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A couple of comments. Sorry you were let go, but that is just business, they need people with more experience and likely learned the hard way that they can't p

A couple of comments. Sorry you were let go, but that is just business, they need people with more experience and likely learned the hard way that they can't pay lower prices for less experience and expect things to work out. That really isn't a reflection on you or your abilities so much as it is on them for bad planning. So don't look at this as you failed them as much as they failed you and likely others. As for what you do next. Take a few days and chill and have some fun, spend a little time brushing up your resume and start sending them out. There are a lot of positions available. Remember this, when you are applying for jobs you are selling yourself and what you can do for the company. So many times I interview developers and they don't realize that they need to sell themselves. I am not talking about being a sleazy used car salesman, but recognizing you have to tell people what you are capable of and be able to back it up with mastery of some set of skills. Last point, you mentioned you are to early to have specialized. I totally disagree with this approach but others may have different opinions. I think you should specialize in a couple of key areas, generally for someone with 1-2 years experience I expect them to know a single language quite well, have a little knowledge of others and be able to do some data queries in SQL (or the database they have been using) etc. I want new hires to have some depth not as much breadth, it is important to get a wide span of knowledge, but it is even more important to go deep in a couple of areas. You have plenty of time to master multiple skills, but focus first as it makes you more valuable. For a web dev, I'd expect decent JS, css, and whatever their front end language is to be fairly mastered in terms of syntax and core coding. I wouldn't expect advanced topics like concurrency or nuances of debugging yet (unless they have been heavily mentored). Good luck, you should have plenty of runway depending on where you are at in the country, and whether you are willing to relocate.

fapjacks 11y ago
There's a very salient point here that "full stack" development isn't something you can start out doing. If you advertised yourself as a full stack developer with only a single year of professional development experience behind you, it's likely that you were let go precisely because you aren't a full stack developer. It takes years to develop the body of experience needed to truly work effectively as a "full stack" developer. Now, as mentioned by the insightful parent of this comment, that is more a reflection on the poor planning of the company (and lack of due diligence on their part) than on you, assuming you were forthright in your resume and interview about your history.
- bsima 11y ago
  The person that did the firing (the CEO) wouldn't be able to tell a difference between a full-stack and a frontend or backend dev. It's a small company, two backend devs (including me) and a frontend dev, though they are hiring 2 more backend devs. For a few weeks, I was the only backend dev. This means I touched all areas of the codebase: designed front-end functionality and aesthetic stuff, wrote backend services, setup devops workflows and did database stuff. So that's why I used the term "full-stack". That said, I definitely plan on specializing over the next few weeks. Full-stack is hard! :)
bsima 11y ago
Thanks for the thought-out response. I think it's typical among developers to think that their work stands for itself, so they don't have to sell themselves. I agree with your statement that selling yourself is important. I recently beefed-up my resume[1] because I kinda saw this coming. Interesting point on specialization. I'm not quite sure where I want to specialize, though. I love functional programming (Clojure et al) but Ruby and Python are fun too. I started in front-end years ago (high school?), so I'm extremely fluent in HTML, JS, CSS, but I've been getting more interested in algorithms, machine learning, and related stuff in recent months/years. I've got a few books from the library on programming that I plan to read, I think this will help me decide which direction to specialize in. Next I'll decide on a project to establish my specialization. The books are: The Joy of Clojure, Functional Programming Patterns in Scala and Clojure, Seven Languages in Seven Weeks, and Web Development with Clojure. I also want to read The Rails Way (or something similar, since I don't have formal training in Rails) and a book on algorithms. [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OrBr3KPDjeJBcXdKFJ2vE3tgAKQxThciGMsIX1icVx8/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OrBr3KPDjeJBcXdKFJ2vE3tg...
- davismwfl 11y ago
  Your welcome. I get not knowing where you want to specialize yet, but just because you say choose Ruby or Python today, doesn't mean you won't then after 2-3 years move to something else. Specialization in this case teaches you more than the language, it teaches constructs, data structures, loops, algorithms, debugging techniques, error conditions, testing theory etc. Then once you have a handle on those it is easier to apply them in a new language and you start learning how to architect solutions more efficiently regardless of the language chosen. The coolest part to me about being in Software is we are almost never locked into one language or framework, but you have to get rooted somewhere. And as fapjacks points out, if you advertise yourself as full-stack with 1 year professional experience it looks funny to most employers because you just can't start out there. It takes time.

fapjacks 11y ago

There's a very salient point here that "full stack" development isn't something you can start out doing. If you advertised yourself as a full stack developer with only a single year of professional development experience behind you, it's likely that you were let go precisely because you aren't a full stack developer. It takes years to develop the body of experience needed to truly work effectively as a "full stack" developer. Now, as mentioned by the insightful parent of this comment, that is more a reflection on the poor planning of the company (and lack of due diligence on their part) than on you, assuming you were forthright in your resume and interview about your history.

bsima 11y ago
The person that did the firing (the CEO) wouldn't be able to tell a difference between a full-stack and a frontend or backend dev. It's a small company, two backend devs (including me) and a frontend dev, though they are hiring 2 more backend devs. For a few weeks, I was the only backend dev. This means I touched all areas of the codebase: designed front-end functionality and aesthetic stuff, wrote backend services, setup devops workflows and did database stuff. So that's why I used the term "full-stack". That said, I definitely plan on specializing over the next few weeks. Full-stack is hard! :)

bsima 11y ago

Thanks for the thought-out response. I think it's typical among developers to think that their work stands for itself, so they don't have to sell themselves. I agree with your statement that selling yourself is important. I recently beefed-up my resume[1] because I kinda saw this coming. Interesting point on specialization. I'm not quite sure where I want to specialize, though. I love functional programming (Clojure et al) but Ruby and Python are fun too. I started in front-end years ago (high school?), so I'm extremely fluent in HTML, JS, CSS, but I've been getting more interested in algorithms, machine learning, and related stuff in recent months/years. I've got a few books from the library on programming that I plan to read, I think this will help me decide which direction to specialize in. Next I'll decide on a project to establish my specialization. The books are: The Joy of Clojure, Functional Programming Patterns in Scala and Clojure, Seven Languages in Seven Weeks, and Web Development with Clojure. I also want to read The Rails Way (or something similar, since I don't have formal training in Rails) and a book on algorithms. [1]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OrBr3KPDjeJBcXdKFJ2vE3tgAKQxThciGMsIX1icVx8/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OrBr3KPDjeJBcXdKFJ2vE3tg...

davismwfl 11y ago
Your welcome. I get not knowing where you want to specialize yet, but just because you say choose Ruby or Python today, doesn't mean you won't then after 2-3 years move to something else. Specialization in this case teaches you more than the language, it teaches constructs, data structures, loops, algorithms, debugging techniques, error conditions, testing theory etc. Then once you have a handle on those it is easier to apply them in a new language and you start learning how to architect solutions more efficiently regardless of the language chosen. The coolest part to me about being in Software is we are almost never locked into one language or framework, but you have to get rooted somewhere. And as fapjacks points out, if you advertise yourself as full-stack with 1 year professional experience it looks funny to most employers because you just can't start out there. It takes time.