When people say front-end developer, what they usually mean is someone who writes HTML and CSS to create beautiful interfaces that adapt to any device - adding sprinkles of JavaScript here and there to initialize a slideshow or bind a few event handlers to enrich interaction. A front-end application, especially one based on a framework, is seen as something that back-end developers do.
This is why you've never been sure where you belong and what you're supposed to call yourself. You've heard of the term JavaScript ninja, but you aren't really a mercenary in 15th-century Japan, and you don't even like violence. Could this even be an actual job requirement?
But to put martial arts aside for a while, let's talk about your experience with JavaScript. First things first - you might prefer the name ECMAScript because that's the standardized specification. You actively follow the ES.Next proposals and new features and love playing with them. As not all features are universally supported, you use a transpiler such as Babel to help out with that. You might have also played around with dialects such as TypeScript and CoffeeScript, and enjoy debating which of the options makes most sense for long-term code stability.
You've experimented with various front-end frameworks, but have a preference for one of the more popular ones, such as AngularJS or React. You'll tell us which one you prefer in which situation, and explain why some of the choices we've made so far aren't optimal. You can also tell us all about the pros and cons of sticking to AngularJS 1 vs. going with Angular 4 and being all bleeding-edge and hip.
You love strict coding standards, because they help make code consistent and easy to read, and even help out with some weird language issues (JS semicolon usage, anyone?) - but you're sort of weirded out that the JavaScript community prefers 2-space indentation. Where did that convention come from? Nevertheless, you stick to it because everybody else seems to.
Speaking of the JavaScript community, you're thrilled that it's so vibrant and enthusiastic, and love being a part of it and contributing when you have the time. It's a bit troublesome when you're trying to find a module to solve a specific issue, and you're not sure which one of the various mkdirp modules is just right for you - and you're also afraid to do an npm update because you have no idea what kind of stuff is going to break - but deep down you appreciate the minimalistic approach and the freedom of choice and modularity that this gives you. You are very excited about the future of JavaScript and also play with Node.js on the server-side - because it's still just JavaScript, right?
If this is more or less you, we'd love to meet you so you can tell us about the cool stuff you've worked on, and what kind of stuff you'd like to be working on in the future. We'll offer you room to grow as a software engineer, work on exciting projects, a friendly team that likes to have a lot of fun, a competitive salary and a relaxed working environment, as well as an awesome office with fresh fruit every day, various types of coffee (depending on how "hipster" you are), table football, table tennis, darts, Nintendo Wii, lazy bags, etc. Oh, you can also bring your furry friend along for work, as our office is pet-friendly.
If you're interested in talking with us, you can upload your CV via the apply button, and we'll get in touch as soon as we receive it.