Do you actually know jquery?

Originally Posted by Salathe I've even had to introduce the concept of "JavaScript" to people before when they thought "jQuery" was a language in its own right.

The buzzwords really make me laugh. Or people who think that AJAX is it's own language (it's not).

Back on topic, it's in your best interest to learn JavaScript. Having to use plugins all the time, it really changes how you take on a project. If you understand what you'd need to do by writing it yourself, you'll most likely save time versus having to google around for a plugin. Plus, the plugin might not do exactly what you'd need to do, or it might not do what you want effectively, so that can hurt your project as well.

As someone who primarily does frontend work, JavaScript is extremely important to know, as it's one of the "big three" (HTML, CSS, JavaScript -- a.k.a. structure, visual, interaction) layers of a website.