hiring front-end devs

so what is front-end development?

This might be a silly thing to say, but first you should fully understand what a front-end guy does. Us front-end people, we limit ourselves to writing html, css and javascript. Flash is already borderline, but asking us to incorporate html code in a CMS system is not really part of our job description, so don't be offended if we give you a funny look. It's a skill that many of us have mastered though, but if you truly expect this from your future employee, it's probably best to list it as one of the main requirements right away.

And if you are specifically looking for a profile to incorporate front-end code in CMSes, make sure to find someone with a good feel for both front- and back-end coding. While many front-end developers have some experience with dropping their code in WordPress or Drupal, it's best to find someone who's had sufficient experience in both areas and willing to focus on this particular skill.

size matters

Not the size of your front-end developer mind, but the size of your own company. Before you start looking for people, consider what kind of profile you need for your company. There's a big difference between looking for a lone developer (who can tackle everything from html to javascript on small projects) compared to a team player (who can focus on one or two aspects of front-end, working on large-scale projects). If you're not interested in building a team of skilled front-end people, you should be looking for overall skills and the ability to balance quality across all three major aspects of front-end development.

If on the other hand you plan on building a team of experts, you should look for people who don't mind specializing a little. As a front-end developer you should definitely know the basics of all three fields, but it's not necessary to be able to execute all three. I for one don't feel very comfortable working on javascript-heavy projects, but I know the basics of good javascript code, being perfectly able to write html and css to go with the javascript. At the least, you should be able to find people who can recognize the quality of the code written in all three areas.

Finally, if you need to assign a team of 3 developers to 3 different projects, it's better to split responsibilities (html, css and javascript) and assign them as a team to all 3 projects, rather than giving them each a project and letting them do all html, css and javascript for a single project.

brainwash vs brainwar

Then there is the question of hiring a junior or senior profile. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and depending on your reason for hiring the outcome of your decision will be different.

Junior profiles are perfect if you are fortifying your team for the future. These profiles are easy to brainwash with your company's guidelines on quality coding and even though they are hardly billable at first, they will adapt quickly to the needs of your company. Junior profiles are best hired before the storm, when there is time to learn them about the tricks of the trade, not overwhelming them with stress and performance pressure. They will learn about that when their skills are sufficiently developed.

Senior profiles are perfect if you need quality output fast, without too much hassle. Sudden bursts in html and css work might require you to hire someone that knows what to do with a minimal amount of briefing and follow-ups. On the flipside, know that his ideals and preferred method of working might clash with your own quality standards. It's good to challenge your own standards once in a while, but make sure that you don't create schisms in your team and that you have one single person who has the power to decide when conflicts don't get resolved.

quality

It's hard to define the quality of someone's work, because we as an industry lack an extensive set of best practices. That's why you could probably use an internal document that lists your company's requirements for quality front-end code. If you don't have that, look for someone who has strong ideals and knows to defend them so he can make you such a document. Whatever the actual quality of your internal guidelines and whatever the critique from outsiders, just make sure you'll be able to stand behind your own ideals.

Also make sure to differentiate between html, css and javascript in this document, regulating just about anything you can regulate. This is easy when new guys join the company, ensuring standardized quality output that can easily be transferred to other developers.

do skills matter?

Well, yeah, of course skills matter, but know that most skills in our trade can be learned through experience. There is not much that cannot be learned through extensive reading and years of coding. You'd do better to look for certain characteristics in a person as this indicates how he can and probably will develop himself to become better at his job. Some of the more important characteristics are:

• Find someone with a clear opinion. Front-end work is quite messy, so if you hire someone who picks up ideas without critical reflection this will be reflected in the overall quality of his work.
• Find someone who writes clean code. This can also be taught through experience, but only to a certain degree. Make sure your front-end guy can stick to his own guidelines.
• Find someone who is willing to live by the general ideals of front-end development. HTML is not hard to learn, but it's much more difficult to understand. Find someone who is willing to invest the time to understand his job.
• Find someone who doesn't like to give up. Cutting corners is very easy in our profession because both clients and visitors will find it difficult to judge the actual quality job you've done, but providing sub-optimal work will no doubt have its revenge later on.
• Find someone who is dependent on his own skills. Don't believe people who'll tell you frameworks can solve everything.

there are no black, female nerds, right?

Finally, you're not hiring a demographic, you're hiring people. As long as they fit the profile, race, gender or any other personal, differentiating characteristic doesn't matter one single bit.

conclusion

If you want a front-end developer, start by deciding what kind of profile you're looking for. There are many people out there, with broad skills ranging from design to information architecture and html, but also front-end developers who like to specialize in a limited set of skills. One is not necessarily better than the other, but depending on the needs of your company it's good to know what kind of profile will fit your position best.

As for skills, examinations and questions are only profitable if you need someone good, fast. If you're looking for a long-term engagement, focus your attention on other things. And if all else fails, just depend on your gut feeling.