Thoughts on recent interview and the blurry line between frontend and design

Hi all,

I just came home from a frontend developer interview. The advert really talked to me as they were looking for someone with not a whole lot of experience to learn and grow in their company, and they only asked for Javascript, HTML and CSS so I sent a well written e-mail with a link to my portfolio and the next day I got asked to do the interview.

The first interview was with someone who was in charge of basically choosing good “profiles”. I was asked the typical questions, what are your strong points, weak points, etc.After some questions about me, he proceed to explain what I would be doing. Everything sounds doable, but he keeps mentioning design design design. At this point I had to stop him and asked to clarify what level of design were we talking and he seemed surprised, like it was obvious that as a Frontend developer I should know how to use Photoshop and all the Adobe programs to a professional level which I find a bit shocking. I said that well, I could and used Photoshop for example to retouch, change sizes and adapt images for web and he said that that’s something anyone, including himself could do.

After apparently having passed the first part of the interview he asked me if I was willing to wait and do the second part this same morning. O course I waited. When left alone I went to my CodePen because I thought NOW they would be checking my portfolio, and they were as my views went up, but of course only the first 2 or 3 HTML/CSS projects get checked (this is probably my fault as I should present the best ones first, but I like to have the sections divided), my poor Javascript Calculator has 0 views while my first HTML/CSS item has over 90. ( https://sergioca87.github.io/ )

After the second interview, which went ok, I was told that I would hear from them for a possible third interview with the IT manager who would actually look at my code and “what I can do” (shouldn’t that go first)?

I can’t help but to feel that graphic designers don’t get enough credit, that some small companies feel like they can omit hiring one and just have a frontend doing the designs but I’m not too comfortable with that idea…Is it just me? Do I really need to learn how to use the full Adobe Suite while I learn React and I learn how to use Babel while I keep on learning Javascript? I think that at one point one has to draw a line in the sand and be clear about what they are, I want to be a frontend developer, I’m not to sure I can also be a designer.

It sounds like your interviews are going good. Let us know when you get something! The smaller the shop, the more hats they might want you to wear. All you can do is be honest like you were.

Usually you have great designers OR great programmers but rarely are both combined in the same person. There’s a funny meme where they basically call those people unicorns since they are so rare. I have a friend that went to school for art/design and then learned how to code and it made him an amazing front end designer/developer.

I personally enjoy the coding way more. I understand that it doesn’t matter how awesome your code is if it doesn’t look visually appealing though so I’m going to be touching up on color theory and a few small things that can set me apart.

1 Like

@Snowboard404 I agree with your statement that the smaller the shop (or any type of company) that you will wear more hats then if you worked in a large company. I’ve worked in both and surprise - each has it’s own pros and cons :slight_smile:

Ultimately, it’s knowing what you want to do then seeking out those opportunities. @Sergi-O it sounds like you’re interview went well - somewhere miscommunication occurred (did you use Recruiter?) That happens a lot in my experience so I find that find good Recruiters help a lot and will save you a lot of time, energy, etc.

Keep plugging away and good luck!
-Me

I didn’t use Recruiter no, I’m not sure if that’s a thing in Spain where I live.