Full Stack Development What Does It Mean for Your Career Viewpoint careers advice blog

Full Stack Development What Does It Mean for Your Career Full stack developer roles are seeing a resurgence as organisations demand IT staff with a range of skills across the stack. If you are a developer, you may work either on the front or the back end of the stack. On the surface, focusing on a niche set of skills makes sense. You can present yourself to the market as an expert in one core area. However, full stack development is rapidly gaining pace as the must-have technical role for many organisations. Not only was full stack web developer the most popular developer type in the Stack Overflow 2017 Survey, it was also the most popular developer occupation in the 2016 survey too. Full stack developers work across all layers of software. They may not necessarily have to master everything required to work on the front and back end, but they can work on and understand both sides. As I discussed in a previous blog post, it is impossible to be a “digital expert” in today’s world of bleeding edge technology. There are pros and cons to full stack development. Some argue that development is far more complicated than it was a few years ago and experts are still required for each layer of the application. The flaw in this argument is that a full stack developer is not a lone wolf. They sit as part of a wider team and will need to rely on this team’s expertise as a product grows and becomes more complicated. However, it is critical to have at least one person with a functional understanding of all the distinct parts of your product and can connect its different tiers. This is because employing one person with multiple skills as opposed to multiple people with one core skill set presents real value for money to many organisations. There are also major time savings if you employ a developer who can switch between the front and back end and take control of the whole stack, rather than solely understand one section. This, in turn, means full stack developers work better across the team as they understand the tools other team members use and this also makes these cross-functional developers great additions to agile development teams. So, many organisations are employing full stack developers to expand and grow their digital assets, and many developers are expanding their skill sets to match this demand. How can developers gain full stack skills? To work across the full stack, developers must understand a range of tools, languages and systems. It’s vital to understand HTML/CSS and JavaScript and, once you have a grasp of these languages, you will need a back-end language to handle database operations, user authentication and so on. SQL and Java are both in demand in the current climate â€" or you could investigate Node.js, which is just a JavaScript environment, making it easy to pick up. Next, you will need to understand the basics of databases and web storage. So, pick a relational database system (such as MySQL) and one web server (such as Apache) as well as the HTTP protocol and how to incorporate REST into your HTTP calls. To fully understand the “big picture” of development work, you’ll also need to get to grips with web application architecture â€" and understand a version control system such as Git. How can developers get experience across the full stack? There are plenty of online communities and courses to get you up to speed with all the technologies just mentioned. For example, GitHub is a great resource. However, there is no substitute for doing actual development work across the stack. So, build something on your own and ask your development colleagues if you can help with small pieces of work that are outside of your usual comfort zone. Full stack development is not just an in-demand role across many organisations, it’s also a well-paid option. Understanding more technologies is certainly a sure-fire way to futureproof your career as the digital landscape continues to evolve. Want to be a top developer? The languages you’ll need may surprise you Eight emerging technology jobs that are going to explode this year Hybrid skills now needed in projects business change CV writing tips all IT contractors should know about Top 10 emerging coding trends you need to know about Six questions to ask yourself before making the jump into IT contracting Join our LinkedIn Group Join our LinkedIn Group to share your thoughts and stay up-to-date with the latest on business, employment and recruitment news in the IT industry. Join our Group