a multiskilled or specialized web programmer?

joboy

hi good day!

just would like to solicit ideas on which is more preferred, a web developer or programmer who knows various
web tools or software e.g. ASP, PHP, JavaScript, XHTML, Java, IIS, MySQL, etc.(client-side and server-side tools)
OR a specialized programmer let says he/she focus only on server-side using not more than three technologies,
such as PHP, MySQL, and SQL?

Thanks.

joboy

any help from moderators, i asking to relocated this thread, thanks.. supposed i want to post ti to general discussion but through "slip of the fingers", i didn't realize its in Mod's Bods.

Piranha

It all depends on what he should do.

If he is the only programmer it may be useful if he knows a little about all the techniques used. But then you can't expect him to know everything about anything.

If he should do very specialized tasks I suggest a programmer that knows only the thing he should know, in other words only SQL if he should dig deep into databases.

If you want someone that doesn't demand that high salary then you should think about a person right out of college. But that person doesn't know how to program in real projects, everything will take longer and he will make more faults that have to be corrected.

To make it simple: It all depends on how you want him to work. There is no "do this" or "do that" answer.

joboy

thanks for the response.. but what about on the part the programmer himself(do web programming for about a year), assuming he is after of his career path or for future job oppurtunities whether planning to go abroad or finding local companies with greener pasture.. how much chances will he be able to land good jobs with good compensation if he's "know-all" I.T professional or specialized one?

Piranha

Now this is out of my experience so please don't rely on this answer to much. I will post my thoughts here.

I don't think it is up to the programmer to "land good jobs with good compensation", it is up to the seller. Of course you may mean to "get the job done within time and budget". If you mean that I would say that it depends on the budget and time he have in comparison to his skill level. In other words, it is up to the programmer and seller to set those limits together.

by the way use punctation it is much easier to read when the poster uses capital letters points commas good grammar and correctly spelled english as you can see in this paragraph it is not easy to read when the person havent tried to make it easy and if it is not easy to read your posts where you ask for help people wont read them and wont answer them either

laserlight

The way I see it, diversification helps in the event that the market changes. On the other hand, you have to have expertise at what you do, if you want to excel and stand out from others. As such, perhaps a good trade off is to be "jack of many trades, master of some".

bubblenut

I have found that it very much depends on what kind of company you want to move into. If you're living in a big city and you would like to move into a large company with large teams specialization may work well. In a smaller team you'll usually have a more varied role. However, it's always good to know the roles which buffer against yours so that you can understand the context of your role. That includes not only technology but marketing, business management, customer services etc. You don't have to be an expert, but you should know what they do and what's involved in it.

joboy

Thanks everyone for a handful of opinions, I think I already had a glimpse on pro's and con's of the subject. Piranha, your reminders on punctuations are now on notepad but I do also hope for considerations on factors such as language barrier, this exist often between two people with different native tongue.

NogDog

One thing I woud suggest is to spend a good part of your learning time on databases and SQL. That skill is almost universally applicable on any project, and in my experience a programmer with adequate skills in the programming language(s) being used and an expert in databases/SQL will be in higher demand than the expert in the programming languages with merely adequate database skills.

Piranha

joboy wrote:
Thanks everyone for a handful of opinions, I think I already had a glimpse on pro's and con's of the subject. Piranha, your reminders on punctuations are now on notepad but I do also hope for considerations on factors such as language barrier, this exist often between two people with different native tongue.

Of course I understand the problems with the language barrier, English is my second language as well as yours. I went a little to far with that post, I should only have mentioned punctation since your english is easy enogh to understand, I went to far and I'm sorry for that. For me the important thing is not perfect english but trying to make it as easy as possible to read.

joboy

Piranha:

No probs for that, I was just trying to explain because maybe others may also be uncomfortable reading my threads in general..anyway it's alright!