Why Be A Full Stack Developer?
Tags: webdev, career, discuss
Published: 2019-02-16 16:23:34

---
title: Why Be A Full Stack Developer?
description: Why Be A Full Stack Developer Through Skill Stacking
tags: webdev, career, discuss
canonical_url: https://www.maxongzb.com/why-be-a-full-stack-developer-reading-time-3-mins
---

![Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/6rzy6fwu7yll6khqk5og.jpg)

# Introduction
There seem to be lots of hate for full stack developers nowadays. Which usually very catchy and negative titles like "Full Stack Developer is a Scam", "Death of Full Stack Developer".

So I'm writing it here to address this negativity. Hopefully, it might serve to encourage more developers to think of the role as not just a generalist role.

# Why the Hate for Full Stack Developers?
If I were to summarise it, it comes to down to **two** things. 

The first one is due to **salary reasons** as a **generalist**, you are paid a minuscule amount of pay for multiple different types of work. 

Whereas being a specialist namely **frontend** or **backend** can be paid a lot more for a single specialisation.

Whereas being a full stack developer, it is much harder to master every single piece of required knowledge as a Frontend or a Backend developer.

# Skill Stacking
I really like the term **skill stacking** which I had heard about it from the **Jordan Harbinger show**. 

As it encompasses what it is actually like to be a **full stack developer**. Namely **developing skills** to **blend** it uniquely to allow yourself to stay out from the crowd.

Like for example, you can be the top 10 or 20% best front-end developer who specialises in React that has a stiff competition due to its popularity. 

Whereas it is much easier for you to blend another which is a top 80% skill like for example conducting **design sprints** or building **design systems**.  

Instantly due to your understanding of it, allows you to stand out from the crowded field of front-end developers. 

To provide React prototypes in the use of **design sprints** or a consultant who creates **design systems** in various companies to scale their design teams. 

Which by my count allows you to paid very **differently** due to your successful **blending** of these two skills.

If you are not convinced just look at the job of a **Data Scientist* in the Data Science. 

Which is considered the sexist's job in the 21st century that is a direct result of the blending these specialisations that people would pay a premium for it.

# Jacks of All Trades and Master of One
To me, being a full stack developer usually comes with a **single** core specialised skill. 

Which through the use of **skill stacking** allows them to provide a **unique perspective** to develop and ship software.

I can build the front-end myself for a web app or delegate it to my front-end developer.

Who could build it at a much faster pace and better job than me in React or Angular.

Which free myself up that allows me to become better in my craft which is to create REST APIs.

Using tools like **Postman** and **OpenAPI** to prototype and create the APIs in **Flask** or **Django REST** framework.

# Conclusion
I hope that there would be more future articles that talks about full stack developer who focus on **skill stacking**.

Clearly, I am not the only **unicorn** as a full stack developer. Since through my work and helping out for developer meetups in Singapore.

I had come across multiple skills stackers as well. From a senior developer who focuses on providing a video recording of various meetups called **Engineers.SG** to help in upgrading the developer's skillsets. 

Another one is my colleagues at work creates excellent documentation due to her previous knowledge from the **legal** profession and could tackle the **openssl** library with ease.

# References
* [Engineers SG][1]
* [Death of the Full Stack Developer][2]
* [Full Stack Is a Scam Term][3]
* [How to Build an Edge: Develop Your Talent Stack][4]
* [Data Scientist the Sexiest Job Of the 21st Centuary][5]
* [Skill Stacking And The Keys To Success | Be Investable][6]

If you like my article either sign up for max [adventurer's newsletter](http://eepurl.com/dOUoUb) or you can **follow** to get the **latest** update of my article on **Dev** 

This post was originally posted on max's blog at [Why Be A Full Stack Developer? (Reading Time: 3 Mins)](https://www.maxongzb.com/why-be-a-full-stack-developer-reading-time-3-mins/) and [Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/L8SNwGUNqbU)

[1]: https://engineers.sg/
[2]: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/death-full-stack-developer-mikkel-l%C3%B8kke/
[3]: https://dev.to/entrptaher/fullstack-developer-is-a-scam-term-3bl2
[4]: https://personalexcellence.co/blog/talent-stack/
[5]: https://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century
[6]: https://soundcloud.com/mi-biz-network/jordan-harbinger-skill-stacking-and-the-keys-to-success-be-investable