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General Discussion

getting hired with a Techdegree

which tech degree will get you a job faster the front end or full stack tech degree? I understand that the degree itself won't get you a job , but which will make you more employable based on the projects and what you will learn.

2 Answers

This is a bit of a tough question to truly answer. I don't think either one will inherently get you a job faster. Both tech degrees are useful and a lot of it will hinge on personal preferences and what interests you the most. There is also a case to be made for what the market in your area (or wherever you a looking) needs. In Philadelphia there is a huge need for .Net developers and for mid-level React developers so someone who is a full-stack .Net developer with moderate React skills is extremely desirable here.

Many of the companies here that hire full-stack still supplement their teams with front end specialists which I'll get into why that is in a bit.

The front end degree is focused on the front end much like the name implies. This degree will have a bigger emphasis on things like design, usability, accessibility, and layouts. You'll learn a lot about SVGs, animations, CSS preprocessors, and a lot of the other tools that aid front end development. Plenty of companies need good deep diving front end developers and there is no great supply of them.

While full stack developers can do a lot of the same things front end developers do, they don't generally have the deep knowledge that a full time FED might possess. I actually encounter this a lot at some of the enterprise clients I work with where the .Net developers who can also write React lack a lot of accessibility and design knowledge.

The full stack degree will focus on the same basics of HTML/CSS/JS but go much deeper into the business layer of web applications such as APIs, networking, databases, and how to write secure JavaScript. It will also show you the tools necessary to excel at full stack development like using debuggers.

Just like with front end developers, companies also need full stack developers especially on very high level enterprise applications. This is because it helps having developers who understand the infrastructure and how to couple it to the front end.

I highly encourage people to pursue whatever it is that interests them the most because that will give them the drive necessary to succeed anywhere. That doesn't mean exclusively focus on niche things like ThreeJS (though I know people who exclusively work with it), ensure that it at least makes some sense given the current job market. So if you see a good mix of both front end and full stack jobs in your are, choose whatever interests you the most. If it is only full-stack jobs, it might make sense to pursue that so you are at least on the same level as the rest of the job market.

stjarnan
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.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
stjarnan
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 56,488 Points

I would like to jump in and +1 Luke Pettway's comment, very good post!

Is there any one of the two suggested techdegrees that get you a bit more excited? Then go with that one and you will be ok!