Is it really necessary to have design skills as a front-end developer?

Question

Career in IT

In general, I have been mastering Html, css and Javascript for half a year now. It seems that everything is working out and there is interest in this type of activity. Recently asked about job search. Made a resume, began to respond to vacancies. I cope with test tasks successfully, I even managed to go to several interviews. But as a result, no company has yet managed to get a job. At almost every interview, one way or another, there are questions about whether I have any design skills, whether I can draw something myself in Photoshop if necessary, etc. Also, in the vacancies themselves, there is often a requirement to have good taste or something like that, they write that they will have to work closely with designers.
And I can't understand. The vacancy is called "frontend developer". That is, a person should be, first of all, a kind of engineer, designer. Why does he need to know some subtleties of design? I'm interested in the purely technical side of the issue and I think that I'm not the only one who went to the developers. Does the front-ender really need to have some kind of background in design? Or have I just come across such "strange" employers? These are two huge areas. I would like to understand the development, but here they also ask for design.

Answer 1

Is it really necessary to have design skills as a front-end developer?

Knowledge of photoshop is a must, being an artist is clearly not. But if the company is not big, they are just trying to combine 2 professions. What can I do, nothing personal, business.
Not really. Do not confuse layout designer and fronten specialist. The designer, as a rule, does not understand how and what can be done. You must understand. Accordingly, you obviously should be involved in the creative part. In the process of developing the concept, you said that like "let's make cool svg nonsense, animated and interactive." You explain, the designer will make a vector, you rivet svg based on it, spice up js and voila - creativity in action.
Then either to layout designers for a penny or to a large company.
Yes, they are huge and separate, but they intersect, and this intersection must be mastered. As a designer, it would not hurt to understand html, css and what svg is in general terms. But not deep. On the floor bumps.