Full Stack Developer: Who is a Full Stack developer, what do they do, and how to become one?

THE CONTENT OF THE ARTICLE:

Who Is a Full-Stack Developer and How to Become One?

A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics study showed that by 2024, full-stack development jobs are expected to increase from 135,000 to more than 853,000. This trend is because full-stack developers can work alone on a project.

Full-stack specialists are becoming indispensable employees because they have various programming skills. This is an opportunity for companies to increase their productivity and save on hiring, but what does the employee get? JOBITT experts conducted their own research and gathered all the information you need to know about this IT profession.

Who is Full Stack Developer?

A full-stack developer is a versatile specialist who can develop both Back-end and Front-end components of web products. They also have enough knowledge to work with servers, databases, operating systems, and PaaS.

Tasks and responsibilities of a Full Stack Developer

Standard duties found in almost every full-stack developer job include:

site architecture development;
interface creation;
work with CMS and API configuration;
communication with the marketing department and designers;
customization of an existing website or web app.

In addition, the tasks of a full-stack specialist include:

development of new modules;
code review;
bug fixing;
participation in meetings.

These are the main tasks and responsibilities, but depending on the company or project, there may be more work related to the back-end/front-end. Therefore, a good full-stack web developer should have diverse programming experience to build both the user-friendly design and the site's server side.

Pros and cons of the profession

A full-stack developer specialization has many advantages for the applicant, but like any other profession, weaknesses exist.

Consider the key advantages of the profession:

Independent project management. In web development, it is often necessary to make changes in both the Back-end and Front-end. When several people work on a project, you must constantly communicate while making changes to avoid misunderstandings. Full-stack developers do not waste time on this because they control the entire process. This avoids inconsistencies and minimizes downtime.
No routine work. A developer constantly switches between front-end and back-end tasks, technologies, and programming languages. This variety prevents you from getting stuck on one activity, reducing the risk of burnout.
Extensive freelance opportunities. Often, customers seek a full-stack to save money and get reliable development without recruiting a whole team. Therefore, it will be easier for an employee who can take on the responsibilities of several developers at once to find an intersting project.
Opportunity for career growth. Prospects in development for a full-stack specialist are truly boundless. New tools and technologies appear regularly, so a developer can constantly improve, which allows realizing in any field of web development. In addition, many cutting-edge companies seek wide-specialty candidates to join their teams.

Cons of full stack specialization:

Lack of in-depth knowledge. The point of the profession is that you need to understand a lot of different technologies. This does little to encourage deep learning of a particular tool or language, so the full stack loses somewhat to the highly specialized developer.
Many responsibilities. Full-stack developer takes upon themselves practically all the tasks of creating MVP or full-fledged website. In addition, they can be given other tasks: to add or revise someone's code, fix bugs, finish the interface instead of a web designer, etc.
The need to learn a lot. The IT sphere constantly progresses, and new technologies and tools appear, so specialist needs to keep their knowledge up to date. The main difficulty is that they must go in several directions simultaneously: backend, frontend, and sometimes mobile development. Given a full-stacker's wide range of responsibilities, finding time to learn is quite a challenge.
Lack of replacement and difficult tasks. Since the full-stack is a versatile employee, it will be difficult to replace them. For example, taking a vacation or time off can be problematic. Also, a wide-specialized developer is delegated many tasks of varying complexity daily, requiring careful time management and constant involvement in the project.

After weighing the pros and cons, it's much easier to understand whether a full-stack developer profession is right for you.

Full-stack developer career prospects

Now more and more companies are looking for web developers who can close the entire stack of digital product creation. The U.S. Bureau of Statistics predicts that their total employment will increase by 30% by 2031. So it's safe to say there will be jobs for full-stack professionals in the coming years.

As a specialist, a full-stack developer gets many career development options. The paths are open to them both internationally and to advanced domestic IT companies, where you can build a successful career and earn more. For example:

become a project team leader;
take the position of a lead developer in a company;
get promoted and become the startup's CTO.

A specialist gets the necessary experience to move into architecture or management by doing full-stack development for a long time. There are also successful stories when people could launch their own startup based on their knowledge.

If you are not afraid of difficulties and are ready for constant self-study and self-improvement, then this specialization will be the "road" to climb to the top of your career.

Average Full-stack developer salary

As an expert, a full-stack developer can independently design and create a web application or website. Therefore, the value of such a specialist for employers is very high. This fact is reflected in the remuneration.

A report by Web3Career, published in February 2023, showed that the average annual salary of a full-stack in the U.S. is more than 101 thousand dollars. In comparison, the earnings of a front-end developer on the same resource are about $97k.

An important factor that affects income is the geographical location of the specialist. Thus, according to data from Work.ua, the average monthly salary in Ukraine varies in the range of $2,000.

How to become a Full-stack developer?

To master the profession of a full-stack developer, you need to know:

one of the "server" languages: PHP, Ruby, Java, Python;
jQuery, Rails, Django, Laravel libraries;
Angular, Vue, React, and other frameworks;
SQL and MongoDB databases;
Git, SCCS, RCS, Mercurial, Bitbucket version control systems.

Depending on the project and customer requirements, a programmer's specialization may require knowledge and mastery of other technologies. Therefore, being a full-stack specialist means constantly developing and following the trends in IT.

To improve your skills and position yourself as a highly skilled expert, you need to learn new "server" and "browser" tools, as well as deepen your knowledge of the technologies you have already mastered.

Directions for learning are widely available on the Internet. There are courses, webinars, trainings, and various interactive classes from cool IT experts. Both beginners and experienced full-stack programmers can find helpful materials that will be handy in further work on projects.

What do I need to know to become a Full Stack Developer?

For developers who previously dealt only with the backend, the threshold for entering the profession will be lower than for frontend specialists. Nevertheless, anyone who possesses the minimum set of hard skills can get the status of a full-stack developer:

knowledge of JavaScript;
knowledge of Git and GitHub;
testing skills;
mastery of the basics of HTML and CSS;
understanding of web project infrastructure;
knowledge of at least one popular JavaScript framework;
ability to create server apps;
skills in working with databases.

Soft skills will also be important for the developer position:

creative approach to projects;
teamwork with designers and marketing specialists;
ability to focus on details;
responsibility and adherence to deadlines;
ability to effectively plan your work.

The requirements for the profession are extensive, so for a newcomer in IT development, it will be difficult to cover so many different tools, languages, and frameworks at once. This task is simplified for more experienced backend or frontend developers because they already have some practical skills.

Conclusion

A full-stack developer is a jack-of-all-trades who can develop a good web product from scratch. To do this, a specialist must have extensive knowledge and devote quite a lot of attention to self-development. As a reward for their efforts, they get ample opportunities for career growth and a decent salary.

In IT companies, full-stack development specialists are valuable because they help launch projects faster and save the budget for retaining the development team. When only one programmer works on a site, there is no need to spend time gathering a whole team, setting up communications, and coordinating the work between all the employees. That is why more and more employers are looking for broad-based developers on freelance exchanges and job search sites.

Do you want to try your hand as a full-stack developer? Post your resume on JOBITT and get lots of job offers. Apply to projects you'll be interested in, and move up the career ladder.

FAQ

How much does Full Stack earn?

On average, a full-stack developer earns about $100,000 per year. It is important to remember that such specialists' salaries strongly depend on the country, type of cooperation, the complexity of the project, the required tech stack, etc.

What is Full Stack in programming?

A full stack is a set of technologies and tools that one person needs to know to fully develop a website or web app. This definition includes coding languages, frameworks, front-end tools, and other web technologies.