If you had applied for a software developer role around 10 to 15 years ago, you would have probably been prepared for languages like Java and C++ and familiarity with Linux and SQL. Fast forward to today, the competition is quite high, and software developer aspirants are expected to know much more. A lot of frameworks, languages, tools, and technologies have evolved over the past decade, and present-day developers must be acquainted with them. Experts also suggest that web developers should change their jobs after every three to four years to gain technical skills from various industries and make themselves more marketable and dynamic.

Software development is a dynamic field, and job requirements are shifting constantly. Today, there is a high demand for full-stack developers instead of separate front-end or back-end developers. Full-stack development refers to the end-to-end development of applications that involves knowledge of both client-side and server-side portions of a web application. One of the types of a full-stack developer is a MEAN stack developer. Let us know what a MEAN Full Stack Developer is and what roles and responsibilities do they handle in an organization.

What is a MEAN Stack Developer?

We already described that a full-stack developer is someone who is comfortable working with both the front-end and back-end technologies, along with the knowledge of databases. Now a MEAN stack developer also contributes to the entire software development lifecycle but uses a particular set of technologies, namely:

  • M – MongoDB
  • E – Express.JS
  • A – Angular JS
  • N – Node.js

In other words, MEAN stack developers are JavaScript-based application developers. Here is a brief description of this technology stack.

AngularJS is a front-end JavaScript framework used to build web applications. Maintained by Google, it introduces Model View Controller (MVC) architecture in a web application, making the development and testing process easier. It accepts requests and displays results to the end-user.

Express.JS is a flexible server framework built on Node.js and is used to create web applications, be it single, multi-page, or hybrid. As its official website describes, Express.js is a fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js. In MEAN stack development, it is used to make requests to the database and provides a response.

Node.js is a back-end JavaScript execution environment used to develop server-side and network applications. It is an open-source framework that uses a non-blocking and event-driven I/O model. One thing to note here is that Node.js runs the JavaScript code outside of the browser. It is used to handle server and client requests.

MongoDB is a NoSQL type of database which stores documents and collections in JSON format. It is a database that runs on a server. Here, documents are equivalent to records in SQL, and collections are equivalent to tables. It is preferred for the MEAN stack as it can be easily connected to Node and Express. JSON documents created in Angular.js front end can be sent to Express server, where they are processed and stored in MongoDB for fetching it later.

Roles and Responsibilities of a MEAN Stack Developer

Now that you know that MEAN is a technology stack used to build a full-stack application, it is evident that they handle all the responsibilities of a full-stack developer. While the actual responsibilities may vary from organization to organization, here are some of the common ones they perform:

  • Designing the coding architecture for both front-end and back-end.
  • Collaborating with the IT team to design robust applications and support business objectives.
  • Ensuring that the applications developed are scalable, fast, and highly responsive.
  • Dealing with technical issues that arise while developing the applications.
  • Supporting a high-performance and scalable product with a minimal footprint.
  • Create features in an application with a mobile responsive design.
  • Testing the application and fixing the bugs.
  • Building and managing fully-functional databases and applications.
  • Focusing on security and data protection settings.

To handle these responsibilities, aspirants must have good technical skills. Apart from the MEAN technology stack, they should have knowledge of HTML/CSS, jQuery, Python, Java, web servers, UI/UX design, and Git and design frameworks. When it comes to soft skills, they should be team players, have good communication skills, critical thinking, time management, and be detail oriented.

Should You Take up a Training Course?

To be honest, the competition is really high in the field of software development. Many are gaining new skills and trying to land their dream job. So, it is essential that you have something unique that takes you ahead of your peers. Though you can prepare on your own to become a MEAN stack developer, it is better to enroll in a training program and gain the required skills. A certification is what demonstrates your seriousness regarding the role and ensures the hiring managers that you are aware of the latest trends and best practices related to application development.