Brett Ch
a
lup
a
, 2021
Developer Roles & Levels
Explained
From Front-End to Full St
a
ck
a
nd everything between
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Hey! This is all based on my own
experiences and is highly
dependent.
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• Well-rounded
• Works on the front-end and the back-end
• Maybe a little bit of ops and infrastructure
• Lots of areas to grow in, more on that soon
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• Focused on the user experience
• Web (HTML, CSS, JS); apps!
• Relies on back-end devs for API & data
• Not too concerned with ops
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• Focused on the data & APIs
• Back-end languages
• Database
• Background job processing
• A little bit of ops
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• Hosting
• Third-party services
• Scripting
• Uptime & monitoring
• Networking
• Making sure the apps work
• Scaling (at certain levels)
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Levels
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• Just getting started;
fi
rst job
• Needs support & guidance
• Capable of getting things done w/ help
• Not thinking too much about big picture
• Slower expectations
• Getting bearings of the tech & biz needs
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• 2~5 years experience
• Can work on something from start to
fi
nish
• Code may not be the most performant
• Sometimes gets caught by edge cases
• Starting to think about big picture
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• 5~10 years experience
• Mentors teammates
• Catches performance & edge case issues early
• Writes high quality code
• Works pretty quickly
• Taking on tasks that they know need to get done
• Contributing to big picture convos
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• 10+ years experience
• Technical leader
• Vision for where tech can go
• Combines business needs w/ tech needs
• Mentors all teammates
• a.k.a. Lead, Sta
f
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Specialties
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Many more!
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Where to start?
Front-end!
Visual, can quickly iterate, dive deep from there.
But also follow your interests too.
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The best teams leverage strengths and
encourage focused growth.
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How to Level Up
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You’ll learn on the job, without doubt.
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Find a mentor internally or externally.
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Work with your manager to create a growth
plan to hold you both accountable.
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Intentional learning and specializing can help
you grow more quickly.
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You’ll likely have di
ff
erent phases in your
career, and that’s great!