5 ms·

I once met a software engineer who said I was not full-stack because I didn't know how to add to the Linux Kernal. I once met a hiring manager who said I'm not

I once met a software engineer who said I was not full-stack because I didn't know how to add to the Linux Kernal. I once met a hiring manager who said I'm not front-end because I don't know how to vertically shard MySQL and "every front-end developer knows how to do that." Technology stacks differ per company and the definition of the title will also differ. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

bcheung 8y ago
"Fullstack is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules."
omni 8y ago
You should do everyone a solid and name-and-shame the frontend/MySQL company because dear God that's horrifying.
- chrisabrams 8y ago
  They don’t exist anymore, they didn’t have what it takes :O
  - omni 8y ago
    And nothing of value was lost
  - justbaker 8y ago
    They couldn’t hack it..
orax 8y ago
Agreed, though I don't feel like a Full-Stack Engineer should do the DevOps Engineer job as seems to be required by this hiring manager. I am not saying you should not know the underlying component you are using in your stack though, just what you need to work on it, not how to administrate a large scale database deployment. It seems that the world clearly lacks a definition of what Full-Stack Engineering really means ...
- irrational 8y ago
  I wish. My recent task has been writing scripts to set up Postgres on a bare-bones linux server (including all security, software, users, nfs, hot backup servers, etc) and port an Oracle database over to the postgres database and update 1000s of oracle queries to work on postgres. In my spare time I also had to create some new admin screens and do a bunch of back end work. I also created a bunch of new svg images for the admin screens. Basically I'm expected to do everything from setting up and managing linux servers, security, install and configure software, set up oracle and postgres databases, do DDL and DML work, write server-side code, write web services, create images and do layout work, write test cases, write html, js, css, and know a bunch of JS libraries like vue, vuex, vue-router, webpack, jest, bluebird, lodash, async, tailwind, scss, etc. ad naseum.
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    You’re probably underpaid for the amount of work you’re doing and should test the waters for another role that pays more.
    - chrisabrams 8y ago
      I’d second this. A jack of all trades that can finish a “multi” stack project is worth a lot at most companies.
evincarofautumn 8y ago
Yup, it differs considerably depending on the job—the point I guess is that your breadth of experience spans the software in question from end to end. I consider myself a “full-stack” programming language engineer because I’m equally comfortable with type theory, user experience design, practical implementation, and instruction-level optimisation. Am I a full-stack web developer because I’m equally comfortable with front-end design & development, server-side infrastructure, and networking protocols? Some would say yes, some no—but I can readily develop, maintain, and optimise a whole application by myself if I need to. I may not do as good a job in any particular narrow area as a specialist in that area, of course.
jarfil 8y ago
If you can't make your own transistors to speed up the UI, then you're not full-stack... and no one is.
collyw 8y ago
Indeed I have seen front end Django developer jobs, when Django is most definitely a server side technology. However on multi tier systems it may be handling the "front end" of the system.
- Illniyar 8y ago
  In a world with no SPA django is as much a front-end framework as it is anything else (just as JSP, ASP and a million other frameworks that render html on the server and send it).

bcheung 8y ago

"Fullstack is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules."

omni 8y ago

You should do everyone a solid and name-and-shame the frontend/MySQL company because dear God that's horrifying.

chrisabrams 8y ago
They don’t exist anymore, they didn’t have what it takes :O
- omni 8y ago
  And nothing of value was lost
- justbaker 8y ago
  They couldn’t hack it..

orax 8y ago

Agreed, though I don't feel like a Full-Stack Engineer should do the DevOps Engineer job as seems to be required by this hiring manager. I am not saying you should not know the underlying component you are using in your stack though, just what you need to work on it, not how to administrate a large scale database deployment. It seems that the world clearly lacks a definition of what Full-Stack Engineering really means ...

irrational 8y ago
I wish. My recent task has been writing scripts to set up Postgres on a bare-bones linux server (including all security, software, users, nfs, hot backup servers, etc) and port an Oracle database over to the postgres database and update 1000s of oracle queries to work on postgres. In my spare time I also had to create some new admin screens and do a bunch of back end work. I also created a bunch of new svg images for the admin screens. Basically I'm expected to do everything from setting up and managing linux servers, security, install and configure software, set up oracle and postgres databases, do DDL and DML work, write server-side code, write web services, create images and do layout work, write test cases, write html, js, css, and know a bunch of JS libraries like vue, vuex, vue-router, webpack, jest, bluebird, lodash, async, tailwind, scss, etc. ad naseum.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  You’re probably underpaid for the amount of work you’re doing and should test the waters for another role that pays more.
  - chrisabrams 8y ago
    I’d second this. A jack of all trades that can finish a “multi” stack project is worth a lot at most companies.

evincarofautumn 8y ago

Yup, it differs considerably depending on the job—the point I guess is that your breadth of experience spans the software in question from end to end. I consider myself a “full-stack” programming language engineer because I’m equally comfortable with type theory, user experience design, practical implementation, and instruction-level optimisation. Am I a full-stack web developer because I’m equally comfortable with front-end design & development, server-side infrastructure, and networking protocols? Some would say yes, some no—but I can readily develop, maintain, and optimise a whole application by myself if I need to. I may not do as good a job in any particular narrow area as a specialist in that area, of course.

jarfil 8y ago

If you can't make your own transistors to speed up the UI, then you're not full-stack... and no one is.

collyw 8y ago

Indeed I have seen front end Django developer jobs, when Django is most definitely a server side technology. However on multi tier systems it may be handling the "front end" of the system.

Illniyar 8y ago
In a world with no SPA django is as much a front-end framework as it is anything else (just as JSP, ASP and a million other frameworks that render html on the server and send it).