Question about web design jobs...
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:03 pm
Today, I had the wonderful opportunity to see how little PHP I know. This occurred when I was given the opportunity to go through a proving grounds with a nearby company who needed a PHP developer for Drupal. Here's what they wanted me to do to be considered for the position:
I once had an interview at a downtown shop in Indianapolis who needed yet another web "designer" (I say "designer" liberally) who could not only re-design a Flash-based website without its source code being available, but who could also create a Wordpress CSS-customized website as well as one that used a more traditional CMS in less than 42 hours (total of 3 websites). The Flash website had buttons galore with custom video scripting and database transactions and the Wordpress / CMS websites both had the stipulations of being required to have customized plugins be built, too. Am I just stupid? I guess so if I always believed that somehow, young designers / developers were gradually merged into a company. It would seem that I've been under a rock for some time, eh?
Is this really what's expected out there now? If so, I feel sorry for those amongst us capable of such great things because despite the fact that they're probably always going to be making way more money than I ever will in 1 month, I doubt they have much of a social life, ya know? Not to be offensive by any means, it's just that I can only imagine how many hours a day and night these sorts must look at code figuring out how to do things like OOP, MVC, using databases in uber efficient ways, etc... Seems so depressing to me despite wanting to get into this field. Geez, I'm such a downer, I know, but you can't blame me. I guess I should've majored in CS??? I'm an IT major and one of those poor souls who believed that he could teach himself these things. This stuff is so frustrating...
My question is this: how does one get to a point in this "web stuff" where you can do this sort of thing above and are there companies out there anymore who invest in their employees and who train you to do things like this?PART 1.
Develop a Drupal 6.x module called "node_details"
The goal of this task is to create a module that provides a node details page. The details page should include this information about the node:
-nid
-title
-author username, as a link to their profile
-posted date, formatted
-human-readable node type
-status (Published or Unpublished)
-promoted (Promoted or Unpromoted)
A backend settings form should allow administrators to select which node type(s) the detail page is available for.
A link to the details page should be available on node pages of the selected type(s).
A custom permission should limit the visibility of the details page and corresponding link.
The details page should have a default theme implementation.
The module should not have dependencies on other modules.
PART 2.
Provide a written summary of your development, including an accurate time assessment.
Also provide a 100-word explanation describing how Drupal behaves more like a PHP framework then just a CMS.
I once had an interview at a downtown shop in Indianapolis who needed yet another web "designer" (I say "designer" liberally) who could not only re-design a Flash-based website without its source code being available, but who could also create a Wordpress CSS-customized website as well as one that used a more traditional CMS in less than 42 hours (total of 3 websites). The Flash website had buttons galore with custom video scripting and database transactions and the Wordpress / CMS websites both had the stipulations of being required to have customized plugins be built, too. Am I just stupid? I guess so if I always believed that somehow, young designers / developers were gradually merged into a company. It would seem that I've been under a rock for some time, eh?
Is this really what's expected out there now? If so, I feel sorry for those amongst us capable of such great things because despite the fact that they're probably always going to be making way more money than I ever will in 1 month, I doubt they have much of a social life, ya know? Not to be offensive by any means, it's just that I can only imagine how many hours a day and night these sorts must look at code figuring out how to do things like OOP, MVC, using databases in uber efficient ways, etc... Seems so depressing to me despite wanting to get into this field. Geez, I'm such a downer, I know, but you can't blame me. I guess I should've majored in CS??? I'm an IT major and one of those poor souls who believed that he could teach himself these things. This stuff is so frustrating...