The job requirements are always insane — they’re not hiring a developer, they’re assembling The Avengers - Must know React, Node, DevOps, UI/UX, Database Design, be available 24/7, make coffee, and occasionally fix the office printer. All for one junior dev salary. Legendary.
I'm not in the team. I am the team
One of the best quotes I’ve read is that full stack isn’t an engineering term. It’s a management term created by a manager who didn’t want to remember the different types of engineers they needed to hire.
Been doing this for 20 years now, never met a mentally stable developer, This industry has it's dark side, And once you are there, there's no way out.
The rant is 100% spot on, full-stack has gone from meaning frontend and backend development to meaning frontend / backend development, devops, testing, AI, DB admin, business analyst, and everything under the Sun. I like exploring different areas of tech but the issue is that no one person can do the work of 5 people well and the term is so loaded it can mean so many different things to so many different people.
As a former HR guy, I can confirm that cost reduction was the main reason we introduced this role in my previous company
Loki: I have an army Tony: We have a ... Full Stack dev
This really hits the nail on the head. Being a 'full stack' dev today isn’t just frontend and backend—it’s system architecture, databases, support, even writing your own tickets. It’s a great way to grow when you're junior since you're exposed to everything, but once you’ve been in the field a while, you realize that specialization has its perks—especially for your mental health. Wearing too many hats too long is a straight path to burnout.
I actually like being full stack (as much as a junior can be). If my front end isn't working right, I can dig into the api and server side code myself. If that's no help, I can go look at the stored procedures in the DB to see what might be going wrong there. I would hate being stuck on just front end or just backend or just DB or just design etc etc. I want the freedom and access to fix things right away instead of needing to book meetings just to fix one line in an api method that is breaking multiple things in my front end.
It could be worse - you could be a LEGACY Full Stack Engineer...
I started at an actual corporate job this year after years of startup work. It's as awful as I imagined. Sure I am no longer responsible for everything, but having to wait for someone to make a change for me is miserable.
Been a full-stack dev for 5 years. You're right, it really was a "do everything" job scope (including having to meet customers and supporting them) 😂 but I'm happy that I went through what I did. I learnt a lot of things that helped me build my own projects in my free time :)
Ehh I have to disagree, I've been working as a full-stack developer for a decade now, but you have to manage expectations and know when to say no. I mostly learned this while working at small companies but I'm currently residing at a enterprise environment. Asking someone to do infra, backend and frontend all in the same day is impossible, but chopping your week up in frontend days, backend days and infra days is fine.
Well, fullstack before was just front end and back end, right? Like JQuery powered websites with PHP as backend. But now, fullstack means, front end, back end, database migration, VAPT, securing coding practices, cloudops, devops, finops, deploying in k8s instead of just copying ito to an FTP server. Yeah, we've come a long way but being a fullstack needs to have boundaries.
My fullstack experience. "Can you center this div, can you solve this multithread lock, can you look into this database key contraint, can you see why app1 isn't deploying on so-so, can you tell client 4ssH0le the project estimation, can you write tickets, can you attend this meeting to talk about key technology considerations, can you update our old Windows 2003 server, can you interview candidates 1, 2, and 3, can you test features for upcoming release, can you...."
TBH, I do prefer to work that way, so I don’t have to deal with someone's sh*t. I'm aware of the flow end to end, which is usually much easier to debug.
applied for a job as a java mid, the interviewer asked me if i knew javascript, the codepad challenge she gave me had react questions. Quitted the challenge at the spot, said thanks for your time im not longer interested, left the call
Blazor+Web Api dev here, and I approve this video...
I am currently working as a full stack intern and i never hated my life more :DDD
@codehead01