- So, this is video three of a three-part video series
that I've done on web developers.
So, if you haven't seen the last two videos,
check out part one, up here.
Where I talked about the role of a front-end developer.
And also after that, check out part two,
again the link's up there
where I talked about the role of a back-end developer.
But in this video,
I wanna talk about,
Part three which is this video.
I wanna talk about the third type of web developer,
and also get through the pros and cons of all three
and hopefully end up with a recommendation
or give you some ideas at least
on which area you should specialise in.
So, let's get started.
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(upbeat music)
Welcome back.
My name is Tim Buchalka
with another programming tip of the day.
Let's get stuck into this
and talk about the third type of web developer.
Again as a recap, first type is the front-end developer,
second type is the back-end developer.
Third type?
The full-stack web developer.
Now the full-stack web developer
basically knows the front-end and back-end,
and they know that really well enough
to be able to actually code solutions
for both the front-end and back-end.
Now most web developers probably know
front-end or back-end really well
if you've already been doing web developing for a while
but have general knowledge of the other side,
if that makes sense.
And you need some basic information on each side anyway
to be able to code either the front-end or the back-end.
So, for example, a back-end developer needs to know
what a front-end developer effectively needs access to,
so what information from the database or whatever,
and the front-end developer typically needs to know
how to access that information from the back-end.
Now the full-stack web developer,
well, they know both sides well enough
to engineer solutions.
It's a difficult thing to get into,
and obviously to get to the stage
of being a full-stack web developer,
you need to go through the process
of being a front-end developer and also a back-end developer
because, in fact, that's what you're doing,
you're engineering solutions
and you're knowing both areas pretty well.
So, if you're starting out,
what area do you feel like you should focus on?
That would be a question you're probably asking yourself.
Well, front-end development, if this helps,
is probably easier to get started with
and still pays pretty well.
Now a back-end developer is harder to do
well within my experience but pays better typically
than what a front-end developer position would pay.
Now the full-stack web developer pays really well,
more than both front-end and back-end
if you truly are like a full-stack developer
and not just a jack of all trade.
So, in other words, if you're actually a web developer
who knows a bit of a back-end and a bit of the front-end,
and you're claiming you're a full-stack web developer,
well, that's probably not really a full-stack web developer.
That's just someone who knows a little bit of information
about both, and you probably will not get the type
of position you're looking for.
So, full-stack web developer really is someone
who knows the technology really well
both at the front-end and back-end.
And they are the type of people who've built themselves up,
learnt their trades, so to speak, and specialise in that.
So they're the ones who'll be paid really well,
so keep that in mind.
So basically, in terms of full-stack web development,
for solo developers,
that's typically an area that they can get started in,
so if you're out there and you know,
maybe you've got like one or two years experience,
or even just starting out for the first time,
it's not uncommon when you start your first job
to be thrust into the role of a full-stack web developer.
You know, as a typical example, you might be,
you might get a job at a very small business
or take on a freelance opportunity,
and they haven't got an IT department,
and they want you to engineer a solution.
So basically you'll be thrust into the role
of both a basic and full-stack developer
'cause you'll need to understand
and engineer a solution and do both the front-end
and the back-end,
but on a smaller scale than setting up
perhaps a large project.
So basically that's a good area to start out with,
and you'll learn the basics
and be able to build yourself up from there,
but then after that,
because you've been through both the front-end
and back-end, you may or may not decide
to specialise in front-end or back-end,
so given the range of technology,
it's hard to actually know everything
in terms of a full-stack web developer,
so if you're wanting to become that, you know,
full-stack web developer
'cause you know that it pays really well,
there's a lot of things to learn and continue learning
and that's because things change a lot over time
and obviously, the full-stack developer might be,
you know, might know HTML, CSS and JavaScript as an example,
and perhaps in the back-end,
you've only engineered one solution in the past,
and you know, perhaps you've decided to specialise
using Java on the back-end,
and maybe a specific framework
like perhaps the Spring Framework.
So that's basically one area of the back-end
that your specialised in
but as you'll probably find when you
start getting out there in the real world.
there's lots of different tools in the back-end,
you know we've got Node.js for example,
C# there's lots of other solutions for the back-end
so a full stack web developer by it's very nature
is still gonna be someone who doesn't know everything
about every framework or every technology
because there is just to many to master.
So you'll still need to make a decision as to where
you gonna specialise knowing
that it's a periarticular framework
that you can specialise on initially
but keeping in mind that as your experience grows,
you'll find moving to another framework
it's really just a matter of learning the in's
and out's of a specific framework
and it will actually make a lot more sense
as you move forward.
so you actually, because you got the basic information
about the back-end process
when you move to another framework, it becomes easier
because you know a lot of that framework
is gonna be very similar there's basic functionality
that exists in all framework
so you just really need to learn the syntax
and the framework, the API calls et cetera,
to basically engineer that solution.
All right so that's full-stack web developer.
So let's talk a little bit in general about the pros
and the cons, well they all pay pretty well
so keep that in mind that as a web developer,
the pays pretty well whether you are a front-end,
back-end or full-stack web developer.
The full-stack probably you figured out now
would take the longest to get up to speed with
and probably does pay the best
depending on if you truly are, as I mentioned a expert
or you know if you just someone who's a jack of all trades
and knows a bit of both then you probably
not going to be getting that really high level pay
that a true expert is gonna get
but that's probably quite reason to expect anyway
that an expert is gonna get paid a lot more.
The front-end I think I mentioned before
is probably the easiest to get started with.
Probably in general and I'm generalising a lot here,
it is the least paid
or the smallest amount of money will be paid
to a front-end developer but still pays very well
and I know lots of people who've specialised
and spent their career as front-end developers
and have done really well.
So don't think that I'm sort of looking down on front-end
or saying not to specialise in that
because that's certainly not the case.
And back-end developers sits somewhere
between the front-end developer pay
and the full stack web developer.
So with that said now what do you think you should focus on?
Or what am I suggesting you should focus on?
Well many devs when you starting out in a career
and this certainly happened to me.
You tend to fall into a specific area,
so you don't get to choose,
you don't sort of go into your first job saying
I'm going to be a front-end developer for arguments sake,
I mean it can happen.
My suggestion is to try out the front-end
and the back-end and get a feel for them.
Get a feel for how you feel about them
and see which ones you like the best.
I mean it's weird but for me I'm a full stack web developer
and I started out that way
'cause I fell into that years ago
when I was engineering solutions as a solo developer
and I needed to know the front end
and the back end.
So that's how I started out being a full stack developer
and because I really enjoyed the technology
and understanding new technology,
I was continually learning new things,
new skills for me that was great,
that was perfect and I like engineering solutions,
I like working on the front-end and the back-end
but given a preference for me,
my preference is definitely the back end.
So I actually liked the back-end web development a lot more
than the front-end but again that's where I started out
and I fell into that.
So from your perspective you will need to make a decision
as to which one you enjoy the most
and which one you think you gonna be the best at
and you won't really know that of course
until you get started and actually start trying to get out.
So the thing here is I don't want you to think
that you have to move towards the goal
of being a full stack web developer,
some people might look at that
and go well that pays the most
and ya I'm going to go for that.
You don't need to do that and it's not for everyone
because it's going to be, gonna take a lot of work for you
to get up to the level for you to truly be an expert.
Again a lot of people that I know have specialised
in front-end or back-end
and have done enough and it can certainly be enough
I certainly would recommend this,
that for a lot of people it can be enough
for a very rewarding and well paid career.
So don't think you have to do that
but the full stack web development positions there,
if you decide that is something you want to focus on
but again keep in mind that technology
is moving ahead at a rapid pace
and if you are a full stack web developer
you need to keep up with that at both the front-end
and the back-end so basically its a lot more training
for yourself to keep up with the technologies
because you certainly don't want to fall behind
with technology, you need to keep your skills current,
to maximise your career options.
All right so good luck with it all
and just remember that you can also swap to the other side
in the future so, if you try say front-end development
for three months or six months or whatever
or take some training courses or whatever it is
and you don't enjoy it whatever reason,
the skills you learnt from that period of time
will still be useful and you can always switch over
and go to in this case, to the back-end development
and try that out as well
and you can take those front-end skills that you've learnt
and that will still be useful from a back-end development
point of view and of course vise-versa if you decide that.
So good luck and I hope that you achieve your goals
in becoming a web developer.
All right so I hope that helped,
if you got any questions fell free to leave a comment
and I'll get back to you.
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