Technologies Range

[sr_vd]

Hello everyone, I just have a quick question to programmers, as usually, I was scrolling, web development category looking for someone to work with, and found an interesting job posting ( intermediate level by the way),  well client asked for : 

- Backbone, Angular, Ember, Meteor, ExtJS, ReactJS, etc,

- Obviously knowledge of HTML CSS and Javascript,

- Knowledge of all preprocessors Less, Sass, SCSS, Stylus CSS, etc.

- Knowledge of Node.js.

- Knowledge of MVC patterns, OOP, DOM and SPA (single page apps).

- Knowledge of related AJAX, jquery and generated underscore templates.

-  Knowledge of Grunt, Gulp, Bower, Yeoman, SVN/Git etc.

- Knowledge of UI Frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation etc.

- Knowledge of Web servers Apache, Nginx, etc.

- Knowledge of Scrum, Extreme Programming, Kanban, Scrum etc.

- Knowledge of Linux and web technologies.

In such way, I would like to ask, how you guys apply for such jobs. Me personally, I am pretty sure I can build any sort of app using just js and PHP if I don't know something from this list, can I still consider myself as a web dev, qualified enough to work here on Upwork? cause it seems like it`s impossible to specialize in something in order to provide quality instead of 100`s technologies with no sense.

Thank`s for all you`re feedbacks.

[yitwail]

Vladimir, not every client expects an intermediate freelancer to have knowledge of that many technologies so only apply for jobs requiring the technologies you know.

[sivavranagaro]

There's a phrase I read here: jack of all trades, master of none. 

When I see such job I just scroll further.

[ijessop]

You will see many postings like this. Some that list as many skills or more and state they are looking for a beginner. This is a clue to you that the client is clueless. keep scrolling. There are jobs posted with skills requirements that are reasonable for the level of experience sought. 

[imakeinternet]

Believe it or not after you've been doing web development for some years all this stuff really seems like cake.  The client is just looking for someone  who is competent enough for their project.  This looks like a perfect job posting for an intermediate to expert level web developer.

[anguyenbiz]

I second what Mike W said.  It looked like what they are looking for is a fairly standard web application engineer with about 2-5 years of experience.   All the technologies listed are those used in the development of modern web applications, and the skills needed to deploy and maintain it post development.  There's a lot of terms for this, "Full Stack", "End to End", etc...   I think the gist of what they are looking for is someone who can do the engineering and be able to launch the thing without needing to hire multiple people. 

Depending on how the rest of the job is written, this is actually very accommodating as there is a robust number of items listed for each category.  Meaning the client might be flexible and open to whatever process or workflow the chosen contractor use if you hit it off.   If this was a US or EU job, might also mean it was written by HR and they were just keyword clouding all the terms that seemed right for the job. The red flag is once you get the interview and they start saying they actually use a very specific tech stack with a lot of things you are not familiar with.   At that point, if those technologies aren't things I have used before, then I would say I can't help and be on my way.

[sr_vd]

Well probably, but common, how often we use all these techs, it`s very accomodating I agree, but let`s think as well about product quality, product security or only thing that matters today is how much web techs you know, this is absurd. You can`t just say, alright today I use ember with node tomorrow I use react with php and so on. You choose something that suits you best and you`re using this, that`s how you became pro when you work with one product and you know all in and out about this one, and that leads me to a thought that it`s becoming more and more difficult to find a good contract in webdevelopment area what do you think ?

Sorry for late response

[stefan-c]

That’s a client with little to no technical knowledge who’s trying to look savvy. He has no clue about what technologies should be used on his project, or how those technologies should fit together. Some of the technologies listed are so 2014, and he’s missing some new hip ones. My guess is - he stumbled across a 4 year old article on the internet and decided to copy/paste all the fancy words in his job description.

What I find more amusing is when these clients ask for code samples. Like they would make a difference between code, and a Chinese takeout menu.

Although I agree you’re supposed to keep your skills up-to-date in order to be relevant, you’re certainly not supposed to know each and every JS framework/css preprocessor/tool/whatever ever made, lol.

[sr_vd]

Yes Stefan thank you, and it looks to me that main target of these jobs proposals is only to include as much technologies as it`s possible, I believe a good idea is to apply only for that part of the job you know but chances to get hired in such case decrease significantly or stop activity for a period and try to learn as much as possible.

[gbalint]

I'm working on a project that started like this, but in the end:

• just a couple of things from the initial list have been used;
• if need be, we, the developers, can read and work with something new. I haven't heard of Varnish befor the project, but I probably could configure it better than it is right now. And much faster than writing an e-mail, waiting for the reply, setting the time it's good for all parties to make the changes, etc.

[sr_vd]

Thank`s Gabriel, "something new" is the synonym of our profession, It`s just difficult and sad that I can`t apply to such jobs because I did not work before with one or two technologies from such lists, this is a major problem for me each time.