Got paid. Now where do I sign up for dance lessons? None of that disrespectful southwest Lindy bullshit either.
Dude, I'm a mechanical engineer and I do back-end programming work. It's easy. A good UI maker is valuable, anyone can do the back-end work. You'll have to do better than "I only do back-end program work for 40hrs a week or less" to be a valuable employee.
But hey, what do I know, my company only writes custom coupled multi-physics modeling software from time to time...
There are many people out there who can't do backend work but can do frontend. What's your point?
A good UI maker is valuable but so is someone who understands various existing algorithms and data structures and how to use them to solve a bunch of problems. A lot of good UI makers don't have that skill set.
UI design is more of a talent than a skill anyway. (Which is to say that you can practice and get better but ultimate there will be people who from day 1 are better than you'll ever be... 'cause it's talent based. What looks pretty? Oh, let me draw something. Versus you, well let me reference my design guides...)
There are many people out there who can't do backend work but can do frontend. What's your point?
A good UI maker is valuable but so is someone who understands various existing algorithms and data structures and how to use them to solve a bunch of problems. A lot of good UI makers don't have that skill set.
UI design is more of a talent than a skill anyway. (Which is to say that you can practice and get better but ultimate there will be people who from day 1 are better than you'll ever be... 'cause it's talent based. What looks pretty? Oh, let me draw something. Versus you, well let me reference my design guides...)
The talent is overrated. It is the hard work that gets job done. And that's what will get you hired.There are many people out there who can't do backend work but can do frontend. What's your point?
A good UI maker is valuable but so is someone who understands various existing algorithms and data structures and how to use them to solve a bunch of problems. A lot of good UI makers don't have that skill set.
UI design is more of a talent than a skill anyway. (Which is to say that you can practice and get better but ultimate there will be people who from day 1 are better than you'll ever be... 'cause it's talent based. What looks pretty? Oh, let me draw something. Versus you, well let me reference my design guides...)
Got paid. Now where do I sign up for dance lessons? None of that disrespectful southwest Lindy bullshit either.
What's disrespectful about Lindy? I kind of mix it with salsa and it works out pretty well. I've never taken lessons; I just kinda make up my own shit. Probably explains why I'm not so great. Lol
I know the thread is long but you have to read it to understand the reference.
There are many people out there who can't do backend work but can do frontend. What's your point?
A good UI maker is valuable but so is someone who understands various existing algorithms and data structures and how to use them to solve a bunch of problems. A lot of good UI makers don't have that skill set.
UI design is more of a talent than a skill anyway. (Which is to say that you can practice and get better but ultimate there will be people who from day 1 are better than you'll ever be... 'cause it's talent based. What looks pretty? Oh, let me draw something. Versus you, well let me reference my design guides...)
I'll put it this way, since empirical evidence trumps all: if your skill set was very valuable, you'd have a job now. Since you haven't been hired we can conclude that your skill set is not valuable. Thus, in order to increase your chances of being hired, you must expand your skill set. And you'll likely need a huge attitude adjustment, but I think that a few more months of unemployment will do that.
some more real world experience to let you know about...
programming front end is easy peasy. the toughest part about it is coming up with the design and workflow. i've had 3 jobs out of college, and the only one who had UX people (user experience) is my current one, and i can tell you, UX people make a SHITLOAD of difference.
UX people are the people who can do graphics and design a workflow. they basically make mockups and give them to us and we program them. UX people can't program. they may know some css or html or very basic javascript, but they can't program and dont know how to code. but that is their job, to basically use photoshop or illustrator and give you the design/mockups that you implement.
reason i bring this up is because programming it is easy as shit. and the programmers make probably 2x what those guys make. so you don't want to be on the design side if your goal is money.
it took me a good 7 years in my field to realize that no, i don't know how to design things as good as i thought i did. it took me working with UX people until i realized that. and i'm glad i did. becaues now instead of thinking i'm good at designing, like i thought i was, i now know there are people who are better than i am at it, and that is fine with me.
and they give me a design, and i implement it. it's like clockwork once it's flowing. i can definitely tell you what a shitty design is, even if UX people give it to me, but coming up with it from scratch is the tough part.
so just FYI, "programming" GUI stuff is a piece of cake, especially if you are doing web applications and all of the shit out there like bootstrap and jquery, and you have people giving you the design. it's just as "easy" as the backend. what you enjoy doing is a different story though. some like one more than the other. me personally, i like both of them just as much. i like putting the whole puzzle together and seeing it work.
You can code and do UX work at the same time. I know someone who is a Lead UX Developer, that's his title, and has extensive coding experience. Now, I don't know every detail of what he does, so I can't offer more than that.
It might be a rarity in the field, that much I admit I do not know. I shy away from everything programming - that's not my field in the slightest.
Do you really think companies hire back-end devs because they know data structures and algorithms? Hah! If you're a back-end specialist, then you're an architect. Your job would be to design and implement ridiculously stable and future-proof software. UIs come and go with the times, but we still have backends from the 80s. Look at any bank's online account management tools, for example.
So uhh... Do you think reading a book on algorithms is enough to write software that will last 30 years?
I haven't met a single UI programmer that can't do backend work. That being said, the UI specialists generally cannot produce hardened backend solutions that stand the test of time. They're usually good enough to fit in with the existing architecture.
Another angle to back-end only stuff is being extremely specialized in a particular subject matter. For example, I used to write machine vision algorithms that would catalog feature vectors in a database. I know people that have written pretty intense financing applications that required intricate financing knowledge.
But seriously, the 99% case is that you're only worth hiring if you can do at least a little bit of everything.
oh i know you can. but they both take a lot of time, and if you are doing both, you probably aren't getting as much done as you would be if you were doing just one of them and having someone else do the rest.
Hmm, a lot of the people I know who do backend work aren't labeled as architects and their work isn't architecture either. That's often a separate role in itself. Architecture is someone who makes the blueprints and backend devs are usually the people who just implement those blueprints (and sometimes follow standards, which usually come from an architect)... This isn't true in all companies but you'll find it frequently enough in large companies with appropriate budgets.
A little bit of everything is okay but that's only great for companies that can't afford separate roles. It'll also hold you back from getting jobs at companies that can afford those separate roles. (Again, the difference between a full stack web developer and someone who does backend/dba/frontend/architecture/api-dev/etc) People who are great at one field are much preferred over people who are just okay at a bunch of fields. This is true in a lot of career fields... not just software dev.
You are another one of those people that try to explain things to people that all ready know what they are talking about that thinks he knows what he is talking about.
And failing.
Prove me wrong. So far you haven't.