I work at a WordPress agency doing 95% of my work at the very front of frontend — css/html/ui js. I'm so tired of nudging things 1px this way and 2px that way, I could scream when I see another QA ticket come in.

I'm realizing now that without setting any actual long-term goals, I'll be doing this forever. So I'm determined to set some actual goals and try and get somewhere new.

Trouble is, I feel frozen with self-doubt. I'm really struggling to figure out where to go next. Maybe I'm burned out, maybe I can't see the road ahead? Maybe I'm just burned out with agency life? I don't know. I'd really, really appreciate some new perspectives.

In my head, I'm constantly going back and forth — Try rails! Stay in JS-land! Keep doing React! Keep doing Vue! You'll never master backend, just give up! etc

What do I know?

I’m solid on all frontend stuff — css/html/js/WP. Intermediate with React and Vue

Time

With young kids and a full-time job, I only have about 1-2hrs a day to devote.

Options include?

1. Move up the stack, away from CSS and towards the middle of the frontend. I don't see this job anywhere at my current company, so I have trouble imagining what it would even look like.

2. Try backend. I've never BE. I'm playing with Rails at the moment, just because I played with it about 10 yrs ago and recall liking it a bit. At this point, I really don't know if BE is "for me" at all.

3. Since I know JS, maybe I should dip into Node?

4. Maybe I should focus all my energy into React or Vue? I worry about getting sucked back into the frontend/css vortex on this path though.

5. PHP since I’m at a WP shop already?

I'm not the sharpest frontender on the team, so that's where my doubts about BE come from. It seems like it'd be harder than frontend .....but maybe that's just because I haven't spent any dedicated time learning BE.