The Real Reason to Learn the MEAN Stack: Employability

The world of web development moves fast. Blink and you might miss the latest hot framework or technique that everyone is raving about. Amidst this constantly changing landscape, how do you decide what skills to focus on? What will give you the most bang for your buck in terms of career prospects?

Enter the MEAN stack. This powerful combination of MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js has been steadily gaining popularity over the past several years, to the point where it is now one of the most sought-after skill sets in the job market. As a full-stack developer and coding instructor, I‘ve seen firsthand how mastering the MEAN stack can open doors and boost employability like few other things can.

In this article, we‘ll take a deep dive into why the MEAN stack has become such a hot commodity, backed up by hard data and insights from the field. Whether you‘re a coding bootcamp student, a self-taught developer, or a seasoned pro looking to upskill, read on to understand why MEAN mastery should be a top priority.

The Rise of the MEAN Stack

First, some context. The MEAN stack is a relatively recent development in the grand scheme of web history. Let‘s briefly trace its origins and rise to prominence.

The story starts, as many modern web tales do, with JavaScript. Since its humble beginnings in the early days of the web, JavaScript has steadily grown in capabilities and importance. With the advent of AJAX in the early 2000s, JavaScript became the default method for creating dynamic, interactive web pages.

Fast forward to 2009, when a bright young developer named Ryan Dahl released the first version of Node.js. This was a major turning point. Node made it possible to use JavaScript on the server side, paving the way for full-stack JavaScript development.

Around the same time, a company called 10gen (now MongoDB Inc.) was working on a new type of database. Their creation, MongoDB, store data in flexible JSON-like documents instead of rigid tables. This made it a perfect fit for JavaScript-driven applications.

The next couple years saw the release of some other key libraries and frameworks: Express.js in 2010 and Angular.js in 2011. Suddenly, you could write a complete web application, from database to UI, in one language: JavaScript.

By 2013, developers started to put a name to this powerful new stack: MEAN. One of the earliest and most influential proponents was a developer named Val Karpov, who wrote a seminal blog post titled "The MEAN Stack: MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS and Node.js".

From there, interest in the MEAN stack exploded. Coding bootcamps started teaching it. Startups and enterprises alike started adopting it. And job listings started demanding it.

Here are just a few of the major companies that have built applications using the MEAN stack:

• Netflix
• PayPal
• Uber
• LinkedIn
• NASA
• Trello

Today, the MEAN stack is a mature, proven platform for building scalable, high-performance web applications. But is it right for your career? Let‘s look at the data.

MEAN Stack Job Trends

To gauge the demand for MEAN stack skills, we‘ll use job posting data from Indeed, one of the largest job search sites. We‘ll look at the trend over time for each component of the stack, as well as how it compares to other popular web technologies.

Back-End Frameworks

First up, let‘s compare Node.js and Express.js to other server-side frameworks like Ruby on Rails, Django (Python), and Laravel (PHP).

The results are striking. Node.js has seen an astronomical rise, with job postings increasing nearly 10x from 2013 to 2017. Express is also growing steadily. Meanwhile, the other frameworks have largely plateaued.

When we look at the absolute numbers, Node.js is quickly catching up to the old guard:

As of 2017, there were more job postings for Node.js than the other three frameworks combined. This suggests that while many existing applications still use Rails, Django, etc., the majority of new development is happening on Node.

Databases

Next, let‘s look at how MongoDB compares to other databases, both NoSQL and traditional SQL.

Again, MongoDB is the clear leader in growth, with nearly 6x more job postings in 2017 than 2013. Other NoSQL options like Cassandra and Couchbase are also growing, but not nearly as fast.

Still, SQL databases are hardly obsolete. Let‘s see how MongoDB stacks up against the big relational players:

Impressively, MongoDB is outpacing even the most popular SQL databases in terms of growth. In 2017 it had more job postings than PostgreSQL and MySQL combined. Oracle and SQL Server still dominate in raw numbers, but MongoDB is quickly gaining ground.

Front-End Frameworks

Finally, let‘s examine Angular‘s place in the ever-evolving front-end ecosystem.

Unlike the server-side situation, there‘s no single dominant front-end framework. Angular, React, Ember, and Vue are all seeing strong, comparable growth. Still, Angular has a significant lead, with nearly 2x the job postings of React.

It‘s also worth noting the continued importance of jQuery:

Despite the rise of more modern tools, jQuery is still mentioned in an astonishing number of job postings – almost as many as JavaScript itself. This speaks to the sheer amount of existing code that still relies on jQuery, as well as its enduring ease of use for simpler use cases.

The Advantages of an All-JavaScript Stack

Apart from the raw job numbers, there are some compelling technical and productivity arguments for focusing on the MEAN stack.

Full-Stack Cohesion

Perhaps the biggest selling point of MEAN is that it allows you to use JavaScript for your entire application stack, from database to front-end. This has several major benefits:

• You can use the same language and similar patterns on the client and the server. This makes development faster and lets you reuse code.

• You can have one unified team working on the whole stack, rather than separate front-end and back-end teams. This promotes cross-functional collaboration and understanding.

• Tools and libraries can be shared between the client and server. For instance, you can use Node.js‘s vast npm ecosystem on both sides.

• JSON, the lingua franca of web data, is used everywhere. MongoDB stores data as JSON documents, Node.js passes JSON between client and server, Angular sends and receives JSON to interact with the back-end. No translations or transformations needed.

Real-World Performance

Companies that have adopted the MEAN stack have seen major gains in development speed and efficiency. For example:

• When Uber rewrote their mobile site in Node.js, they were able to handle 2x the traffic with the same hardware, while adding new features much faster.

• After PayPal switched their account overview page to Node.js, they doubled the number of requests per second, reduced response time by 35%, and cut development time in half.

• Walmart saw a 20% boost to conversion on their mobile site after rebuilding with Node.js, plus a 98% reduction in average response time from 1.5s to 30ms.

Of course, these gains can‘t be attributed solely to the MEAN stack – these companies have some of the best engineering teams in the world. But it‘s clear that the stack‘s inherent efficiencies are translating into real-world results.

Future-Proofing

Another big advantage of betting on MEAN is that it puts you on the cutting edge of the JavaScript ecosystem, which shows no signs of slowing down.

The JavaScript community is one of the largest and most active in programming. There are over a million packages in npm, the package manager used by Node.js. New tools and frameworks are released constantly, and the language itself is evolving quickly with annual updates.

What this means is that by mastering the MEAN stack, you‘re not just learning a fixed set of tools, but tapping into a living, ever-growing ecosystem. The skills you learn will be applicable and in-demand for years to come as the JavaScript world continues to evolve.

Caveats and Complements

All this is not to say that the MEAN stack is always the best choice for every project. Like any tool, it has its strengths and limitations. Some scenarios where you might opt for a different stack include:

• Heavy computation or data processing – While Node.js is fast for I/O and can handle a large number of concurrent connections, it‘s not ideal for CPU-intensive tasks. If your application is doing complex calculations or crunching huge datasets, you may be better off with a language like Java or C++.

• Relational data with complex joins – MongoDB and other NoSQL databases excel at scalability and flexibility, but they‘re not great for highly relational data with lots of complex joins. If your data is more structured and relational, a SQL database like PostgreSQL might be a better fit.

• Simple, content-driven sites – If you‘re building a fairly basic website that‘s mostly static content, a full JavaScript stack might be overkill. A simpler set up with something like PHP and MySQL could get the job done with less complexity.

That said, the MEAN stack can still be a great starting point even in these cases. You can always bring in other languages or databases to complement your JavaScript foundation as needed.

And that‘s one of the great things about the MEAN stack: it plays well with others. Because it‘s all based on open web standards and popular languages, it‘s easy to integrate with other tools and services. Some common complements to MEAN include:

• SQL databases like PostgreSQL for relational data
• Real-time libraries like Socket.IO for instant updates
• Graph databases like Neo4j for complex relationships
• Search platforms like Elasticsearch for full-text search
• Message queues like RabbitMQ for decoupling services

Ultimately, the most employable developers are those who can think critically about architecture and pick the right tools for the job. But having the MEAN stack in your toolkit will give you a powerful, flexible default option.

Becoming a MEAN Stack Master

So you‘re convinced that MEAN stack mastery is key to your career growth. What now? How do you go about building these in-demand skills?

First, recognize that there‘s no shortcut. Becoming a true full-stack JavaScript expert takes time, practice, and patience. You need to put in the hours to deeply understand each layer of the stack and how they fit together.

That said, here are some tips to guide your learning journey:

• Focus on the fundamentals – Before diving into the specific technologies, make sure you have a rock solid grasp of core web concepts like HTTP, REST, AJAX, and asynchronous programming.

• Learn vanilla JavaScript deeply – Don‘t jump straight into frameworks and libraries without understanding the language itself. Knowing the ins and outs of pure JS will pay dividends when you move on to more advanced tools.

• Build lots of small projects – As you learn each new piece of the stack, cement your knowledge by building small applications with it. Experimentation and repetition are key.

• Read other people‘s code – One of the best ways to improve as a developer is to see how more experienced programmers solve problems. Dig into the source code of popular MEAN stack projects on GitHub.

• Engage with the community – The JavaScript world is very open and collaborative. Follow the blogs, join the forums, attend the conferences. Learning with and from other developers will accelerate your growth.

• Teach and mentor others – One of the best ways to solidify your own understanding is to explain it to someone else. As you gain experience, share your knowledge with those coming up behind you.

With focused, sustained effort and a commitment to lifelong learning, you can become a MEAN stack master and set yourself up for a bright future in web development.

Conclusion

In the fast-moving world of web development, it can be tempting to chase the latest flashy trend or niche skill. But if your goal is long-term career success and employability, it pays to focus on a stack that is widely used, deeply established, and still growing.

The MEAN stack – MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js – checks all those boxes. It‘s been battle-tested by major companies, it‘s highly sought after by employers, and it‘s built on the most popular and versatile language in the world: JavaScript.

By diving deep into the MEAN stack and the JavaScript ecosystem, you‘re not just learning a set of tools, but a way of thinking that will serve you well for years to come. You‘re setting yourself up to be a highly valuable, full-stack problem solver.

Of course, the MEAN stack isn‘t the only path to success as a web developer. But it‘s a damn good bet. If you‘re looking to maximize your employability and future-proof your skill set, MEAN mastery should be on your short list.

So what are you waiting for? Dive into MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js today, and see how far this powerful stack can take your career. Happy coding!