About Me
Over the past year, I have experimented and gone back and forth about what kind of software developer I wanted to become and considered my current position. I have 9 years of experience in vanilla HTML, CSS and JavaScript for a Building Automation and Controls company where I have built user dashboards to monitor floorplans, units and other equipment in real time.
Until recently, I had wrestled with the idea if I wanted to continue with front-end work or move on completely to my newly discovered preference for back-end development. I now feel more comfortable developing a full-stack skillset that leans back-end for pragmatic and interest reasons. I have settled on the following criteria I wanted in my modern software developer tool belt and how to make myself employable and stand out while also just simply having fun and enjoying software that I can say I created my self.
My Criteria
Versatility
I really like the idea of being a developer that can apply my skill set to a wide range of fields outside of just web development. While web development will be my primary focus, I would like to explore desktop and mobile development, systems programming, and cybersecurity and hacking in the future. Versatility also means being able to run my software on any platform or OS like Windows, MacOS or Linux.
Synergy
This expands on versatility since my stack should complement and build on each other to create robust software and also have an ecosystem and culture that share philosophies.
Pragmatic
While I like the idea of testing our less popular languages and frameworks, I also want to get hired ASAP and develop a tech stack that is widely employable across the United States.
With these three criteria, I have settled on my preferred tech stack that I will focus on building projects with in 2026.
My Preferred Tech Stack
Main Languages:
- JavaScript - Obvious. I've used it for 9 years already and very familiar with it. For getting hired, I think it would be much easier to build on this experience and expand outward rather than starting with a "clean slate", so to speak.
- TypeScript - Type safety and modernization for JavaScript. I've already used it and is basically imperative at this point for any front-end or full-stack development.
Secondary:
- Go - Easy to pick, lightweight and very fast. It's ecosystem synergizes very well with JavaScript and Typescript and is one the growing backend languages today. I am also very curious how this language works as it always a top recommendation for back-end development. While roles using Java seem to be more abundant in my area, I think Go will differentiate me and will also prepare me for the modern web development environment.
Tertiary:
- Python - It is simply everywhere and very ease to use and integrate with most code bases. I also like it for the wide array of domains it can be applied to and I feel it rounds me out in a pragmatic and hireable lens.
Other:
- SQL - Absolutely mandatory for doing anything backend related.
- Bash/Shell - This is something I have picked up from my Capstone course. I have realized how useful it is for automating and reducing the need for boilerplate code as well as setting up dev environments and Docker containers.
Frameworks and Tools:
- React - Most popular JS framework for frontend and I have used it plenty of times already.
- Electron - This is a framework for building desktop apps with web development tools. This would open up opportunities to do projects that involve such types of applications.
- Node.js - Most popular runtime environment for JavaScript and has so many libraries and tool to use.
- Bun - An alternative to Node.js and becoming popular quickly.
- Express.js - The most popular framework for Node.
- net/http - The default framework for Go and most popular.
- Gin - Another popular framework
- Fiber - Touted as being for helping JavaScript developers move to Go due to it's syntactical similarity to Express.
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