I think the meme is perfect. In interviews anytime someone says they are a full stack developer I ask where their strengths are. If the tell me they are equally good at everything I assume that they aren't very good at any of it or at least dishonest. The tech stack is getting too big and complicated to be an expert at everything. Having the ability to learn is much more important than what you say you know.
Yea I totally agree with your points. I think I might steal that interview question of yours. Humility and self-awareness are really important in a career like ours that requires constantly reassessing what you think you know. In fact, many of my articles in the queue are all about accepting your weaknesses so you can learn. Thanks for the great thoughts. :)
I think titles are fairly worthless. I've gone from analyst to lead to programmer to engineer to consultant etc etc. What I do never really changes, I just try to learn stuff and use the best tools I can within the constraints I am given. You like to call yourself a full stack developer, if I asked you that question: "Where are your strengths"? Would you say you are equally good at everything? Or could you specify and say, "I am competent full stack dev with this specific tech stack". That is a completely honest and accurate statement. The only point I was making is that no one knows everything, whether just front or back. Everyone has their own slice of the technical pie, and that is OK. If you are a competent developer then you can effectively learn anything if you need to, that's what matters. Not what you know but what you can learn, which is why I feel being humble about what you do know is so critical. Most devs I have ever interacted with that sell themselves as full stack, are more just full of themselves. (to be clear that isn't an accusation)
That was satire, the next sentence was "I think titles are fairly worthless". I was trying to make a point titles are arbitrary and have less to do with what you do and more with who you do it for.
I think the meme is perfect. In interviews anytime someone says they are a full stack developer I ask where their strengths are. If the tell me they are equally good at everything I assume that they aren't very good at any of it or at least dishonest. The tech stack is getting too big and complicated to be an expert at everything. Having the ability to learn is much more important than what you say you know.
Yea I totally agree with your points. I think I might steal that interview question of yours. Humility and self-awareness are really important in a career like ours that requires constantly reassessing what you think you know. In fact, many of my articles in the queue are all about accepting your weaknesses so you can learn. Thanks for the great thoughts. :)
What do you call each of these developers...
Sure, the term "full stack" is not accurate but what name is? Is "Software Engineer" or "Software Developer" any less ambiguous?
Those titles translate to:
I think titles are fairly worthless. I've gone from analyst to lead to programmer to engineer to consultant etc etc. What I do never really changes, I just try to learn stuff and use the best tools I can within the constraints I am given. You like to call yourself a full stack developer, if I asked you that question: "Where are your strengths"? Would you say you are equally good at everything? Or could you specify and say, "I am competent full stack dev with this specific tech stack". That is a completely honest and accurate statement. The only point I was making is that no one knows everything, whether just front or back. Everyone has their own slice of the technical pie, and that is OK. If you are a competent developer then you can effectively learn anything if you need to, that's what matters. Not what you know but what you can learn, which is why I feel being humble about what you do know is so critical. Most devs I have ever interacted with that sell themselves as full stack, are more just full of themselves. (to be clear that isn't an accusation)
"Those titles translate to:
Developer
Programmer
Engineer
Code Monkey"
I don't understand your reasoning here. What makes a back-end dev a "developer" vs a front-end dev a "programmer"? Were you being facetious?
That was satire, the next sentence was "I think titles are fairly worthless". I was trying to make a point titles are arbitrary and have less to do with what you do and more with who you do it for.
Ok :) thanks for clarifying
Yes, humility and a willingness to fail is what I’m always writing about. A+ response. :)