If you’re thinking of becoming a full stack developer in the near future, that’s an excellent choice. This job is extremely rewarding, as it enables you to contribute towards so many different areas of software development.
However, being a full stack developer also poses lots of questions. After all, you need to be well-versed in both back-end and front-end development. We won’t go into too much detail about what each of these terms means right now. But if you feel slightly confused by this, do not worry! It’s completely normal. You will soon understand everything there is to know about becoming a full stack developer. Let’s get started!
What Does it mean to be a Full Stack Developer?
The term “full stack developer” is a little bit misleading. It doesn’t mean that you are proficient at every single part of the software development process. Instead, it refers to the fact that you have a solid understanding of each part of the process. You are not more important than the other groups involved in the software development process.
You are just as important as everyone else! To put it another way: Full stack developers can develop both front-end and back-end applications. If you only focus on one or the other, you are not a full stack developer. You are just a specialist. This is important to understand, because many people confuse these terms. So let’s move on to the next topic.
Why Become a Full Stack Developer?
Opportunity to Grow Personally
Let’s start with the obvious benefit. If you become a full stack developer, you get to learn many new skills. Some of these skills are transferrable to other fields, even if you don’t remain in the world of software development. This is great because it means that you can build upon your education for the rest of your life. You can always be learning more about programming, new technologies, and more. This is ideal if you want to continue growing as a person.
Opportunity to Contribute to the Business
Similarly, if you become a full stack developer, you will be able to contribute to the business in a lot of different ways. This is ideal, because it means you will feel like you are an important part of the organization. In fact, if you work for a company that has a full stack development team, you will be able to contribute to every part of the business. You will be able to architect the architecture, design the designs, write the code, and deploy the code. It’s a big job, but you will feel like you are making a big impact.
How to Become a Full Stack Developer?
Start Learning the Basics –
Before we talk about how you can become a full stack developer, it’s important to acknowledge the fact that it needs work, like anything else of course. Becoming a full stack developer is easy but, it is going to take a bit more concentration. This is why it is so important to start learning the basics as early as possible.
If you pick the parts as early as possible and follow through, it is much easier to pick and get into the other parts that are dependent on the smaller items.
Which Programming Languages Should You Learn?
Core Languages
This part is dependent on where you are on your journey to full stack developer. If you are an already established developer in any sever based language like Java or C#, then it will be a matter of picking up the front end technology like react and angular to name few and you will be in a full stack position. The same holds true if you are front end developer and wanted to tap into full stack, then you will pick one of the backend languages to be onboard.
But if you are beginner, the best language to start with is JavaScript. In the earlier days, JavaScript was only for front end part. But, thanks to V8 Engine, through nodejs, JavaScript is used as backend language also. This is huge! What it means is once you learn the language basics, you can work with ease on both back and front end technologies.
Not only on this, JavaScript has made it to non-sql database MongoDB also. Though the pattern is different, if you know JavaScript, you can navigate easily the database side of it as well which makes you really versatile full stack developer. JavaScript is perfect on sitting on the cross section of both worlds which makes life easier once you grab and become comfortable with it.
Which Tools Should You Use?
Tools are Essential – Another important thing to think about as you enter the software development world is which tools you should use. You need to make sure that you are familiar with the tools that people use within your chosen programming language of choice.
For example, if you are focusing on JavaScript, you need to learn about NodeJS, Visual Code Studio (or other code editors), JSON formatters, regex testers and more. Similarly, you need to make sure that you know how to use the tools that help you with your work. For example, you need to learn about version control systems like Git, how to use issue tracking software, and more.
Conclusion
This sounds like a lot of work, and it is. Becoming a full stack developer needs work. However, the rewards are great. If you can make it through this career path, you will be able to work in almost any organization. You will have the opportunity to work on many different projects and have a big impact on the company. This is ideal, because it means that you can become a valuable member of the team. You can help the organization to be more successful by contributing to every part of the business.
