When working as the sole webmaster-of-all-trades in a company, how to make the most efficient progress in web development?

Question

CMS

Caution, a lot of letters, a cry from the heart!
Situation
I have been working for more than six months, the only web developer in a non-IT company. This is my first job and I got here after a few months of freelancing with the web. Since I am the only web developer, the tasks of the web are assigned to me from and to. Literally, from prototyping, design and front-end, to the back-end. In other matters, the leader is not in the subject and all my stories about the necessary time for the front-end - cross-browser layout, the adaptability of the proposed design (sometimes it happens, of course, not brought to any web standards, but simply taken from the source for printing) comes down to "We need tomorrow make a site with this and that functionality and somehow, so that the inscription **** and the picture **** pop up on it, I see it that way. And until you do it the way a person really "sees" it in his head,
After several months of acclimatization, I even began, if not to get high, then to notice for myself that with such a large flow and such a not always clear task setting, I acquired a good skill for an IT specialist (including a programmer) - not to panic, to accept as input the statement of the task in a female language, to transform it into a technical one, to decompose the task into subtasks, to look for ways to solve them, to build the stages of work and solve the task.
Pros:
1. see the previous paragraph
2. broadening your horizons in the IT field
3. communication with managers, marketers, salespeople, etc., understanding how the work is built so that the sites are useful, and not just there.
Minuses:
1. Since I don’t work and have never worked in a team of developers, designers, project managers, I don’t really understand how the interaction of these is built in web studios or other large IT companies. And if I get to work in such a place sometime, then even with several years of experience, I will surprise everyone with the fact that having a bunch of running real projects behind me, I don’t know what, for example, commits or branches on a github.
2. An ambivalent feeling about self-development in the web realm.
On the one hand, when I came to work, I used a simple notepad to attach plugins found on Google to ready-made themes found on Google, and then I looked for answers why all this did not work. Now I can draw a site on a piece of paper, draw it in Photoshop, make up this layout, add visuals to JS / jQuery and put the whole thing on a CMS. That is, I solve the tasks I set and everyone is happy.
On the other hand (and this is the whole point of the question!) I can’t consider myself either a specialist, or at least somehow professionally working in something, whether it’s design or front-end or back-end, because doing everything in a row you can’t comprehend zen in one thing. And I would like, having spent a total of a year on the web, to say that I'm pretty good, at least in something. I can't say that.
Problem
There is so much work that I can't do anything well. You have to apply the first solution found and move on to the next problem. These crutches remain alive in projects. Refactoring? But there are only 24 hours in a day.
The question
is how to develop yourself in this situation? Continue to solve the tasks set at work and, as necessary, learn one or the other, and "a jack of all trades will always fit"? Or can a jack-of-all-trades grow into a full stack (so in 5-7 years)? In addition to diversity at work, take some direction and dive into it at night and on weekends? Do you cooperate with someone (web studios, freelancers, etc.) in one direction?

Answer 1

If you want to develop, then quit.
When working in a strong team, in 2 years you will reach a level that you could not have reached alone in 10 years.

Answer 2

Full-stacks are rarely needed (this is either the position of an enikey, or the position of a service station)
If the company has become attached to you, then start creating your own department
.
Try yourself in the interview for the middle (then jun) on the backend and front - so you will understand at what level you are

Answer 3

Jack of all trades is cool and useful for broadening one's horizons.
Good for some review-start in IT.
But not more.
It is impossible to know something well if you do not specialize in it.
Quit.
Immediately agree that you will not be a full stack there.
If you are interested in different areas, then specialize in one, then in another.
It is extremely important to have well-meaning highly professional colleagues in the zone of quick access.

Answer 4

It is important to compare yourself with who you were and who you have become. You obviously have two pluses - you are developing intensively, better than you were, and you see your shortcomings. IMHO you need to continue and work for another 1-1.5 years. You will have a decent experience in both timing and skills. It is clear that doing everything from design to programming is unbearable, but still you get experience and an idea of ​​​​how it works and works. You are now thinking about some ideal company and a team of developers, but you won’t get into the conditional Yandex right away. Prioritize what you consider essential and necessary and master it.
ps Useful articles:
https://medium.com/@sgarcia.dev/my-journey-to-beco...
https://medium.freecodecamp.com/the-practical-guid...
https://medium.com/web-development-zone/useful-doc...
https://medium.com/web-development-zone/where-to-s...

Answer 5

I acquired a good skill for an IT specialist

This is indeed a very useful skill. From the position of "jack of all trades" there are much more prospects. On the net, such specialists are often scolded, they say, they got a little bit of everything, and you don’t know how to do anything well. Such people simply do not understand what they are talking about, most likely because of their own inexperience. Competent, wise specialists have knowledge in a sea of ​​​​areas, and not just in one. The more skills you have, the more valuable you are as a specialist, and the more choice you have: you can not only delve into one area, but also become a good leader, because you are now able to understand a large number of different people.
In my opinion, first you need to try to change the situation around you - to prepare a conversation with your superiors about the labor process. If unsuccessfully - either hone the skill of negotiations, or do not twitch until the work suits you in general, or look after another job.

Answer 6

I was the same, but then I realized that it is impossible to develop alone in such an organization.

Answer 7

No way.
The last three years was the same "horse".
Then, if not yet, they will try to impose a context set.
It would be a shame to show the work in the resume, in the sense of a link to the site, because the "vision" of the leader is reflected there in full glory. For a while, the site generally resembles a vinaigrette from various others ... either extra scrolls fit into the workspace, or the entire page is splattered with banners in colors that are in no way consistent with the general concept and at the same time - terribly flickering and flashing.
Place of work - change.

Answer 8

You have taken a good start and can develop in all directions, and then choose what you like best.
For development, it is important to work with specialists in a particular field.

Answer 9

First, decide what is more interesting for you - writing code or solving business problems. It would seem that the code should solve business problems, but now it is not.
If you are more interested in engineering stuff (learning frameworks, dealing with tools, and that's all), then quit and go to an IT office. There you will be engaged in outsourcing in an embrace with legacy, new technologies and talking about them with the guys in the canteen or near the cooler. But you won't understand why you do what you do. Most likely, even your bosses will not understand this: the lead and the PM. Outsourcing is the norm. The larger the office, the more the cargo cult and the less sense in what is happening. Overengineering here is not something that they are trying to eradicate, but rather they are even encouraged (albeit not out loud) - this is how you earn more on time & material.
If business is more interesting for you, then develop towards a product technologist. In this direction, the questions "Why do something?" more important than "How?". Build your negotiation and management skills. Your tools will not be an editor, but other guys who are interested in drawing banners, coding and screwing up photo galleries, and that's it. And the main task (very costly in terms of brain fuel) will be to clarify the tasks together (and it is important what exactly is together) with business and recommendations on how best to invest what you earn in technology.

Answer 10

TL;DR
Quit
Your leader is the same. The specialist evaluates the deadlines, while the management either accepts them or changes their wishes.
It's certainly great that you understand how someone else's business works and your role in it. But usually PM does it. The time of those specialist, as a rule, is valued higher.
I had a conversation with my colleagues over a glass of tea N years ago: who participated in how many projects? I had ~15 projects at that time (solid middle), my colleague (weak jun) had ~300. Reasonable question: what is it? It turned out that he only made business card sites.
In an IT company, the first thing they would say to you is: "Junkie in the galley? Don't disgrace yourself, here's PhpStorm for you"
Learn to soberly assess deadlines and try to keep them. Someone else's burning deadlines should be the last thing you worry about.
I once had a case: a marketer comes running and asks: when will task #N be completed? I answered that the code will be written in time A, but then there will be a code review process, since my TL is loaded to the ears - I can’t say exactly how long it will take, respectively, when task #N will be uploaded to the production server (and this same time) - also I can not say. The marketer came after a while. A.
M: Why is task #N not in production?
Me: Because she's in the review.
M: But you promised to do it by time A!
Me: That's right, and I kept my promise, the code is written, but I also talked about the time for rvey and pouring into production.
M: But we promised our partners to do the task by time A!
Me: Sorry, but I emphasized that in addition to writing code, there are other stages in the development process that also take time. You have specified to partners obviously not the correct term. I'm sorry, but this is your personal anal pain.
Not at your current company.
Fullstack is now dying. The fact is that the amount of knowledge required for the web is growing exponentially, spreading over both design and layout, front and back - the quality of your knowledge will remain weak.
In 5-7 years, the volume of required knowledge will only increase.
Fullstack is trying to get into: design, layout, frontend and backend at once.
If you also want to become a vegetable - a great idea. Wear work is only effective for a very short period of time.

Answer 11

Believe me, you are still lucky - you only worked for half a year in your office. I have been working in such a swamp for 1.5 years now. True, I don’t do design, but I do typesetting, integrating into cms, communicating with clients, correcting any crooked layout, and sometimes doing all sorts of SEO garbage. For all this I get 270$ (7000 hryvnia if transferred to ours), despite the fact that I live in Kyiv. I will say more web development, by today's standards, I started doing quite late - at the age of 26. And imagine the situation, I’m already 28 now, as I was a June, I still have. He worked for food, did not save money at all. Now I want to get out of this office, but there is no money at all for "changing" at all, and you see, the boss also noticed that I started to score and decided to underpay the salary. But the salary is all the little things 1.5 years of life is a pity.

Answer 12

The answers have already been given. You don’t have many options:
1. Go to another office for a specified area of ​​work, for example, a backend
2. Go to another office as a team lead and direct the efforts of the team to achieve the final result, here you need to know the full stack
3. Agree on the place: either I have paragraphs 1 and 2 and you are looking for "and a Swiss and a reaper and a player on the pipe" in the person of another person, or we are agreeing on new employees and I am developing as a team leader.
Now the whole web has been hung on you, and then " You're a programmer, can't you fix the kettle?" You must be able to set limits and clearly say "We did not agree on this, but everything additional is optional and for money," period!

Answer 13

Spraying is a bad thing.
There is no point in knowing a little bit about everything.
It is much more useful and interesting, in my opinion, to know one area in depth and "get rid" of everything superfluous and distracting.

Answer 14

You can sell your soul to the commercial department. Your skills will be enough.

Answer 15

I don't see any problems at all.
Study books, frameworks, libraries, technologies. In general, feel free to learn. Between your lines, there are some issues with this. And this is medicine.
There is professional communication on specialized forums, in abundance.

Answer 16

As my considerable experience has shown, sitting in such places for more than a year is harmful from a professional point of view.
However, it all depends on your life strategy.
If you are planning to start your own business or understand that the work is not-hit-down, and the money is good, then this can be a good foundation to free your hands to work for yourself and not lose a source of income.

Answer 17

As always, a worthy question already contains the answer))
Your answer is even clearly formulated:
"And I would like, having spent a total of a year on the web, to say that I'm pretty good, at least in something."
So feel what you most like and in what you are most successful. This is your path.
By the way, another option: if you know the subtleties of individual stages of work, then you can go to the authorities
if administration by specialists gives you pleasure. Now the chiefs (intelligent) are actually in short supply. Or open your own business and hire specialists - knowledge of all sections of the profession will help a lot. Good luck!