Course request for higher salary: Angular.js and Node.js

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for contributing to this topic!

I understand Rhys Yorke's concern. For example, I spent a vast amount of time perfecting my Backbone.js skills, in hindsight I wish I had spent that time learning Angular. The web technology landscape will keep changing forever (thankfully!) but at this moment it is clear Angular has won the MVC framework popularity contest by a landslide.

• A few examples: https://www.angularjobs.com/angularjs-job-graph.png courtesy of agularjobs.com

• And http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-5&q=angularjs%2C%20backbonejs%2C%20emberjs%2C%20knockoutjs&date=today%2012-m&cmpt=q

• Also, https://github.com/angular/angular.js starred 23,635 times vs https://github.com/jashkenas/backbone/ starred 17,937 times vs https://github.com/emberjs/ember.js starred 10,141 times, all at the time of writing.

• And being backed by Google probably doesn't hurt their longevity either.

I have been on an intense job search the last 2-3 weeks and it is clear that in today's landscape Angular.js & Node.js developers are among the highest paid positions available. Substantially beating Ruby on Rails positions and rivaling the salaries of C and Java software engineers. If you were to compare full stack JavaScript positions to the more commonly considered web designer positions requiring HTML, CSS, jQuery, WordPress, PHP etc you'll see about double the salary being offered.

On a more speculative note, with frameworks like Ionic on the horizon the idea of a combination of Angular.js, Socket.io and Node.js being used to create a new generation of web AND native apps, the idea of full stack web developers crossing over into the native market and, who knows, maybe one day even becoming the holy grail of all app development, does not sound entirely unrealistic.

With this in mind it might be wise for Treehouse to jump on this trend early and capitalize on the rather basic offering in education on these topics found scattered around the web these days, to truly establish itself as an industry leader.

Thanks so much for chiming in! We've actually been thinking a lot about this. Copying in some of our Teachers who decide on our dev curriculum: Andrew Chalkley, Dave McFarland, Jason Seifer, Kenneth Love

Posting here just to add that I would love to see this happen as well.

I would also like to see these featured.

One concern, at least as far as Angular is concerned, is that v. 2.0 is in the works so if a course is designed it would/should(?) be released soon-ish or else wait till later in the year to embrace Angular 2.0, although this would open a whole other can of worms via ES6.

I'm not sure if this concern is pertinent however and I would still like to see this happen sooner than later.

It's tough - I don't envy Ryan Carson and the folks at Treehouse who do the course planning. Front-end technologies change so quickly it's extremely hard to keep up. By the time you go through the full production process for a video, you're out of date. So the cost vs return..? I believe this is why the Treehouse workshops were created.

Perhaps, one way to address this would be with a weekly tutorial show much like the Treehouse Show, but with each episode focusing on a new technology/topic. Similar to the way that workshops work now, but going into more depth. Angular.js might run a multi-part series over the course of a few weeks for instance.

"For example, I spent a vast amount of time perfecting my Backbone.js skills, in hindsight I wish I had spent that time learning Angular."

Excellent point. I believe this is why the Treehouse folks are careful when choosing which technologies to focus on. Many people come to Treehouse without a backgroup in development at all, so they look to Treehouse to not only show them how to learn development, but also what to learn.

Having said that, I think Angular.js would make for an excellent addition.

For those anxious to get going, Code School just launched a very nice introduction to Angular.js, Sponsored by google themselves. https://www.codeschool.com/

It is however just the first part of a series and not in depth enough to get you ready for professional Angular.js development.

Can't wait for the Angular/Node tutorials!

+1 for Angular and Node. Would absolutely love to see it. I'm going to be learning both wherever that may be - and Treehouse is my favorite environment.

Really looking forward to these courses!