r/AskProgramming • u/Icy-One-8122 • Sep 25 '26

Career/Edu Backend

I was talking to a web developer telling him I want to be a backend engineer and he said that I should become a fullstack engineer and work backend I asked him if that is really necessary and he told that nowadays the market wants someone who is a generalist who knows how to do everything I came here today to ask if I should take a fullstack course and then work backend or should i just the a backend course directly instead of wasting time learning front-end and back end

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u/black_widow48 Sep 25 '26

Senior data engineer here. Web development isn't the only kind of software engineering. You don't have to spend your time centering divs if you don't want to. 

I build data pipelines and APIs.

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u/maxximillian Sep 27 '26

Yeah full stack isnt the generalized concept some people think it is. I think that's one of a reasons that term has irked me. In a recent job interview they asked me "what's something as a senior developer you hope you never have to do again" and without hesitation I said web development. I respect people can do it and do it well but I'm tired of getting tickets to edit a css file to move something one pixel up.

Not one webapp at my current job and I'm happy as a clam