Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

One way to make sure you're current in your developer skills is to surf the job sites.  I'm very happy with my current position but I know I need to keep my skills current and marketable so every once in a while I surf the job boards and see what technologies are in hot demand.  If I'm unfamiliar with a skill or technology, I make an effort to get on it.

Usually doing this results in no shockers but I just found a recent exception.  One local company is seeking a Principal Software Engineer with strong C# experience in .NET 1.1 and 2.0.  Then the ad goes on to state, "Please Note: ASP.NET experience not considered".  What?!?  How can this be?  An ASP.NET developer doesn't need to know .NET code?

Now I can maybe see someone looking for a C# developer not considering Classic ASP experience as relevant, but ASP.NET?  If you are on the level to be considered for a Principal Software Engineer, the font-end interface of your development projects shouldn't matter.  That's the beauty of OO and multi-tiered programming.  A DAL and BAL written in C# should be able to be plugged in to a Windows form app or Web form app with little or no changes.  In today's .NET world a Windows form developer and Web form developer need the same C# skills because it's all the same code base, same objects, same everything until you get to the UI.  I've switched back and forth from Web and Windows forms development and I prefer the stateless challenges of Web form development but never considered either type of app less demanding of coding skills.

Does anyone else think different?  I can't even come up with a remotely feasible argument why ASP.NET experience should be discounted for a senior level C# coder position.

Published Thursday, March 27, 2008 8:54 PM by justinsaraceno
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Comments

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:48 PM by aa

Must be a stupid company/HR/hiring manager.

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:54 PM by Dave

Sounds like they're going to be hiring a Mort!

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Friday, March 28, 2008 2:01 AM by SergeyS

>>> Does anyone else think different?  I can't even come up with a remotely feasible argument why ASP.NET experience should be discounted for a senior level C# coder position.<<<

What if they code for CNC machinery? "Stateless challenges of Web form development" can't help much here.

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Friday, March 28, 2008 4:09 AM by Nick

Perhaps they just mean you don't need any experience when it comes to web applications, as in XHTML/CSS/Javascript/aspx and such.

If you purely focus on Windows applications it might be useful to remind people that experience with just C# is enough.

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Friday, March 28, 2008 6:59 AM by Dave Davis

Since .Net 2.0 it has been easy to create ASP.Net web sites with little to no code.  You can use a data adapter to connect directly to database and then use the adapter to populate a data control.  Many people have designed successful web sites using this model.  This type of developers may not have the experience needed to utilize industry design patterns.  If they have been utilizing this model for a while then the CS skills maybe a little rusty.  

When you write a BAL and DAL you are not utilizing ASP.Net you are utilizing C# skills.  So if you want the job emphasis your BAL and DAL design skills, downplay your UI skills, and don’t call yourself an ASP.Net developer. Call yourself a Software Engineer.  The company seems to be looking for a backend developer so demonstrate how you qualify.  Any good company should test your knowledge.  That is when I usually determine if the people in the company know what they are doing.

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Friday, March 28, 2008 8:25 AM by justinsaraceno

You're exactly correct Dave, BAL and DAL development is software engineering and the UI where those are implemented shouldn't matter.  But if the company is looking for such a senior level developer, how could they even think someone at that level is all about drag-and-drop?  Maybe I haven't spent enough time with the people in HR who have to sift through resumes :)

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Friday, March 28, 2008 9:18 AM by brady gaster

My current job feels the same way.

A lot of people who convert from ASP to ASP.Net convert not their skill-set but their code. They keep doing ASP code, but just do it in C# or VB.Net. Truth be told, most of them fail to grasp the concept of the framework altogether and instead. My employer has interviewed countless people who claim to have ".Net experience" only to learn during an interview that the candidate knows how to drag and drop controls onto web forms and then to write CRAP code to tie it all together.

In a sense, ASP.Net developers have given .Net developers a bad name through this perpetual habit, and Microsoft has made it even worse by pandering to the laziest and sloppiest of these developers with the introduction of less-than-perfect implementations (WHAT IS IT WITH THE PARTIAL KEYWORD?) and by throwing bones to familiar and arcane syntax (INTRODUCTION OF "var" TO C#!!!!!).

The truth is this - that ASP.Net is a tool anyone can learn, few can understand, and even fewer implement properly. The fact that my - and your potential - employer is making sweeping statements about this skill-set not being considered is a GOOD thing, for it will allow those who do understand the framework to shine and those who don't to work harder or continue to swim in the shallow waters.

I thought I understood .Net, and then I started delving into other areas - Winforms, XNA, lower-level programming methods, DI, CI, WPF, and the like - and quickly learned that I had more to learn. Thank goodness for ASP.Net MVC and the hype surrounding it, for the introduction will FINALLY bring some of the "chumps" up to speed with how things should be done - testing, separation, and so on. The shame is in that these folks had to wait for MS to build it for them.

Sorry for being harsh, but we should have seen this coming.

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Friday, March 28, 2008 12:22 PM by Dwain

Your post indicates that the company is looking for:

..."seeking a Principal Software Engineer with strong C# experience in .NET 1.1 and 2.0.  Then the ad goes on to state, "Please Note: ASP.NET experience not considered".

All this mentions is C# experience. Not all C# development involves ASP.Net. I've got plenty of winforms and windows services projects here that have nothing to do with ASP.Net. From what you've posted they didn't say they're looking for an ASP.Net developer with no previous ASP.Net experience, they're looking for a C# developer with experience in the 1.1/2.0 frameworks but ASP.Net experience isn't required.

This may be hard to believe, but not all .Net development involves ASP.Net.

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Saturday, March 29, 2008 2:43 PM by Denis the SQL Menace

I agree with Dwain

What if the ad said Java programmer wanted no JSP needed? Would anybody think this is strange? Not me

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Sunday, March 30, 2008 11:17 AM by justinsaraceno

Dwain/Dennis,

I think you're missing the context of the ad.  I totally understand not all .NET development involves ASP.NET.  What the employer is stating is they are looking for a C# developer but any ASP.NET experience you may have does not count as development experience for this position.  My argument is if you are applying for a senior-level developer position, your ASP.NET experience should be relevant because advanced ASP.NET (like that done by a senior-level developer) should count because the UI where your code is implemented is not the whole picture of your developer skills.  Developer skills go deeper than some drag-and-drop controls as Brady Gaster pointed out above.  I agree with what some of Brady is saying where ASP.NET can be seen as drag-and-drop applications but enterprise-class, MSF-based, true multi-tiered applications require some serious .NET developer capability.  If you are in the deep-end of advanced .NET code, who cares if it ends up implemented in a webform, winform, smart client, WPF, etc application?  It's like saying, "I want to hire an advanced mathematician who has 5 years of experience for an English company but any mathematical work you've done in Spanish doesn't count as experience".  Advanced math is math in any language, advanced .NET class development is advanced .NET development in any implementation.

-Justin

# re: Help Wanted: ASP.NET Experience Not Considered

Tuesday, April 01, 2008 8:28 AM by Mischa Kroon

Backend developer, doing webservices / Business logic / Expert system / Rule engine / DBA'ing

Wouldn't necessarily need web skillz.

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