If you really believe that I think my story will blow your mind.
I've been a full stack developer since my very first job creating a Java based web app for a startup where the only other coder was the CIO. The CIO didn't know Java and primarily worked on C/C++ embedded code for unrelated projects. Back at this time raw Java servlets were still "the thing" and javascript with jQuery was state of the art on the front end. With just these primitive tools I built a fairly modern even by today's standards reactive web app. Lots of stuff loaded dynamically based on user interaction without switching pages. It was a legit web app, not just a web page. Actually, I was more than a full stack developer. I was also the sysadmin, dba, and network engineer. I physically installed the hardware at the AT&T data center, created a DMZ with the firewalls, configured load balancers, installed the DB and set up a hot backup, literally everything that needs to get done to make a working web application. There was no one around to learn from, it was all web searches: how to secure Apache, how to set up certificates, how to create indexes on the database... everything.
I ultimately decided I prefer back-end development so that's where I spend most of my time these days. However, in recent years I've picked up Angular and Backbone because sometimes the front end team needs some extra bandwidth and being able to help out is really valuable. I'm not as good at that stuff as the dedicated front end guys. I certainly didn't do as good of a job setting up the network or eeking out max performance on the database at my first job as dedicated professionals would have. But I got the job done at a professional quality level. My first job was surely a rather unique experience, but everywhere I've worked multiple people on the team have been comfortable all the way up and down the coding stack, even if they might have specialized in just one area.
This actually sounds pretty ideal for someone early in their career. Having to do that much must have been a great learning experience -- one of the perks at working at a startup.
Definitely. In spite of the insane hours I worked sometimes to keep that ship a float, it was a really amazing and unique experience. I feel really lucky to have started out there. I left the company about 13 years ago and the product is still running and profitable. I did one rewrite from raw servlets to Struts while I was there. They've tried two rewrites since I left to get it into more modern tech, but both rewrites failed, so a LOT of my code lives on. That's a really great feeling knowing that something I created is still valuable and useful over a decade later.
I've been a full stack developer since my very first job creating a Java based web app for a startup where the only other coder was the CIO. The CIO didn't know Java and primarily worked on C/C++ embedded code for unrelated projects. Back at this time raw Java servlets were still "the thing" and javascript with jQuery was state of the art on the front end. With just these primitive tools I built a fairly modern even by today's standards reactive web app. Lots of stuff loaded dynamically based on user interaction without switching pages. It was a legit web app, not just a web page. Actually, I was more than a full stack developer. I was also the sysadmin, dba, and network engineer. I physically installed the hardware at the AT&T data center, created a DMZ with the firewalls, configured load balancers, installed the DB and set up a hot backup, literally everything that needs to get done to make a working web application. There was no one around to learn from, it was all web searches: how to secure Apache, how to set up certificates, how to create indexes on the database... everything.
I ultimately decided I prefer back-end development so that's where I spend most of my time these days. However, in recent years I've picked up Angular and Backbone because sometimes the front end team needs some extra bandwidth and being able to help out is really valuable. I'm not as good at that stuff as the dedicated front end guys. I certainly didn't do as good of a job setting up the network or eeking out max performance on the database at my first job as dedicated professionals would have. But I got the job done at a professional quality level. My first job was surely a rather unique experience, but everywhere I've worked multiple people on the team have been comfortable all the way up and down the coding stack, even if they might have specialized in just one area.