Ask HN: Should I quit front-end development?

[bluehaze]

I am a decent front-end developer, work with React/Angular/Node. My manager and co-workers like my work, they believe I have a sense of "design"/aesthetics.

However, I constantly feel like this is a "lesser" form of software development. I don't feel "hardcore" enough as say, DevOps engineers.

Should I just leave web dev and pivot to systems development (C++, Rust etc). What are your thoughts?

[duiker101]

You don't have to quit something to learn more about something else. You can expand on your knowledge, have you tried making a full website with db and deployed it on a VPS? (I think deploying and configuring on a box will give you more DevOps knowledge than using a serverless service)

[bluehaze → duiker101]

I do have deployed them on cloud behind a web server/load balancer e.g. Nginx. I am comfortable with the deployment processes but I don't do it very often. Majority of my time goes in writing front-end.

[mikece]

> I constantly feel like this is a "lesser" form of software development.

Life is short: do what makes you happiest. If JavaScript isn't that then do something else.

(Then write a blog post in a year and share it here on HN!)

[bluehaze → mikece]

The only caveat is that I think I'm good at JS and can market it very well. Starting something new from scratch means I cannot demand same level of monetary return as JS.