not to be an ass about it, but sometimes you don’t want to go into the history of why you know what you know, and that they should do what you say because it’s a best practice (”According to who?”). Sometimes explaining usability and search optimization gets lost when people try to enter a realm that they have no experience in (other then they can make people give them money to do a poor job – and they wouldn’t know it).
But what are we supposed to do?
This is something I keep trying to wrap my head around. You’re hired to do a job. No matter what you call yourself – Web Job Titles can be abused. Web Master? Does this mean you have Mastered the web? Or maybe just your own site? Web Developer? What technologies does this imply? Web Designer? Does this mean you can use photoshop, or does it mean you have a creative foundation and the critical thinking skills necessary to take design to a dynamic level? (I say this, because I see so many ‘web designers’ who very obviously are more ‘print designers’ trying to do web work).
The key to this – no matter what title you make up for yourself, or assign yourself – is rating your skill levels. You may be an Architect – but maybe your specialty is PHP, .net, maybe Flash/Flex. Maybe you’re great at implementations. Maybe Databases are your thing. If we have three guys with the same title (say, WebDevA, WebDevB, WebDevC). Three people, same titles, different skill sets. Do you think their estimates will be the same? Their quality of work?
How do we account for them?
The purpose of being a web developer is that you can be adaptable. If you say “I know X but I don’t know Y, then don’t bother me with Y because I don’t care” you need to revaluate your position. You’re not interested in being a Web Developer at all. This isn’t going to say “you have no business doing web work” – I’m saying you need to appy yourself into a specialist role – Specialist, Flash Development. Actionscript Development. .Net Applications. WebSphere. ATG. This implies that that is your main area of focus – maybe you do know some other stuff, but you won’t be expected, as an ATG Specialist to do WebSphere work.
As a Web Developer – it’s not quite Jack-of-all-trades – it’s “I know a little of all and can adapt.” It means you can learn. You can pick up. You can see relationships between technologies, languages, etc. This doesn’t mean that everyone with that title has the same “abilities” but they should strive to constantly better themselves.
Personally, I’m a developer/designer.
I love web design. I love web development. I love challenges and creative thinking. Professionally, I’m a web developer. That’s what I get paid to do, so I try to limit myself at work to that role (but make my interests in web design and web metrics/analytics known). My specialty? Front-End development. I used to do a little minor design work at my old job, and I used to do a little database work.
This means that when I’m approached with new tasks, I do my best to estimate it to my abilities, and try ot be honest if it’s out of my skill level – as I had to once before in regards to Flash work (specifically, a mess of actionscript that I had very little time to traverse and figure out – so I had to tell them ‘not going to happen.’) Now – I’m delving more into PHP, mySQL, and third-party applications.
Specialize in third-part applications?
Hell-no! I may be working in Squirrel Cart currently – well, a hacked, edited version of Squirrel Cart, so I can’t exactly comment on the quality of the software – but the point is you should understand the technologies lying underneath. SquirrelCart uses PHP and mySQL – PHP I’ve used before, mySQL – not so much, except WordPress – but mainly I’ve used other database models (but nothing extensive).
I suppose my biggest problem is making problems bigger than they are – I’ve used MS Access DataBases – and the terminology always throws me.
But SquirrelCart – this is something that when you understand PHP and MySQL – you can just get. You can correct it. Modify it. Tweak it. Customize it up and down. The longer I’ve worked with it, the stronger my PHP and mySQL skill level becomes – something that wouldn’t happen if I looked at it and said “this is a lot of stuff that I haven’t mastered” and walked away.
I asked a lot of questions – and did research. I got answers, got more questions – but worked through it, which leads me to the next point…
Web Master or Google Master?
Search Engines are too often misunderstood or misused. I don’t just mean because Google Images + porn = craziness – I mean they are a toolbox on crack. Moderation is key, but I see people rely on the answers it gives too much.
For example – I found a jQuery poof function through a Google Alert I have set up. Now, I thought “hey, that’d be cool to have in mootools.” It’s not like it’s required, but – in my honest opinion – the easiest way to learn how the javascript libraries work is to port cool effects from one to the other. Plus, I knew I needed to work on creating classes in mootools. Perfect way to do it – or I could google for “mootools poof effect” and hope someone else did the work for me.
Now – having created the effect with help from Toby Miller, my effect is at the top of the list. But what if someone did it? Well, I could either look at the two and decide which one is better, or take the two of them and mash them together to get the best of both worlds – take what I like, make it better. Learn from it.
And that’s what I think the problem is – so many feel they know all the know, and none are willing to keep learning.
