From what I've seen, the salaries/contract rates for front-end developers aren't too bad, but certainly aren't glamorous.
Is front-end development a practical career path?
At the moment I'm working as a front-end web developer for a well-known company, so it's a good name to have on the resume, but I have a feeling I might be on the wrong track with my career, simply because I'm focusing on the front-end of the application development side rather than the back-end.
What are your thoughts?
Choosing to specialise in front-end development is no different from specialising in any other aspect of software development. Front-end is a just one part of the overall development process, but it is an important one and will always be important.
It is up to you whether you find it interesting and challenging enough. If you put in as much energy as you can, you can certainly make a good career out of it.
But like any specialist in our profession you will find that eventually certain skills become redundant and you will have to learn new skills to survive.
There's a lot of demand for front-end development work. I expect as more and more applications move online, that the need for front-end web developers will only increase. If for some reason it turns out to be a bad choice, you can always make the change later. As long as you are using good programming style on the front end, the fundamentals will travel with you when you move.
I think front-end development is a really important and cool field in software. It seems like there are a lot of mediocre front-end developers though, due to the availability of wizards and drag-and-drop/property-driven programming. I think the people that really master AJAX, WPF, Silverlight or any of the "newer" front-end technologies will have a huge edge over the people that just drag controls on the page.
EDIT: I guess what I'm saying is that you can command much higher salaries and have more opportunities if you are proficient in the non-trivial or complex front-end technologies.
I guess the best career path is working with technologies that are currently in high demand and you can enjoy, making a decent living. Most of the times you can't get all of these things, so sometimes you have to settle for for one or a few of them (making decent money, but not necessarily enjoying it).
Having said that, I think it's a bad career strategy to narrow your skills to a single tier be it front-end, back-end or middle tier, or one specific technology. Of course no one could ever master all the technologies under the sun, but if you want to be considered a serious software developer you have to be proficient in all tiers. If you are doing exclusively front-end development at least you have to be able to find your way around in the back-end database, you must have some knowledge in SQL to develop an enterprise data centric applications.
Are you good at it? Are you better then everyone around you? If so, yes, good path. If not, are you good at anything else? Are you better at that then the people around you? If so, no, bad path.
But the most important thing is, do you enjoy it? If you don't enjoy it, doesn't matter what it is, its not a good choice.
If you understand the intricacies of front-end development, especially in dealing with client/server communication across a variety of platforms, you'll always be in demand. Adding to what Andy White said, if you can master client side technologies such as WPF, Silverlight, Flash or even highly interactive HTML you will be highly marketable. Especially if you not only understand the functional concerns but also can apply solid design principals into your projects.
I won't say front end is not challenging; it's an art on its own. There lay many front end technologies to master and it'd probably be worth it at the end of the day. i.e. job security wise it's no more no less as compared to backend jobs, if not better.
The other side of the story: Being majorly a front end developer myself, I've always felt and missed backend development. I largely miss the fact that I don't get to work much on core business logic, complex algorithms, datastructures, design pattern implementations etc.
So I'd say if backend interests you more like it does to me, follow your heart and switch to backend before its too late, (its never late by the way ;-)).
All other things being equal, I'd say it's a better move financially to gravitate the back and middle-tiers. The reason is that getting foundation / architecture right is critical, whereas the front-end can be more easily plugged in. So, the bucks go to the more critical side. Again, that is if you don't have a strong preference. If you are comfortable with and really enjoy front end, but the other side seems kind of boring or difficult or doesn't spark your interest except for the money, I'd think long and hard before switching.
Ditto to all.
Front-end work has the perception that it does not involve as many architecture/design elements and core business logic as back-end work. Thats how some corporate IT thinks which is often true, although I think writing a robust GUI application takes as much skill as anything.
So it all depends on your heart. So if your ultimate career goal is architect/CIO, than getting to know all interconnected systems in your company is essential and knowledge of backend is a must.
Front-end work is very important, especially in the areas of search engine optimization, standards and accessibility. As web applications get more and more complex, the ability to make things still work in stripped down simpler forms (no javascript, css, etc) becomes valuable.
What do you include within the duties of "front-end web development?" If you're thinking about just HTML, or just CSS, or just anything else, I'd say that's not good enough. You want to give yourself a value which exceeds that of every other Joe.
Any web application programmer can write HTML, but not any web application programmer can write awesome CSS.
I'd suggest giving yourself some diversification, and always add to your bag of tricks. If you keep yourself learning, growing, and improving, then yes, I'd say this is a reasonable career choice unless you're looking for the really big bucks.
Yes, it is a practical career path if you look at some of the latest technologies like Silverlight or AIR in making rich internet applications that will need front-end developers to make it look pretty and have a bit of a designer, developer and tester all mixed together.
Middleware can be Java or C# and usually ties into some back-end system like an ERP or CRM suite of programs. The customizations on the big things like ERP, CRM, CMS or SCM are where there will likely be front-end development work for years I think and some of the work will be done on shore rather than off shore.
Joel Spolsky posted a great article about Product Managers -- they sit on the Front end and deal with clients, and generally can code.
You might like the article..
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/03/09.html
What does a program manager do?
Henceforth, a program manager would:
- Design UIs
- Write functional specs
- Coordinate teams
- Serve as the customer advocate
It is practical, to answer your question.
That said, it is a good idea to become familiar with all aspects of the technology that your product works with. You may not have to be an expert or even have production-quality coding/skills in all of them, but you should at least have some good knowledge on the capabilities and limitations and best practices.
You should always be learning something, that goes without saying. Whether it's different "frontend" technologies/languages or theory.
By the way, I heard that the consulting rates at a certain company for a language/framework are "unbelievable". You just have to find a company that values a good frontend developer, and then you have to be very good at it.
HTML/CSS only can get very boring quickly. Throwing in JavaScript/jQuery/JS libraries in the mix makes things much more interesting, but can also get a bit stale relatively quickly. However combining a front-end specialization with a well rounded understanding of back end technologies be it Java or .NET is the way to go. You'll be able to wear more hats at your workplace and command a higher salary.