I have read this question in Zhihu before and made some answers. Recently, I have some new ideas, so I would like to sort them out and explain my views on this question.
The original title of Zhihu is as follows:
The subject is a sophomore student. Today, the teacher talked about the future work direction in the lecture, and then said that in terms of salary, the back-end is higher than the front-end, and it is the back-end that has mastered the core technology of the company. I don’t remember very carefully. By the way, how should I plan and develop my own career if I want to be engaged in the front end in the future
Is front-end technology core technology?
What the subject teacher said:
It’s the back end that holds the company’s core technology
You can’t accuse him of being wrong. Because the core technology in the company is really closer to the back end. High concurrency, distribution, security, middleware, and so on are the core technologies that determine the size of a company’s business. The front end, at least at work, doesn’t touch that much.
But you can’t say he’s right. Because with the development of the Internet, the front end plays a more and more important role. For example, today’s users are looking for more user experience than functionality. Douyin wouldn’t be as popular if its videos weren’t slick and user-friendly. (The front-end here refers to the clients directly contacted by users, including web pages, APPS, etc.). These are not the core technologies that determine the size of the business. But it is also the core technology that determines whether customers will be retained, whether more customers will be acquired.
So the question really is: what is the core technology of the company? Is front-end technology core technology?
I think the more a product needs a user experience, the more core the front-end technology is.
Some netizens questioned my answer. Some students think:
The experience of the product is the idea of the product, and the front end is just the implementation.
I think it’s true that the experience of the product is in the product, but the front end is more than just implementation. The final product form is often the result of product, interaction and technology. If product experience is the core competitiveness, the idea of the product is the core idea, and the front-end technology is the core technology. The two do not conflict. As for which one is more core, it depends on the form of the product.
And I think in our requirements iteration, product development process, the front end is the user experience gatekeeper. The front end is the person closest to the user, who can feel the user experience most. Because the page is by their own line personally beat out, each product details, they are the deepest perception. In other words, how to do their own page, their heart is the most B number. Is the page a bit bulky; Is there a bug somewhere? Isn’t there an experience that can be optimized, but it’s a hassle to optimize and just leave it there. We’re the developers, we’re the first users of the product, and we can do a lot more, depending on whether you want to do it or not.
Therefore, IN my opinion, the front end plays a very important role in product experience, which is a great contribution to the realization of the ultimate experience. The core technology is to realize or even make it componentized and universalized to serve more company products and improve the overall development efficiency.
Front end ceiling
As for the ceiling, I think that’s true in most companies these days. If it’s purely technical, it’s true that the back end is more recognized for being a higher level person. For example, if a company wants to choose a CTO between the front-end leader and back-end leader, most programmers will definitely think that the back-end leader is more suitable, even if you don’t know in your mind whether the technical strength and management ability of the two sides are stronger or weaker.
But I think, even so, as long as the individual is capable and the company needs, there will always be a stage for it. In Ant Financial, for example, there is an experience technology department. This seemed unheard of before. Then I created Ant Design, AntV, Language Sparrow and some mid-stage products to better serve the company and improve the user experience of many products of the company and even the industry.
Of course, some friends will say, ah, our company does not have such a department, then what should I do? Is there no more room to play.
Well, you can jump ship! If you don’t want to go, you can grow and create a division in your own company.
I think, with more and more Internet products, users will continue to demand better user experience, so there will be more and more similar departments in the world. Front end students will also play an increasingly important role.
The higher the responsibility, the higher the ceiling.
Never underestimate your worth
In other words, believe that you can create more value.
Last year, when we were in Dingxiang Garden, our front end group developed the unified interface management platform of the company through our own ability, which improved the overall research and development efficiency of the technology Product department.
When we get to the ants, the front end of the class is even worse. The company has a lot of efficiency tools contributed by the front end students. We have BFF layers, speakers, front-end monitors, a lot of gadgets for internal use, and so on. These products contributed by the front-end students have greatly improved the efficiency of product development and iteration, thus promoting more business and creating more value.
In addition to technology, the front end also creates a lot of additional business value. As mentioned above, we can quickly perceive the user experience and provide our own suggestions for the shape of the product. The ability to monitor timely responses to exposed problems (rather than waiting for user feedback), the ability to avoid large scale problems, and so on.
So, don’t underestimate yourself, don’t underestimate your value because of your position, we can do a lot of things, just may not think of yourself. The front end may not have as much prior experience as the mature back-end system. And of course that’s why we’re doing something that’s never been done before.
conclusion
Having said all that, the bottom line is that the front end can be awesome. In terms of technology, we have a lot of space to explore, and in terms of business value, we have a lot of room to display.
As to salary circumstance, everybody oneself seeks what classmate friend contrast go.
Sometimes don’t think that just because someone else’s salary is higher than yours must be because of their good position. Maybe his salary is higher than yours if you change your position.
If you want to see the original question and other answers, you can poke: zhihu’s original link.