2 ms·

Out of interest, would a firm grasp of CSS be a benefit, or merely neutral compared to other developer skills when you are recruiting?

epicide 8y ago
Not OP, but I'd say a willingness and proven ability to learn far outweigh any particular tools. Proving ability to learn does require past experience, of course. I think it helps a lot more to show that you understand styling principles (reusability, selector precedence) than it does to be able to make pixel-perfect implementations based only on knowledge off the top of your head. [0] That being said, in order to have that understanding, you probably need to have some experience with CSS or similar. Basically, hands-on CSS experience is the means not the ends. [0]: Perhaps all of this is what you meant by having a "firm grasp of CSS".
cptskippy 8y ago
It depends on where that developer was slotted in. We currently have ~3 dedicated front end developers who have limited skills beyond HTML, CSS, and Javascript who maintain our large forward facing public presence. The remainder of our developer pool are full stack developers who maintain a myriad of internal systems and apps used to run the business. A few of these apps are publicly accessible but they're niche and don't require strict adherence to brand or accessibility standards. The remainder are simply internal applications. A firm grasp of CSS would seem to be essential to the front end devs, though I might be inclined to say it's not given some of the code I've seen. I am however willing to give them the benefit of doubt because I know they're a newer team that inherited an unfathomably large site running on an ancient CMS (Stellent) and the new products they're working on are integrated with some pretty heinous 3rd party platforms. For the remainder of our Devs usability and appearance take a back seat to functionality. So CSS chops are more of a nice to have.

epicide 8y ago

Not OP, but I'd say a willingness and proven ability to learn far outweigh any particular tools. Proving ability to learn does require past experience, of course. I think it helps a lot more to show that you understand styling principles (reusability, selector precedence) than it does to be able to make pixel-perfect implementations based only on knowledge off the top of your head. [0] That being said, in order to have that understanding, you probably need to have some experience with CSS or similar. Basically, hands-on CSS experience is the means not the ends. [0]: Perhaps all of this is what you meant by having a "firm grasp of CSS".

cptskippy 8y ago

It depends on where that developer was slotted in. We currently have ~3 dedicated front end developers who have limited skills beyond HTML, CSS, and Javascript who maintain our large forward facing public presence. The remainder of our developer pool are full stack developers who maintain a myriad of internal systems and apps used to run the business. A few of these apps are publicly accessible but they're niche and don't require strict adherence to brand or accessibility standards. The remainder are simply internal applications. A firm grasp of CSS would seem to be essential to the front end devs, though I might be inclined to say it's not given some of the code I've seen. I am however willing to give them the benefit of doubt because I know they're a newer team that inherited an unfathomably large site running on an ancient CMS (Stellent) and the new products they're working on are integrated with some pretty heinous 3rd party platforms. For the remainder of our Devs usability and appearance take a back seat to functionality. So CSS chops are more of a nice to have.