In the world of IT-technologies, everything is very fast-paced and changeable. New methods, languages, approaches to writing and testing codes first appear, then quickly give way to even more recent ones, and this process is continuous. A generalist should keep track of it, keep abreast of modern approaches, because this is what employers usually require.
Too much responsibilities
An employer, when hiring a Full-stack programmer, often puts forward too many requirements. You can see ads that say “Node.js + React.js + React Native”, that is, the specialist is also expected to use mobile development technologies. It is clear that this does not reflect in the best way on the result and on the very quality of knowledge. The man grabs them on top. And there is not always an interest in this or that direction, because you cannot like everything at once.
They throw you at all embrasures
Often, the employer strives to hang literally everything on the Full-stack master: correct the code written by others, modify something, fix errors, take on the duties of a front- or backender (because he is on vacation), etc. etc. Or even you are hired alone instead of the five necessary specialists.
You are assigned tasks that are too difficult
Are you a generalist? Well, then, all the most difficult tasks are for you to complete, who else?
High loading rate
This has already been discussed many times in the previous paragraphs. Be prepared for the fact that you will have a lot of work, to put it mildly, and moreover, every day.
Disadvantages of the Full-stack Web Developer Profession
Disadvantages of the Full-stack Web Developer Profession
Replacement will be a problem.
On the one hand, irreplaceability is your trump card, and on the other hand, it is also a disadvantage. Yes, you will be a valuable employee at your employer, but it will be very difficult to find a replacement during the holidays. Tasks will definitely come up that cannot be delegated to other programmers, so be prepared for constant calls and twitching even on vacation.
So, Full-stack Developer is a generalist developer with knowledge and skills in both FrontEnd and BackEnd. Perhaps narrow specialists have a deeper understanding of their fields and are able to make their part of the work more beautiful. But the strength of a Full-stack developer is that he can take on a project from scratch and bring it to full readiness.
Of course, Full-stack Web Development has its pros and cons. But here, as they say, there would be a desire. Dare, study, do not spare time and effort for this – and you will get your hands on a modern, interesting, in-demand and promising profession.
Why did we choose React Native for mobile app development?
At the moment, there are many technologies with which you can create your own mobile application, and many of them are hard to call bad.
I will consider only the most popular development tools:
Ionic/Cordova (webview)
Swift/Kotlin (native development)
Flutter
React Native
Webview frameworks – Ionic/Cordova
It was not in vain that I started with webview frameworks, since I want to immediately cut off the obvious. We put a lot of emphasis on optimization, user experience and mobile guidelines in our products, often you need to use the device’s native API. Unfortunately, this is not about webview.
Swift/Kotlin (native development)
Based on the arguments given why webview is not suitable for us, we can assume that native development is what we need. But the problem lies not only in technical requirements, but also in business tasks. We are a startup, and in a startup you always need to be fast and cheap, and native development is not about that at all 🙁
The support of two platforms by different developers with approximately the same design sounds like something irrational, albeit with a deposit for the long term, but for a startup it may not come, so this option has disappeared by itself.
Flutter
This is the most fashionable and relevant thing on the market, it would be great to start writing mobile applications using Flutter, but there is one big BUT. The market for developers of this technology is too small, especially those with knowledge of the Russian language. And there was also a big pain, since it was not clear how to interview him, since no one in the team was particularly familiar with both the Dart language and the Flutter framework.
React Native
And here it is, our golden mean! Here, the market is large relative to Flutter, and you can reach the native API if you try, and 2 developers work on the same codebase, although there is a small error in the size of the application and optimization relative to native development.
Everyone who is faced with the need to create a mobile application faces the problem of choosing between native and cross-platform development. On the one hand, the advantages of cross-platform frameworks are obvious – this is speed, and, accordingly, democratic cost. On the other hand, you have to pay for the time spent with performance and compatibility, which for many people tip the scales in favor of native languages.
To understand where and what type of development would be more convenient, I talked with Head of iOS at Tango, CTO/Founder at Seagull, Alexander Poddubny. He spoke about the nuances of different approaches. This information will allow you to understand which approach would be preferable in a particular case.