Full Stack Developer

What is a Full Stack Developer?

If you are in search of a new career path or you are a student who doesn’t know what major to choose to obtain skills for a well-paying profession, we are here to help! In this post, we are discussing who is a Full Stack Developer and what skills and certifications to obtain to apply for such jobs. And of course, here we will also talk about the salaries.
 

What is Full Stack Web Development?

A Full Stack developer is a universal programmer able on their own to develop a fully functional product from scratch. It means that such a specialist has skills both in Back-end and Front-end programming, i.e., hardware and software creation and maintenance and user interface designing, respectively.

Actually, the separation into Back-end and Front-end programmers occurred only around ten years ago, when software products became multi-layered and multi-levelled structures. Before that, the majority of coders had been implementing the duties of a Full-Stack expert, albeit nobody called them so.

Nowadays, companies seek such versatile specialists due to several reasons. For instance, a project isn’t very complicated technically but demands repeated changes in implementation. It means that the tasks are numerous but aren't difficult, so dividing them among several employers would be time-consuming and confusing. It is easier to have one specialist who can manage the whole system at once. Or, a company needs not a readymade product but an MVP (minimum viable product), a simplified version of the future product that is used to collect feedback for final software revision. In such a case, a single specialist is better because, in the need of constant alterations, there will be much fewer misunderstandings and downtime.

Another situation is when a company doesn’t have the budget for several developer teams, so the more universal employers are preferred to mitigate the risks, especially if it is not an active product development phase.
There could be different causes why companies seek a diversified developer, but the profession is highly demanded and is well-paid, and that's a fact.

How to become a full stack developer in India?

• Choose your way of education (books, online courses)           

• Get necessary skills for front-end.              

• Get necessary skills for back-end.              

• Try to create your own project for practice.              

• Build your full-stack developer resume.              

• Prepare for your full-stack developer interview.

• Apply for full stack internship or junior level position.

Essential Full Stack Developer skills

As discussed earlier, to be a specialist in this field, you need to combine Back-end and Front-end developer skills. Now let’s review them. Front-end devs work with the website layout. They are accountable for an attractive and user-friendly interface. To be able to perform the set tasks, the specialist needs the following minimal set of skills: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, JQuery, and TypeScript.

Additionally, a specialist should know how to work with React, Vue.js, and Angular and be able to create adaptive designs displayed adequately on different devices. An undoubted benefit would be the basic comprehension of User experience design and how customers will interact with a website or an app.

As for the Back-end part skills, they include:

• Proficiency in PHP, Python, Java, or other back-end languages.
• Ability to create and maintain client-server interaction, develop and work with API, analytics and databases.
• Ability to operate servers, hosting, clouds, network resources, and data access control.
• Proficiency in SQL, Docker, AWS, Jenkins, Hibernate, Service Fabric and other tools are often listed in the posted descriptions.
• Proficiency in relational and non-relational databases, queries, and XML/JSON data formats.
• Ability to perform code tests, including functional and unit tests.
• Comprehension of object-oriented programming, architecture, and Design Patterns.

To summarize, the main skills include:

• Server and hosting. Comprehension of server and hosting operating principles, knowledge of the file systems, cloud storage, control of data access, and network resources.
• Work with data. An expert should be able to design a steady data model, know different databases, and XML/JSON data formats.
• Back-end technologies. This includes proficiency in PHP, Python, or Ruby, and the ability to create stable client-server interaction, develop API, and work with analytics and related frameworks.
• User interface. The universal developer must know how to perfect the website layout using front-end instruments.
• UX development. The ability to revise and adapt UX is a crucial skill that at least at a basic level should be known by each specialist in the field. It is required to comprehend how the future user will interact with the product.

Full Stack Developer role

The common duties of Full Stack devs are the same as those of the programmers engaged in other areas, i.e., creating and implementing new system modules, reviewing code, fixing bugs, etc. But this role implies ensuring that all of the technical and visual components of the product are made from scratch to the MVP. So, basically, Full Stack specialists implement a role of a team of developers. Beyond these basics, a specialist needs to know how to create good, healthy, sandboxed development environments, both in Docker and virtual machines like Vagrant. Also, he or she must know version control to be able to create backups and join collections of code and track alterations over time.
 

Full Stack Developer requirements

We have already listed the skills needed to be a demanded expert in the field. So, in order to compete for the positions where such a specialist is needed, you need all of the mentioned skills and knowledge, although they can be at various levels. We mean that you don’t necessarily need to be a perfect, super-talented, and creative designer, and at the same time a proficient Back-end developer. It is sufficient to have basic skills working in any graphic editing software, at least a superficial comprehension of UX, and, of course, solid technical training.

Full Stack Developer certification

To apply for interesting jobs in the field, you don’t need special certifications. Many programmers are self-taught. However, it would be preferable to obtain a bachelor’s degree in computer science or mathematics. If self-learning is difficult for you, you can apply for various offline and online courses, use YouTube tutorials, and so on.

Full Stack Developer Salary in India

In India, the median yearly salary of professionals in the field is around ₹582,659, or $8,000. Young professionals with minimum expertise are paid around ₹276,000 or $3,800 a year. And experts working for more than ten years in the industry can earn around ₹1,000,000 or nearly $14,000 a year. According to the Payscale platform, salaries by city:

• Average full stack developer salary in Bangalore - ₹700,000 / year

• Average full stack developer salary in Ahmedabad - ₹657,000 / year

• Average full stack developer salary in Chennai - ₹600,000 / year

• Average full stack developer salary in Hyderabad-  ₹706,000 / year

• Average full stack developer salary in Pune -  ₹540,098 / year

Best companies for full-stack developers in India

• Cognizant Technology Solutions

• Mindtree

• Accenture

• Tata Consultancy Services

• Verizon

• American Express

• IBM

• Novartis

• Optum

• Indegene