General information for Web Development Jobs

[asif49]

Hi, I've never had a job in web development before but I've been independently learning several languages and building websites recently.

I hope to get an internship at a web development firm somewhere around Europe in this next year. I've been putting together a portfolio website which has some complex javascript, jquery and php code in it.

I was just wondering if there's anyone in this line of work who can offer ANY sort of advice about companies to go for or companies not to go for, where to work, how to increase chances of getting a job in this field and how long you think I'll have to search before I can find a job within this field.

My web development skills are quite good I would say, I've looked at websites of most fellow "web developers" my age and feel that the work I create is of a much better standard.

Also, do employers care for "bad coding" i.e. if using a lot of <br> <font> tags in html rather than doing it all in the css. Or redoing something by hand each time in php rather than creating a function for it?

Look forward to some opinions!

[Rashakil Fol]

Companies to go for: Small companies. Companies that ask you to write code on the whiteboard in interviews. Companies that ask technical questions in basically all the interviews.

Companies to avoid: Large sprawling companies. Companies that don't ask technical questions, or ask very easy ones.

There's a bit of a gray area for large software companies that are pretty good places to work. Some are good, some are bad.

Also, do employers care for "bad coding" i.e. if using a lot of <br> <font> tags in html rather than doing it all in the css. Or redoing something by hand each time in php rather than creating a function for it?

They do care about that. Obviously that's bad code. (<Br> tags are not bad. Machine-generated font tags are not necessarily bad, but they probably are bad the way you'd use them)

[jwenting]

<br> is bad, <br/> is fine if used appropriately...
And yes, we care a lot about bad code. In fact I've done some research work in order to allow us to get rid of some of the generated html because a major customer was complaining that the generated code doesn't confirm to their requirements for html that they apply to their public websites.

[asif49]

Ahh I see. Would you say that having a degree in a subject such as Computer Science boosts the chances of people looking for these type of roles. And by how much?

And out of curiosity Rashakil Fol, why'd you say to avoid big companies that don't ask technical questions. Surely if they're a big company and don't ask technical questions then it'd be a lot easier and beneficial to get a job with them wouldn't it?

[Rashakil Fol]

And out of curiosity Rashakil Fol, why'd you say to avoid big companies that don't ask technical questions. Surely if they're a big company and don't ask technical questions then it'd be a lot easier and beneficial to get a job with them wouldn't it?

It's a great place to work if you're mentally retarded and can't answer simple programming questions, or if you'd like to have such a person as a coworker.

[jwenting]

remember he's going for an internship. An intern is expected to know nothing whatsoever of any value, and anything he does know is expected to be wrong :)

I'd not ask an intern candidate many technical questions for that reason alone, I'd expect him to want the position in order to learn that technology, not to already know it.
So I'd quiz him about his ability and willingness to learn, to do things outside of his current comfort zone (iow, pick up activities he knows little or nothing about that need to be done), things like that.

[asif49]

If only every employer was like you jwenting. Expecting an intern to know as much as possible about the job role would be mostly sought after by employers anyway.

Rashakil, can you give me an exmaple of a "simple programming question"

[Rashakil Fol]

Rashakil, can you give me an exmaple of a "simple programming question"

Some examples: Reverse a linked list. Create the mirror image of a binary tree. Verify that a binary tree is a valid BST. Print out the numbers from 1 to 100, but print fizz instead for any multiple of 3, buzz for any multiple of 5, and fizzbuzz for numbers that are multiples of both 3 and 5. Write a function that word-wraps a line of text into 80-character wide paragraphs. Write a UTF-8 decoder (after being reminded how UTF-8 works). Write a program that prints out how many unique tic-tac-toe games there are.

[jwenting]

If only every employer was like you jwenting. Expecting an intern to know as much as possible about the job role would be mostly sought after by employers anyway.

it would be nice if he knew something of value, but I'd not expect it. At least when I went for internships there were no technical interviews, at most a meeting with the people I'd be working with to see if the project appealed to me and there were no obvious personality conflicts. But most of them were handled by the university publishing a list of available positions and students sending the coordinator a note listing three preferences, after which everyone would be assigned one project based on preferences and first come/first serve basis.
Then again, most of the companies involved had been dealing with the uni for years or decades and just submitted one or more internship positions each year, trusting the student coordinators to fill the positions in the best way possible.