Stars

Basically I have a interview in which I want to take a physical portfolio. This worked well showcasing my Front-end abilities. However, I wanted tips on how I can show my work in action, code, should I describe how code works, and if I should, how should I do it.

When I’m looking for employees I always look for the small things, like organised code, tabbed in the correct places, so that at a glance you can see what goes with what e.g.

<div id="test">
<!– Test content here –>
<!– End of Test content –>
</div>

Also I look for people who comment their code, so no-one has to look through all the code to find out what it does.

If you are going to an interview, I wouldn’t suggest talking about how code works, as they will know and this will sound patronising to them.

Most people aren’t looking for people who can code, there are thousands, what they are usually looking for is someone who has flare, creativity and can think for themselves, but also work in a team.

For those in the field, how is the job market for web developers? How has the recession affected the industry, and how will outsourcing affect the future?

I’ve been self-educating on .Net (C# + VB) via video tutorials and I think it’s something I can be great at. It’s definitely something I’m interested in. I’d like to get into the field but I’m deeply worried about the stability of IT jobs.

IT jobs will always be there. No matter how much outsourcing happens. The technologies you are talking about are pretty good and you will be able to get some good jobs.

While you are working on them also try learning the development for mobile tools. Thier is a huge market for mobile apps and with Google Android and Apple SDK you can create a lot of apps and sell them online.. Its quiet a revenue and very full filling.

Just a suggestion. Also please please please remember its not only important to know the tools but also the business. So dont neglect your knowledge of any business where you have worked earlier and highlight the fact that you have good understanding of the business behind the technology. Its this knowledge which will make you indespensible and an asset to the company. ( you will keep your job) also when you are on the job make it a point to understand the business and always think how you can better it.

Cheers,
Perso

I am a web dev and I am also interesting in creating an online entrepreneurial venture. I am looking for communities of like minded individuals to discuss things with. Not coming up with anything good via search engines so I thought I would try here. Please post any links you are aware of below.

Thanks

You might want to give the following three web hosting forums a go. The first two, are more geared towards Internet Marketing, whilst the last one is towards web hosting.

All three forums have a Buy/Sell marketplace where a lot of people discuss entrepreneurial ventures of theirs.

1. Digital Point (www.digitalpoint.com/forums) - popularly known as DP
2. Warrior Forums (www.warriorforum.com) and - popularly know as WF or Warriors
3. Web Hosting Talk (www.webhostingtalk.com) - popularly known as WHT

Good Luck.

IE 6 has always been a nightmare to code sites for, and now we’re debating whether we should even bother to make sites look optimal in IE 6 anymore or just tell our users "this site looks best in IE 7 and up." Are you still trying to make sites look optimal in IE 6?

It depends on your visitor base and your level of professional commitment to your clients.

Different sites currently report as little as 11% of visitors browsing with IE6 and as high a 29% (down from 38% a little over a year ago…it is getting better). Current average is probably in the 20% neighborhood. My shop doesn’t bother to pretend to know enough about the potential visitor profile for our clients to be willing to offend even 11% of visitors. On our own sites, we encourage all IE users to come over from the dark side, but we support IE6 and will continue to do so until it drops below the 1% mark. Our customers pay us to make them look good in all browsers (heck! we had one customer earlier this year whose default browser shop-wide WAS IE6 - as long as their checks don’t bounce, I’ll develop for them).

We take the approach of doing all initial development rounds for Firefox and then adding alternate stylesheets for IE (fixes the stuff that works the same in all IEs), an IE7 stylesheet (that fixes the common failings of everything older than IE8), and finally an IE6 version that repairs the leftover style silliness peculiar to IE6. JavaScript is a little simpler in some ways, but we do make it all work the same. Very rarely, we’ve had to tweak for Safari or Opera…never had to be different for Chrome - yet.

Doesn’t matter how I feel about it…we serve our clients by making sure they are properly visible and attractive to everyone without regard to foolish browser choices. Admittedly, we neglect about 5% of the entire browsing universe - all the very rare browsers that consistently show up individually under the 1% mark, e.g., Linux Konqueror (I say that, typing from my Kubuntu laptop but surfing on Firefox).

Just wondering.
If you’re wondering why I posted this query here, well it’s because some of the most opinionated people reside on this section and I want to hear what you have to say.

A buddy of mine is a real nerd. He modded his Ipod and his Iphone, and has hours of porn on his Ipod. I don’t get the point, but oh well. It’s sort of like a drug, I suppose. How does it still have it’s intended effect if it’s always in your face? I mean, spice up a marriage when you’re working too much, I get that. But what, you’re waiting in line to pick up the dry cleaning, maybe some starbucks, "Yup! Need some porn to liven this up!" I just don’t get it.

professional web designers/developers, what is the hosting service that you use? i’ve heard of godaddy being the cheapest; however, many complained their services sucked. i need an affordable and trusworthy service. thanks much!

If you need something better than a shared host (and you know how to setup your own linux server) I recommend http://www.slicehost.com It’s a fantastic VPS hosting, from $20/month.

If you need something cheaper I recommend one of these:
http://www.webhostingtable.com/

Powweb currently has the best offer.
Their standard price is $7.77/month ($93.24/year)
but they have the 50% sale right now.

Disk space: Unlimited
Bandwidth: Unlimited
A Free domain name
Unlimited domains and subdomains

Price: $3.88/month ($46.56/year)

der to make their work easier…and when i say easier i mean to cooperate well and to make good result?

I think you should have:

1) a project management application that all three of you can access and update
2) a test environment - for that, I would recommend virtualization so that it doesn’t interfere with your production environment
3) set the right expectations right from the start - that means budget, deadlines and clear conditions of how you want your results delivered.

That is the bare necessary. If you want to throw in some free caffeine, they’ll just love you more:)

P.S. I was under the impression that you said "web developers" but if they are web designers, the same applies. A test environment is paramount if you want the site/application to be in perfect working order, optimized and function at full uptime when released.

I have a school project in which you are supposed to spend a day with someone of your chosen profession. Since web developers often don’t have an official work place, I am only required to find someone to answer some questions about the job. (10-20 questions) Is anyone willing to share? I would be very grateful. If you are, I can conduct the entire interview through the Yahoo! Anwers private messaging service, so you wouldn’t have to post/give out your email.

sure, Florida private web developer. I have built products and worked in state government contracting.

No. I’ve never even heard of them.

Thanks for asking.

I have a <select> tag that has several <option> tags under it. What I’m trying to do is, if an option is clicked, a brief description will be displayed.
I tried to do it with Javascript, however, all option’s descriptions are displayed, not only the one I clicked. Is there any other way to do it? Or perhaps is there a clear option that clears whatever has been typed? Thanks.

<form name="jump1" action="select">
<p>
<select name="MyList" OnChange="location.href=jump1.MyList.options[selectedIndex].value">
<option selected>Please Select…</option>
<option value="index.html">My Home Page</option>
<option value="http://www.crystalfibers.com/">Crystalfibers.com</option>
<option value="http://PayneLessDesigns.com/">PayneLessDesigns.com</option>
<option value="http://answers.yahoo.com/">Yahoo!Answers</option>
</select>
</p>
</form>

Added spaces so this would not be shorted by YA. Remove them for correct code:

OnChange="location. href=jump1. MyList. options[selectedIndex]. value

Ron