I’m sure you’ve heard how important STEM is. You’ve also probably heard that people with STEM careers typically do pretty well financially. But what you might not have heard is what STEM actually is.
What does “STEM” mean?
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a broad term used to group together these academic disciplines.This term is typically used to address an education policy or curriculum choices in schools.
STEM workers use their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, or math to try to understand how the world works and to solve problems..
Here’s some of STEM jobs :
- Computer Programmer
- Web Developer
- Statistician
- Petroleum Engineer
- Medical Scientist
- Data Scientist
- Software Engineer
- Biomedical Engineer
Since i’m a software engineering student who is willing to choose full stack web development as a specialty, i would like to shed a light on it in this post.
What Is a Full Stack Developer & What Do They Do?
Full stack technology refers to the entire depth of a computer system application, and full stack developers straddle two separate web development domains: the front end and the back end.
The front end includes everything that a client, or site viewer, can see and interact with. By contrast, the back end refers to all the servers, databases, and other internal architecture that drives the application; usually, the end-user never interacts with this realm directly.
Is web development important an important field in STEM ?
According to the Digital 2019 report, a typical person spends 6 hours and 42 minutes online every day. The rise of the internet has revolutionized how we live and communicate and moved most of us to live a digitally-driven lifestyle. This is now exacerbated as we live in a ‘new normal’ because of the COVID-19 pandemic where we are pushed more than ever to rely on the internet for entertainment, education, employment, and livelihood among others.
With everyone depending on the internet for their access to necessities and supplies (i.e., food, appliances, medicines, clothes, among other products and services), website development has become more crucial to any business success. Website development is one of the ways to ensure the success of your business by informing people of products and services your business offers, getting to know your (possible) customers better, and understanding how to improve your product and service further
Having an online presence is no longer an option for businesses, it is a requirement!
What makes “Full Stack Web Developer” position interesting and unique?
Web Developers are artists
Web Developers are able to create something tangible out of an abstract idea. They’re like an amalgamation of painters, musicians, and cinematographers with insane technical skills that those who don’t know how to code are perplexed by.
Web Developers know how to use Google
Google and Stack Overflow are like the Bible for Web Developers, and man do they know how to use it right. They’ve spent months learning how to code on their own, getting frustrated, going back to Google, rewriting their code, testing it out, seeing it doesn’t look right, going back to Google…the cycle goes on…meaning that they’ve become experts in Google.
Web Developers are problem solvers
They’ve been given complex tasks and highly specific briefs from clients where they’ve had to just ‘work it out’. Though to some, this might seem like a nightmare, they’ve come to love the challenge and revel in the prospect of expanding their skills and knowledge base whilst delivering an impressive project. ‘Problems’ are no longer problems but challenges to be accepted and conquered.
Web Developers are digital nomads
As all a Web Developer really needs is a laptop, they are free to work anywhere in the world. Not only are they able to work from home, a coffee shop, co-working space, or on-the-go, they don’t actually need to be anywhere near their client or the rest of their team, so long as they have a strong internet connection, they can be very mobile.
Web Developers use alternative mental models
Web Developers have completely different mindsets to those who don’t program. Through the act of programming and using an entirely different language, they have the ability of seeing the world from another perspective, helping them to solve seemingly complex problems in any area of life.
What specific programming languages and tools could one expect to work with in this position?
While the demands of a full stack developer’s role will depend on their specific industry and job, all will need to have the same core set of front and back end development skills.
Front End Development
The requirements for front end development are always evolving as new technologies are introduced; however, there are a few front end skills that all full stack developers should master.
This universal front end skill set includes:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- DOM Manipulation
Back End Development
Back end development refers to the work that goes on behind the scenes of a site or application — the underlying architecture of the product.
To accomplish this goal, back end developers must have a robust set of foundational skills. This should include:
- Java
- Object-Oriented Programming
- SQL/NoSQL
- Python
What is an example of a problem or a challenge someone in this role could solve or be asked to work on?
A process as complex as product software development comes with its own set of challenges . challenges that you might encounter every day, challenges that need to be addressed almost immediately to reduce the impact they have on your end product.
So, I've identified the biggest challenges for software product companies
Challenge 1: Project Infrastructure
Challenge 2: Development Expectations and Outcome
Challenge 3: Adapting the Latest Market Trends
Challenge 4: System & Application Integration
Challenge 5: Project Management
What are some positives and negatives about this position?
What are the advantages of a full stack developer?
1- They can carry out several tasks
A full stack developer has in-depth knowledge of how different stages of the software development projects must be carried out. In addition to that, they possess several skills such as front-end,back-end, QA testing code architecture and UI/UX design. . Therefore, they have diverse skills to work on different projects. They could learn it in a full stack developer course.
2- Preferable for Small Budget Projects
When a company hires a full stack developer, they are able to cut their costs on development projects. The reason being that, such developers can work on various processes. Therefore, the cost of each project is minimized.
3- Adaptability
A full stack developer is usually well-versed with the front-end and back-end technologies. That means that they can work on client-side and server-side when required. Therefore, they are adaptable and can switch to projects on either side whenever it is required
A full stack developer may be able to work on various projects. However, they have some disadvantage too.
Disadvantages of being a full stack developer
1- Under productivity and time management
The first disadvantage is that if a company relies on just one or two full-stack developers, it may lead to several tasks piling up over a certain period of time. Therefore, It could also lead to unproductivity and bad time management.
2- Not able to keep up with the trends
A full stack developer generally works across different processes, fields and skills. Therefore, it is a challenge for them to keep up-to date with the latest development trends, tools and technologies.
3- Confusion about their responsibilities
In full stack development team, a developer tends to take too much workload. As a result, they forget to divide their workload into smaller tasks. Therefore, they tend to get confused about their responsibilities in a certain project.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Now more than ever before, full stack developers have risen to prominence in the development world as companies increasingly rely on their versatile mix of expertise and generalization. Aspiring programmers now face a tremendous opportunity to build rewarding careers in a growing industry.
So, what are you waiting for? Consider your educational opportunities and start pursuing a career in full stack development today.
