The “webmaster” types are a dying breed. Here’s one of the best analogies I’ve seen on this topic, to date:
Quarterbacks and Linebackers
Finding someone who can do it all isn’t realistic. It’s like trying to lead your baseball team in pitching and hitting; like trying to play quarterback and line backer at the same time. At a certain (low) level of competition, it is done. However, in the big leagues when you’re practicing eight, ten or more hours a day and playing games, there simply isn’t enough time to be great at everything. There simply isn’t enough time to learn all the plays and perfect their execution. Your coach expects you to pick something and be an all-star at it, to specialize.Having a team is a good thing.
taken from: I have a friend who knows a guy whose son does websites.
See also:
Finding Balance on your Web Team
Another See Also:
This reminded me of an old A List Apart article about a designer on a job hunt:
WEB DESIGNER WANTED!
Must have skills with Photoshop, Quark, Acrobat, Illustrator, 3D Studio and Fireworks. Minimum of 2 years experience and able to work in a fast paced environment.
Sounded like a good fit. I read on:
Must also have programming skills in HTML, JavaScript and Perl
Okay, I could probably swing that.
Experience working with Oracle and JSP … must be able to administrate IIS and NT Enterprise Server….
Wait a second. Was this the same job description? Had I skipped over something? Was it a misprint? Nope, it in fact was the same job description. Maybe they should have used the heading, “Renaissance Person Wanted.”
October 13th, 2008 at 10:26 am
That is a good analogy. And we battle this “webmaster” concept daily, our customers all assume we’ve mastered it all. And it’s never productive to try to explain to them that our info architect organizes everything on paper, the visual designer (different department) makes things look pretty, our front-end developer makes the pretty things work, our back-end developer makes the pretty working things powerful and extensible, and the server admins (yet another department) keep it all secure and speedy. So when I’m in a meeting, I always just nod and say, “yep, we can do that.” And then I walk out of there and make five phone calls and wonder how the hell I”m going to be able to pull it all together.
And it also makes hiring especially difficult. We’re planning to expand our Web Communications team and it’s a challenge on how to approach the posting. Should we go specific, say “Social Media Specialist,” or should we be purposely vague, “Web Designer,” and just see what we end up getting, grabbing the most talented person within a whole range of specialties.
Makes my head spin on a Monday morning.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am
The title sold me and the sentiment is dead on.