What to Look For in a Good Javascript Engineer

Javascript is a front-end and server-side language alongside HTML and CSS. It is a language that is responsible for the dynamic and interactive content we see on websites or web apps when we fill out forms or play a game straight from a browser.

Javascript is a language with many interactive possibilities and Javascript software development is a good option today for companies that do not have a good Javascript development presence. Even when outsourcing talent, some in-house presence can always help. Whether hiring Javascript developers in-house or remote teams, there is a difference between front-end developers who truly know the ins-and-outs of the language and those that use it for minor tasks while focusing on HTML5.

If you are a hiring manager or a CEO of a startup looking for Javascript talent, it is a good idea to also familiarize yourself with some Javascript terminology or programming aspects you want your developers to grasp. This way they can weed out the good from the average candidates and have a team that will be able to create great code for you when designing interactive web apps or websites.

Here are some of the things to look for when hiring Javascript developers:

They are able to transfer Javascript code between different projects without it being lost in the original project or altered for future projects down the line.

Javascript developers should have at least four different methods in decreasing page load or speeding up how fast a page loads on the screen with each visit or refresh.

Progressive rendering is an example of a method of making web content load faster. Javascript developers should definitely have this ability among others in accomplishing this. An example of progressive rendering in action is making websites load images when they are in view rather than all at ones on a page.

CORS stands for cross-origin resource sharing and it allows web apps running on a domain or origin to have permission to access certain resources from servers in different domains and origins. In essence or layman terms, CORS uses HTTP headers for these permissions to occur. It is basically using requests to get certain data from one server to another. Javascript devs should be familiar with CORS, be able to explain it and have experience with it.

Doctype stands for a DocumentType. It is a declaration method that must be listed as the first thing in an HTML document and tells the browser what type of document to expect. Each version of HTML has various Doctypes to consider with HTML4 having three and HTML5, the latest standard, having just one. Developers should be familiar with different declarations.

There are various intricacies or issues to overcome when coding and designing sites for multiple languages. Although the developer should not be required to personally speak in multiple languages, he or she should be familiar with how the code looks across different versions of sites. He or she should also be able to explain from experience what worked best and didn’t when designing such sites and making space for the language across pages seamless.

The developer and prospective hiree should be familiar with working with web apps and websites for both desktop displays and mobile device displays. They should also be familiar with making sites work across a variety of orientations from portrait to landscape. Most browsers have both mobile versions of sites and desktop versions that switch on automatically after pinging the user and receiving information on what sort of device the user is relying on. Developers should have experience in working across different systems and devices.

The last point brings me to this one. Developers who are working with Javascript code should be able to create front-end sites that work seamlessly across different browsers just as different operating systems and devices. Sometimes websites look different or off-putting in certain browsers while good on others. Developers should be able to scale their code so it works seamlessly on all of them.

Host objects differ depending on the environment the developer is working on while native objects stay the same because they are built-in by Javascript. For example, a node.js environment supplies objects like NodeList. A developer should be able to distinguish which are environment-dependent and which are provided by Javascript and be able to work with them all. This way they can pick the right environment for the task at hand to work with.

These are just some examples of things to look for in a Javascript developer. There are many other things to consider, but this should get the ball rolling. When looking for new Javascript development talent it is a good idea to at least ask your recruits or potential team some questions related to the methods and terms outlined above.

If they can at least understand these things or aspects of Javascript development and explain how they put them to get used in past projects, it should show you they are at least familiar with the language and its intricacies. The next step is to test them out or have them show you some of their work they have in the front-end of web development to see if they are not just theorists, but efficient coders as well.