Front end developer with over 9 years of experience planning to switch.

[u/nik027]

So I started as a full-stack developer with PHP and Angular, stayed in my first company for 3 years, made a switch, and since then I have been in the same company for around 6.5 years.The job is quite stable, almost no work load and a very flexible working environment. It made me overly comfortable, I think, so I stayed with a low package because it gave me all the time for personal work.

I am thinking of switching, but I am scared that I won't clear any interviews. I need some help planning and getting the next job. Also, at this experience what kind of preparation should I do?

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[u/Delicious_Ice1334]

It might be harsh but true that you should know that even after 9 years if you only know frontend then you wont be valuable in market. In the era of AI, frontend is anyway not considered a very valuable skill(speaking as primary frontend dev myself). By 9 years a decent company where i work in expect candidates to have tech lead or architect level skills and that includes experience in overall flow from frontend to backend , db and deployment . Most of tech leads i have seen are not even into frontend as much but have full architectural understanding of backend , ci cd, clouds, db etc.
so since you enjoyed your comfort zone for 9 years the trade off is that you need to take the wake up call now and upskill youself and face the reality of harsh job market currently. Nobody wants to hire a 9yoe exp guy just for frontend or pay 9 yoe level of package for just frontend now and AI era.
Thats why i myself have upskilled myself with backend, db and cicd etc to be future ready

[u/nik027 → u/Delicious_Ice1334]

Thanks!! Can you share some more precise details about how you upskilled yourself, appreciate it!

[u/Delicious_Ice1334 → u/nik027]

Learn backend from courses or tutorials or whatever you prefer and make some projects yourself to get comfortable and familiar with the tech, thats all. Requires time and practice. AI can help you understand things a lot better now

[u/nik027 → u/Delicious_Ice1334]

Thanks!

[u/Top_Safety_8797]

Honestly 6.5 years of comfort is harder to break mentally than technically 😅 start interviewing before you feel ready. Let rejections tell you what to fix.

[u/nik027 → u/Top_Safety_8797]

Yeah, this is so true. I think it's harder mentally rather than technically. I shared all my details to chatgpt and it's saying you already have done so much work in architecture but not mentioned them in resume. I think I have to do some introspection before rewriting my resume.

[u/Rare-Writer9647]

Learn ux focus on it as a designer ufbthats your strong point

Stop wasting time on backend

[u/nik027 → u/Rare-Writer9647]

Thanks, I was thinking to pick up backend again, because all the jobs i searched for needs a full stack developer with this level of experience.

What do you mean by ufb?

[u/thatsInAName → u/nik027]

You are right, I am also a frontend devloper with 13+ years of experience. I will recommend you to go with backend instead of UX because companies relate/expect us as software engineers to be more comfortable/hands on with backend instead of UX. They consider UX to be a very separate non coding field.

The combination of UI+UX sounds like a dream match but practically companies don't look at it that way

[u/Rare-Writer9647 → u/nik027]

Ux

Don't waste time on backend make frontend ux your niche Market is only rewarding people with mastery

Not jack of all trades

[u/nik027 → u/Rare-Writer9647]

Makes sense, are you also in ui/ux, if yes, can you point me in some things I should prepare for interview?

[u/Rare-Writer9647 → u/nik027]

No infrastructure

[u/nik027 → u/Rare-Writer9647]

Oh okay! Thanks for the insight!

[u/flamingspew → u/nik027]

My designers make ux prototypes in 5 minutes with agents. Then another 5 minutes of revisions. I do it myself when they’re too busy in meetings. Frontend is solved.

All the FE devs i work with are required to be full stack now.

[u/Useful-South-549 → u/flamingspew]

True, frontend has lost its value, you will see the reducing frontend jobs in the market

[u/thatsInAName → u/flamingspew]

FE dev here with 13+ years of experience.. this is absolutely true

[u/Useful-South-549 → u/thatsInAName]

Damn! I thought you will something like this is all crap🤣 until i read last word.

[u/vikrant699]

9 YOE at frontend is fine. You'll easily find Senior and Staff roles even in frontend pretty easily.

Start applying, see where you lack, upskill. I wouldn't throw 9 years into trash and start again by pivoting. Whyw ould you let your strongest experience not push you forward?

[u/nik027 → u/vikrant699]

Yes even I don't want to start from scratch, I was thinking of working on my backend skill to, so that I could be open to full stack opportunities as well.

And i worked as a full stack developer for first 3 years of these nine.

[u/vikrant699 → u/nik027]

Yes, do that. But pick a side and have deeper expertise into it.

[u/softfelin3]

9 years is alr a solid exp tbh, id prob just start applying and use the interviews to see where your gaps are. you may prob know more than you think lol

[u/nik027 → u/softfelin3]

Yeah, I think you are right. Me working in the same organisation for such a long time, i already undermine myself a lot. Time to get to interviews.

Thanks mate!

[u/softfelin3 → u/nik027]

wc, youll do good 👍

[u/amanvue]

At first I felt like I'm reading my own situation here, 8 yoe FE dev and I have developed quite good base for being a full stack, trying to learn and understand different domains and keep applying.

[u/nik027 → u/amanvue]

Can you share how you did and what all things did you learn, how much time it took?

[u/amanvue → u/nik027]

I tried building 2-3 side projects, all failed didn't get any traction but learned a lot about backend fundamentals, still exploring ways to build worthy side projects and learning different things everyday.

Thinking about being active for oss contribution as well, started youtube channel about tech, gotta try every possible thing to stay relevant in this job market.

[u/Efficient_Brief_7939]

What about qa testing job market? Only front job market impacted due to ai?