Dissecting Front-end Job Titles

It used to be straight forward. There was frontend, there was backend, and there was often a graphic designer. In the world of web development titles, things were pretty straight forward. If you stated you did frontend, it was assumed that you knew HTML, CSS, some JS, jQuery, and you knew your way around Adobe and Macromedia products. The multitude of tech boot camps would have you think that we’ve moved to UX/UI, Frontend, Full Stack, and Backend (in which you have a selected stack of programming languages). In reality, the tech world has become so diverse that what would otherwise be front-end roles have such obscure titles that you aren’t sure what you’re applying to.

It’s easiest to start by breaking down seniority claims and expectations. I see posts saying how people became a senior developer in less than three years. I’m here to tell you that it is a bogus claim.

Seniority isn’t just how capable of a coder you are; it’s also your ability to manage teams, solve problems quickly and efficiently, your ability to adapt, and being able to work in stressful environments. You may be the most senior person on your team, but that doesn’t mean you are a senior developer.

Senior Level — You’ve probably worked for a few different companies. You have 2+ years of experience being the most senior developer on small teams, and likely on larger teams. You’ve found yourself as the lead point of contact for project managers and perhaps end up managing projects from the technical side more often than not. You may even find that your coding skills get rusty because you spend more time on the bigger picture, solving problems, and delegating than you do writing the simple code that the more junior developers write, but when there’s a severe problem, you’re the one it’s assigned to. You’re probably getting asked by companies to apply for positions. If you’re freelance, you are financially secure and only work on projects that excite you.

Total, you probably have a CS degree and 5+ years of experience or 7+ years of experience without a CS degree. Keep in mind that we are talking developers here. Some people like to stay at this level because they love coding — many move on to managerial and CTO positions from here. I’ve been developing 14 years, and I’m happy to continue moving sideways.

Mid Career — You’re probably in your second to third professional position, you notice that you now are being delegated important tasks and more junior individuals often ask for your help. You’re either happy here or hope to gain more responsibility. You know what you like working on and what you don’t like. This tier is probably the easiest tier to recognize. Your career opportunities have picked up. You’ve been scouted by several recruiters, and they actively come to you requesting to submit you to positions.

Junior Level — You’re either fresh out of your CS internship, or you have a year or two of entry-level work. It’s likely you’re on your first professional job, or you’ve had a few shorter term contracts. You probably don’t feel like you’re being used to the best of your abilities and you want to do more. This stage can be a frustrating time in your career. There is a ton of competition out there. You probably find yourself applying to dozens of positions without much feedback and will end up taking what gets offered. Coming from an Elite CS program is a significant perk here in employment, but after this stage, that perk becomes substantially less significant.

Entry Level — You’re self-taught, went to a boot camp, a certificate program, or have an associates degree out of a community college. You have a few small projects in your portfolio, and maybe you’ve done some work for friends or family. You wonder why all the junior level positions are asking for 1–2 years of experience, aren’t those supposed to be entry-level work?! So you signed up for fivr hoping for the best. In reality, you’re just looking in the wrong places, and no one told you to search Indeed for “HTML” to look for titles that don’t include developer or engineer.

This level is less competitive than people think. Virtually every single company out there has someone doing online content, social media, basic design, simple website updates, or creating HTML emails. They go by titles such as marketing coordinator, online editor, social media specialist, digital specialist. There are ample jobs out there; they just don’t have the 70k a year paycheck your boot camp told you about for junior level positions. That’s because you aren’t junior, you’re entry level.

I’m not going to dive into backend job titles. I’m going to stick to what I know which is the Front-end of things, but I will include full stack. With the development, then increase of web applications came an increase in design and user experience. Since 2005, I’ve had the opportunity to watch the world of web development transform.

It’s easy to break down Front-end into 3 different fields. Design, site development, and application development. There is, of course, overlap amongst these, but knowing foundational skills of each can clarify what you are actually searching for. If only recruiters knew these.

Design skills: UX, UI, IA, IxD, Adobe XD, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, (then the 100+ tools online for wireframing, creating style guides, and prototyping out there)

Front-end website developer skills: HTML, CSS, Vanilla JS, jQuery, Content management systems

Front-end web application developer skills: HTML, CSS, Vanilla JS, JS frameworks

Fullstack***: HTML, CSS, Vanilla JS, JS Frameworks, Node.js

***It’s important to clarify that most full-stack developers are closer to front-end web application developers than they are backend developers. Backend development positions often require a strong grasp of multiple languages including Java, C, PHP, Python and are comfortable working and building complex applications. Backend developers are closer to a software engineer than a front-end web developer, and the backend developer often comes with a CS degree or years of experience developing backends. There are true full-stack developers that can do both the front end and backend, but these are often long-time professionals that have had years of training in programming and picked up front-end for love of design. Two be an expert in both takes many years of training.

The full-stack developer we think of today tends to come out of a boot camp knowing the basics of HTML, CSS, vanilla JS. They spend much more time diving into Node.jS, working with front-end frameworks or working with another scripting language like python. They spend many their efforts on frameworks and the rest of front-end is more of a side effect. Full-stack developers absolutely serve an important purpose and act as a great Swiss army knife for many startups, but you’ll typically find their front-ends to be less elegant than a specialized front-end developer would create.

NOTE: Anyone with a CS degree is a full-stack developer in the sense that they can take a software product from start to finish completing all aspects, trained software engineers are all full stack. These are not the individuals I am referring to.

A lot of job listings confuse Fullstack development for front-end development and vice versa. I’ve also seen many front-end website positions be confused for web application positions, especially in junior job listings.

UX/UI Designer — Little to no coding, a generalist in UX and Design. Spends a lot of time researching, planning, then designing how the site or application should look. Developer required to complete site.

• Web Designer — Probably went to school for graphic design. This role has mostly been replaced by UI design since the rise of appreciation for good user experience.
• UX Designer — Often a researcher that brings the site to the stage of wireframes and prototypes.
• UI Designer — Designs the look and feel of the site, often creating an advanced prototype.
• IA Designer — Used for complex sites such as large commerce platforms or universities to manage complex site organization.
• IxD designer — Designs the movement of a site/application, probably the rarest on a UX team.

Front End Website Developer — Is handed designs and turns it into a full-fledged website via a content management system, or pure HTML, CSS, and javascript. If there is no CMS, the site typically only contains simple DOM manipulations to add functionality or a CSS framework which manages that functionality. Depending on seniority, able to integrate with APIs, and build basic extensions to content management systems.

Front End Website Application Developer — Typically builds web applications without content management systems. Often works with javascript frameworks and a virtual DOM to create interactive sites. This is the most on-trend position in frontend and aside from a few exceptions, provides the highest pay. Very competitive.

UX/UI Developer — This is a compliment to full-stack developers in that most websites on the internet can be built with just a UX/UI developer. This individual with both design and develop your site using a content management system. At a corporate level, this individual may be in charge of creating pages based on set style guidelines within a custom CMS.

UX/UI Application Developer — Similar to the UX/UI Developer except this is typically for single applications. It’s a popular position for tech startups which need multiple single page applications for various services or product introductions that are secondary to the primary website.

Front End Web Developer — A generalist term popular in agencies where they want individuals with broad skill sets.

Site Builder — Typically only entry level, builds a site with Content Management Systems utilizing preexisting themes and extensions to create the site. Popular with Squarespace, Shopify, and Wordpress

Content Manager — Typically entry level, in charge of getting content onto a site, often with a content management system. Common for commerce, and news publications. Many times this person will take on additional roles of social media or HTML email creation.

If you’re looking for entry-level work, the best thing you can do is go to freelancing sites to apply to gigs where you are certain you can do the work, reach out to your friends and family to offer cheap work, and search for the skills you know rather than the job titles you know. A quick job search of Wordpress with entry-level provides titles such as Digital Producer, Jr. QA, Marketing Assistant, Digital Coordinator, and Junior Designer.