When you look for jobs as a Front End Developer online, you find various skill requirements for the same designation. A Front End Developer codes websites to interact and communicate within the browser.
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the building blocks to code a website. A person knowing these “core skills” can apply for a front-end developer job.
1. HTML
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the standard language used for creating websites. It is used to describe the structural component of the web pages such as text and images. All the pages you see on the web is constructed using HTML. It is easy to learn and one of the core technologies you need to master. You can learn it in a week by sitting two hours per day.
2. CSS 
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a design language which adds style to the HTML document. CSS and HTML work together. While HTML is used to constitute the structure of a webpage by defining the headings, paragraphs and attaching images, videos and other media, CSS specifies the document style you would like to incorporate- fonts, colors and page layouts. CSS could be understood with the analogy “If HTML is the face, CSS is the face with makeup.”
3. JavaScript and jquery
JavaScript is a high-level, dynamic, object-oriented and interpreted programming language. This programming language is used to determine the functionality of your webpage. It lets you add tons of functions to your website. JavaScript makes your webpage interactive by allowing you to add audio or video, create online form submissions, add audio or video, online games, page animations, and many other features.
At present many websites employ it, and all the modern web browsers support it using built-in JavaScript Engine.
You also need to learn about Jquery- a small, fast and feature-rich JavaScript library. It makes the use of JavaScript on your webpage easier. It wraps many lines of JavaScript code required to accomplish a task into methods that can be called using a single line of code. Jquery simplifies HTML document traversal and manipulation, JavaScript event handling and animations.
Nowadays, many companies look for individuals with expertise in additional technologies for being more productive. For example, companies require you to know some frameworks which are pre-written codes by someone which you can link to your web project instead of writing your code, which saves time.
Additional skills required
Bootstrap
Bootstrap is an open-source HTML, CSS, and JavaScript framework for creating responsive, mobile first projects on the web. Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton at Twitter developed the Bootstrap. It is a set of functions defined inside CSS as well as a JavaScript library. Bootstrap makes it easier to layout pages without tables and pops up modal box. Bootstrap provides us with themes; it is designed to be responsive, gives us a layout with a grid so that we can avoid using tables, renders components such as pagination, buttons and modal, and provides good Visual Studio support.
Visual Studio provides IntelliSense for Bootstrap, which offers auto-completion of classes and downloads code snippet that creates complex Bootstrap structures easily. Bootstrap is only concerned with front-end development.
JavaScript frameworks
When you build a web page, you can either start from scratch by writing your code or use already existing ones. JavaScript frameworks are collections of JavaScript files that provide pre-existing JS code to build websites and web applications. They consequently reduce the time consumed for the development of a webpage. You can use frameworks with libraries like jquery to minimize the contents you have to develop from scratch. You can also use two frameworks together; Angular can be paired with Bootstrap where text handling is done by Angular and Bootstrap handles the look.
The popular frameworks asked in job requirements are Angular, Ember, ReactJS, Backbone, and Vue JS.
Version Control System-Git
Version Control Systems are tools that help you to keep a track of the modifications done to the source code over time. Git is the most popular version control system. It lets a developer revert to the earlier version of the code and review the changes made over time rather than manually erasing the changes done and fixing the errors.
Version control system is one of the most essential job skill requirements for a developer.
CSS Preprocessors
CSS is primary and limiting. For bigger and complex projects, it is required to perform the same tasks repetitively; for example: looking up at the hexadecimal color values. CSS preprocessors make the job of a developer uncomplicated and save time without having to write repetitive codes. Code written using the preprocessing language is converted to CSS to apply it on the webpage. It processes and formats your code before publishing it to the webpage.
Preprocessors help in writing reusable and maintainable codes. They have separate syntax but with similarities to the CSS syntax. SASS, LESS, and Stylus are the popular preprocessors which are in demand in job requirements.
Responsive Design
In the present days, people use different devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets to browse the internet. You would have noticed that the web pages adjust the looks according to the screen sizes. Responsive design enables to change the webpage layout, content and functionality to adapt to all the devices. Example: A bank website would have a different style, layout, and options on a desktop when compared to that on a smartphone.
CSS frameworks like Bootstrap have an in-built responsive design, therefore if you learn one you can master responsive design principles.
Testing and Debugging
Bugs are an actuality in codes. It would be helpful to know about testing and debugging as a majority of testing job vacancies are available.
Two of the testing methods are – Unit testing and Functionality testing. Unit testing is the process in which each segment of the code is tested to ensure that the desired functions of the webpage are possible when the code runs.
Functionality testing is the process of testing the functionality of your webpage and ensure that it does all the functions it was coded to do.
There are several testing and debugging tools to aid the process. Popular tools are Chrome Dev, Redux Dev, Mocha, and Jest.
Mastery in testing and debugging would help you to get a front end tester job rather than a developer, but it involves testing and correcting the code given by a developer.
Browser Developer Tools
The web pages you develop the interface to the web browsers. The modern browsers come with developer tools that let you regulate the looks and function of your websites. The browser developer tools consist of an element inspector and JavaScript console. The element inspector allows you to see and edit the HTML and CSS associated with the elements in your webpage. JavaScript console permits you to view errors which occurs when the browser runs your JavaScript code.
Knowing the core skills and some of the extra skills mentioned above will help you to have a successful career or get a job in front-end development domain. You need to be acquainted with the current trending skills to find an accurate job for yourself.
