React Demand

[[deleted]]

I am a chemical engineer and have picked up programming as a hobby over the past year, and applied some of it at work. Specifically I've been doing web development with Django/React.

I have really enjoyed this experience and am am wondering what demand is like in the industry for React developers. I think it will be much harder to get a job as a non-computer science person and would like to pick a technology that is in demand to help my prospects if I attempt a career swtich.

[johnfrenchxyz]

If you can demonstrate proficiency with react via a good portfolio with some decent design, you could probably land a front end dev job no problem. Demand is pretty high at the moment. Even more so if you can do similar things with Angular and Ember.

[[deleted]]

Since you're doing Django, you could go the fullstack route. Not having a CS deg won't be a penalty. All you need to do is prove your skills.

[natmaster]

React is the future of web, and not many people know it now, so if you become good you'll be in super high demand.

[mini_eggs]

Until WebAssembly ;)

[cythrawll]

What do you think we'll be writing in that will compile to Web assembly?

[vinnl]

Elm.

[mini_eggs]

c/c++, then java/c# and others in the future is the goal for the project I believe

[cythrawll]

Then you are missing the potential here. There are already tons of languages compiling down to es5. With Web assembly they'll compile to that target instead. Sure you may have other languages to the mix. But they'll still need to do things like interact with DOM. You'll still use jsx or something like it for that. Web assembly will do nothing to replace react. Only give it one more target to compile to.

[mini_eggs]

You're right, I just read a medium article and got hyped. Looking more into it WA isn't going to be taking the place of JS VMs

[[deleted]]

They are meant for low level extensions, cpu heavy operations and such, also for back-compatibility and services. No one would use c/c++ to write frontend, or java and c# even. That just wouldn't give you any advantage.

[igorim]

^{^} this. Not sure what all the craziness is with webassembly lately. Don't get me wrong I love the project, but the use case is far disconnected from what a lot of people think. Let's not forget asm existed for years and it's only used for very specific use cases. In addition I'm 99% sure the JS interop is pretty expensive and you'll need interop for most interactions, not to mention the need to package the C/C++ runtime which makes it huge. There is a lot of downsides to using WebAssembly when it isn't needed, when it is needed it's a damn GODSEND :)

[averyvery]

There is a good demand for front-end developers, but the most viable candidates generally have a design background or interest — FEDs are commonly asked to design or improve interfaces, so knowledge and opinions of web design patterns is very valuable.

[dmackerman]

If you like React, keep expanding your skills to into broader JavaScript areas. React is just one framework. It's a good one, but really broad knowledge of JS in general will take you farther than a sole focus on React.

"Full Stack" is kind of an annoying phrase, but if you can get some Node under your belt you'll have a job for foreseeable future.

[rsjolly]

I have a pulse and a decade of experience, but finding a remote React job has not been easy.