Required Skills Of A Frontend Developer

Happy Day 1 of National Coding Week! According to Coding Week, this week is all about bringing awareness to the digital skills gap in today’s economy.

To show our appreciation to the amazingly talented people at Mindera UK, we thought we’d interview some of our Minders to show you how they started, the skills they’re proud of, and the tech they enjoy using.

We hope this inspires businesses and individuals to continue advancing their skills within the tech industry.

Today we are chatting with Samuel Clarke, frontend developer at Mindera UK — a rapidly expanding software company situated in Leicester city centre.

How did you get started as an engineer/developer?

“When I was 25, I was on JSA (Jobseeker’s Allowance) and lacking in direction. I bought a book about Java programming for beginners and found it very interesting. A local company was advertising that they are looking for junior developers. I thought I might as well give it a go and applied!”

What technology/tools do you use to fulfil your potential in your role?

“I am currently a Frontend Web Developer, so I use any tools related to JavaScript.

“I mostly use an advanced text editor (VS Code),Node.JS, Webpack, Babel, CSS modules, and React.”

What programming languages/frameworks can you work with? Can you describe your experience with them?

“When it comes to programming languages, I use React a lot — if I need to mess about with the DOM) — nice and simple. It has become my go-to framework at home as well. My days of messing about with the DOM directly are over for now!

“An old legacy project that I had worked on used AMD modules with Require.JS, which I liked for the wrong reasons — the code was a shanty town labyrinth of a mess!”

Credit: Unsplash

If you could master one technology this year, what would it be?

“I am currently reading a book about OpenCV for video processing in C, so mastering that this year would be great!

“I am also experimenting with the Web Audio API for writing procedural music — there are a few ‘avant-garde’ and electronic ideas that I want to get done before the end of the year.”

What skills are required to be a successful coder?

“Good question! I feel that the best programmers I have met have a good mind for logically working out problems — but if you are dedicated, this is something that can be learnt!

“I have met a lot of ‘theoretically solid’ devs that know a lot about new technologies, but when it comes to actually writing code they over-complicate things and make a lot of simple logic errors.”

What advice would you give to people who are interested in a career at Mindera?

“Mindera is a great place to work — go for it!”

How do you achieve a work-life balance at Mindera?

“At Mindera, it is easy. You are not stuck at your desk from 9 to 5. Do you need to do something important during traditional work hours? Tell your team and get on with it. Do not feel like leaving the house for whatever reason? Work from home and spend time with the cat.

“Sometimes, if I cannot sleep, I will do some work in the middle of the night and then work less the next day. As long as the work is done and your team is happy, you can be very flexible with your time.”

Interested in working at Mindera?

We have various vacancies available at Mindera UK. Check out our website to learn more.

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We build high-performance, resilient, and scalable software systems to enable businesses across locations.