TheShicksinator in  
Infrastructure  

How Best to Grow?

Background:

So I'm around 4 months into my first real corporate job out of college, in a 3-year rotational program, where each year I can pick a different role to develop my career. Due to 401k vesting and the relatively low comp (I'm in NYC and TC is around 102K), I'm looking to switch at a minimum at the 2 year mark, but if it's better for development I'd consider 3 for experience from an additional rotation.

I've trained as a full stack developer in university but have so far only worked frontend roles. My current position is an IT-adjacent mobile phone route that isn't really what I want to do, but I only really figured that out after I got in here.

In the meantime, 20% of my work is required to be spent on other roles of my choice for the company, so I'm working on a project converting a React frontend to Svelte. My company will also pay up to 500 bucks a year for me to get any certifications I want.

I'm not a CSS ninja or anything, I really think I like backend stuff better, it's just frontend is what I've worked with so far by happenstance of what I could get for my last job and where opportunities for the side work lined up. That being said I'd like to be able to say I'm still a fullstack.

Possibilities I'm Considering:

1. Do more frontend on next rotation, thus being able to say I have 4 years of experience in frontend (My last job was 2 years during college)
2. Do something backend on next rotation to round out my experience and be better able to apply to backend roles
3. Do both over the next rotations but lose out on a year of potential growth

Certs I'm Considering:

1. Currently working on AWS solutions architect associate.
2. Maybe something to do with mobile or native dev? I've seen salaries for iOS and Android developers that seem to indicate they're in demand. If I can have that and web credentials simultaneously maybe that'll help? Any advise on certs to get is welcome.

Basically I'm just wondering what the best course of action is to build myself up for advancement in the future. I don't just want to look like I've wandered aimlessly and end up stagnating as my skills are left behind, but I'm also not sure what to specialize in and in what order. I'm horribly bored in my current role and feel like I'm stagnating, so having a concrete plan for what to build towards would help me a lot. If anyone who's further along than me or in hiring looks at this and has any advice I'd welcome it. Thanks in advance for having read my rambling.
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Gainz 
Hey, old fart here. It warms my heart to see ambitious new folks, continue to try to get better and involved in interesting things, note to self. Some boredom helps you study to the certs you want but if you aren’t learning it is time for something new that may come from inside also, ask how to help on adjacent areas and if you cant find look outside. Every situation is unique but changing jobs tend to accelerate the rate $ increases, but don’t do that empty handed, ie no certs or experience.
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