I was just wondering myself… Where are coders most required nowadays? Does the market offer more or less equal opportunities, or is there more demand for back/front?
I started FreeCodeCamp two years ago, after a basic online python course. Finished bootstrap tutorials in a short time and then life got in the way (moved to a new city, manager duties arrived, so on…).
I’ve now decided I had enough of doing things I don’t like and came back to coding with full commitment. The Curriculum has undergone some serious changes (for better) since then, so I’m now doing the Javascript Algorithm modules.
Anyways, although I have enjoyed coding frontend stuff so far, I also share that lack of artistic talent that afflicts so many of us. So, bonus question: where are opportunities shining brighter for those that seek less “decorative” areas of coding?
Both, If you want to make it as a coder you should have an extensive tool belt. That doesn’t mean you need to be an expert in everything. You need to watch for trends and have a working knowledge of current technology.
It depends on what you mean by “back-end” and “front-end”. If we are talking just about web development, then the expectation is usually for some degree of both, but there are jobs that only require the front-end skills. If we broaden that to all programming, there are whole worlds of non-GUI development.
In practice frontend doesn’t require artistic ability 99% of the time: having to develop and design things from scratch while you’re learning will likely give a false impression here. Developers from a design background are relatively rare, not being from a design background is not an impediment at all, design is not development. Anecdata, but I’ve very rarely worked with other people who were originally designers or similar, and I’ve mainly worked in web front ends.
It depends. Just about everything has software, from motorcycles to supercomputers. C is still extremely relevant and on the other end of the scale, Python is continuing to grow in adoption. C++, Java, and C# are still bread-and butter languages. If you don’t have any interest in any particular type of programming and just want to learn the languages with most job postings in your area, you can look that up using job board sites.
So, C++, Java, and C# are the staple of programming. Python is the jam that is getting more and more popular, and C is that cheap comfort food that a lot of people are still attached to.
The sour question is: which one is the most delicious? With so many uses and recipes to try out, the newbie ( ̶c̶o̶o̶k̶ ) coder can be so overwhelmed that time keeps going by and no choice is made.
Damn, I should stop playing Overcooked for a while
I am aware that developing can be stressful, especially with all those arbitrary deadlines… But here is a question to experienced coders, for which I’m all ears: so far, where did you have more FUN?
I like the instant gratification of JavaScript. I like the way that Java/C# make intuitive sense to me and seem to be intelligently designed. My partner loves C for its transparency (and because they’re a control freak). Most of my coworkers favor C++ because it gives them the convenience of a higher-order language, but with lower-level control. Many of the testers I know love Python because they love writing quick and dirty scripts.
I mean, I know that choosing a programming language is all about preferences (all taste good to someone) and figuring out the tool that fits better for a given task.
What I want to know is the fastest path to get job-ready, considering the time investment needed to get the required mastery AND the job market. For, you know, when demand is bigger than supply, people get less selective.
We could hypothesize for instance that it would take one year for someone to go beyond “dabbling” in Python, or two years to get in the same level at Assembly.
However, if there are a lot of experienced Python devs in the market and few that can handle Assembly, and demand for both is the same, it would be faster to land a job going with Assembly.
Yeah, all that data is illustrative, and it’s a complex scenario to analyse…
C# doesn’t have anything to do with the other two. It’s designed to be like C++, but it isn’t a superset or version of C.
But this isn’t simple to answer, because the market is so disparate. Literally the only good advice would be to pick one popular language and get good at it (and note that tbh you can’t really master it until years into working with it on real things).
You can look at the most popular languages in terms of what is asked for in job adverts. So depending on which of the million and one surveys you look at, and if you only include general-purpose-ish languages (ie not SQL or HTML etc), you come out with a list that probably looks like Python, JS, Java, C#, C++, C, Ruby and Swift. But then each of those have specific uses and are are used in different sectors.
If you try to figure what, on average, is the most wanted by employers, then you’re going to come out with something that currently includes Go, Python, Typescript, JS, Scala, Kotlin, Objective-C, Swift, Ruby, PHP, R. Again, all have specific uses and relate to different sectors.
And then technologies are normally clustered (by sector and often language used): the above averages are just averages across countries, and mean much less locally (if there is a big employer that uses say Java, there will be lots of Java jobs in the area, not just for that employer).
This is hypothetical because that will never be the case, but yes, obviously. But basing learning in that is always a gamble because it isn’t possible to predict the future. Go, as things stands, seems to score the highest in terms of demand, which then is reflected in compensation. But then that can imply fashion and companies wanting to create DevOps roles, which in turn implies a whole set of skills that are discrete from say web UI programming. Python scores highly, but machine learning is very fashionable, so what % of the demand is that? Etc
Well, I suppose I’ll just finish FCC, do some nonprofits, and sip through a small library of books, whatever I find more interesting.
I’m also enrolling to get an Associate degree, and maybe after two years upgrade to a Computer Engineering Bachelors’. Let’s see if I can land a job within two years.
My current work features a decent wage (for Brazilian standards) but is draining out my soul
When we talk about developers there are two groups to mainly focus on one is front-end and the other one is back-end. Let me tell you the detailed functioning, programming, skills, earning of both the groups so that I can help you in making an efficient decision.
The basic meaning of both the terms is:-
Front-end Development: Front–end development shows how the website looks to the user.
Backend-development: Back-end development shows how the website works.
Let me explain this with an example. Let’s say you want to create a website for your business in that case how the site will look its layout, theme, graphics will come under the front-end and in the backend it t covers how the site database will be managed, it’s security, speed, etc.
Languages required
When it comes to front-end development mainly 3 languages u need to i.e HTML, CSS, and Javascript. In the backend development, the languages required are PHP, Ruby, Java, Python
Skills
When it comes to front-end development, the primary work of the developer is to work on the appearance and layout of the website. Developer should have knowledge of various designing tools such as Photoshop, Figma, etc.
Talking about the backend developer he/ she should possess typical thinking skill to solve all the bugs caused in the website.
Educational Needs
Frontend Developer
It requires creative skills.
It needs the study of images, content, and structure.
Languages: HTML, CSS, Javascript
Backend Development
Study of how things work.
Requires logical study
Languages: PHP, JAVA, C++
Cost of Hiring a Developer:
Whether it be any developer your cost increases with the proficiency of work you provide. It depends on the quality of work you deliver. How many years of experience you have etc.
True but one thing I’ve found difficult is show casing my work without a catchy front end. Unfortunately a good front end developer can literally blow everyone out of the water because that’s what clients see.
very early on, career-wise, when someone does not have experience, so needs something else to fill that gap. One of the other things that can be used demonstrate competency is polished frontends. However, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, because producing polished frontends does not automatically mean someone wil be a good developer, there are many other metrics. It is also extremely easy to game.
when someone is freelancing/contracting/running a business/etc as a frontend developer and designer, in which case they are selling their skill at producing highly polished UIs directly to clients, and to be succesful they need to demonstrate what they can do.
Otherwise, no.
Anecdotal (though I think this will be backed up by most other frontend developers with a little bit of experience): I mainly work frontend, I don’t have a showcase of work, and I have had very little problem getting jobs. I did have a website with work for my first job, where I was hired as a designer with basic HTML/CSS/JS skills, and that did help. But since then I have only applied for and worked development jobs, where it doesn’t matter – I provide a CV and a cover letter and any interviews I get are based on that. I can’t really show what I did previously, because it is not mine to show. I do need to emphasise that this is anecdotal – it is vaguely possible that I may just have been unfeasibly lucky – but I don’t think that is particularly likely.
Yeah, curriculum vitae gets used as a synonym for résumé a lot in Europe (even though, technically they’re different things, the latter is actually what I mean) – sorry, I should really say résumé
so true, This is the answer to the question, and emphasizing more design is another skill not compared to the front