Yeah, do it because you love it. I'm a full stack web developer, meaning that I do everything from deploying distributed systems on Amazon AWS, to designing and building the user experience in the browser. So, I say "Yes! Absolutely, go for it." but that is because I love web development so much that I'm blinded to the fact that it may not be for everyone.
It may help to know that the reason I enjoy my work so much is that web development embraces most any software engineering technology. This wide breadth of technology in the web stack allows you to keep yourself interested by just following your mind wherever it may lead you. For example, I was able to dive into the new NoSQL style databases at an early stage, as well as the server side JavaScript network programming environments just because I thought they looked like fun. These areas are challenging, but the work is so interesting that it isn't really "work". The wide variety of technology you could potentially be working with also leads to opportunities to meet some very talented developers that will challenge you and raise your game. One thing I will say, is that many engineers hate working with the browsers, and that can be a big hurdle to get over. I would try building a few small side projects that are heavy on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and light on server side technologies. Front end engineering is a good barometer to know where you are in the web development stack. I'm going to echo Chris too: "To succeed you must start failing as soon as possible." _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) Vassar College Apr 4 - An Intro to Chef May 2 - Git Jun 6 - June 2012 Meeting
