Look, I've been building stuff for the web for over 20 years now, and I started with learning basic HTML/CSS/JS. I fondly remember the days when we had to for-loop through the DOM in order to find every element we wanted to modify, or hack around IE6 limitations. I've had the pleasure of watching front-end evolve from server-rendered pages to "enhanced interactions" with JS/jQuery to massively optimized, client-driven web applications built with technologies like React.
The thing that gets me here: the "tech industry," or the industry we commonly think of when speaking about software positions, no longer "builds websites." They build web applications. There is still an industry that builds websites: marketing. In fact, taking a scroll down the author's portfolio confirms the lens in which this post was created: it's all marketing-driven websites in various technology stacks. I'm not mocking them, I'm just observing.
The marketing industry certainly builds websites, but the pay is crap even for independents. Don't want to learn React/other framework for a position? Want to focus on specializing in vanilla fundamentals? Want to eventually be forced to work on developing email templates? Want to pump out landing pages all day? Narrow that job search to the marketing industry, and you'll find plenty of work. But you shouldn't expect the compensation to be competitive with the tech industry. Marketing is sunk cost, risky, and the ROI is much less straightforward.
I'm not attempting to devalue the fundamentals, and there is certainly an opportunity for experts in those fundamentals to exist. In fact, I feel that engineers with better fundamentals are apt to improve everything from performance to accessibility. But the demand for experts on those fundamental technologies alone just doesn't exist. And even the marketing industry is changing: they're adopting headless CMS, static site generators, and other, modern web technologies.
The entire point of being upset that React is an expected skill in tech-progressive job postings is ridiculous at best and apathetic at worst.
The thing that gets me here: the "tech industry," or the industry we commonly think of when speaking about software positions, no longer "builds websites." They build web applications. There is still an industry that builds websites: marketing. In fact, taking a scroll down the author's portfolio confirms the lens in which this post was created: it's all marketing-driven websites in various technology stacks. I'm not mocking them, I'm just observing.
The marketing industry certainly builds websites, but the pay is crap even for independents. Don't want to learn React/other framework for a position? Want to focus on specializing in vanilla fundamentals? Want to eventually be forced to work on developing email templates? Want to pump out landing pages all day? Narrow that job search to the marketing industry, and you'll find plenty of work. But you shouldn't expect the compensation to be competitive with the tech industry. Marketing is sunk cost, risky, and the ROI is much less straightforward.
I'm not attempting to devalue the fundamentals, and there is certainly an opportunity for experts in those fundamentals to exist. In fact, I feel that engineers with better fundamentals are apt to improve everything from performance to accessibility. But the demand for experts on those fundamental technologies alone just doesn't exist. And even the marketing industry is changing: they're adopting headless CMS, static site generators, and other, modern web technologies.
The entire point of being upset that React is an expected skill in tech-progressive job postings is ridiculous at best and apathetic at worst.