Full-stack-developers. New trend or real need of companies?

According to Adam Shapli, full-stack developers are in demand more than ever, because companies require a number of skills from IT employees. We, in turn, also notice that we are increasingly receiving 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, it makes sense to focus on certain skills, as you can present 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. The study Stack Overflow 2017 showed that this type of developers is not only the most popular, but also the most popular.

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

Of course, there are pros and cons of such work. Some argue that the development becomes more difficult every year. That is why it is necessary to have highly segmented developers.
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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. In this case, the team must have at least one specialist who is ready to dive into the subtleties in order to get a quality product.

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

This, in turn, means that full-stack developers work better in a team, because they know and understand the tools used by other team members, and this makes the team more flexible. Thus, many companies attract such developers for agile development, so that eventually the rest of the team will also expand their expertise.

What skills should a full-stack developer have?

Such developers need to understand a variety of tools, languages, and systems:
It is very important to understand HTML / CSS and JavaScript, and as soon as you master these languages, you will need to master the languages ​​for the back-end for database management, user authentication, etc.

SQL and Java are in demand at the moment - or you can study Node.js. Then you will need to understand the basics of databases and web storage. So, choose 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 gain skills in web application architecture.

How can developers get experience in full-stack development?

There are many online communities and courses that can help you speed up your work with all the technologies mentioned. For example, GitHub is a great resource.

Of course, only practice can take you to a new level. Create something for yourself or ask your colleagues if you can help with small jobs that are outside your normal area of ​​responsibility.

A full-stack developer is not just a sought-after role in many organizations, but also a well-paid option. Understanding more technology is definitely an advantage to 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 a criterion for choosing a candidate. So, for example, we had a search for a strong full-stack developer for a single position for a well-known company, they wanted a person with a great track record and knowledge and experience. The search went on 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 were able, on the recommendation of one of the candidates, to reach a young (from the point of view of experience) specialist who, at best, could claim the role of joon in the team. Nevertheless, the young man was very well versed in terms of knowledge of technology, easily passed a technical interview with the manager, and also demonstrated a high level of motivation to work in this company, thanks to which he was still taken to the team, although not for the senior specialist . So, not only experience in tough companies, but also theoretical knowledge combined with transparent motivation can lead to successful employment.

In this article, we outlined the path to the full-stack developer, and the question remains of the relevance of this direction. For our part, we feel the need for such specialists, while hearing different points of view from candidates: some believe that it is better to be an expert in a certain area (front / back), while others are confident that full-stack development will have a future.