Front End Web Developers are in great demand in 2015 but with the emergence of new devices and technologies their skills requirement has increased so I am laying out a checklist for your Front End Development skills. These skills will help you to land a job as a Front End Developer in 2015.

In the early days of the Internet only Html, CSS and some Javascript were demanded from a Front End Web Developer but in the current scenario, these skills are not enough to call yourself a Good Front End Web Developer. The following skills are in great demand and you must include them in your skills set.

• HTML
• CSS
• Javascript
• Responsive Web Design
• CSS Frameworks
• Javascript Frameworks
• Version Control
• Web Performance
• Browser Development tools
• Building and Automation tools
• Testing
• Soft skills

learncode.acedemy in his video gives a graphical presentation of above skills.

Now I will give you a brief description of the above skills.

• HTML - It is the structural part of the web. It tells the browser the elements in the website, links to css and javascript files.

• CSS - Cascading style sheets makes the web beautiful. It is responsible for fonts, colors, images and positioning of different elements on the websites.

• Javascript - Javascript is the programming language which helps in making the web interactive. With the development of NodeJS, JS has become a language of the web. You can make a full stack Web Application with only Javascript and many developers are adopting this technology.

• Responsive Web Design - Mobile is the future. The number of users of the mobiles is increasing day by day and the larger traffic on the websites is coming from mobile phones. Responsive design means that your website should adjust itself to the device from which it is being viewed and give an appealing look on most devices.

• CSS Frameworks - Frameworks make the responsive development easier and already contain different classes for the buttons, forms and various elements on the page. It follows industry best practices. Examples are - Bootstrap, Foundation.

• Javascript Frameworks - These frameworks help in creating web application easier and follow best practices. Single Page Applications (SPAs) can be made efficiently with these frameworks. Examples are - AngularJS,Ember,Backbone.

• Version Control - Version Control is a must for every project. Suppose you are working on a feature in your project and you messed up something, now what you will do. With Version Control Systems (VCS) like git you can view the changes you have made and go back to your previous state. Github is a web based hosting service for git repositories which makes collaboration between teams much easier. It gives features like forks and pull requests which helps in a big way to open source development.

• Web Performance - You have created your awesome website but if it takes long time to load people will not wait and leave your site. So you should optimize your images, Minify css and javscript to deliever fast and efficient websites to your users.

• Browser Development tools - Modern browsers are not just awesome for users But they are great for developers as well. These development tools help us to make changes to the DOM on the fly and see the changes. Debugging javascript is easier with these tools.

• Building and Automation tools - Who wants to do boring repetitive tasks. Tasks like running tests, optimize images, minify javascript and preparing code for deploying to production server can be automated with tools like Grunt, gulp. So you can focus only on building great web Applications.

• Testing - Testing is an essential part of creating web Applications. When you are working on a new feature you want to test your project so that you had not broken anything in the process. Examples of testing frameworks are Mocha, Jasmine

• Soft skills - Soft skills are also important as technical skills. Soft skills help to communicate our ideas effectively with others, inspire others and see the big picture. Soft Skills include Strong Comminication, Agile Problem solving, Healthy passion, Self starting motivation.

The above skills are demanded by Companies hiring Front End Developers. So whether you are just starting out or an expert in this field, You should add these skills to your tool set. The following resources will be helpful to learn -

• https://www.udacity.com
• http://www.codecademy.com
• https://www.youtube.com/user/DevTipsForDesigners
• http://learncode.academy
• http://tutsplus.com

Not understand some terms in this post go ahead and search Google and you will find a number of resources. The community is there to help you in every step of your learning. You just need to start with confidence.