[thelist] HTML test (tip)

[Jacob Stetser]

Erika,

I sorta figured you'd been treated to some lousy HTML tests. I'm 
sorry that happened to you. Here we try to make them somewhat 
representative of what we're looking for, and we do indeed look for a 
lot of things these ones seemed not to.

I think the web design agency world is stratifying again. There are 
the agencies, like the one I work for, who are pushing toward HTML4, 
CSS, DOM, XHTML, XML, and the emerging technologies that will in the 
end make our lives easier, even if the transition is difficult, and 
there are the agencies that are increasingly hiring people who know 
how to use a WYSIWYG but don't understand the basic concepts of the 
underlying code.

You see, I use Dreamweaver a lot, and I might go back to Golive now 
that 5 is out. However, I spent since 1994 coding by hand and that 
taught me a lot about how HTML comes together and works that a lot of 
people (not all :) who use WYSIWYG never learn. I suppose the number 
of us who spent the past six years studying HTML, design concepts, 
usability, branding, promotion and a slew of other technologies, we 
who are jacks-of-all-trades, are declining in favour of 
specialisation.

I don't know where you interviewed, and I'm sorry they gave you lousy 
tests. I'm excited to be doing what I'm doing where I work: pushing 
our standards away from 3.2 and toward 4.0.x and CSS, etc. I wish the 
browsermakers would support these standards too. Since I'm the only 
"expert" in HTML at our location - we have two designers, one who is 
pretty good, another apprentice-level and a project manager who is 
moving into development - I imagine that we would probably have 
slipped into 3.2 mode. We're not, however, and I'm proud of that.

Heh. Anyhow, all of this is meant to say: Don't lose hope. There are 
those of us out here who are proud of our craft and want to keep 
pushing it forward. If you're ever in Atlanta, look up Renaissance 
Interactive (www.arcadus.com, for the website I helped build, and 
which is more centered on our location - it's who we were before the 
merger) and apply!

Oh, and that goes for anyone else here in Atlanta. Please feel free 
to apply and let them know you heard about RI from me :)

Jake Stetser
-- 
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