From an engineer's point of view, if they call themselves a full stack engineer they're usually a front end dev who have written a few apis in the past. No shame, but I've seen way too many people say they're backend without fully understanding what being a backend engineer really is in terms of scale, speed, and flexibility.

From q businesses point a view, a full stack engineer is a role they made up that means "we expect an expert in all areas but want to pay a lower rate".

Both areas need experts. I'd say I'm an expert in backend. I think it's impossible to be an expert in everything, and companies who want "full stacks" should expect jack of all trades master of none, and will attract literally any engineer, because what the hell is full stack.

I've probably pissed off a lot of fellow engineers, but I guess what I'm trying to say is be a master of your domain. Learn how frontend and backend work, but don't try to be an expert in everything. It's good to specialize. When you're asked if you are a full stack engineer it's perfectly fine to say "I have experience in the full stack, my expertise is on the backend, but I can do react when needed"

[–] arendjr 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So I do consider myself to be a true full-stack developer, since I do have 5+ years of experience working on each of server-side, CLI, desktop applications, and mobile applications and 10+ years on the web frontend. Then again, I’m 40 and I feel too old to get offended over that shit. I also agree the term “full-stack” is diluted as hell, so I don’t even call myself that anymore.

Now get off my lawn :p

[–] firelizzard 2 points 6 days ago

Experience != expertise or skill. I have never met someone who was actually good at both. Maybe if your backend is just some SQL queries. I am a backend engineer and I’m adequate at front end but I’d never hire someone whose skills were merely adequate unless I thought they had the potential to reach ‘good’.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There are both kinds of full stack developers: the frontend dev that doesn't understand the backend enough to know they suck at it, and the backend dev that doesn't understand the frontend enough to know they suck at it.

[–] sukhmel 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I couldn't agree more with the latter part, I know a lot of backend engineers who consider frontend simple without ever trying what it really takes. This is not a healthy way to view someone else's work, and it usually produces friction between back and front end teams

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

You can always spot them when they have to ask about state.

I always asked about state.

Backend engineer here who got gud at frontend because of mobile, but recognize others are way better than me at it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I'm a chemical engineer, you didn't piss me off

[–] towerful 9 points 6 days ago

Oh, a real engineer? ducks

[–] BehindTheBarrier 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I'm a chemical engineer and fullstack dev. Also not pissed, but it's worth clarifying that I am worse at frontend than backend...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Agreed but i feel at least in scrum theory it is encouraged to have a T of skills with deep knowledge about your speciality and shallow but for basic stuff sufficient knowledge in the rest of skills in the stack. So i think it is known that full stack doesn't mean master of everything. But yeah it's impossible to master everything. My skill gets smaller the further i stay from the frontend. Like I can get backend tasks done but tell me to write a plsql package and I'm gonna have to learn a lot of new shit

[–] firelizzard 0 points 6 days ago

If you actually have deep knowledge in a specialty, then you describe yourself as that specialty. ‘Full stack engineer’ coneys that you don’t have a specialty/are a master of nothing/your skills are _ shaped.