Switching from Frontend To Backend As A Self-taught Dev

So, here's an email from one of our subscribers, and this is a developer that wanted to transition from a front-end developer to a back-end developer. I'm going to read it right now, and then we're going to dive deep into it. Hi Dragosh, my question is, how do I change from a front-end developer to a back-end developer? Uh I have experience mainly on the front-end. And so, if when I apply for roles, that's where I see myself logically getting hired again, right, on the front-end. Uh because that's my experience, and I'm also more skilled on the front-end. But this is not where I want to be. I hear promises from the company on the ability to do both or eventually transfer, but it's all talk with no action. We would love to hear your thoughts. Yeah, so this developer, again, wants to change from a front-end developer to a back-end developer, but based on their previous experience and based on the current opportunities in the company, they don't see a way to do that. Cool. This is a very common situation for both back-end and front-end developers, where you want to get more responsibility on the full stack, but given that you are so great at one of them, front-end in this case, your company wants you there. They don't want to take any risks, or they don't have the position available, there's no opportunity inside the company, or they don't want to do it. And you also don't have enough experience to go out to the market and get a full stack position. Or at least you think you don't have it. I'll go over the two main ways that you can do this, that you can hack this situation and get unstuck. But if you are a web developer or JavaScript developer and you want me to personally help you get to the next level, personally, follow the link in comments and apply for a chat with me to see if our premium mentorship program could actually help you get to the next level. Now, back to how you can go from a front-end developer to a back-end developer. As I mentioned, there are basically two ways to go about it. The first one is to do it internally without switching companies. And there are a few things you want to keep in mind when doing this. Number one, you want to be up front with your manager about your intention of doing more full stack tickets. And it's essential that you show them how this will help the company and the team. And how they don't need to involve themselves too much. Just send that kind of work, the full stack work your way, and and move you in a more full stack position. You want to make it easier for them, and you want to make it like a value

ad. A few weeks back I actually had one of the I I personally mentor to do this by helping them to frame this conversation effectively with like take lead to make it a win-win. Now, be careful, even though your manager might want you to get a more full stack position and more full stack tickets, maybe they just don't have the kind of work right now. Or maybe they don't think you're able to do it, which brings me to the second point.

You want to be strategically incompetent. This is a career hack, career strategy from I think Mike Anderson, the founder of Netscape, one of the first browser says and this means basically that you want to be bad at tasks that you don't want to do more off and be great at tasks that you want to do more off. This way you send like a feedback loop to your team and product manager on, hey, what are the things that you're best suited for?

Again, this is a bit of a less politically correct strategy because it means under delivering on certain topics, but it works. If you're the kind of developer that's really diligent, you'll have to fight back that instinct a bit and practice being a bit incompetent. And lastly, have a deadline, you know, give them three to six months max to do the change. Because if it doesn't happen within the next three to six months, it will most likely never happen.

Which brings me to the second central point. Do it externally, switch from the front end to the full stack by switching company. Go to the market and get a new job. That is on a full stack. The difficulty here is that maybe you don't have the skills, nor the track record to first convince employers to invite you for a full stack interview, the skills to pass the technical interview on the full stack and the ability to deliver once you're hired.

But it's totally doable. Here is how. The first thing you want to do is to go for positions that still require a lot of front end work, ideally, look for things that are asking you for 70% it's still front end, 30% back end. You do this by really analyzing the job posting and looking at the responsibilities they demand, you know? You want to screen out back and heavy jobs because you want to get an interview there and even if you get an interview, you won't pass it.

Secondly, you want to refurbish your LinkedIn profile and your CV and you want to shrink your front and experience a bit and expand on the full stack task you've done. Even if they are simple tasks, they don't have to be complex. important thing is that they are on the full stack. Notice, I didn't mention a portfolio. That is because portfolios are basically useless. Both at junior and senior level, people don't care about your little side projects.

They don't. They only care about your experience. Those are the things you've done. Your main focus should be on how to tweak and refactor that experience that you got. So it suits the kind of job position or specialization that you are aiming for. Finally, the most important, the title. Unless you have something in your contract that stops you from doing that, you don't want your title to contain your specialization, right? Like front-end developer.

Why? Because companies see a front-end developer and they want to hire them as front-end developers. In this case, for example, you want to call yourself a software developer with a focus on the front-end, but more fullish. This will get you interviews, and after that, it's just a matter of building the skills. And talking about skills, you need to leave the front-end developer behind and become the software engineer.

You do that by getting deeper into the back-end and into infrastructure concepts. The crucial thing to remember here is that it's not about being able to fully deliver in the Mac and. You don't need that. What you do need is to demonstrate ability, show that, hey, you are able to deliver. Enough to get the job done. Now that you're a senior back-end developer. So you want to apply the 80 20 rule, focus on the 20% of knowledge that will give you 80% of the skills.

There are a bunch of options to do that, like side projects or courses, which I'm not a fan of because they just focus too much on implementation details and not on the mindset and the concepts that a back-end developer needs when approaching a technical problem. Which is the main difference between front-end and back-end, living inside a code, or, for example, you can join a mentorship program like the one we offer, where you get real life advice from us, accountability and feedback as you grow through and upskill yourself.

For me and my team, personally. You can apply by checking the link below. Uh, if you want me to answer more questions like this in one of those videos, just drop a comment here, and I'll see you in the next one.