I can't tell you how many resumes I've read and interviews I've performed in the name of finding a quality SharePoint developer. After seeing my customer painstakingly struggle thru this same process, I finally decided to put together a couple short blurbs to cover what it is to be a SharePoint designer and a SharePoint developer.
I lump administration and design/customization together because I honestly believe you can't have one without the other -- at least to some extent -- but I'm obviously looking more for the latter than the former. Let me just say that, if I was building up a team to build SharePoint solutions, I'd want at least one of each of these types. Obviously, you'll want someone more focused on administration, if you're also doing operations work, but I'm more focused on building solutions than hostings.
SharePoint Administrator/Designer
Experienced SharePoint administrator with a strong emphasis on customization. Extensive experience with SharePoint Designer and InfoPath are a must, as is a moderate ability to create customized web parts using a mixture of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and XSL (i.e. using a Data View Web Part). Should at least have an understanding of:
- IIS/SharePoint troubleshooting (i.e. event and ULS logs)
- How to customize branding
- SharePoint Designer workflows
- InfoPath forms
- Applicability and use of content types
- SharePoint web service interfaces
- Feature deployment
- Standard features (i.e. search/indexing, content management, and Shared Service Providers (SSPs))
- Enterprise features (i.e. Forms Server, Excel Calculation Services, and Business Data Catalog (BDC))
- Reporting and business intelligence (BI)
- Security concerns and audience targeting
Experience with PowerShell and ASP.NET development are a huge plus.
SharePoint Developer
Strong ASP.NET (C#) developer with experience building and deploying fully-automated SharePoint solutions. Must have an understanding of at least:
- Standard ASP.NET (including membership providers and their applicability to SharePoint)
- SharePoint object model and web service interfaces
- SharePoint feature packaging and deployment
- Web parts and web part connections
- SharePoint branding components
- Applicability and use of content types
- SharePoint-hosted workflows
- Standard features (i.e. search/indexing, content management, and Shared Service Providers (SSPs))
- Enterprise features (i.e. Forms Server, Excel Calculation Services, and Business Data Catalog (BDC))
- Reporting and business intelligence (BI)
Above all, developers are expected to "live" in Visual Studio, yet be ablet o identify when SharePoint Designer and/or InfoPath would be more pragmatic -- and follow through with such a solution.
Senior developers and software architects must have broad, hands-on experience across the entire software development lifecycle with formal engineering processes. Experience with defining and documenting an applicable taxonomy and governance plan is a must.
If you're interested in building SharePoint solutions, I highly recommend you find where you fit within these two descriptions. There's plenty of room to grow, but they cover the foundations I -- and many others -- look for when building out SharePoint teams.
Good luck and happy job hunting!