One of the weird things I have noticed as I have dug through resume is the buzz word of full stack developer. I started running into this maybe 8 years ago. Seeing this new term, I looked it up and laughed. The definition was as insane as declaring yourself to be the Loch Ness Monster. Nessie and the Full Stack Developer are pretty close to pure distilled fiction as one could manufacturer. A useful tool to rob fools of their money but still fiction.
That’s not true, full stack developers are everywhere.
So let’s go on a rant here.
I have been to about a half dozen career fairs over the course of my career. They are almost the worst things I have ever done in my career. The 4.5 hour developers meetings in my first job where I had 30 seconds of stuff to say 30 seconds of response to what I said and 4 hours and 29 seconds of things that had zero relevance to me. Those were worse.
In all of those fairs, every person is a front end designer and full stack developer. I look at these kids’ claims and think. Someone could spend a career mastering JavaScript, relational databases, website design or the myriad of languages that could exist on the server side of the equation. I sigh to myself when I run across them. It is not their fault. They get bad advice.
So you are saying that all the HR departments are wrong and everyone applying for a job is a liar. Are you sure it’s not you?
I realize that it is a little hyperbolic to say that there are no full stack developers. It is possible, but unlikely.
For instance, if you came out of school and spent 3-5 years designing websites. You know, working with the HTML5 stack, the GUI libraries and graphics design elements, then you probably have a handle on the front end developers part.
Then if you went to another job and learned all about the back-end processing and spent another 3-5 years building out a solid understanding of the web server side while not allowing your front end knowledge to wilt on the vine from disuse and not paying attention to new developments.
After that you went on to spend a few years working up your database and data design muscles and getting a solid understanding, again while you keep your web and back end skills strong then maybe you are a full stack developer.
That being said having a 10-15 year IT veteran that has spent every waking moment keeping up with and developing new skills may sound like a good idea, they probably won’t fit into the work culture of your business. Humans are not really wired for that kind of lifestyle but it is possible but rarely are they described as well adjusted.
So what does a full stack developer look like?
In all reality, what you actually get in a full stack developer, is someone who probably is good at one aspect of the stack and has dabbled into several other aspects. At best this is a generalist of sorts with something they are really good at. At worst is someone who watched half a dozen YouTube tutorials about 6 different things that has declared themselves knowledgeable.
Most of the IT people I know have a career that looks something like 2-3-(3-5)n. That fancy equation is that they spend time like:
- 2 years being useless but getting better everyday.
- 3 years on a specific technology. They realize it does not fit quite right and pick a new direction and redirect to:
- 3-5 years working on that new direction
- Repeat every 3-5 years doing something different n times.
Sometime that different thing is a minor variation of what they know how to do and sometimes it a major change. Server and PC Support, database and networking people don’t seem to have the career pattern like that. This appears to be a developers pattern. The exception is mainframe developers. They don’t seem to do anything but follow that one path. I’m sure a legacy of times of career stability giving you the advantage of becoming insanely skilled at one thing.
Then what you are saying is don’t hire full stack developers?
After all that, I have still failed to get my thoughts out. Because HR departments don’t understand IT and because management does not understand IT, we get descriptions that are foolish. Because people see the foolishness they change their resumes to reflect what the HR department says. Before you know it, everyone is buzzing around each other with 4 page resumes and job classifieds that require 80 years of experience to fulfill what they want.
At the end of the day, what you want is someone who is smart and will fit into your work culture. Very few people need the best. They need the best fit with their team.
Kids with less than 2 years experience, you are not full stack developers. Stop claiming to be.
If configuring WordPress plugins and setting up WordPress on a hosting account is your thing. You are not a full stack developer.
Because I have seen so many graphic design people claim it because of WordPress knowledge and so may kids out of school claim it, To me it’s just a made up word. A bullshit word so HR people can wear a suit and a tie and have a job.
I am channeling my inner Red on that one but that is how I feel.
Finally, my advice is to keep using it because IT and HR managers only speak buzzword so without them you will never get to the interview. Without the interview you don’t get the job. It is just such a damn shame that we cannot speak the truth to each other and instead pretend to be a full stack developers or maybe the Loch Ness Monster. Is it any wonder this profession is plagued with imposter syndrome.