How much is the average wage for a front-end developer? Does this position only require knowledge of (x)HTML, CSS and JS?
That is a very broad question.
Your geographhic region has some effect on wage.
I think, in this business more than most others, the salary range is wide and it is directly related to your skills and experience.
I am not sure many people on this forum would be willing to share ‘personal’ information such as their current salary.
Perhaps a search on Google, targeted to your geography and with your list of skills, would yield the answer you seek.
Generally you would also need a basic – intermediate understanding of the application language that is being used. Companies that have front-end developers, as opposed to just designers work with dynamic websites/applications. It is the job of the front-end developer to merge the application language with client side scripting to achieve design goals, simply put.
What I find difficult to understan is do Front-end developers DESIGN the style or simply take the PSD/Designer’s ‘vision’ and implement that into working code?
In most cases when people refer to a front-end developer that would be the primary responsibility. Which means not only understanding HTML, CSS and JavaScript but the application language being used and infastructure in place such as; framework or cms.
Thank you for the clarification :tup:.
At many of the places I’ve worked, and every place I current liaise with it is the norm for there to only be “developers”, and for these guys/girls to handle both front-end development and back-end development. This causes the issue of needing to find great software developers who can write good HTML/CSS (a rarity, it seems), but makes work a lot easier.
I’d say that you should probably look towards being an outright developer, rather than focusing on one area. This widens your appeal in the job market, as there are significantly less front-end jobs compared to straight-up web development jobs.
That has been my experience as well considering I have only worked inhouse with smaller development teams. Though I have applied to agencies (as opposed to inhouse) in the past that seem to have “true” front-end development roles. My recommendation would be as Ultimate pointed out HTML, CSS and JavaScript are applicable to just about any web role. Then focus and master one of the server side technologies such as; ASP.NET (C#), PHP, Python, Java or Rails. Then learn SQL and hone your skills on a database that complements the the server-side technology chosen. From there perhaps learn content management system or two based on the server-side language chosen. That will give you a good all-around skill set.
Front end design may also include Graphic design, and Flash. Familiarity with these tools enhance value of a web designer or a front end designer. So, in brief, html/xhtml, Java Script, CSS, Graphic Design, Flash, and any GUI designer such as Dream Weaver are going to add significant value. Compensation varies with place of living, and it;s respectable for professionals with atleast a couple of years of experience.
It is a sin to use front-end developer and Dreamweaver in the same sentence, web designer perhaps – but front-end developer, no. If I was interviewing for a front-end developer role the second someone mentioned Dreamweaver in a positive manor I would show them the door.
@oddz So you’d show someone like Paul O’Brien the door? I don’t know of anyone who’s better at coding than him and, as far as I know, he uses Dreamweaver as his coding tool of choice.