Louis Lazaris recently posted a list of skills and technologies that all front-end developers should know. However, if someone knew all 45 items on his list, they'd qualify as a highly-skilled software engineer, not a developer. While our own software engineer was familiar with all the list, he is only competent in about 90% of it.
We've edited Mr. Lazaris' list to just the things we'd like a newly hired front-end developer to be comfortable working with daily:
XHTML / HTML5
CSS2.1 / CSS3
HTML5 Boilerplate
Modernizr
Progressive Enhancement / Graceful Degradation
UX / Usability
Website Speed / Performance
Responsive Web Design
Mobile Web Development
Mobile Web Performance
Cross-Browser / Cross-Platform Development
IE6-IE8 Bugs and Inconsistencies
Debugging Tools (Firebug, etc)
PHP
MySql
Accessibility best practices
Image Editing Tools (Photoshop, Fireworks, etc.)
Web Font Embedding
SEO Best Practices
The above skill set was created by surveying our own lead developer, and may still be excessive. Ultimately a job interview for a front-end development position only needs one binary question: Can you turn a PhotoShop document in to an HTML5 website that renders consistently on major browsers such as Chrome, FireFox, IE9, and mobile Safari? If yes, congratulations, you have what it takes.
We've edited Mr. Lazaris' list to just the things we'd like a newly hired front-end developer to be comfortable working with daily:
XHTML / HTML5
CSS2.1 / CSS3
HTML5 Boilerplate
Modernizr
Progressive Enhancement / Graceful Degradation
UX / Usability
Website Speed / Performance
Responsive Web Design
Mobile Web Development
Mobile Web Performance
Cross-Browser / Cross-Platform Development
IE6-IE8 Bugs and Inconsistencies
Debugging Tools (Firebug, etc)
PHP
MySql
Accessibility best practices
Image Editing Tools (Photoshop, Fireworks, etc.)
Web Font Embedding
SEO Best Practices
The above skill set was created by surveying our own lead developer, and may still be excessive. Ultimately a job interview for a front-end development position only needs one binary question: Can you turn a PhotoShop document in to an HTML5 website that renders consistently on major browsers such as Chrome, FireFox, IE9, and mobile Safari? If yes, congratulations, you have what it takes.