9 signs that you should not hire this Web developer

In February 2008, I wrote an article 9 signs that you should not hire this Web developer . This post "blew up" the Internet, hitting the main Digg and Reddit, and was even chosen by Kevin Rose for one of the episodes of Diggnation . I was incredibly proud of this post, because it really adequately displayed the type of webmasters who should not have been hired.

A lot of time has passed since then, but it just means that the qualities that we evaluate web developers have changed. Under the cut list of 9 signs that you should not hire this web developer.
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Mobile versions of its sites work only in WebKit.

Mobile devices on iOS and Android occupy the lion’s share of the mobile device market and use Webkit-based browsers, as well as hybrid mobile applications for these platforms. This led to the fact that developers use only the -webkit- prefixes in the code of mobile applications, despite the fact that the share of Opera, Mozilla and Internet Explorer on the mobile Internet is growing. This is similar to programming only under IE at the time of Internet Explorer 4,5,6. In Mozilla, for most CSS properties, prefixes are removed, so everything will work if you use standard CSS rules, but for the newest properties, you should still use -moz-prefixes. It is important to remember that on mobile devices there is not only Webkit and the release of Firefox OS will prove it (if Firefox for Android has not done so yet).

He is the developer of "{{js library}}"

Over the past few years I have conducted dozens of technical interviews and can quickly understand whether a candidate knows JavaScript, or some specific library, and this is a very big difference. I will ask something simple, for example: “How do you get all the child elements of a given element?”. It will not be very good if in response I hear “I use the children () method”.

He writes all the code in one file.

Libraries like RequireJs or CurlJS made loading modules on JavaScript so simple that nothing else can justify writing code in one file. This is normal if your site uses quite a bit of JavaScript, but in all other cases it makes no sense to create huge .js files because of laziness or lack of experience.

Its design is not responsive

A very small number of sites and applications are used only on stationary computers, so customers expect that modern design will look at least more or less acceptable on mobile devices. Media queries are so easy to use that it is impossible to come up with an excuse not to use them to change the structure and display of content.

He knows HTML5

Today, to know HTML5 is the same as knowing Web 2.0 a few years ago. HTML5 is a marketing term and empty phrases about knowledge of HTML5 is a sign that the developer does not know what it is. Ask someone who claims to know HTML5 to tell about certain APIs, if he has difficulty with the answer - do not hire him!

Does not use browser capability detection

Any experienced developer will tell you that you cannot rely on using data from the User Agent to determine browser capabilities, but even worse - do not use the required functionality check in the browser, naively believing that the necessary functionality is present in all browsers. This is also true for using new CSS properties without prefixes. Such a web developer will create you many problems.

It connects unnecessary libraries.

JavaScript libraries and plugins are extremely useful, but very often overused. If I received a dollar for each time I meet the jQuery library on the site, which is used for simple animation or simple interaction with DOM, I would become a millionaire. I also often see the Modernizr library, which is connected to check for a single browser property, although you could just use the code to check this property alone. Such actions lead to an increase in page size and load.

He still believes that mobile development is only iOS apps.

iPhones and iPads were not the first mobile devices, but they were the first to gain popularity, so for a short period of time they were the only devices that needed to be thought of when developing mobile applications. Unfortunately, such a web developer is still living in the past, while Android and Firefox OS devices are becoming increasingly popular.

He does not take mobile HTML seriously

A developer you don’t want to hire still thinks that HTML-based mobile apps aren’t serious and PhoneGap is the only way to develop them. With the advent of Firefox OS and many other new operating systems based on the web, any application that runs in the browser will work on new operating systems. Therefore, a negative attitude towards mobile applications based on HTML can play against you.

Despite the fact that the definition of a bad web developer has changed in recent years, you will always easily recognize it. Be careful, such a “developer” will easily create you a lot of problems!