Full-stack-developers. A new trend or a real need for companies?

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According to Adam Shapley, full-stack developers are in demand more than ever, because in companies require a variety of skills from IT staff. We, in turn, also notice that we are increasingly getting requests from our customers to search for full-stack developers.

If you are a developer, you can be either a front-end or a back-end specialist. At first, glance, focusing on certain skills makes sense, because you can imagine yourself in the market as an expert in one area. However, full development is rapidly gaining momentum, and full-stack developers are becoming very popular in some companies. Research Stack Overflow 2017 showed that this type of developer is not only the most popular but also the most popular.

Developers of a wide profile work in all layers of the software. They understand the principles and can work on both sides, although they do not always master all the subtleties as their highly specialized colleagues.

Of course, there are pros and cons of such work. Some argue that development is becoming more difficult every year. That’s why you need to have narrowly segmented developers.

The disadvantage of this argument is that the full-stack developer is not a lone wolf, but part of the team and he will have to rely on the experience of his colleagues. At the same time, it is necessary to have at least one specialist in the team ready to plunge into the details in order to get a quality product.

The demand for full-stack developers is related to the fact that the presence of one person with several skills, rather than several people with certain skills, is of real value for many organizations. In addition, there is a big time saving if you use a developer that can switch between levels and understand the whole process.

This, in turn, means that full-stack developers work better in the team, because they know and understand the tools that other team members use, and this makes the team more flexible. Thus, many companies are attracting such developers for Adjal development, so that eventually the rest of the team also expanded its expertise.

What skills should a full-stack developer have to have?

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Such developers should understand a number of tools, languages, and systems:

It is very important to understand HTML / CSS and JavaScript, and once you master these languages, you will need to master the back-end languages for database management, user authentication, and so on.

SQL and Java are in demand at the moment - or you can learn Node.js. Then you will need to understand the basics of databases and web repositories. So, select a database system (for example, MySQL) and one web server (for example, Apache), as well as the HTTP protocol and how to include REST in your HTTP calls.

To fully understand the “big picture” of the development work, you will also need to acquire skills in the architecture of web applications.

How do developers get experience in full-stack development?

There are many online communities and courses that will help you speed up the work with all mentioned technologies. For example, GitHub is an excellent resource.

Of course, only practice can take you to a new level. Create something yourself or find out from your colleagues whether you can help with small jobs that are beyond your usual zone of responsibility.

The full-stack developer is not just a demanded role in many organizations, but also a well-paid option. Understanding more technology is definitely an advantage for your career.

As it happens in practice:

We work with a number of large and medium-sized companies, and not always the number of years of experience in full-stack development is the criterion for choosing a candidate. So, for example, we had a search for a strong full-stack developer for a senior position for a well-known company, wanted a person with a large track record and a wealth of knowledge and experience. The search went for a long time, the client wanted to “see the market” as widely as possible before making a decision. After a few weeks of searching, we managed, on the recommendation of one of the candidates, to go to a young (in terms of experience) specialist, who at best could claim the role of jun in the team. Nevertheless, the young man was very well versed in terms of knowledge of technology, easily passed a technical interview with the head, and also showed a high level of motivation to work in this company, due to which he was still taken to the team, though not to the senior specialist grade. So, not only experience in steep companies but also knowledge of theory combined with transparent motivation can lead to successful employment.

Within the framework of this article, we outlined the way to the full-stack developer in general terms, while the question of the relevance of this direction remains. For our part, we feel the need for such specialists, while from the candidates we hear different points of view: some believe that it is better to be an expert in a certain area (front/back), while others are sure that the full-stack development is the future.

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