The Importance of Specialization in Coding

Many people want to learn everything, which is impossible. Pick a tech stack and learn as much as you can about that group of technologies. It will make you more valuable than being a jack of all trades.
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[@fifthavenue2105]

According to LinkedIn job postings, I have to be an expert on literally everything

[@fiskryeziu]

facts

[@ianfrye8988]

I work in recruiting and heard something interesting one time - Consider things on a job postings as of "Has knowledge of it" as you know what it is and could learn it if needed. Most things are not required and a lot of these are being written by AI these days.

[@ehm-wg8pd]

thats why their job listing never filled

[@lostinthenarrativve]

Who cares about linkedin, build your business and hire yourself .

[@50PullUps]

Sometimes those job postings aren’t sincere attempts at finding candidates. I had an interview (with a major payment card company in the northern suburbs of Chicago) for a ‘Network Technician’ job several months back where they preferred knowledge of Python, Ansible, AWS… but then daily duties involved tracking inventory of network equipment. That struck me as odd, but I accepted the interview. Didn’t get the job. Later I realized that the absurdity of the posting was no accident. The hiring manager (or whoever came up with that job description) was likely creating the conditions where they were able to present the appearance of productivity, rather than do anything that was actually productive.

[@dtwelve89]

Brad is so humble, he actually knows a lot about a lot.

[@shadowslayer2248]

When you have been coding for sometime you start getting clarity that there are way better people than you at anything and all you can do is learn and improve. This leads to humility

[@douglascounts4634]

When you have been doing this as long as he has, you will understand that languages are more the same than they are different. They all have strings, arrays, Booleans, and looping for example. What can be very different are things like specific drawing libraries and things like that for each language. Also everything has to generate the same CSS, HTML, and JavaScript as end products.

[@AustinDoesDesign]

bruh got jacked af

[@Loki_Dokie]

​@@AustinDoesDesignI noticed his face is slimmed down, glad for him improving himself in many ways, he deserves it.

[@fszotyi]

I have started with your Laravel crash course back in 2017. Learned a lot from you, then started my own learning projects in laravel, but kept my job. Finally I got a developer position in 2022, learned vue and here I am. Now i am a developer thanks to your work also, you helped me, to make all this possible, through your tutorials. Thank you Brad. You are awesome! 🙇

[@ForexPeak]

Hey @fszotyi I'm on the same journey as well. Why don't we connect? 😄

[@fszotyi]

​@@ForexPeak👍

[@TraversyMedia]

That’s awesome ❤

[@jj-big-slay-yo]

Neat.

[@Loki_Dokie]

Wish I never gave up on it, 10 months given to learning, learned a ton but burned myself out (ft job, kids, and learning 5 hours after work) Considering getting back on JS, which was my pain points, but am going to learn GDscript to dev an indie game also 😀 If I / had i used TypeScript it probably would've helped, I like strict

[@daliborpetric8288]

TRaversy media tutorials gave me chance to get a job 6 years ago with that knowlege. Im now senior developer, and i can't enough say THANK YOU BRAD!

[@theelastog1580]

Which few videos would your recommend of his ?

[@appcolab]

​@@theelastog1580almost all his videos are helpful, so grab what you want to learn

[@comoyun]

@@theelastog1580 yeah, I'm interested too.

[@DennisIvy]

Dude your looking younger and better looking than ever! Sharp man, proud of you. Good info as well 💪

[@fahimsautomation1288]

I thought I could be a jack of all trades, learning Python, DS, ML, Web development, and PHP for WordPress. But your video came at the right time and made me realize What I want to do with that tech? Is it for getting a job? Or Building the next Unicorn. It is not about how many tools and tech I know. Instead, it is about learning specific stacks, deep diving, and exploring the abundance of library and building projects. I also realize that small or big projects strengthen my logical ability. That's How I can be specialized.

[@TraversyMedia]

I think once you find a stack to really “master” (if that’s even a thing), then it’s fine to keep learning more. I just think it’s important to have a focus for the first couple years

[@youtubeplaylist5018]

So exactly what you choose to do at the end ?

[@Suresh-iu2tx]

Avg fresher job posting - 5 years experience in full stack, cloud, ai, ml, devops, deep learning, computer vision, nlp

[@dystopian_1]

and a good 'team player' :P

[@AdolfRizzler41]

​@@dystopian_1and good soft skills

[@johnmcnamara8741]

@@dystopian_1don’t forget pay: 16$ an hour

[@pickeld5616]

Hii brad, you help me a lot in my career journey. just want to say thank you so much.

[@ianfrye8988]

I think more important than anything is focusing on the fundamentals such as Objects, Classes, Variables, Arrays - how to manipulate data, fetch data, async and concurrent programming - It was so much easier for me to pick up a new technology once I learned the fundamentals. I learned Typescript and Java and was able to write a program in flutter after watching one tutorial and picking up the docs. That's another things, get really good at reading docs.

[@SirProdigle]

Yeah, specialising so aggressively is bad advice for anyone not a beginner/in their first job tbh. If you have solid foundations and can float between similar technologies, companies will happily hire you to work with languages/tech you've never used before. If you specialise so heavily, your job market will shrink a lot as the years ago by

[@centro-ao]

Yep, lots of folks don't enjoy reading docs, so they stick to KZbin for help.

[@jbm2074]

@@centro-aothat is what being said here. You can't enjoy reading docs if you don't understand what's going on. Especially for libraries and frameworks , you should build the intuition to understand the docs not always going to youtube, by understanding programming concepts. Please I am not saying youtube is bad . If you are stuck go and look for help but reading docs it's an underated skill. It can make your programming life easier in this industry were new technologies are always available.

[@SirusStarTV]

All these languages and libraries/frameworks abstract everything to a point where everything doesn't make sense and makes it challenging to form a coherent mental model. If some error would occur you wouldn't be able to deal with it and fix the problem. Some libraries docs really explain the inner parts of their code and explain why they use their approach to code.

[@harshwagh4280]

+1

[@bharat_thapa_]

Great advice. Don't chase 'The best XYZ' just start working on something you believe is useful / helpful to make money (like: js, python, php, react, blah blah blah). All the best.

[@lalithprasadsrigiriraju]

The first honest KZbin tech content creator?

[@zxyi9090]

I am in my 40s and now I am deep diving into Javascript because it is the language of the web. Thanks Brad for all your worthy efforts. 😊

[@Shaydon845]

Am 18 I've your comment inspires me .

[@harshitrautela6585]

Brother, your dedication inspires me

[@user-zh3ow4nh3p]

Here I am with plans to move away from JavaScript after 10yrs with it😅. It's so frustrating keeping up

[@sys935]

Javascript nowadays can be used for web and desktop app can be used even offline on local computer storage

[@Mahakaal1221]

I am learning at 25 😂

[@poznianski]

Very important topic, especially for beginners who might feel overwhelmed. Good that you're pointing it out.

[@DannyMexen9]

My career made me a generalist (I was required to know a little bit of everything) and so I became a manager. Management became my specialty. I can have a meaningful conversation with anyone on the technical team. It makes them feel like I know everything but I don’t nor do I pretend to. I simply do my best to enable theirs.

[@Apenschi]

Soo true! The frameworks keep developing and it is hard to even stay up-to-date with one or two of them. Also whenever you learn new thing you "overwrite" older knowledge to some degree.

[@hassanadedoyin8062]

Just always honest and very straightforward as I see him

[@eczeeofficial]

I've been following you for years now and man you bacame JACKED!!! I'm really happy for you Brad! Hope you're doing well now and thanks for all the effort and amzing content you've put out for us strugglers! Love from Italy

[@nammi895]

Your channel is an emotion, dude thanks a lot for your contribution 7 yrs ago I started my coding journey watching your channel for Python & JS, now I'm working at FAANG making top $$ Coming from a poor family your channel helped me a lot to learn things from free, and after getting money I was able to support my brother education & clear off my parents debts Thanks 🙏🙏

[@user-ll4wy3ur3e]

I haven't watched a video from this channel in a long time but 2018 was when I learned how to code and then eventually get two jobs since. It took some time but I got there in the end. Thanks man.

[@chivicks_hazard]

Thank you for the reminder Brad. It's not easy to stick to things as an entry-level developer with all the hype around various technologies but at if one is able to create a roadmap for himself/herself, it will be easier to scale through. Thank you once more for always giving us meaningful content.

[@CyberTechBits]

Yo Brad! I started learning on your channel and now I'm getting ready to launch my own SaaS. I haven't watched your channel in quite some time but I never unsubscribed and I started just as you suggested many years ago...learning the basics...and for me that was vanilla HTML, JS and CSS. I've been swamped building my service. You're the best brother! Now I need to find a co-founder!

[@nunorodrigues5628]

I work at a small company. We needed to use a different framework for a new product we were developing. The last one used angular 1. So we played around with your crash courses, and that helped us make a decision pretty quick. Your channel is really useful to understand the basics of web technologies really quickly.

[@sparda111222]

You are one of the most sincere content creator out there. Thank you.

[@KristianTheDesigner]

This is really great advice. I think whenever i ”learn” something new it is more out of curiosity rather than wanting to become supergood in it. I find it inspiring to dip my toes in the shallowend of different pools..just to be able to talk about and have a basic understanding of product/language X , in addition to the tech i am actually using and working with everyday. Also..the reason i am using what i am using now is because i did the exact same thing with that, so maybe i suddenly find a new expertise by accident. At the end of the day, it should be fun.

[@yahayaoyinkansola8258]

Thank you brad for this video, it has helped me clarify some things about specialization

[@mecamon]

Thanks for this kindly reminder, Brad. We all appreciate it and appreciate you.

[@iramudoy2317]

Very précised and relative to the freshers. Couldnt resist sharing this. Good job man!!

[@AgCodes143]

Absolutely true. The approach I use for this whole learning thing is understanding the difference between mission and methods. The mission of coding is data and information sharing or manipulation, the methods includes all the different language used to achieve that mission. No point learning different languages that literally solve the same problem. Identify the foundation of coding, then limit your learning of methods to your goal, because methods will always change, but the mission will always remain.

[@Jeancyjr]

By far the best channel for me. I've learned a lot. I like his teaching style and approach.

[@techienomadiso8970]

Brad, saw you 4 years ago when I was in campus. You inspired me a lot to keep coding. Now my life is set career wise and I’m glad to see that you also went to the gym and did the necessary! To more life and success 🥂🍻 cheers!

[@ind_gagan1]

Great video, you summed up your coding experience pointers in few minutes. Very helpful ! Thanks man

[@arberstudio]

Your 20 JS projects reawakened a spark for coding, and went from a thing I once used to do to creating my very own JS frontend framework. It’s no ReactJS but it works! Thank you man!

[@mmelimahlobo7656]

Thanks Brad been switching from PHP to Javascript and have not been good anything but decided to stick with PHP and I am doing great❤

[@alinemendonca2488]

You are amazing, i was always afraid to learn laravel, because i saw many people saying "php will die", but your video was so didactic and so clear that i decided to learn more about this framework and php, thank you for having such a rich and clear content!

[@piotrdev]

Brad is the legend! Thanks for all the content you provide, this is always outstanding!

[@kettenbach]

Looking jacked 💪 bruh! I need to up my gym game. Great to see you Brad!

[@leandrofahur_]

You're the best! I started learning with you, and I keep learning with you. Thx for being awesome and very objective!

[@carchutogimenez8539]

Thank you for your honesty. You didn't have to put this online, as it goes against your best interest, so, once again, I thank you for your honesty. Not only you are a great teacher, but you also have integrity, you should be proud of yourself.

[@neo90sr]

Nice video Brad, really look up to you. You've helped me in becoming a developer and land my first job 😊

[@TheYinyangman]

Looking good Brad - good for you man getting into shape.

[@iamakinjuwon]

If there is someone I respect in this space brad is definitely one of them from is tutorials and detailed explanation,make you understand it very well,I learned most of my frontend skills from him....thanks for this

[@dystopian_1]

Your words make be believe in humanity. Thanks for being kind and humble, Brad.

[@shindeshubhamm]

My journey in development started because of this man during Covid pandemic. He's just fantastic teacher. I have reached this far because of him. Awesome man! Hats off! Great work!

[@mensahtribeadventures2630]

I enjoy java and springboot learned frontend from you. Thank you so much. Really want to get more into angular 17

[@cipherlofi6453]

very good to see you like this, You are in a great shape!

[@khemchay]

Code is my lifeblood. Even as a student wasy back 2008, I was hooked, building my own homelab from scratch. Back then, it was portable servers(slackOS and even make my own distro + apache or nginx), DLLs, and programming libraries on a USB drive and CD's - a far cry from today's package managers and Docker. I've rebuilt that lab countless times depends on a project, and to this day, I'm still shoulder-deep in code at any languages, scaling massive datasets for AI projects. The truth is, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. Generalists and specialists both bring value, and finding your own sweet spot is key.

[@yj4105]

hi Brad, I am really grateful on uploading those kind of mentoring vids. As a self-taught developer, I needed to hear something like this from a someone professonal and this helps a lot. it will be great if you can create another video tips on portfolios how and what we should create before we dive into the job market.

[@jamilabbasOfficial]

4 years ago I learned MERN stack from your videos/ thank you so much for creating so valuable content.

[@sunwarulislam7402]

Great advise. you helped many of us build our career in web development. Thanks man!

[@msydneyau]

Looking good, mate! Haven’t seen you for a couple of years and you look younger 🎉 Your Laravel tutorial (the first one) was the best (one for me)!

[@jonathanjohnson2785]

Thanks Brad. Still learning so much from you

[@jonathanhammond5563]

Traversy looking to be in great shape man! Since you took that break I’m happy for you.

[@travelsumatra2393]

This is so true, even for content creator like you need a specialization. Not everyone know everything except Derek 😊

[@33t00p]

This is such a valuable point that is rarely mentioned. Thanks for that.

[@uimonk]

Happy to see you in good shape.. following u for last 6 years

[@maxrush206]

Dang Brad! I've been watching your channel for years, but I haven't watched a video in a while. You're looking in great shape buddy💪💪

[@dakoderii4221]

If not for his voice and mannerisms I would think it's his brother or cousin but not Brad.

[@aricwilliamsdeveloper]

Imagine if all devs was on flex mode lol.. im getting in shape also, great to see Brad on it!

[@loganbelew4832]

Thanks man, your channel is a big help for us devs.

[@ultrasys]

Edifying video. You probably don’t know (because it really doesn’t make any difference in the grand scheme of things) but I watch your videos just for the fun of them, even though I’m not interested in most of the subjects you present (the specific technologies, I mean), but I lear A LOT from your presentations. In the recent past (for me, at least, since 10 years is nothing from my perspective) I watched closely your health bump, if you know what I mean, and was glad to see everything worked out okay, so, yeah, you’ve got real people that are more concerned with you, than with your videos. I’m sure the great majority of your audience shares my feelings that you’re a real nice guy IRL and thet you’re not into this just for the likes and monetizing. One thing I can clearly observe, though, is that you’re so focused even being into an apparent unfocused world, that you don’t devote much attention to fixing your environs (the computer one, I mean - we can see that your room is very well equipped and comfortable). I often find myself asking if you don’t change your fonts because you don’t bother, of because you actually like them as they are hahahaha You’re one of those YT heavy lifters, Brad. Thanks for that.

[@skinnytimmy1]

Learn one way to do each thing. Like the react example, the first time you learn a framework, you're also learning frameworks as a whole. It will be much easier to understand other ways to do the same thing later.

[@timungasangho]

This man clear up my mind now.. I have been wondering learning different languages stuff which I chose would be the best me. Now other than Java and Python I should focus on javascript as my priority. Thanks Brad.❤

[@antonio_carvalho]

I've been watching your videos for over a decade now. Your evolution in all areas is incredible, all while keeping your qualities of a hard working, humble and honest content creator and presenter, creating great content that is filled with knowledge. Really happy to see you in such great shape! You are very relatable and an inspiration to a lot of people, I hope you know and feel proud of that! Now the only thing left to improve is to get rid of those hats! 😂 jk! Thank you for your excellent content!

[@craig-scott]

Thanks a lot, Brad. You're looking well. All the best.

[@imadabab]

Thanks a lot Brad for this brilliant video. I agree 100% with you.

[@elyasdemeke23]

Liked the video before even seeing it. The GOAT is giving us wisdom on top of free crash course. I have made a living with Vue and Nuxt after watching your crash course.

[@AsToNlele]

Hi Brad, haven't watched in quite a while. You look super good! Saw you even under some Sam Sulek videos 💪😄. Thanks to your React courses and videos I was able to land a part time job while studying, which I'll be always grateful for. I think you're an amazing teacher and especially these "no coding" videos make a big impact on people's careers.

[@realjackofall]

Another great, honest and relevant video. I can vouch for what you are saying. I'm in my mid 40s and have been a 'jack of all trades master of none' for over 21 years working as a developer/architect and am still a hands on programmer. Hence my username :-). I get into multiple areas not with a hope of being able to apply for many different jobs, but only because I find many areas interesting. Not just in tech, but in life too. As far as tech is concerned, I dive deep into specific areas when required. But you are right. There aren't many takers for such people. Employers in the industry need people who can hit the ground running. Specialists fit the bill there.

[@srsh12345]

Thank you for the great breakdowns.

[@anvarsaidov8964]

Brad, good to see you, we need more of this face to face tutorials.

[@michaelhughes8413]

Great advice. I've been a developer for about 25 years and can agree with lots being said here

[@rittickdatta1209]

Thank you for your honest opinion 🙏🏼 I learnt a lot from you ❤🎉

[@diabeticnomad]

Amen brother couldn't have said it better! wish everyone was given this advice in college like I was

[@techwithdayan20]

Thanks so much Mr Brad, I appreciate your good work always

[@ketan.pkapale3490]

Thanks for this! Amazing to see content creators like you exist and gave a rational about programming myths.

[@darah.k3221]

One of the best channels and advices

[@ridwanray]

Thanks for sharing this. Find a niche is the key. Currently, I am doing that on my channel. ❤

[@mandardeshpande9338]

Looking great Brad. You are getting into shape. Keep going

[@XAUCADTrader]

As a gym bro, I approve. Simple thing to do, huge effects in life. You get auto-respect.

[@hebron254]

Thanks for sharing this coz now I know what to do much love from Kenya.

[@yavergazi]

Brad, you are amazing, thanks for everything

[@danieljayne8623]

Looking great Brad, good for you

[@vitalikda]

Looking good, Brad! Such a change in a few years 💪

[@alimihakeem841]

Thanks for sharing. I found it helpful.

[@codedoer]

Thanks Brad this kind of tips is what im needing now

[@wadiibounenni4848]

Good advice from an humble coder :) Thanks.

[@ranjanadissanayaka5390]

Very useful video for me. Thank you dude

[@gt_n1722]

Excellent video, very honest. God bless you sir!

[@agadaFrancisLouis]

Bro, you nailed it 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾❤️

[@Azubuike-iw9zt]

I really needed that insight I appreciate 🙏🏽

[@eyoborelvis8224]

Hey @travery... I began coding through your channel.. you're really like my coding godfather.. I love you so so much 🚀🚀🚀🚀😍😍

[@akashnag3879]

felt so good to see you after a long time.

[@alcprado]

You said it all. I love technology but for the past 5 years I decided to focus on iOS mobile development and recently moved from UIKit to SwiftUI and I keep specializing myself. So far I feel like I have lots of opportunities in the market and salary average is pretty good. Decide your direction and become the best of it but never be closed for changes like I did in my career. Best of luck

[@king-manu2758]

I became a professional react dev thanks to Brad here. Then in my company, even though I also work with Django on the backend sporadically, I became a react specialist, and not only that, but I also became focused on one aspect of the company's product to such a degree that it saved me from layoffs just because they can't afford to fire me now. So specialization is crucial in many aspects.

[@thru_and_thru]

Any suggestions on how to level up in React? This would be my tool of "specialty" but after about 2 and a half years of working with it exclusively I would consider myself decent but by no means an expert at it. Thanks

[@king-manu2758]

@@thru_and_thru I have the same YOE as you so I wouldn't consider myself a mega expert either. I just get the job done. But react is javascript after all. If you want to become an expert, delve deep into javascript and how react is built on top of it.

[@rkpinata373]

@@thru_and_thrubuild a larger project you're passionate about. Something that takes at least a month to build. But to really level up you need to work in a real work product, and get feedback from your peers

[@BlackistedGod]

@@thru_and_thru Understand the basic concept of programming and have a deep understanding of the language you are interested in instead of focusing on "framework". Im a self-taught and been coding for more almost 2 decades. For Almost 5 years on my early days, I was too reliant with jQuery and does not fully understand how Javascript works, when these framework started to appear in early days (Angular, React, Vue) I was having a hard time trying to gasp their concept when I tried learning them while also working full time. The same thing with PHP, I was too reliant with CMS like Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal in the early days and when I started learning CoreIgniter/Laravel/Symfony I was lost. The company I worked on my early days was dissolve and I lost my full time job, I was kinda lazy to apply another job with similar position and I want to dig more deeply on programming, so instead of applying full time, I did project basis from here and there then started to leraning compiled languages like C, C++, Java, Rust, Zig, Go, I even tried learning Assembly for the purpose of having deep understanding on how code execution, memory management and multi-threading works, and I can say it was very painful Journey specially when all you know are interpreted language. When I went back learning PHP/Javascript and these popular framework, it becomes really easy and all I have to understand is design of the framework, they all follow the same concept interns of memory management and code execution. Right now, I can confidently say that I can work on any PHP/Javascript framework whatever it is as long as it has documentation, I worked with Vue, Angular, React, Solid, Meteor, Express, Next and some more. Although Im more focus on Vue, Solid and Angular, I can say they are all pretty much the same, they are all "Javascript" and if you have deep understanding with Javascript all you need to understand about them are the builtin function or anything that comes from them and their design pattern.

[@binhminhtran4605]

@@thru_and_thru there’s a certification for React, called React certified. To pass the test, you need to have deep understanding about JS (hoisting, scope chain, event loop, JS runtime, closure, etc), and React (virtual dom deep dive, React life-cycle, all the hooks, error boundaries, state management in both component and global scope, Redux, React router dom, etc.), Jest for testing, profiller, React compiler, client-side authentication, authorization, bundle size,…. To be more advanced, learn NextJS (rendering patterns, file-based routing, caching, meta data configuration, SEO optimization, etc.), Git, Docker, CI/CD. After that, you can choose to learn another framework like Vue and Nuxt, or React Native for mobile, or NodeJS to become fullstack dev, it’s okay either way, but just React alone is quite unstable and risky for your future

[@emutsinzi]

You’re looking great, Brad 💪🏾💪🏾

[@usaava]

Totally agree with you. Thanks for your video.

[@austinstanley8484]

Good information..thanks Brad

[@Web-Himansu]

I loves ❤❤❤ this channel forever. Thanks Brad traversy......

[@peacemelodi1145]

Thank you, your video came at the right time.

[@belloadetayo7728]

thanks Brad, great message

[@deancoding1623]

Thank you Brad, I really needed to hear this today, sorry i can't still support on patreon, But I was there for years when i could afford it. Keep being you and i wish the upmost great health and happiness to your whole family..

[@ch012]

Brad...good to see your video after sometime. People like me miss your videos if they dont turn up regularly.

[@V-I-sitors]

Thank you for the advises.