Should You Specialize Or Not: Solving A Developer's Dilemma

Are you feeling stuck? 

You spend hours doing courses and side projects. You go to Meetups, you read dozens read books and articles on how to get better as a developer. 

Yet, you still feel like you are falling behind.

No matter how hard you work, you are still afraid of technical interviews.

At this point, you might think the problem is you. You don’t have what it takes to become a great software engineer. With mass tech layoffs going on every day and AI around the corner quitting seems like the only viable solution. 

Maybe go do something else, like becoming an organic farmer or so.

Not so fast.

Maybe the cause of your lack of progress is not a lack of skills. But a lack of balance in your skills. The reality is hundreds of developers suffer from such imbalances.

And most don’t even know it.

Skill imbalances happen when you know too much about one technology or framework and too little about everything else. Or when you know too many frameworks and technologies but none deeply enough.

This is partly due to the nature of developer jobs.

Most programming jobs focus on only one stage of the software development cycle.

For example, front-end developers mostly work in the front-end. And backend developers will rarely touch frontend code.

Because despite what they like to claim, companies usually pay you for what you are already good at. They pay you for results, not for learning. Switching projects that don’t match your specialization is almost impossible.

For example, there is a tendency for bigger companies to only give you tasks you can perform. There you will make fewer mistakes, which is great for business. As a consequence, you will get stuck in one part of the stack or one technology.

Smaller companies and startups on the other hand will push as many topics as possible into the hands of the developer. These companies have a lot to do and way too few people. There you run the risk of knowing a lot about everything, but a lot about nothing. 

This is why developers who worked in startups for a long time have a hard time when they go back to the job market. They are generalists in a market that loves specialists.

The reason why those skills imbalances go unsolved is because as long as you are still working on the same project or company those skills imbalances will not affect you. You have the skills needed to do the job. Everything is going great it seems. 

Because developers, like any human being, adapt their skills to their environment.

Yet, when one has to go to the market and get a new developer job, such imbalances become obvious. The market requires different skills. Sometimes wide, sometimes specialized.

Most developers realize that there is a skill gap after failing technical interviews.

But that might be too late. 

If you detect those skill gaps sooner, you will be able to fix your learning path and not face nasty surprises when looking for your next developer job.

To understand skill imbalances, we will first have to understand the different profiles of developers they create. And how to fix those gaps and get to the next level. 

Let’s start with the first and most basic type of developer skills imbalance…

1. The Jack/Jane of all trades

This is the kind of developer that knows a bit of everything, but a lot of nothing. You can usually find them as technical co-founders in startups—or freelance consultants. 

As the name says, this kind of developer gets their hands dirty with everything. Jack/Janes of all trades are extremely useful when it comes to building minimum viable projects, or projects with a short lifespan (like the ones web agencies receive). 

Yet, when the requirements get more complex, this developer lacks the technical depth required to get the job done. For example, advanced software topics like performance, testing, or architecture will be a challenge for Jack/Jane of all trades. 

The solution for this kind of software developer is to pick one technology and specialize.

This brings us to the next type of developer skill imbalance…

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2. The I-Shaped Developer 

The kind of developer that has technical depth in one part of the tech stack only. Which can make them incredibly productive in some situations and ineffective in others.

One example is the React developer, who has a very solid understanding of React, but once you take them out of a React codebase they are lost. Or the frontend developer that has never touched the full stack. 

For example, an I-shape skill distribution can make you incredibly productive in big companies. In big teams, specialization is king. Those kinds of teams need programmers who can solve very specific problems at scale. 

Think about the front-end developers at a big company like Meta. One small button on the home page might have a whole team working on it. Those developers are most likely highly specialized.

One thing I-Shape developers will constantly fall short of is seeing the bigger picture. As the saying goes, when you have a hammer all you see is nails. 

This kind of developer often lacks the generic skills and context to see beyond their specialization. This is why they get stuck at the Junior/Mid Level unless they progress to the next stage. 

3. The T-Shaped Developer

This is the type of developer every coder should aspire to become. They have very balanced skills. This includes a considerable technical depth in their specialization of choice paired with the generic skills to deliver end-to-end.

T-shaped developers are quick to adapt to changes and work independently. Many times they act as a bridge expertise across different development teams. They can communicate with both the backend and frontend team as they understand both. 

I would go as far as saying that in most software companies you won’t be considered a Senior Developer unless you are a T-Shape developer. This is why they are one of the most demanded developer profiles, even in the current market. 

4. The X-shaped developer 

Finally, the X-shaped developer is a person who has mastered the T-shape of different specializations and also has a lot of generic software skills. 

They are simultaneously technically deep into the front end, the back end, infrastructure, and software architecture. They know about the CSS DOM and they know about HTTP caching. They deliver projects end-to-end.

X-shaped Developers are the ones making the hard technical decisions in the team. Even if companies try to pull them into management, many choose to stay technical as staff and principal engineers. 

What sets them apart from most developers, is that due to their technical depth, they can operate at the edge of the tech stack. X-shaped engineers can deal with migrations, integrations, edge cases, and everything that Junior, Mid, and even Senior developers can’t get done.

Though not everyone can become an X-Shape developer, it is something that most software engineers should aim for.

This is it! 

Now you have a much clearer understanding of the types of developers out there depending on their skill distribution. Keep these mental models in mind when you are choosing new skills to learn or looking for a new developer job. 

If you are curious about which kind of developer you are, what are your technical gaps and what to do to improve, take this Free Technical Assessment. It will show you exactly what you are lacking.

Take care,

Dragos 

🚀 Interested in finding your technical gaps as a JavaScript Developer? Take this FREE Technical Assessment to find out what you need to focus on to get  to Senior and beyond. 🚀