Ask HN: Is a coder who can design more valuable?

I started my career as a designer and eventually taught myself programming. I moved from front-end to back-end development over the course of a few years. I unfortunately had to completely remove any design-related skills from my resume because I would always end up in a front-end designer role, even though I preferred and was more passionate about back-end development roles.

I have found my design skill set valuable for my own businesses and side projects, but when working for an employer I have found the skill set burdensome and counter-productive for my career direction. (It’s worth mentioning that I do not enjoy doing design-work professionally, as I usually feel like I have no creative freedom and end up feeling like a paintbrush.)

I went to university to study Electronic Systems Engineering, and particularly liked the courses in circuit design. When it was time to find a job, I decided to continue doing short-term summer internships so I could travel to more places before settling down. That shifted my focus from hardware to software, and now most of my work experience is in coding.

Designers who can code are more likely to work well with developers, understand the tradeoffs that developers face, and design accordingly. Startup companies might only be able to afford one employee to do design & development, so having broad skills is very good for small companies.

Big companies are appealing when thinking about settling down long-term. They usually want specialists rather than generalists, but with your experience, I think you'd be well-qualified as a designer or developer.

While you have more freedom in your contracts, do more side projects! Your Chinese-character app is fun :) (share it here!). It shows good design as well as coding. The logos you made for the Ultimate Frisbee club are also cool. Putting those on a flashy website and writing a couple of blog posts or comments here on HN might be enough to get job offers.

In the long-term, some skills endure better. The popular JavaScript frameworks change every few years, so coders have to keep retraining (although the basic principles are always the same). Advertising brings in a lot of revenue for tech companies, so they'll keep paying people to apply the same skills in that field for a while to come.

In 2019 I'll be making a change, but I don't know where that will lead me. If it involves pivoting my career path so I can go to a particular country, I'm open to that. You're still young, so stay flexible for another few years. Good luck! :)

There are very few jobs that require both skills, outside of a small business / startup that can't spend on both. Very few companies will pay for 1/2 of what they want in a specific role to get 1/2 of what they can get with that other req they have open. If that's how you present yourself, that's how they'll think of you.

For smaller businesses looking to pay less sure, they can hire you to be both the designer and developer.