Does it make sense to improve in non expertise area?
Suppose you’re a senior frontend/backend/devops person - basically one stack where your core skills are and those same skills will be tested in your next jump interview. Now if you’re a backend person with core skills in Java & Postgresql but due to some reasons you’re now asked to contribute in frontend code. Now you don’t want to sell yourself as fullstack in ur next move and time would be better spent learning Go… So just to make current job easier for yourself, do you spend time in learning frontend too? Or do you just somehow make it work without learning how and why?
And truthfully keeping yourself updated or upskilling in Java itself is a time consuming task.
I think it is more about your mindset and psychology. And it is also a bit about learning urge. Personally, I don’t think a technical guy should be apprehensive of learning new things at work. So if you are having to work on a new tech, better learn it. Talking of Interview prep, anyway you have to study things which have little relation with your work, so the situation remains almost same either way.
Relation is not same. If for interview I have to spend time in algo, design system, clean code, etc. the knowledge will at least be useful in next interviews or even in my job. Here difference is like you’re a physicist but you gotta dig into chemistry. Just want to understand where my time is better spent in. I am open to learning new fields in physics if we continue same analogy or lets suppose Go language.
I only see this coming in handy in scenario where backend jobs are scarce and too many frontend openings. Then I can say I worked in frontend on job and learn for the interviewing. But this is unrealistic scenario
Really depends on multiple factors - whether you want to learn it willingly, how many more jobs open up if you do pick up few stuff and so on.
I can see from my previous org and current that there's never the case that backend guy does frontend. But have seen those CTO office engineers prototype tools so have to do frontend too.
Don’t want to do it willingly and even if I did in good spirit, I don’t think I would ever reach a stage where it comes handy in interviews or actual next job. It’s like one part of a project that I need to maintain so not sure if I put in the time to learn the language & codebase thoroughly or just figure out as issues come