On Hiring Front-end Engineers

On Hiring Front-end Engineers:

Speaking of freelance gigs and jobs, Chris Zacharias, former YouTube engineer (I believe), authors some thoughts on what to look for in front-end engineers.

On scripting:

Bad front-end engineers are dependent on jQuery and other libraries. Good front-end engineers make use of libraries like jQuery to empower themselves, but are not beholden to them.

On art:

Nearly every first rate web developer I have worked with had some kind of extracurricular, no matter how casual, that focused around some form of art. I have worked with painters, photographers, singers, writers, actors, musicians, sculptors, printmakers, and graffiti artists. One question I started to ask candidates was 'Do you play an instrument?' If they did, it was usually a good sign.

Naturally, I might disagree with point #5, having seen many successful hires online including a couple of my own (and still working with one of them today):

If you want to find good front-end engineers, look to the newspaper and print industry.

But a solid read nonetheless.

/via Hacker News