A Slack conversation about the future of front-end development.
Channel Topic: Current mood: Identity Crisis
The definition of what it means to be a front-end developer is evolving. Driven by the explosion in popularity of single-page apps, and the migration of code from server to browser, roles that were previously defined by mastery of HTML/CSS/jQuery are expanding to include skills more traditionally belonging to backend developers.
The question is, what does this mean for front-end developers who are hoping to progress into senior roles?
Below is a conversation from our internal #front-end-dev Slack channel that explores this question. We have a few FEDs in our midst here at at TWG, and this chat takes place between two of our front-end developers, Lara Noell and Mark Appleby, and TWG’s Director of Engineering, Derek Watson.
“Perhaps we are all just developers at the end of the day, and a skills matrix would serve us better than specific and granular job titles.” — Mark Appleby
If you enjoyed reading this, please click the ♥ below. This will help to share the story with others. You can read the article that kick-started this conversation, written by Matthew Gertner, here.
Thanks to Mark, Lara, Derek for letting us share this Slack chat, and to Alison and Chris for their helpful edits and suggestions. We’d also love some feedback on this format of article. Do you like reading our under-the-hood Slack chats? Let us know in the comments. -Ed.
TWG builds great software for startups and enterprises. Email hello@twg.ca to chat about the future, front-end development or anything else.