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recent
Today I sat down with a new lady at our company, and rn her through the website of a client which she will be doing most of her work for. Her Internet expereince leve is "ZERO". (less than my mom... by far") I probably would never have hired her, but then again, when they hired me I had less experience than my mom has now... about the only thing I had ever used the web for was hotmail.
Anyway, as I was going throught the site, and watching how little she knew about the web, I started to think about what she should know. In the past, i have also tried to train a new guy who supposedly had experience as a designer (but it didn't show) He was gone before training was even done, so I don't know if I was even doing a good job at it. I have often wanted to "re-train" the other production people at my company as well. It frustrates me that I started later than them, am responsible for different work, and yet, am more knowledgeable about the work they are suppsed to do than they are, and still know what I need to know for my own responsibilites.
I think one place where I have failed in the past with trying to teach them new things, is that I tried to teach them too much. With the new lady, I want her to be somewhat knowledgable about the web, but she is not supposed to be a production person... how much does she need to know? Obviously she doesn't need to know how to write a HTML, but I think she should at least know what HTML is, and what a CGI is (and maybe how the Internet works?) because she will have to talk to clients with some confidence... but how much understanding can I expect from someone who doesn't actually get their hands dirty. Most of what I know is from doing it myself... what if I wasn't actually hands-on. How much could I know?
In order to get a better grasp on what I should be training new people, and exisiting people (including myself) I am adding something to my long-term to-do list. I want to make a "What a web-developer should know" guide. It should not tell "how" to do anything... but it should tell what concepts need to be understood to speak intelligently about the web buy a generalist, and give a good foundation for anyone who wants to begin to spcialize in any particular aspect. It should cover such things as internet basic concepts, production process, helpfull tools, some tips and tricks (but not to topic specific, more like "benefits of, and how to use search and replace on your text editor"), helpful tools, and when to use each tool (MS Word vs BBedit), how to trouble-shoot, and most importantly, how to effectivly search the web and find information.
I often get annoyed that other people seem to fall far too short in some of these categories, but then maybe no one ever told them what they should know, and how to find the resources to learn what they need to know. granted, the other production people in my office have had years to figure this out, but I should at least give this new lady a chance before I ask the boss to fire her. After all, I would have fired me when I started...
My point is, I know there is at least one other web-developer who reads this site sometimes... If anyone who nkows about this stuff reads this, once (if) I get started on my list, I will be posting it in hopes of geting feedback as to what is important, what is not, what tools should be mentioned, what tools are too specialist etc...
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