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TL;DR
The title Full stack developer has really nothing to do with you as a develope...
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You're really going overboard on the overthinking bit if you insist to stretch a fairly common meaning.
A stack is simply a set of layers forming an application. A full stack involves all the layers between and user and the most backedish thing you have.
There's really no implication that full stack means all the possible technologies. A stack be longer or shorter and can even be comprised of a single language even if it spans multiple platforms (eg JavaScript via nodejs + JavaScript via browser).
Rather, the expression "a company's stack" is meaningless as a list of technologies unless they are stacked all of them on top of each other in every project.
My point is to understand which stack we are talking about. By just saying ‘full stack’, which information are you giving to the reader?
That you are talking about all the parts of a stack. That you can do, on a general level, frontend and backed and databases.
As an analogy, it's like saying you know OOP. You probably know it hands-on in a language or two but it doesn't speak as to a particular set of technologies.
But you're talking about "Full Stack" as every technology ever and that's not accurate. When you talk about a FULL STACK (don't care if Junior, Senior, or whatever), you're talking about someone who manages at least one programming stack. For example, a MEAN Full Stack developer is someone who knows the FULL MEAN STACK (Mongo, Express, Angular, Node), or a LAMP Full Stack Developer is someone who knows the full LAMP STACK (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Php).
You have a point: if you are proficient in one stack, then why don’t you specify it?
Specify it for tutorials - yes.
Specify it for your job title... I'd argue no.
I'm a full-stack developer. On my CV, in the description, I'll outline WHICH stack. But not in the title. "Fullstack developer" is still a valid title at any level. Most company's will only use 1 stack type, so having you specify your stack in your title would be unnecessarily convoluted.
Yeah, that's important! You should specify what stack you've been working on
Pancake stack developer!
Love it! 🥞
A Full Stack developer does not have to know every technology expected by the client, in the same sense that a Frontend developer don't know every frontend technology.
I think job title should not be limit by the technology one knows. And the client should not presume some tech stack from one's job title without looking into the detailed by interview.
At the company I am working for, when they want to hire someone, they would say 'we want a (a job title) who knows (a list of technology).
For the job title, in case of Full Stack web developer, it is meant to set an expectation that the candidate should be capable of building the whole web app alone by some way. And the technology list section is meant to give the specific requirement for the how.
TL;DR
I thought the term 'full stack' stands for who is able to develop applications with front end and back end, example. One who is capable to create an API with some webservice and use this API (in an web context) showing the information in a front end application.
There are many stacks out there, here you are talking just about a general web stack.
With the term ‘full stack’, how could I be able to know which stack are we talking about?
Usually companies asking for "full stack" developers want you to be able to deal with problems no matter what part of the stack they sit on. Lately it's common to see that apart from frontend / backend, you have extra ones like mobile, Databases, devops or even QA. However, I don't think that anyone will ever expect a candidate to know everything about all these different stacks.
At the end of the day it depends on what you're looking for. If you want to be able to be involved in designing systems, integrating new tech in your system and be involved in a variety of stuff then full stack is for you.
I've also seen developers in some companies that know their way around the whole stack and are usually the ones that everyone really values their opinion, no matter how much of generalists they are considered to be.
How does "software engineer" not have the same problems as "full stack developer?"
As a software engineer, you can think in an abstract way. You can then apply that logic to any technology or language, IMHO
I believe that you should either list yourself as the "tech" developer that you are, or specify the specific stack you are proficient in. "Full Stack" is more vague than "Full Stack React/Node Developer". But that might also suggest you aren't interested in learning more. So "Software Engineer" might be most appropriate if you have a growth mindset.
It's interesting to notice that the use of the term "Full Stack Developer" was hardly ever used prior to the release of node.js. As the adoption of node.js increased so did the use of the term "Full Stack Developer". So for me "Full Stack Developer" is nothing more than slang for someone who develops with node.js (Deno).
I think so but I'm glad to hear a different opinion! I think also that there are different stack layers outside of the web field: system languages and technologies, data and so on.
This, in my head, opens to a whole new interpretation of the meaning of "full stack"
All around developer sounds better? It just means that you can dirty your hands in more than a single area of development, probably master of none, but often small/medium companies can't afford a frontend, back end, DBA, flavor-of-the-month-ninja-guru and so on. I dont get the problem, frontend developer is as presumptuous as full stack, since it's a broad and vague term , as well as 99% of the title used, that's why curricula, interviews and resume exists
I think “full stack” makes more sense as a description of a job than a description of a developer. We recently posted three job openings: “back end”, “front end”, and “full stack”, the latter meaning “someone who is comfortable with and satisfied being flexible”.
When reading resumes for candidates for those positions, I really didn’t care about what title they used for themselves. Did you have the experience I was looking for? Yes? Interview!
I guess then my opinion is that if you’re looking for a title to describe yourself... use whatever you want. Just make sure you have more detail somewhere describing what you can and want to do.
I honestly thing the real title should be “Full stack Integrator” as most of the time they are simply integrating (applying small code) to integrate various components in different places. Quite similar to Engineers who apply science principles to do a job, they use science does not make them scientist.
Look for one stack and stick to it.(mern, mean, mevn, lamp etc), build lots of projects with it, be open to learning and you could say you are a fullstack developer. No one knows it all in tech, even as a frontend dev or backend dev you still learning, so it's all about the goal you have in mind. Do what works for you.
Bike shed developer.
Stop telling me what to do. Stop telling me how I'm doing everything wrong.
Dev related articles really need to stop with these titles.
Stop reading them 🙆♂️
Stopped a long time ago, Francesco
Still, here we are 🙆♂️
I agree no one can master everything, all people that mention full stack they are usually follow the "T" shape
Totally agree 🙆♂️
Call it Rainbow developer
There are cases where this is not a bad thing, most startups don’t know their stack yet so it’s ok to ask for a “full stack”, specifying the actual set of technologies required for that position 🙆♂️