Which end are you?

WhiteAlbumRegistry

unread,

Oct 24, 2016, 3:54:47 PM10/24/16

to AtlantaPHP Discussions and Job Postings

I am often asked by recruiters if I am "more front-end or more back-end".

When I first starting developing, this distinction was quite clear: front-end was client side (primarily javascript) and and back-end was server side. I think we could all agree that over the last five years, that line has blurred. Libraries like Node or Angular are server-side while CSS (and SASS, et. al.) has been perfecting it's js impersonation.

If I ONLY used my PHP powers to communicate with a database, I would say "I am back-end". If I only wrote javascript (perish the thought), I would say "I am front-end". But, who does ONLY those things.

Over the past month, I have had one company pass on my because I am "too front-end" and another pass on my because I am "too back-end".

Do you see the front/back-end dichotomy as an antiquated distinction, except in the extreme cases listed above?

How do answer that question?

Is there a "meaning" that recruiters/employers have when they ask this question?

Look forward to your responses.

Chase Peeler

unread,

Oct 24, 2016, 4:15:55 PM10/24/16

to to...@whitealbumregistry.com, AtlantaPHP Discussions and Job Postings

In some ways, the line is more distinct.

When I started, we wrote a lot of spaghetti code. DB queries, output, logic, etc, were all in the same file. Even when we got a bit better about separating things out, we still did our front end stuff on the same server as the back end stuff - a full stack application (even if it wasn't organized very well).

Now, with the rise in popularity of single page apps, I think the distinction is growing more distinct. You can have the front end (client) stuff hosted on a totally different server than the backend (API) stuff. Your frontend developer doesn't have to know anything about the backend technologies, as long as there is a well documented REST API for them to interact with. Same goes for the backend developers and the ability to not need much knowledge of what is going on with the client side.

We actually released a feature earlier this year where I didn't do ANY front end development, and the other developer didn't do ANY backend development. A year or two ago, such a partition of duties would have been unheard of.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AtlantaPHP Discussions and Job Postings" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to atlantaphp+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to atlan...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/atlantaphp.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/atlantaphp/12f7da48-9701-4a34-b296-4c6509772bf7%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

-- Chase

chase...@gmail.com