theusualsuspect.com

I’ve wanted to get this off my chest for quite a while, and finally I’ve decided to do it. There is something about your average .Net developer that makes them feel they are a cut above the rest.

Microsoft Certification

Ok, so I’m not Microsoft certified, but really who cares? Does it stop me doing my job? No it doesn’t, in fact I’ve worked with a number of developers who are not Microsoft certified and not one of them has been incapable of doing there job. I would probably go as far as saying that the majority of them have been better at their jobs than the Microsoft certified developers I know.

I’ve been to job interviews where I have been asked why I haven’t done the certifications, and I have no real reason other than the fact that I have other more important things in my life to worry about. To be honest the world of web development is moving so fast I’d rather be keeping up to speed on more important matters such as web standards, accessibility, SEO etc etc. If I felt that becoming certified would improve my skills by tenfold then that would be a different matter, but I seriously doubt it would, so for the moment I’ll stay un-certified. Yes it would probably make me more employable to many companies, but I am interested in doing just .Net work all day long, not likely.

Web Standards

Calling all .Net developers, have you heard of this term? Have you heard about Accessibility? So that’s probably a little harsh, but in my experience of recruiting for web developers when I ask them those exact questions I have received some very blank looks. It’s really time these “web developers” (I use the term lightly) woke up to what is happening in their industry. Is it that they just don’t care, or it is that they think learning about HTML and CSS is below them and for “script kiddies” only? In either case the developers need to pull their heads out of the sand. I suspect some of this ignorance is due to many of the .Net developers coming from a VB background and thus have never had to worry about HTML. If that’s the case then maybe they should move back into the area of desktop development work and leave the web world to people in the know and people who care about the industry.

It has become apparent to me that a lot of web developers (not just .Net ones) don’t read up on the latest developments. Either by looking at stuff online of offline. Here’s a hint to those people, start doing it fast, the web isn’t going to wait for you to catch up. More and more companies are looking for people with knowledge about web standards, if you don’t have it, you won’t get the job.

The Target Audience uses IE

Is this really a valid reason for not developing web applications using web standards? I’ve heard this argument given by many people, including during job interviews I’ve been for. I’m dumbfounded ever time I hear it. I’ve also heard the excuse that forms take too long to generate using divs and CSS and to be frank that’s an appalling excuse. It only takes too long when you don’t know how.

So what if your target audience only uses IE, it makes no difference, web applications still need to meet accessibility guidelines. You can’t turn around to a user who needs the application to be accessible and say “tough”. What happens if your most important client suddenly decides they are going to move over to Linux or Mac OS, they still want all those applications to work on the new platform and if your product doesn’t someone’s will and a client will soon jump ship. I can see the panic now if that happened.

An apology

.Net developers on the whole are very good at what they do, and I’m sorry to have picked on you so much. However if you are going to work in the web industry then you need to find out more about it. The web isn’t a Microsoft platform, stop treating it like that. Ruby and PHP developers manage it, isn’t it about time you did?

I have recently read the article The true ASP.Net developer, it’s well worth a read.