As a frontend developer, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the dizzying number of frameworks and libraries available. We work towards improving o...
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As a still learning front-end dev I really enjoyed this post. I especially enjoyed some of the example paths you gave, since I personally haven't given enough thought to what position I would want in five years (I may be leaning towards full-stack). But they were all great to giving a good jumping-off point for what to explore next!
Full stack and anything not-front end is where the work gets fun for me. The languages, technology, documentation, and overall experience is better -- if you are academic in your work the various non-prototypical languages are enlightening.
Front end work is like icing on a cake. Some like the sugar, but most people scrape it off and don't care. Full stack and architecture roles care about the cake ingredients, the oven, who is cooking. Front end is all about slathering everyone else's work with some bright sugar coating.
I like your analogy.
Personally I am a front-end fanboy; I think this is partly because of my design background.
Glad you found it helpful Max!
Depends what you goal is.
As you wrote, you could get some special front-end skills or you could go into other directions.
I always try the abstraction ladder.
First you learn some tech and sell yourself as pro in that tech, for example JavaScript or Angular or Node.js.
Then you do some work and learn that people want front-end or back-end pros, so you stop selling yourself as JS or React dev and start to advertise your services as front- or back-end development.
Now you did some work as a front-end developer with different tech stacks and find that people pay more for mobile than for desktop, so you start to focus more on mobile and sell yourself as mobile developer.
Point is, every of these steps makes you more valuable AND people stop asking too much questions about the tech you use. Maybe you use Xamarin or Ionic to get your clients apps done and into the stores, but nobody really cares anymore, they just pay you for the app.
The trick is to find out what the next step is :D
When I wrote this article I knew a lot less than what I do now (so I apologize for this being a repost from my blog). Now I am personally very much focused on getting really good at Node as there is quite a demand for Node developers in my country.
I very much approached my career in the same way you describe here: I learned what was hot at the time and then I try and apply it to a project for the experience.
I also think that these days, we are spoiled for choice when it comes to how we solve a problem - in fact I believe that the tech shouldn't even matter. Some employers might have very specific requirements but when it comes down to it, no one but you and your team has a stake in what it's built on.
As a Senior Front End Developer I must say it's really common to see People that Just learn one framework and some html/css. In the path of being pure front end/ui engineer it's really important to know the basics as you said, that Will set you free, giving you the chance to switch frameworks according to client's needs. Just remember you must ask yourself wich is the right framework for this specific "problem", it's well supported and it has a nice documentation?
You're right in terms of using the right tool for the right problem, and unfortunately you can't do that when you only know a single framework. But with that said, if I look at the industry in my country, there is often a need for guys that know single frameworks or libraries really well as apposed to being a jack of all trades.
I should say that React Native is a great option as an app framework.
Definitely!
Thanks 👍 for your article, i am a front end developer too and I support your article 💯