guaip

guaip

Website jobs are "dead" - what to do now?

I’ve been doing front-end as a freelancer for 15 years. I have some PHP background and still do some backend stuff to this day, but I specialized in converting design to code back when it was cool in the late 2000s and 2010s. And I’ve been doing this since then.

I’m pretty good at it, agencies usually come to me when they have a “high-stakes”, design-oriented project that their team can’t handle the challenge of making it pixel perfect and “flawlessly responsive”.

But these jobs are pretty much dead. The 20-page cutups became landing pages, but since I was making good money I failed to learn new stuff (React, Angular), mostly because I was more of a “visual frontend” guy. Now jobs are scarce and frontend listing are 70% React, 20% Angular and the rest is Vue and other things. I don’t even know how to look for a job as “visual” frontend developer as everything requires one of these frameworks now. I even looked at some PHP jobs, but they all also require some framework, mostly Laravel.

Any suggestions on how to proceed now? I’ve been studying some Vue.js since it seems a lot easier and could be a good starting point, but I really feel I’ve fallen behind at this point.

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alvinkatojr

alvinkatojr

Hello, @guaip.

Your predicament is not new and you are not alone. Good money has a way of distracting us from “new money” and the reverse is true.

You already know the answer to your question: you need to learn Javascript and learn it good. Then you also need to learn React. And you need to do all of that while applying to jobs before your savings run out.

If 70% of the jobs are React, why are you spending time on Vue?

If the jobs require knowledge of a frontend framework, why are you confused?

You know what to do. Now go out and do it.

Alvin

guaip

guaip

Hey @alvinkatojr . I guess you’re right.

I already know javascript fairly well. Made my own framework for a big job back when there was no such thing, around 2005. Then jQuery came and made things easier for my line of work, but I kept doing vanilla stuff to this day. Zero Typescript though.

I guess spending so much time and energy in a framework, which is not even a proper language, feels wrong for an old schooler like me (especially Javascript). But I guess it’s what people want now.

I’m going to increase my search for agencies that still need a “visual” front-end guy to make some more money while I study the new stuff and look for a job.

I’m curious if you found yourself in a similar situation before. If so, when did you decide to learn the new stuff? Any tips to share?

Any idea on how hard can it be for a guy like me (average to good javascript, strong CSS/SASS, also PHP developer) to learn React and all the stuff that usually comes with it?

Thanks

fullstackplus

fullstackplus

OK — here’s what I’d do if I were you (in fact, I’m doing it).

Forget React, Angular and Vue. Instead take your existing skills further by investing in these two key areas:

  1. Design systems and pattern libraries. This means learning things like Atomic Design, Storybook, Chromatic and the like. This will allow you to do proper modular user interfaces rather than simply converting visual design to HTML / CSS / JS.
  2. Learn hypermedia (I recommend htmx). This will allow you to work with the full stack (including any PHP framework) without involving front-end frameworks.

If you do both, you’ll be able to go out and offer your services as someone who can design and develop web UIs that are leaner in size, faster to build, and easier to maintain. That’s a much stronger value proposition than being yet another generic React dev.

(I’d add Tailwind, Web Components, Figma, and Webflow to the above list. Yes it’s a lot to learn but that’s the way our industry works).

If you want the reasoning as to why React and the like isn’t suited for the 90% of web UIs, you can read this article (it’s the last part in my “htmx and hypermedia” tutorial):

htmx on Sinatra Part 9: In Conclusion

…and here’s some stuff from other peeps:

Deep dive on going from Vue to Htmx in a large-scale production app

Why HTMX is crushing React, Vue & Svelte

Good luck.

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