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Thread: Scope of your developers skills

  1. #1
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    Question Scope of your developers skills

    As a developer, how diverse are your abilities?

    I got asked to participate on a small-medium sized project and was told that the "ideal candidate" was someone who could program sites, but also iOS and Android apps, edit photos and video, and also act as a sort of system admin-- all at a high level.

    I feel like if I could do all those things myself, I wouldn't need to look for a job, I could just work alone!

    As for me: I can build your standards-compliant site with html, css, php includes and functions. I can build basic wordpress themes and know the minimum necessary to securely connect to MySQL databases, and use gimp/inkscape to make basic designs, and touchup photos. also, use google analytics, basic SEO skills... All these things but only at a humble level.

    For me this all falls under the umbrella of "freelance amateur web designer", but considering how deep you could delve into any of the above fields, is it too much to ask to know how to do everything?

    My question is: how many of you out have sophisticated skills for: developing iOS and Android apps, coding websites, photo/ video editing?

    On top of that could you also run sucessfull ad campaigns and optimize the content for search engines? I don't know anybody who does all these things or if it's possible given the number of hours in a day (but then again I don't know too many programmers!) but it seems like the job done well would require a TEAM of people, not just a single cyborg who magically knows everything about computers.

    So, as a programmer / developer, what is the scope and depth of your abilities?

  2. #2
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    Re: Scope of your developers skills

    I can do all of that, and I can cook.

    The last person that left that job was because it required 3 people to do that job.
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  3. #3
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    Re: Scope of your developers skills

    Companies always want people who can do everything at an expert level. They pretty much always settle for less.

  4. #4
    prodigy_ is offline May the Ubuntu Be With You!
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    Re: Scope of your developers skills

    I can fix broken php/css/js but won't bother writing any code from scratch. What else... well, a fair bit of knowledge about SQL. BAT/bash scripting if that counts. The pinnacle of my dev skills is probably the ability to write something simple in Python.

    When I realize I need classes or objects or memory management, my head explodes and I just say "no can do". Then again, I'm not really a developer. :)

  5. #5
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    Re: Scope of your developers skills

    Quote Originally Posted by tgalati4 View Post
    I can do all of that, and I can cook.

    The last person that left that job was because it required 3 people to do that job.
    I'll take a burger and some fries, thanks! just kidding, just kidding.
    How long have you been in the industry for? I assume you're a professional.
    Good to know that it's not impossible to learn, it just takes dedication to reach that guru-ness.

    Quote Originally Posted by JDShu View Post
    Companies always want people who can do everything at an expert level. They pretty much always settle for less.
    I guess I'm just nervous about their response. I'd love participating in a project and deepening my understanding of all the above-mentioned skills but it's hard to find people that have the patience, as money and time are increasingly becoming tighter (at least here in italy!)

  6. #6
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    Re: Scope of your developers skills

    I'm not sure a single person can be a professional at so many things. It's not impossible to know so many things good, but there will always be one or two things you will be better at, then the others. I myself do graphic and web design and that is what I do best, it is highly unlikely that I will be as good of a programmer as I am a designer, and vice-versa unless I'm really talented for both, but then I wont be such a good pilot for example.

    I like when ppl know only one or two things, but that thing they know really well. Of course for the companies this is just a loss of money. But then again, when you have car trouble for example, I'm sure you don't go to a guy who knows how to repair cars, toilets and TV's just as good.

  7. #7
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    Re: Scope of your developers skills

    My coding skills don't go further than writing #!/bin/bash on a text file. After that, I start to scratch my head... (Not really, but sort of ).

  8. #8
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    Re: Scope of your developers skills

    Being Italian American, I can appreciate your predicament. Take the risk, you have nothing to lose. How do you say in Italian: "All of the fingers . . ."
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  9. #9
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    Re: Scope of your developers skills

    There's people out there that can do all that, probably at a fairly high level, but odds are they wouldn't work for that company. Most people who are that good at so many things are contractors/freelancers, and likely making alot of money.

    Of course, cultivating so many diverse skills is usually impossible in the normal team-dynamic of a standard business, but there are definitely guru-esque hackers out there, somewhere, likely building things in an obscure programming language with undocumented code.

  10. #10
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    Re: Scope of your developers skills

    My superiority complex wants me to state how awesome I am.

    But.... I prob should just say I am retired and walk away before getting embarrassed.......
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