Choosing a tech stack as a junior developer

As a junior developer you will often hear that the framework (or language) you choose doesn't matter. The people saying that are correct in the grand scheme of things. But they are overlooking the fact that it can have a big impact on how fast you can contribute as an inexperienced developer.

One of the hardest things when you start working at a new company is getting comfortable with a new codebase. Having to learn a new framework at the same time will make that task a great deal harder.

Already having a basic understanding of the tech stack means you can start producing code, and understand the design decisions taken, a lot faster. At the same time it also has the positive benefit of making sure that you actually like working with it.

When you are getting started as a developer the best thing you can do is research the job market in your area. Learning what the people close to you are using will make the job hunt a lot easier, since it makes you more marketable. It also reduces the risk of you learning a technology that isn't used (yet?).

One such example is Svelte. Svelte is a great frontend framework, yet there is not a single job posting in my country, Denmark, where they are looking for Svelte developers (as of 19th of December 2023). For comparison React has ~500, Angular has ~400 and Vue has ~300.

When all that has been said, tech stack should never be a limiter. You should never be afraid of applying to a job just because you don't have experience with their tech stack, or of learning a new technology just because there isn't any jobs.

Experimenting with new technologies is one of the best ways to learn, since it helps you better understand why a technology was designed the way it was. For instance, this website has been recreated more times than I can count, among them being in .NET Razor, Fresh, Svelte and now Nuxt.