3 ms·

I think you made the point beautifully when you said "can get the basics down in a few weeks to a month". The key word here is "basics". A professional level of

I think you made the point beautifully when you said "can get the basics down in a few weeks to a month". The key word here is "basics". A professional level of skill goes beyond basics. As a web designer, one can get the basics down of CSS, for example in just a day's workshop at a conference. That said, to be of any real value as a professional, you really need more insight than what a basic understanding gives you. As for your comment about wanting back-end people refusing to do front-end work - actually, I myself do not have a problem with this. I believe people should do what motivates them at work and not get strong armed into doing things that fall outside of their professional interests. There is a limit to this of course, but in this case, there are definitely front-end people who will do the job better and take it as their career passion.

reeses 13y ago
Completely agreed. I would not assume that a person with a month of personal development in a skill would be a specialist in a general area. However, on a smaller team, I think this would be ample to take on the design duties. As for specializing, I am uncomfortable with "that's not my job" in general. Whether it's front-end work, back-end work, operations, management, etc., I'll put that person on the slow track right away. If they try and it's just a hot mess no matter how much support they get, that's a different matter. The thing is, there are brilliant, passionate, skilled, experienced people who can actually do it all. I want to find them before they realize this and grow them. I see it as pushing to excel, not strong-arming, but I can understand your perspective. I've had to do sales before. :-)