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Things to think about before becoming a contractor

Jen Miller on August 02, 2019

Hey Folks! Have you been an employee for a number of years watching IT contractors come and go? Or perhaps wondered about how to get started and...
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Ronan Connolly 🛠 •

This was a great read.
I am a contractor specialised in front end web development. Specifically Angular.
There is more than enough work out there for me, and I want to stay specialised. I do feel some pressure to go full stack with Java Spring, but as a contractor I think I should become a master of one, rather than a jack of all trades.

However, I would some day like to be fullstack JS, node on the backend and Angular on the front end. Since it's still the world of JS, the knowledge transfer is huge.

I'm just not a fan of trying to keep up to speed with two separate world's, or: JS and JVM/Java

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Jen Miller • • Edited

This was a great read.

thanks!

There is more than enough work out there for me,

I agree in that mind set. If there's a domain that's large enough and you can be specialized in it, I do feel (at least right now) that it will give a person the edge in contracting.

I started 'fullstack' work as RoR dev, but then went into Java only...eventually transiting into JS/Java. I do think it's becoming harder to be fullstack since the domains are so different....I became fullstack b/c I wanted front-end experience...but was primarily a Java dev.

If I started right now in today's ecosystem, I'd probably only do fullstack JS(maybe....).

For me, I'll personally try to hang on to the fullstack Java/JS as long as it makes sense from a career perspective -since there's such a demand for it - but also b/c I have so much Java experience which I enjoy and I don't want to give up.

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Ronan Connolly 🛠 • • Edited

I do think it's becoming harder to be fullstack since the domains are so different.

I believe for most people full stack is usually:

  • I'm pretty good on the front-end.
  • I can fix a bug on the back-end.

Or vice-versa.

I have met people who are really good at both, but they are rare.

Personally for the web development world I:

  • Work with it daily
  • Listen to podcasts
  • Read books & articles
  • Attend meetups & conferences
  • Work on OSS

I only have so much time, if I was to split the above list between the JS & JVM world I would inevitably be diluting my skills in one in order to grow the other.

And I want to have some sort of life outside of tech 😅

I do believe for some people they LOVE learning both stacks, but that just doesn't work for me. I guess you have to listen to yourself and go with what you enjoy!

fullstack Java/JS as long as it makes sense from a career perspective

From what I've seen the "Java Spring Boot + Angular" stack is HUGE in large corporations.
It definitely helps career-wise having Java + JS. But again, if you have enough opportunities then you may not need both.