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Ask HN: Does front-end dev have a low ceiling?
I've been working professionally for five and a half years now, and the last three have been front-end. I've gotten pretty good at it, and I like it, but I'm worried about the long run. There's a stereotype that front-end web is "easier" than other programming. I haven't found that to be especially true, but I also have limited data points.
Everybody wants to hire someone like me right now, but if I do the same general type of work for the next ten years, will my career benefit from that experience as much as someone who gains ten years of back-end experience? I'm worried about pigeon-holing myself, and I'm considering making a deliberate career shift. I have good computer science fundamentals and I'm perfectly familiar with back-end programming, I just haven't done a ton of it in a real-life product setting.
- Thorentis 7y agoI'd say it's the easiest to learn without a formal qualification, and the easiest to learn just by watching YouTube/video tutorials/doing a bootcamp etc. Learning embedded programming, OS design, compiler design etc. is much harder without actual experience or working with people skilled in the area. Sure, can be done, but much less people attempt it. So I'd say that just from that perspective, there is a lower barrier to entry, and therefore more competition and less job security as a front-end dev. Doesn't mean the right job won't pay well, but I think you'll find in the coming years, many more people will be passably competent in front-end web design.
- _bxg1 7y agoI'm not really worried about being competitive; I'm worried that, as someone who's already "senior", I don't have much room left to grow or new areas to grow into that will use some of the skills I've been building.
- WheelsAtLarge 7y agoAll programing types have a life span. Eventually, you will need to switch if you want to stay employable. There's no such thing as long term programming type. Pascal programmers were a hot item back in the 80's. I wonder how many of them were forced to quit the business because they could not find a job. The end result of front end development has not changed much in years but the tools and how to produce the output are constantly changing. Don't let your skills get rusty. I would even say that you seek side jobs that use the "latest tech" on a regular basis that way you are forced to stay current.
- _bxg1 7y agoI'm well aware that specific technologies are always changing; I have no illusions about doing, say, React forever. I was more talking about client-side interface programming in general.