Full-Stack Software Engineer Clarified

A real full-stack software engineer spends >50% on automated testing

This article is one of the “IT Terminology Clarified” series.

Both my daughter and I love the “Silicon Valley” TV show. In one episode (S03E03), after Gilfoyle is free for hire, job agents keep sending him presents.

Silicon Valley Season 3 Episode 3

The reason: he is a ‘full-stack’ engineer, which is in high demand. The term ‘Full Stack Engineer’, like as many job titles in a software team nowadays, such as ‘DevOps Engineers’ or ‘Solution Architect’, is abstract. Mediocre IT engineers like to call themselves fancy titles. Soon, these job titles will be less meaningful.

Today, I saw the term “Full-Stack” twice in my LinkedIn feeds.

• A former ‘Principal Software Engineer’’ I met before changed a new job with the title “Full-Stack Engineer”.
  This principal software engineer cost the company millions and embarrassment with a very bad test automation attempt (Java with Concordion, a Gherkin syntax; two wrong choices: language and syntax framework).
• a LinkedIn connection request from a “Full Stack QA Engineer”…