We don't need a carpenter. Are you a hammerer?

[elfs]

I received just about the weirdest telephone job interview I've had in a long time. It was specifically for a "CSS Programmer," and that was quite literally what the interviewer wanted. I got the impression she was reading off a list of requirements from another team, but list of questions were extremely CSS specific: doing positioning, color control, IE6 hacks, and nothing else. Nothing about Javascript, or DHTML semantics, or XHTML versus HTML, or Doctypes, or any of that stuff. Forget about back-end stuff.

That's like trying to hire a guy who's fixing your house by saying you don't need him to know any carpentry, but he has to be an expert hammerer. He'll just do what the carpenter says.

On further reflection, I suppose such a position is possible, but you'd better have a ton of pages that need stylin'. And if you do, then you're an incompetent boob who hasn't learned the power of Sass, Grid960, or CleverCSS.

Comments

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

Maybe they want someone just for whipping up mockups based on customer specs. "I want this part red, and a little higher, and with the Fantasy font. And make sure it works in IE6!"

[mouser.livejournal.com]

More likely that is a first stage filter; if you can't answer THOSE questions you're wasting each others time.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

I agree. Someone may have figured that was the core of the job, so that is what the initial cut is based on.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

I've been given the advice before that the best response to job ads where they clearly don't know what they want, is to *tell* them what they need, and to tell them that you do all that too.

There's plenty of job ads in the other direction too: Asking for an architect when what they really need is a carpenter. Oftentimes they're being overambitious and hoping for the best.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Yah know, even if it seems too easy, always ask what they're paying. I can do bored for a long time on good pay.