Ask HN: How important are stacks and specialization? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How important are stacks and specialization?

Over the last year's I have worked in different roles and with different technologies. Python, Go, C, TS/React, domain specific languages and tooling, and played with frameworks like Elm and Svelte. Mainly in the areas of web, technical simulations, and DataScience.

I would argue that I am flexible but that comes at a cost, low specialization.

My question: To build a career, how much do tech stacks matter? Should I stick to one (React, FastAPI, PostgreSQL) or doesn't it really matter as long as I can ship something? Is it fine to use Svelte for a new project when breaking into the market or should I stick to React?

Note: I worked in different roles not described as SWE but in practice I am writing code full time for almost 3 years. Building a career refers to "becoming officially a SWE".

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I'm at the tail end of a career, and found that specializing in a stack can be great when you are in mid-career and the stack is hot. You don't want to specialize too early because it pigeonholes you. And you don't want to stay specialized too late, because your skills stagnate. But I rode one stack for 15 years -- got in it when it was young, did great in it for 5 years, then once it declined, I spent 10 years helping people shut it down and transform to new stacks. In the process picked up the next stack to specialize in.

> To build a career, how much do tech stacks matter?

Tech stacks come and go every few years (5 years is a pretty good run for a framework / stack), careers last 20-40 years.

You're going to need to develop skills outside the tech stack that are generally useful and have a longer half-life (like debugging, SQL, shell scripting, source code management), and also proactively switch to a new stack every now and then.

In my experience, those other skills are not sought out, interviewed for, nor compensated.

Big high-flying Silicon Valley tech companies are pretty stack-agnostic; hiring is based on algorithms and architecture. Smaller, less engineering-centric companies seem to more strongly identify programmers with their stacks and ask for N years with a specific tool.

Don't overthink this one. Go online and make a note of job postings that seem interesting and desirable to you. Then, note the kinds of things they ask for and focus on those.

Re: how important stacks and specialization is, that really depends on the hiring manager and the culture of the company you're applying to. Generally speaking though, it shouldn't be overly important for more junior roles.

I agree, on what you working and with whom you are working is far more important. I would even argue, that for a experienced software developer getting fluent with new technology is quite fast while getting to the bottom of domain in which your project will exist might take years, especially when you take into consideration that technologies share quite decent amount of concepts between each other. Besides, in era of containers/WASM/open source developers never been more free to mix as many technologies in one project as they want or even switch them completely at any point of lifetime of a project. There are also other reasons: using different tools with slightly different philosophy gives you broader perspective in general and also keeps you away from burnout.

The question in the title shouldn't matter to you. You're looking for your first job, there's nothing to specialise in yet. The tools that you already know are in demand and are enough to land you job - don't distract yourself with other stacks until you can get that first job.

Since you're asking about building a career, I'd give the answer you weren't asking for: build domain expertise.

The intersection of software and domain expertise is highly prized. So it takes chips off the table on whichever bet you make around tech stacks.

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