End the Job Hunt - 3 Secrets The Recruiters Won't Tell You

Apparently the IT industry has recently been having a rough time of it in London... and everywhere else, for that matter. Since the well-publicised popping of the dot com bubble, it's no secret that there are fewer jobs around -- and just as many people trying to get them.

Only the other day I was at the pub talking to a guy who's a very talented freelance programmer, and has only just landed a full time job with a large bank in London's financial centre -- after 6 months of unemployment.

He told me that he sat waiting for the fifth interview for this post alongside six other intelligent, talented individuals, none of whom had worked for a few months (at the very least). All were freelancers -- the kinds of people who, just a year ago, would have been head-hunted right, left and centre -- and would have politely declined a full time position as well.

Now it seems that London is plagued by bored, out of work, freelance Web developers and programmers. However, I notice that not all self-employed Web developers are talking doom and gloom.

Several of my friends are actually doing better in the present climate. But how? What makes them successful while others are doomed to spend the next six months watching daytime TV and eating baked beans?

While these guys move ahead, however, countless developers (who are quite a bit younger than me, and already have an astounding amount of technical know-how), are constantly entering the marketplace -- yet they don't seem to be getting the work.

This situation got me thinking about what actually constitutes a good Web developer.

The Checklist

I decided that a good place to start would be to look at what I would expect from a decent Web developer.

Obviously, good HTML and Flash skills are a given: I wouldn't even consider someone without them. Also, some experience in another area is useful, whether it's database development, XML, PHP...

But when I really thought about which of the people I'd worked with had been the best, technical skills started to take a back seat.

Let me explain. I work in a small to medium sized advertising agency and it's probably one of the most demanding environments a developer can be in. The deadlines are short, you have to work quickly with designs that are not always ideal, and the quality of the finished product has to be very high.

That leads me to look for three things when I hire: speed, an eye for detail, and a sense of humour (though some of my more rotten colleagues might suggest that I wouldn't hire myself based on those criteria).

You won't find these requirements listed in many job ads, but let me assure you, I, for one, wouldn't hire someone who didn't posess all three.

Speed

Speed is obvious. I occasionally find myself with less than a day to program a microsite (for those of you now asking "a what?" -- a microsite is our name for a small site set up for a specific campaign or product).

Not getting the job done is not an option. These microsites normally coincide with a press campaign whose first ad usually appears in the papers the next day.

Accuracy

An eye for detail is also extremely important. As a member of a team working on a suite of materials for a campaign, each person is responsible for ensuring the quality of the end product. That way -- with everyone checking everyone else's input -- nothing slips through the net.

As I'm creating "new media" materials, I'm not just coding. I'm reading the copy. I'm checking it in several different scenarios. I'm making sure that every 't' is crossed and every 'i' is dotted -- on every page. We constantly create high quality graphical material, and we work to very high standards. If that button jumps a pixel when you go to the next page, it does matter. We can't simply leave it and hope no-one notices!

I guess it's a pride thing: pride in your work leads to good work. It's quite simple really. You need the mindset that whatever you're working on, you're going to make it look as good as it can. And you've got to maintain that mindset, even if you're secretly getting a bit fed up with the whole project.