Rampidbyter Rampid byter: A byte of my .Net developing life.

When I became the senior developer with my current company with it came some added unexpected responsibilities. I instantly became the main technical interviewer for the programming department. I became the bearer of the responsibility for weeding through those deserving few who would bless our department, and more importantly our code with their presence.

It wasn’t into my third or fourth interview where I’ve started to notice a very unsettling trend. Every single developer we brought in listed AJAX not once, but many times throughout their resumes. In addition to being listed within the skills section nearly every project listed AJAX among the many accomplishments of a project. The problem is that the entire experience and exposure to AJAX consisted simply of using an ASP.Net UpdatePanel.

ASP.Net UpdatePanel’s do not mean you’re accomplished at AJAX. It simply means you can drag-and-drop a control onto a Web Form. Congratulations you’ve just accomplished something any first year programmer can do. The saddest part is the people I’ve been interviewing lately have more than 10 years of development experience and nearly all listed their expertise as expert on the .Net platform. Every single one of them couldn’t answer a single question related XMLHttpRequest, jQuery AJAX calls, consuming a JSON web service, or had any idea what an PageRequestManager is.

UpdatePanel does not mean you’re an expert at AJAX. Updating a page without a full-page post back does quality as an AJAX behavior, but does not make you an expert on AJAX. None of these AJAX experts have ever worked with jQuery, and only one has ever touched the AJAXToolkit. It’s seriously starting to get to me. It’s like putting down that you’re a NASCAR driver when all you’ve done is driven a go-cart around a track at an amusement park.