Full-Stack Developer is a Myth
Few months back in one of my meetup — meetup.com/jslovers , one of the developer put question on the table for the discussion.
“Is full stack is actually worth for developers?”
“Is there any future for full stack developers?”
“Does it add to the value of career, skills etc?”
“NO” — was the majority of developers answered. There is nothing like Full stack developer especially when you are a in a full time job. Every developer was having its his/her own view and reason behind the “NO”.
1. Jack of all trades?
“Jack of all trades, master of none”
Be the specialist in one tech rather than learner of everything.
In tech industry you need to be SME — Subject matter expert in one particular tech rather than just hoping from one to another. It is not a rule but if you are a good developer you want to focus on one core skill, you would be more likely to build your career around core skill set. No matter how hard you try, how much you struggle you can’t be the master of each and every skill. We should respect that the day has just 24 hours — limited time left for your own learning.
2. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish?
Everyday 100 of new features, frameworks, libraries are coming in tech. Either it is front-end or back-end you need to learn and learn new and latest things to keep yourself up to date but when you are “Full Stack” developer you need to know and learn everything of every tech. Practically which is hard to do and at the end you will end up just bits of everything and in race of learning of everything you are basically not learning anything.
3. There is difference between “Information” and “Knowledge”
It is good to have information about other domain/tech skills. As I am a UI Developer it is good if I know how I am going to get data on my page, how the POST/GET works at server, what are the limitations when we are using some particular backend language “BUT” it is not necessary for me to have all knowledge of everything at backend. My prime job is to make sure the front-end works perfectly and if I move my focus from that for sure I am going to compromise quality
4. Risk is high
When only 1 person doing Front-end as well as back-end the risk of the project is very high. The dependency is 100% on that one person. If he went on long vacation the project will be dead. So , be smart when planning the project with full stack developers. How much risk are we ready to take?
5. Will you challenge yourself?
One of the issue when you know all about both worlds — front and back-end is you always look for safe solutions. You never going to throw yourself in challenging situations especially when you are in a project where pressure of meeting deadlines is lot. It will limit your learning a lot.
Do share your thoughts around this. If you are a Full stack developer I would love to know is these points valid? What challenges you face and how you overcome it? How your traditional day at work looks like?
