[lmm]

If anything I'd say you have it backwards; the kind of structure you describe (and the very phrase "full stack") is a very silicon valley/startup thing. It's larger, more traditional software shops that tend to slice the stack into separate vertical layers and give different people responsibility for each.

Of course there are many companies large and small that do it differently. But having someone whose responsibility includes client-side javascript but not server-side code is not by any means unusual outside the valley, at least IME.

[ebiester]

Perhaps I am generalizing based on my experience in Tucson, which is close enough to cross-pollinate with the bay, but most places I worked and interviewed and had friends expected everyone on the team (apart from the DBAs) to be able to touch any part of the stack.

We also tended to have companies with small teams.