The Front-End Developer
The world of Front-End Development can be defined as anything related to building client-side applications that are viewed in the web browser. You’ll be working on everything a User encounters. The front end is going to be the first thing that a user will see and interact with, so performance is paramount.
As a Front-End Developer, you’ll ensure that this crucial component is built with maintainability, scalability, and performance in mind.
The holy trinity of the front end consists of:
- HTML (Structure)
- CSS (Presentation)
This is the core of front-end technology. You are responsible, as an aspiring developer, to produce carefully written code. Many devs are familiar with these languages; few have mastered them. What separates a front-end developer from someone who just knows, is the ability to employ best practices and techniques.
I think of it like this: Most people can turn on a stove, start cooking, and season a dish to taste. A chef on the other hand has a deep understanding as to why he does what he does. The chef uses his knowledge and technique—utilizing the right tool at the right time—to craft an exceptional dish. Likewise, if HTML, CSS, and JS are the ingredients to an application, it’s going to take a front-end developer’s knowledge of best practices, technique in execution, and ability to discern the right tool for the job to deliver an exceptional application.
Additionally, front-end developers will need to have at least some knowledge of how to interface with back-end environments (Ruby on Rails, Node.js, .NET, etc.). They may not possess expertise in those back-end technologies, but having enough familiarity with that area of a project to work productively with the rest of the development team is a valuable trait.