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Discussion on: How much does your job dictate what new tools you learn vs self-direction?

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Hieu Nguyen

What my company wants:

The Microsoft band wagon is a long one. The whole company uses C# with .Net for the backend and Angular for the front end. Databases uses SQL with SQL Server management studio(microsoft), Visual Studio Enterprise(Microsoft, but it is actually really good), Azure DevOps(Microsoft), the list goes on...

What I want:
I ❤️ Javascript and believe that if your front end code base is primarily Javascript and you are trying to avoid a gigantic code base, then it only makes sense to write your backend in JS (Nodes JS and Express JS). However, most of the applications I deal with at work are enterprise applications(not to say that Node and Express can't handle this workload, I know there are plenty of successful companies who use variations of the MERN stack) and are heavily coupled with existing systems that are written in C# and .NET

However, it pisses me off when I have to prototype a new product or app quickly, I have to use their stack (C#, Angular, .Net, SQL). Do you know how long it takes? ....A day up to a week depending on the complexity.

I understand where they are coming from, most of their developers are fluent with .NET and Angular, and they want to eliminate any barrier that might interfere with productivity, such as a new framework or language. But do you know how much time we could save if you let me write it with a simple express backend and React for the front end? (managers: ...ignore...)

Over the past couple years, I have taken my frustration out my learning as many JS libraries and tools as possible and building as many apps as possible. When I am done with them, I list them in my resume.

During an interview:
interviewer: What did you use?
Me: MERN
interviewer: How about this one?
Me: MERN.