What is the Future of a Full-Stack Web Developer?

Full-stack development is an increasingly lucrative career, in both Indian and international markets today. It’s challenging, growth-oriented and pays well– the national average annual salary in India for a full-stack web developer is nearly ₹10L, and the amount only increases the higher you go.

It’s also a highly in-demand job profile, now that a lot of businesses are making the transition to web- and mobile-based applications and need experts to develop and handle said products. The skills required to become a full-stack web developer may depend on the job role you’re applying for, but there are a few basics that every hopeful is expected to have:

Knowledge of back-end programming language like Ruby, Java and Python
Experience in front-end technologies like Angular, LESS and ReactJS
A more-than-basic understanding of interface, product and UI/UX design
Web server knowledge such as Apache or Nginx
Some level of expertise with database systems such as Oracle, Redis or MySQL

These basics essentially cater to the fundamental role of a full-stack web developer– to seamlessly coordinate between the presentation, logic and data layers of a project, be it a website or an application. There’s no one way to pick up the skills required– some may learn these at school, while yet others pick them up through practice during a full-stack web developer course. Digital and in-classroom courses make it easier for aspirants to transition between fields, thereby also servicing the extensive demand for a skilled and trained full-stack web developer.

Why are Full Stack Developers in Demand?

A good full-stack web developer brings both skills and problem-solving capabilities to the organisation table. The field involves adapting to increasingly innovative technologies and using them to leverage current resources and power projects to a higher level. On the budgeting front, full stack web developers are sought out because many firms cannot accommodate a large technological or engineering team.

Roles become more specialised as organisations grow, but a full-stack web developer is any start-up’s answer to the question of building marketable products without cutting things fine on the financial end. This is because these developers are well-versed in every layer of a tech stack, so it makes it that much easier and quicker for start-ups to release Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), the sales of which can contribute to expanding the team and getting dedicated resources. Small wonder, then, that CTOs and VPs of large corporations often started off as full-stack web developers!

All of this makes full-stack developers one thing– flexible. They ideally can jump from project to project without costing too much in overheads, but have enough valuable knowledge and expertise to ensure products are working smoothly and any hiccups are ironed out.

What is the Future of a Full Stack Web Developer?

The future of full-stack development is continuous learning. Technology becomes more advanced and complex by the day, so it falls on the developers to keep abreast of these changes while understanding how best to put them to use in the business.

The demand is set to skyrocket, too. In the US alone, the number of jobs in full-stack development will cross 8,53,000 by 2024. Multiply that manifold and you’ve got a figure that’s indicative of how fruitful the field is. According to a report by Indeed, the full-stack web developer ranks at number 2 on their list of most in-demand job roles.

It’s not just the start-ups that demand full-stack developers for their products. Even the tech industry’s biggest names– the likes of Apple, Coding Dojo and Facebook– are on the lookout of full-stack web developers, software engineers and product managers to flesh out their already substantial tech teams.

The future of full-stack web development is moving out of classrooms and onto the field. While the basics of each layer can be taught at school or university, actually applying these and firefighting with these skills as your arsenal is where your experience grows unbridled.

Many developers, software engineers and tech personnel are choosing to beef up their resumes by undergoing courses that teach them these skills as well as allow them to use them during real-life projects, case studies and industry training.

Although quite a few doomsday predictions have been floating around about full stack development falling out of favour, it remains quite undoubtable that it’s job profile sought out by the big and mighty of the modern world.