Frist time poster & 22 y.o. junior dev here.
I just wanted to get advice in which direction I should start my career.
I just finished my education last year as a Software Engineer and am now undecided if I should more go into Front- ore Backend.
I‘m currently doing mostly Python as a allrounder but am really intrested in React.
Is there a big difference in sallary (if that maters, I‘m from switzerland) or career oportunitys? How do I figure out the correct way I should go?
Thanks you so much for your help!

Do what you like, backend earns a little bit more in the netherlands, full stack even more.

But it should not be about money, do what you like, thats worth way more.

@Codex404 The main problem is, I don‘t really know what I like. I‘m just into programming now for 4 years and haven‘t yet figured out what to do.

Welcome to devRant! Have your first ++.

Re career advice, I echo what @Codex404 said, do what interests you. Keep your options open for a while. I started in consulting where you got to move around and try a bit of everything before deciding what it was I wanted to focus on. And I was about 28 before I knew which direction I wanted to go in, so I'd say you have plenty of time.

@devPat then I would say spend your free time on frontend things, learning a backend language in the mean time to get a connection between the two.

Im a full stack allround developer, Im 22 as well and have done both web development, gamedevelopment and custom hardware management on a professional level.
Ive started programming when I was 12 and spent every minute of free time on programming, thats what made it possible for me to do those 3 types of development in2 years of working experience.
I prefer game development over anything, but also because of the type of people doing it, its more divers than other development types. There is a higher percentage of female developers in the game dev world than in any other branch of programming (at least in the Netherlands)

Just try to do everything to make a good decision.

Im wondering what brought you to programming and why python? These two questions can always be a good indication on the type of dev you are

@joycestick Thank you verry much :)
I am really intrested in Frontend but as I said, I‘m not that shure if I still like it after a year or so. I‘m always seeking challenges and want to learn new stuff so I‘m not shure if Frontend could get boring for me...

@Codex404 First of all thank you so much for your answer!
I‘m currently looking into React and still doing my dayjob as kind-of more backend engineer.
I got into IT mostly with doing webpages in basic school and lateron started coding little scripts in bash.
During my education as Software Engineer aprenticeship (special thing in switzerland) I started getting into Python mostly because I like the simplicity of the language and the clean looks of it. I also got into a project where it got used widly and where I led a small project.
Is there a other language you could recomend to learn for backend?

@devPat
php because its used often
C# because its growing
Java because it runs on everything

If you do Php quickly switch to the laravel framework, makes php a lot better to use.

@devPat but what made you GO INTO programming?

For me it was because I really wanted to make a game and thus I started investigating how to do it.

I already did some php during my education and also used some C# and java. But in the end always switched over back to Python with Flask for my personal projects because I just felt most comfortable in using it.
But I need to start getting back into C#... Or what do you think about golang?

@devPat never used it myself, but do want to learn it once ive got free time again.

@Codex404 That‘s a tough question... The first lines of „code“ was a webpage I wrote for my class when I was in 7th grade. After that I played around with a couple of Minecraft server plugins and lasteron decided I want to go into programming because I really liked the logical part aswell as the creative problem solving in software engineering.
During my education I worked in difrent departments, from support, over hardware field support, project management/ consulting aswell as backend projects. Unfortunantly I never really got into frontend projects so I feel like I want to learn something in that direction to be able to really decide in which direction I wanna go.

@Codex404 I‘ve got the same issue - just not enough time to do everything I want to do/ learn.
I‘m currently working on 2 side projects, learning React aswell as nearly working 10h a day because we‘re behind of shedule at my job.

Data is the gold of 21 century.
Swiss Banks kill for machine learning juggling data scientist.

there is a bootcamp just for that in zurich.
https://propulsionacademy.com/

you know there are plenty webdevs, and indians get better by the day.
That's why you should specialise with something with less competition.
And python is the perfect language for big data and machine learning.

@heyheni Thanks for your comment! I also thought about going into ML & data science but that‘d be a pretty huge step for me... I just finished my aprenticeship (Lehre) and now looking into going for a HF degree.

@devPat you went into programmic because you liked the puzzles it gives you basically?
In that case I would think you are a backend dev mainly.
Know the basics of Frontend as well so you understand frontend.
For webdev frontend I check canIuse.com regularly, on the news page they say which new features they added, so thats how I stay up to date with the latest frontend standards.

@Codex404 Yeah pretty much...
I also think about working as full stack dev, because I asume if I just do frontend, I‘ll miss the whole backend stuff...

@S-Homles-MD
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