There are many occasions that Recuiters / Human Resource officers were posting those bunch of "Were looking for [ blah blah] Developers" in either Facebook Group page, online forums and other social media sites.
Not sure if its only me, but most of it seems quite not right, like for example having "Web Developer" in the title, then have a bunch of requirements like "knows how to Photoshop, knows computer troubleshooting etc" which sounds off if you are looking for a Web Developer.
This ambiguity often leads into confusion which both wastes time and effort of both recruiter and the applicant that could had otherwise spent to something else that is productive. In this post, I'll try to alleviate that situation and make things clearer for HR guys how to properly get the right guy for the position.
Here we go:
1. Learn the difference between Web Development versus other computer-related "stuffs"
Large corporations often has different departments/team for each IT-related things. Usually:
- Computer Technicians / Computer Engineer - are the one who repairs the PC and troubleshooting. Upgrades RAM or hard disk etc.
- Network Engineer - does the cabling stuffs, connects each piece of equipment/PC in the office, setting up Internet connection, routers
- System Administrators - there are the people that sets up what is installed in your PC, maintains the user-name password, the guys who maintains the server software and making sure its updated with latest patch etc.
- Software Developers - develops usually desktop-based applications, like your accounting system, POS, inventory system, biometrics (the guys usually use Java, C# or Visual Basic programming Language)
- Web Developers - develops the web-based applications, like the corporate website, SEO, integration with 3rd party companies like billers.
- System Analyst, Scrum Master, Project Manager - there are the administrative part of the IT-department, which usually delves with business-part of the logic. Mostly do the talks with the business owners, extracting the goals and relaying it to the other guys in the IT department
- Designer/Layout Artist - these are the guys who makes the layouts and design, starting from the company logo, banners, website layout etc.
In small companies or in a setup were you are hiring a freelance, usually this is performed by a single person. That is what makes the confusion, since its supposedly divided. If you have a staff that is working in your company and do all those stuffs -- he is doing one hell of a job, so don't hesitate to give him pay increase!
Jack of all trades, Master of none
This connotation is usually linked to one-man team. Usually happens in small and medium enterprise which lacks the resource to employ enough manpower to fill all those full-blown job positions. When all those positions mentioned above is being performed by a single person, he is hailed as "jack of all trades", since he "knows" every part of the job and can switch back and forth anytime.
That is great, for small companies and small projects. But once the company starts growing, problems occurs:
- There are many issues to look at for a single person to put enough detailed look on it
- Big projects requires expertise in a specific skillset (SEO, Scrum Master, UX etc)
- Codes of the existing programs is getting spaghetti (messed up)and very hard to maintain due to lack of ability to write large-scale applications (just knows basic CRUD)
- Once that specific "guy" left the company, all IT-related stuffs breaks down, since he is the only one who understands it
- Lack of system documenation, which results into very difficult hiring and training process of new staffs
"Jack of all trades" guy is double-edged sword, it could hurt you or help you. Generally, it will help you in the early age of the company, since it cuts down the manpower costs, but the same thing will bite you once you start growing up. So that is something you should consider when hiring -- at what stage the company is?
The inherent nature of Web Developers is, they are usually "forced" to learn other positions, since its a pre-requisite to their actual position, for example, although its a System Administrator's job to install Apache web server, Web Developers also knows how to install and configure it, since they wont be able to run their sites or troubleshoot if they have no idea about what is Apache or how it works.
Web Developers are not Designers
Many of the Web Developers can design, that is a fact. But that doesn't means its a Web Developer's responsibility to design. Like other skills that is pre-requisite in able to be carry out a web developer's job, designing skills is very handy, but he shouldn't be bitched with a crappy design work - its not his job, blame the designers.
Know the types of Web Developers
Yes, Web Developers itself is divided among many groups of specialties.
- Front-end Developer / UX Developer - deals with converting the design into a working web page. Writing things like HTML5+CSS, AngularJS, jQuery etc
- Backend-end Developer - Deals with the backend code, like RESTful API, Integration to online payment providers, e-commerce etc
- SEO Specialist - enhances the website's visibility in the web, like for example optimizing the site so that it will always show in Google when a certain word is searched.
- Mobile Web Developer - makes a mobile version of the site, usually involves in making the design "Responsive". Though usually, also being performed by UX developer himself
Always remember, when the company that will be hiring them is at early stage - "Jack of all trades" is the usually the best pick. But if it's a large company, those specialized positions works best.
Determine if the company is using DevOps or Agile
DevOps and Agile has very specific workflow that most of Web Developers are not accustomed into.
DevOps at the very basic level means, the guy who is writing the software is also involved in deploying it in the IT infrastructure, making a hybrid of System Administrator + Web Developer.
Agile means, workflow tends to focus on delivering "working software" and then incrementally improve it via series of iteration in a small amount of period of time. This is in contrast to waterfall, which is characterized with very long documentation and planning process, then a rigid software development process which spans months or years.
Though Web Developers is usually able to cope up with those workflow, that is an important detail that both applicant and recruiter should make clear at the start of hiring process.
Use Github to study a person's background instead of sneaking on his Facebook profile or Resume
In case you didn't know, Github is Developers counter part of Facebook, there everyone meets up and share codes, collaborate into open-source projects -- things like you usually do in Facebook.
Each github users has its own profile on which you can see his activity and even his repositories (projects)
If you know some basic programming, you can determine via his repositories (this are open-source projects that is publicly view able) what is his expertise, what he is up to and what is his/her strength and weaknesses. Like for example, he got a bunch of projects about PHP, but no Javascript related projects, he is probably a good backend-developer.
Do us a favor: Kindly understand that Java is not the same thing as JavaScript
Whenever I see a job posting like this, which says "Hiring Java Developers". Just to see in the details saying "knows how to write applications using JavaScript and HTML5 and PHP", this gets me mad and nearly drives me to commit suicide. Java is both a standard and a programming language by Sun Microsystem (acquired by Oracle). JavaScript is a scripting language for a Web browser.
Much more simple explanation is Java (backend), while JavaScript (frontend)
Though you can nowadays write backend apps using JavaScript via NodeJS, but that is different story.
Simply put: don't post Java Developers if you meant JavaScript Developers, that is two different thing.
That is all for now, I understand hiring process is really tough process, specially if you are dealing with terms that is outside of your profession. But its all our responsibility to educate ourselves. I'm hoping this small step helps you in your quest in finding the right guy and get your job done.
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