Depth vs Breadth in skills?

Question

Hi!

I currently work as a SWE in a consulting company. Previously I worked for a fintech (one year backend: java & spring boot and last 3 in angular). At my current company that I joined in Feb, I worked on a react project but am on the bench since early August and have been told to get my backend skills (NestJS) up to since we will have more of those projects come in. I was doing that but feel like I'm at a cross-border cause I may have to look outside my company for a role soon (many reasons) so I want to also keep my skills up to date for that. After talking to a recruiter today and especially since I want to be more frontend focused, they said they'd rather want depth in React and Node than breadth. But my manager said having all these skills is very essential if I want to uplevel to a senior manager eventually since I might be mentoring folks who could be either frontend or backend. I understand both of their points but I can only focus on one. I may also have to start looking for a new role in few months depending on some factors in the company. Or I'll stay... who knows. What is "enough" backend knowledge and how do I make frontend my focus? I am currently following a NestJS udemy course but what do I do after that? How do I also become a frontend expert? And how do I know I'm getting close to becoming a frontend expert?

Thanks!

Charlie Vuong · Accepted Answer

From a high-level, if you know you are going to switch roles, I would start with the end in mind and try to work backwards. I would look at different job listings for the companies and roles that are interesting to you. From there, you can get a sense of what kind of experience they are looking for. When all of the job descriptions are pointing to the same experience, I would try to focus on strengthening that experience in your day-to-day for your consulting role.

I would also look at the Glassdoor interview data for those companies to see exactly what kind of questions they are asking, because you could be asked DSA and system design questions. Knowing this now is better because you'll know what to study.

You'll be able to be prepared for the worst case by doing this.

As far as leveling up to be in more senior roles, I wouldn't focus strictly on technical knowledge. As you complete and lead projects, you'll develop that technical knowledge because it's required to carry the project to completion. I would focus more on the high-level end goals for each project, like what are we trying to accomplish with this project, what do we want to optimize for, and how to lead other people into completing the project.

Depth vs Breadth in skills?

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