I'm a full-stack consultant (the actual full stack, not whatever kids mean these days) and deliver "solutions" to clients. I've got my fair share of legacy code to maintain, don't worry. (I have this Django app I wrote 15 years ago that I should really port to Elixir which is my main thing these days - but there's no money in rewriting an entire application that's in production for that long)
Here's my 2 cents: take any advice on professional matters from someone that has never left academia with a heaping dose of salt.
(the actual full stack, not whatever kids mean these days)
Can you clarify what that means to you? The full stack of modern web solutions spans from datacenter hardware selection to client device PCB design, and I don't think any single person can realistically manage all of that by themselves.
I think "modern fullstack" is knowing React/Svelte/whatever frontend tech and being able to plug that in to Firebase or some all-in-one backend system that provides everything from user management to databases and messaging.
They wouldn't be able to spin up a RabbitMQ queue and Postgres on bare metal.
Please, don't ever spin up a PostgreSQL instance for a client on bare-metal in $CURRENT_YEAR. Some jerk-off did that for a current customer of mine, and now they're having issues with their migration from SUSE to RHEL in production.
Also, this dick measuring contest on who is the fullest-stack developer sounds ridiculous.
Here's my 2 cents: take any advice on professional matters from someone that has never left academia with a heaping dose of salt.