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I work for an ecommerce company that’s just small enough that as a front end dev I wear a really big stack of hats. I regularly have to reach across .net MVC, R

I work for an ecommerce company that’s just small enough that as a front end dev I wear a really big stack of hats. I regularly have to reach across .net MVC, React components, jquery, fairly complex scss and JavaScript written to what standards were 6 or 7 years ago in order to implement new features. On top of that, I regularly fill in UX and design work when a designer isn’t available, and I run the company’s entire A/B testing process, and even find myself working with AWS configuration and the build process occasionally. That said, I love it; getting to participate in so much of the process allows me to really get a feel for the entire structure of the site as a whole, and I feel like experience in one area often informs learning in others and helps me communicate with specialists from many different areas. I could see it being a bit overwhelming coming foremost from a design background, but in my experience you do not need a degree to do this work (Mine are in Biology and Psychology). It just requires you to put in the time to research, and I personally think it’s time well spent (and a good boss will account for the fact that you may be learning things on the fly in setting project deadlines). Getting into the nitty-gritty of JavaScript and really understanding how it works and modern best practices will save you so many headaches later. I will say sometimes I feel pretty amateurish when it comes to the design aspect, because it relies so heavily on cultivating good design intuition, but even then I appreciate those opportunities to flex a different mental muscle.

asknthrow 8y ago
So, a regular programmer then?
- Raphmedia 8y ago
  Programmers that have front-end web development has their main area of expertise are still programmers. The difference is in the tasks. As this person said, they do CSS/JavaScript and even step in the UI/UX expert shoes. Then even do design work. I have a similar task description and my title is "full-stack web developer". I simply call myself "web developer" as I consider that being able to deliver a website from A to Z is a requirement of my job. From design to back-end to hosting to SEO.
ehnto 8y ago
I was in exactly your shoes, and they can be pretty big boots to fill. But being able to take on so many parts of the process feels really good and you get a greater feeling of ownership over the whole product. You can make smarter decisions and understand the whys of more requirements rather than just the whats and hows. It also allowed me to develop a really strong pragmatism. With so much to learn you have to be really lean and effective with your learning and cut requirements where they don't make sense.
- helij 8y ago
  Unfortunately as I am experiencing it right now while it's great to be able to do lots of things and own the whole product, it is detrimental to your knowledge and your CV. I am in the job market after 14 years and my skillset is so specialised that it is hard to get a job. I got a few interviews but fell hard on home assignment. We'll see what the future brings.
  - superhuzza 8y ago
    I'm getting conflicting messages from your post "while it's great to be able to do lots of things and own the whole product, it is detrimental to your knowledge and your CV." i.e. learning larger set of skills is bad for job prospects "my skillset is so specialised that it is hard to get a job." i.e. focusing on a smaller set of skills is bad for job prospects
    - maxsilver 8y ago
      They don't necessarily conflict. People like to put other people into boxes. This person Sells. This person Develops. This per Designs. This person Manages. You are expected to be awesome at just your box, spend all your time in just that box, and above all else, to never leave your box. If your experience is in "I do a lot of everything, really well at much of it". Then you have lots of valuable knowledge and skills, but those skills look terrible on a CV. In practice, you could be 80% of an entire standalone product or service, you would make most companies a good chunk of money. But on your CV, you look like a part-time Junior Dev and part-time Junior Designer and part-time Junior Manager, etc. That's not a fair reading at all, but that's what ~90% of companies will assume. --- We don't really have a word for people who can be responsible for and execute well on a most/all of a product or service. (I wish we did, because that's my history to-date, and my CV could really use a word for it). So, when a person like this tries to apply for a job, they often have a far rougher time than you'd expect. These folks have to essentially eject a different 60% of their value for every job they apply to, which hurts them significantly in hiring/recruiting despite being an advantage when doing actual work. As far as I can tell, the only real end-goal for people like this, is to work at a small boutique consulting firm, or open their own product houses / development studios / consulting firms. Because the majority of companies simply don't value this approach.

asknthrow 8y ago

So, a regular programmer then?

Raphmedia 8y ago
Programmers that have front-end web development has their main area of expertise are still programmers. The difference is in the tasks. As this person said, they do CSS/JavaScript and even step in the UI/UX expert shoes. Then even do design work. I have a similar task description and my title is "full-stack web developer". I simply call myself "web developer" as I consider that being able to deliver a website from A to Z is a requirement of my job. From design to back-end to hosting to SEO.

ehnto 8y ago

I was in exactly your shoes, and they can be pretty big boots to fill. But being able to take on so many parts of the process feels really good and you get a greater feeling of ownership over the whole product. You can make smarter decisions and understand the whys of more requirements rather than just the whats and hows. It also allowed me to develop a really strong pragmatism. With so much to learn you have to be really lean and effective with your learning and cut requirements where they don't make sense.

helij 8y ago
Unfortunately as I am experiencing it right now while it's great to be able to do lots of things and own the whole product, it is detrimental to your knowledge and your CV. I am in the job market after 14 years and my skillset is so specialised that it is hard to get a job. I got a few interviews but fell hard on home assignment. We'll see what the future brings.
- superhuzza 8y ago
  I'm getting conflicting messages from your post "while it's great to be able to do lots of things and own the whole product, it is detrimental to your knowledge and your CV." i.e. learning larger set of skills is bad for job prospects "my skillset is so specialised that it is hard to get a job." i.e. focusing on a smaller set of skills is bad for job prospects
  - maxsilver 8y ago
    They don't necessarily conflict. People like to put other people into boxes. This person Sells. This person Develops. This per Designs. This person Manages. You are expected to be awesome at just your box, spend all your time in just that box, and above all else, to never leave your box. If your experience is in "I do a lot of everything, really well at much of it". Then you have lots of valuable knowledge and skills, but those skills look terrible on a CV. In practice, you could be 80% of an entire standalone product or service, you would make most companies a good chunk of money. But on your CV, you look like a part-time Junior Dev and part-time Junior Designer and part-time Junior Manager, etc. That's not a fair reading at all, but that's what ~90% of companies will assume. --- We don't really have a word for people who can be responsible for and execute well on a most/all of a product or service. (I wish we did, because that's my history to-date, and my CV could really use a word for it). So, when a person like this tries to apply for a job, they often have a far rougher time than you'd expect. These folks have to essentially eject a different 60% of their value for every job they apply to, which hurts them significantly in hiring/recruiting despite being an advantage when doing actual work. As far as I can tell, the only real end-goal for people like this, is to work at a small boutique consulting firm, or open their own product houses / development studios / consulting firms. Because the majority of companies simply don't value this approach.