Are things like HTML and CSS considered legacy? Should I learn React? Are back-end skills required?

These are the questions most of us front-end developers think of when looking at job ads these days. In this blog post, I will give you my answers.

During recent years single-page applications have become the new standard even for enterprise-level web applications. JavaScript being the first-class citizen, companies are forced to hire front-end developers with quite specific framework skills such as React, Angular and Vue – or are they?

The problem with hiring framework specialists is that things evolve constantly. Today the hottest tech stack might rely on React or Vue but who knows what happens in the future? Currently, JavaScript is the only practical way to build apps for web browsers but given its’ flaws, we are most certainly going to see other approaches, such as WebAssembly, as well.

Finding people with solid programming skills is far more future-proof than focusing on specific technology or framework. Given that, I still think it’s a good idea to try different JS frameworks and learn how they solve problems from different points of view.

When it comes to HTML and CSS, they make websites look like they are supposed to, even if JavaScript is used to parse them. Personally, I think solid CSS knowledge has helped me the most during the years. So if your ability is around HTML and CSS, be proud of yourself. Those are the foundations of the web.

Unfortunately, these days most front-end developers are required to work on the back-end as well. Knowledge of APIs, databases and basic level in some of the common programming languages such as C#, Java or PHP helps to tackle day-to-day tasks in the projects. The upside is that understanding how data flows between different layers in the application makes you question your front-end code along the way.

Most importantly, good communication skills and eagerness to learn new things are keys to success. At Zure we practice these skills by teaching each other’s new stuff almost weekly. Going in front of peers is not mandatory and might be scary at first but eventually, its a natural thing to do in a developer community. Learning new stuff together makes it more efficient and fun.

If you have any questions about how it’s like to work as a (front-end) developer at Zure, feel free to contact me!

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