9 Must Know Skills For MERN Stack Developers 2022

Introduction

Gone are the days when business thrived without a mobile application. In today's era, every business requires a mobile app and website to let people know about their services and give them a way to use their services.

Name any popular service available today: Uber, Lyft, Instacart, etc., and you will realize that all of these businesses own an app and website through which the masses get in touch with them and avail themselves of the said services.

Such a scenario creates opportunities for numerous people: Entrepreneurs and Developers/ programmers. The former can make millions by incorporating an app to generate brand awareness. In contrast, the latter can learn the required skills to churn out stellar apps and websites.

One popular framework used for developing stellar apps is the MERN stack! The average income of a MERN Stack developer in the United States of America is $100 000 per year. If you want to become a MERN stack developer or are someone looking for a MERN stack developer, this blog will greatly help you!

What is a MERN full-Stack developer?

Pick any developers and ask them about the full stack and its type. They will tell you about MEAN, MEVN, and MERN Stacks. The MERN stack is popular in web development and comprises MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js. The sole reason for its popularity in recent years is React, which is one of the most popular libraries globally. 

This library helps simplify the management and creation of an app's user interface and facilitates a website's overall performance. Thus, the library is useful and enjoys massive support from its creator, Facebook, and the passionate community of users.

We get the MERN stack when we amalgamate React with MongoDB, Express.js, and Node.js. It is a JavaScript-based tech stack that is a highly cost-effective, developer-friendly, and customizable open-source stack.

The MERN stack works well with social media platforms, workflow management, and news aggregation apps. Currently, Uber and Netflix use this JavaScript-based tech stack.

Any developer that uses the MERN stack for development purposes is termed a MERN Stack developer.

What are the 9 Must-Know Skills for MERN Stack Developers 2022?

Here we list the nine must-know skills for a MERN stack developer in 2022. As a MERN stack developer, you must master the following skills to make it big!

1. Hypertext Markup Language

Did you ever embellish your notebooks while making notes as a child? Sure, you did it, as it makes monotonous work interesting! 

In the same way, a MERN Stack developer should make their website more appealing by instructing the web browser how everything on the page should be organized. These instructions include telling the browser about the layout of the web pages, colors, fonts, headings, tables, titles, and graphics.

A MERN Stack developer can do it with the help of Hypertext Markup language. Thus learning how to use HTML is essential to a MERN Stack developer.

2. Cascading Style Sheets

Arranging the elements of your webpage is crucial. Still, the more significant thing is to use the proper color combination, topping it off with visually appealing graphics. And for this, Cascading Style Sheets come into play. 

A MERN stack developer utilizes CSS to style a website's color, text, buttons, and tables. Besides adorning website pages, Cascading Style Sheets also play a pivotal role in structuring the layout of pages.

Thus, a MERN stack developer should know how to work with CSS to segregate content and formatting to ensure that web pages are compatible with numerous types of devices and their screen sizes. 

3. JavaScript

What do you think children love to play with more? A mere plastic doll that does not reply or the one with a preprogrammed set of dialogues. They will like to play with the latter.

In the same way, no one will take an interest in your static website.

Thus, a MERN stack developer should use JavaScript to code their web pages' behavior to render them more interactive and dynamic. Using JavaScript, you can add videos, audio, slideshows, animations, button colors, etc.   

4. Visual Studio VS code

Do you know what is better than working hard? Working smartly. Working smart is always better than trudging for hours sans results. Visual Studio Code simplifies coding and assists in removing potential bugs and errors by furnishing smart code completion, built-in debugging, and syntax highlighting. Moreover, web developers love Visual Studio code since they can use it with numerous programming languages and add extensions to customize their apps to meet their requirements. 

Microsoft developed VS code in 2015, and today it is a free, open-source code editor that one can use on Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms. According to Stack Overflow's 2021 annual survey, approximately 70% of professional web developers use Visual Studio code, thus making it the most popular developer environment tool!

Thus, a MERN stack developer must know Visual Studio Code.

5. Git

As a developer, your job requires you to experiment with your code to enhance your app's functionality. And for that, a MERN stack developer should know how to use Git to make changes to their code and then return to the previous sound version of their code in the wake of errors.

Although numerous versions of control systems exist, Git is the popular choice of MERN stack developers as it is decentralized, fast, scalable, and available for free. Besides these qualities, Git lets a MERN Stack developer work with other MERN stack developers on the same code without overriding each other's changes.

6. Sass

Syntactically Awesome Stylesheet is one of the Cascading Style Sheets pre-processors that one uses to simplify the process of beautifying a website and eliminating repetition. There are numerous Cascading Style sheets pre-processors on the market today; however, it was the first one that rolled out. Released in 2006, it is still popular among the masses due to the features it adds to Cascading Style Sheets, including imports, variables, nested rules, inheritance, and built-in functions.

Thus, as a MERN stack developer, you should know how to use Sass (Syntactically Awesome Stylesheet) as it is the most potent, well-supported, and reliable CSS pre-processor available today!

7. Bootstrap

Another must-know skill for a MERN stack developer is working with Bootstrap! It is a User Interface tool that Twitter developed in 2011, which a MERN stack developer uses with JavaScript templates to customize and design responsive websites swiftly.

Currently, over 22% of all the websites have employed Bootstrap, making it a go-to framework in the industry. Bootstrap lets a MERN stack developer develop the basic structure of their websites without having to code each element individually repeatedly. 

Thus, as a MERN stack developer, you should know how to use Bootstrap to ensure that your websites have a uniform appearance across various browsers.

8. Website design Basics

Since you are involved in developing websites, learning the various website design basics is mandatory. So far, we have read about the essential front-end web development tools that a MERN stack developer should use effortlessly. But, the central aspect of website creation is the basics of Web design: an indispensable part of website development.

Web designs structure websites' overall look and feel by manipulating layouts, fonts, and colors. 

Thus, a MERN stack developer should be conversant with the basics of website designs to create engaging, responsive, user-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing websites that make people want to stay on for a little longer.

9. React

The next skill to master as a MERN stack developer is React. It is an open-source front-end library that programmers at Facebook developed. A MERN stack developer can learn how to use React by watching videos on YouTube or leveraging online and offline courses. 

The Back-end section of the MERN Stack  

Once you've mastered the front end, it's time to turn your attention to the MERN stack's backend components, which include Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB. Let's look at each one of these technologies and what they do. 

So far, we have looked at the skills essential to a MERN Stack developer. These skills come under the front-end development. Knowing only the front-end part of the development will not serve a MERN stack developer. Thus, the knowledge of the MERN stack's backend component is also essential for their success.

The backend part of the MERN stack is as follows: 

1. Node.js

A MERN stack developer should know how to use node.js as it lets them execute JavaScript code outside the confines of web browsers. As a result, a MERN stack developer finds it easy to develop scalable and fast server-side web apps.

Another thing a MERN stack developer should focus on is how to use Node Package Manager, also known as npm. This tool helps simplify the management of multiple code versions and swiftly resolve dependency conflicts between various code packages.

2. Express.js

Express.js is a backend framework working inside Node.js. It assists a MERN stack developer design and building single-page. Multi-page and hybrid web apps efficiently. This backend framework has become a relief to professional programmers thanks to its compelling Application Programming Interface that makes routing straightforward.

Apart from doing this, Express.js lets a MERN Stack developer organize web apps on the server side into an easier-to-handle model-view-controller architecture while remaining lightweight and fast.

Thus, a MERN stack developer should be able to use Express.js, and the knowledge of this skill also lets them create web apps and Application Programming Interfaces with minimal effort.

3. MongoDB 

The last skill a MERN stack developer should acquire is MongoDB. It is a document-oriented NoSQL database program known for its scalability and flexibility. It meets the most detailed requirements at any scale. It also has a huge capacity for high-volume data storage and offers numerous drivers in dozens of languages.

Another reason a MERN stack developer uses MongoDB is its indexing, ad hoc queries, and real-time aggregation. These things offer ways for users to access and analyze tonnes of data.

Today, around 28% of professional developers have used MongoDB regularly in 2021. 

Conclusion

As an organization looking for a MERN stack developer, you must ensure that your candidates meet the required standard and are conversant with all the abovementioned skills. Hiring a MERN stack developer without these skills is equivalent to recruiting someone to ruin your dream! Thus, you must be careful when examining numerous interested MERN stack developers. 

And those who want to start their careers as MERN stack developers, it is advisable to master these skills to make it big!

If you are looking for a MERN Stack developer, your quest ends here. Yes, you read it right. We at AppsRhino have proficient and professional MERN Stack developers who will do your dream project justice. We hire only those who demonstrate these skills to an uber extent to ensure our clients get only the best. Contact AppsRhino today!