Front-end Discourse

If you call yourself a front-end developer, then you're in the right place!

This repository is a call to action for us, the front-end community, to all agree on what our jobs are and how we describe them. This will not only help us see how our individual skill-sets fit into the spectrum of front-end web development, but it can also help recruiters and hiring managers write job posts that attract more qualified candidates.

I'm hoping that in creating this repository, we can have a designated place to start a conversation that will ultimately result in evolving, community vetted job titles and descriptions for front-end developers by front-end developers.

Add your thoughts to the issues

I am using the issues section of this repository to foster discussion. Scan through them, and if you have an opinion about one of them, let's hear it! And if you have an idea for an issue, post it! I've created some rough categories, but everything is up for interpretation and open to change.

For example, could you graph your skills on this spectrum?

I can, but I'm not representative of all front-end developers. What do you think? Talk about it.

A couple more example issues:

• When is an HTML/CSS expert as valuable as a JavaScript expert?
• What does "full-stack" developer really mean?
• There should be a standardized process for assessing technical skills
• The term engineer is not appropriate for a front-end developer.

Relevant Links

There has been a decent amount of writing about these topics over the last few years. Here are some links of note, and please contribute more!

• Is there any value in people who cannot write JavaScript?, Mandy Kerr
• Death of the "front-end developers", Jerry Low
• Tales of a Non-Unicorn: A Story About the Trouble with Job Titles and Descriptions, Lara Schenck
• Front-end Job Titles on Front-end Masters Handbook
• Front-end Design, Brad Frost
• Full-Stack Developers, Brad Frost
• Front-end Roles & Responsibilities, Jeff Pelletier

Also, I've prototyped a couple of tools that I think would help with hiring.

• Myers-Briggs for Web People a.k.a. The Unicorn Test
• Job Post Calculator
• Interactive version of The Front-end Spectrum (coming soon so you can screenshot it and include it in your job posts!)

Thanks!

Hi, I'm Lara. I'm a front-end developer that's great at CSS and someday-going-to-be-great at JavaScript. I am forever adjusting my title in my Twitter bio, and I think that's indicative of some issues in the front-end industry that can be solved with some good old-fashioned discourse. Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for contributing!