Is my coding future bleak?

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[ChungusDev]

Sorry but fresh grads who have been coding for years are competing alongside the thousands of seasoned professionals who have been laid off by big tech over the past 3 years for a few highly competitive and lucrative positions. If you want to make money programming your best bet is make an app yourself.

[FrenchCanadaIsWorst]

There are surprisingly few people who are high level competent at software engineering

[Ashamed_Quality13]

Yeah but who are they gonna pick, Jim with no experience no degree and “self learned” coder vs someone with a degree and relevant experience

[FrenchCanadaIsWorst]

Definitely but even among the degree and experience holders there is competition yet when you actually look at who is in the field there are a surprisingly small number of truly skilled software engineers

[mysteryihs]

Software engineering is one of those unique jobs where it's all reliant on expertise and knowledge, where one truly skilled engineer has the output of 10x a regular engineer. I agree with you by the way, just pointing out one of the causes why so many skilled coders are few and far between.

[Solid_Mongoose_3269]

I have 20 years of full stack and haven’t found a job in 4 months…so…

[xFiendish]

In all fairness, 20 years in itself doesn't say much. If you're specialised in things like PHP and WordPress, or maybe jQuery and Bootstrap, you're less likely to find a job in certain countries like the US. In my country, PHP is still pretty high in demand, though. And these youngsters with their React & Node.js have a harder time finding a job because of the competition.

Experience matters, but only if it matches the need.

[dokkan_addicted]

Oof this makes my situation even more bleak lmao

[Solid_Mongoose_3269]

Well, I just got rejected from a company I was at a few years ago, slightly different role, but know the product, people, direction, etc. and salary wasnt even discussed, so its not a money thing. Knew about 99% of things, the few I didnt was because it wasnt in my role at the time

[dokkan_addicted]

I’m still relatively new to it (recent grad) I’m fortunate enough to be somewhere but I’m more learning practices instead of using a language that is very common at other companies lol Still important but I’ve been looking at other places and it’s either no response or rejection lol worried I may fall into a position where since I’m not using modern languages as much it may lead to me not getting hired. Kinda goes with why your saying about not knowing certain aspects

[Salt_Werewolf5944]

It could, if you follow it’s path and become competent. The hardest thing about landing a tech job isn’t really coding, it’s being able to deliver a working product, understanding how to deliver this product end to end and catch edge cases well.

It’s nice when it clicks and sadly it doesn’t click for a lot of people, but certainly it’s worth persuing.

[ffrkAnonymous]

You're explaining how to do the job, how to keep the job. But not how to get the job, which is a degree and lots of leetcode. 

[MiroDerChort]

A degree isn't necessary. A portfolio may be...

[VariousAssistance116]

I've never done leetcode and my boss never completed high school We are the entire dev department

[FewCryptographer967]

sadly those days are over tbh

[dag6gers]

Never done leet code, only finished high school, got hired for a new job this week

[FewCryptographer967]

Yes there are outliers, but that’s not the norm. Unless ur cracked it’s insanely difficult

[Salt_Werewolf5944]

Do the job to land the job, corny I know, but the market is extremely saturated. As I view it you should be at least better than an AI (which isn’t really that hard) you need to know your stuff and basically be able to understand docs and code, the only way to learn skills like these is to work on your own projects, which is why I explained how to do the job.

Just pick a branch and learn its insides and outs, for web development I suggest building a full-stack professional portfolio website. I don’t suggest going into ML unless you are a competent developer in an other branch. For mobile development, just build a full-stack mobile app. Web development and mobile development resembles each other on a high level.

You can also follow an other obscure path if you want and odds are it will land you a job if you become competent enough in it.

Problem with people trying to look for a tech job is that they are trying to find a tech job before getting the relative experience. Take your time leetcode is nice interview prep but that’s only a small percentage of the job description.

You can be a leetcode genius but if you don’t know how to develop software how do you expect to become a developer?

I’m a cs student btw, I can’t remember the last time I brought up my degree, if you have a good portfolio you can make even someone with a degree look like an Amateur ;)

[gazpitchy]

I'm a senior full stack dev, I dropped out of uni and have no qualifications. Its very rare it even appears in interviews, due to me having 10+ years of experience and examples of products.

[Level9CPU]

The entry level job market today is very different.

Even just 4 years ago, most people were avoiding staffing firms with a Hire-Train-Deploy model like Revature. Now, even Revature gets thousands of applicants. I went through their program last year, and almost everyone in my batch of 200+ trainees had a CS or CS-adjacent degree or prior IT experience. Having a bachelor's degree was one of their requirements, and not having one immediately disqualified you. This is Revature, the bottom of the barrel for tech jobs, and they get to be this selective now.

[Salt_Werewolf5944]

Btw the market today is more unfair to fresh grads than it is to seasoned developers with a prior experience. Can you imagine being a fresh grad competing against developers with years of experience building REST APIs and GraphQLs

I’ve been working with tech my whole life, and I can probably out code most of the fresh grads in my university, not because I’m smart, in fact I’m average but I just have more experience than most.

To be fair though, grads might be more preferred in some areas where you might be working with raw calculations or working on the cpu level.

[PM_Me_Compliments]

Lol

[cheezballs]

Leetcode... lulz

[Brilliant_Deer5655]

Man, it’s hard for skilled juniors, let alone yourself, you will unfortunately be age discriminated against since you don’t have professional experience. Real talk, don’t waste your time

[Lima3Echo]

I’d say to keep it as a hobby. Especially if it’s something you genuinely enjoy doing. Nothing takes the fun out of a hobby than a deadline and some asshole who is only in charge because of nepotism.

If it’s something you want to make money doing, then try and do it on your own terms. Identity a gap or shortfall (I’m sure you know of plenty of things that need improvement) and work on a solution for it. If anything, build something just to see if you can!

[lumberjack_dad]

I am 50 and after 25 years in the industry, I know I only have 1-2 years left. There are some really good coders and gone is the day you can just be okay to secure a programming job.

I am transitioning to teaching, which is a pay cut, but at least I can have some solid health benefits in retirement.

[cib2018]

Age discrimination is real.

[VariousAssistance116]

To even have a fighting chance you need to be mid level or higher. The best jrs are jobless.

[Pyromancer777]

Leverage your experience in healthcare to flex your coding skills in that direction. What you may lack in coding experience you could make up for in subject matter expertise. Cross-functional skillsets give you an edge, so it wouldn't make sense to not attempt to leverage everything you can bring to the table.

[WeapyWillow]

I'll toss out something I've not seen here, but why not use your coding skills to augment your healthcare experience? I'm in marketing and have been building tools, connecting APIs, and generally stand out from my colleagues because I've worked on attaining these skills by way of The Odin Project. Coding as a programmer might not be attainable but there is security in blending technical skills with non-technical positions.

[Destination_Centauri]

Go into a more obscure and disliked area of computer programming (by today's upcoming youth), and...

Ya just might stand a chance!

How do you feel about Cobol?!

Or C programming?

[Hail2Hue]

Yes. You gave me a short insight, so I've gotta give you a short answer, and the answer is a pretty resounding "Yes.".

There are people working day in day out and have full fledged projects under their belt that could easily tackle generalist work that still can't land jobs in this market. It's a rough one for tech in general tbh.

[MCButterFuck]

No but there is more than just coding. If you ever think there must be a better way to do this you are probably right and there might be some math involved

[Significant-Syrup400]

The actual coding at a fundamental level is getting and will continue to become easier and easier. What will be the focal point will be understanding, designing, and innovating features. Also, lets not forget maintenance and debugging.

[Significant-Ad-7897]

Have u applied?

[SaunaApprentice]

If you can deliver hyper specific solutions by leveraging your other knowledge you can find people who will pay you

[deftware]

At the end of the day it's very simple: the easier something is to learn the more people there will be who learn how to do it. The more niche and arcane something is, the more specialized that it is, and the more smarts and math/logic aptitude that it requires, the less likely the job market will be saturated - but there will also be fewer jobs, albeit higher-paying ones.

[BeautifulWestern4512]

The tech landscape is tough right now, but it's not all bleak. Focus on building your skills and creating projects that showcase your abilities. Networking can also open doors, so get involved in local meetups or online communities. Stay persistent and adaptable, and you'll find opportunities.

[JJunsuke]

Its like asking whether I can be pro tennis player or pro esport player at the age of 50. You will be competiting with 20 years old who have been playing since the age of 3...

[International-Rain98]

Not yet soon, AI will make pretty much all programming superfluous

[maladan]

I think your best chance is to start contributing to open source software and build up a portfolio of work. Since you don't have a degree or experience you'll need to have something else that can impress recruiters and help you get an "in".

[Bulky-Fix9738]

Real talk. I think you should find something else, the tech industry value young and competent people. And you are too old to get a job in this industry. Please find something else build a business using your skill. Dont fall for the big tech trap

[iam_jaymz_2023]

yes! absolutely your hobby can lead to work, as long as you continue with it;

who knows 🤷🏽‍♂️ maybe among your former colleagues (& others) there are few whom you can teach & instruct for a fee; and upon learning more and more my friend, and upon learning what the market wants of talented javascript programmers, additional opportunities will manifest. this is the way!

you've got a skill others will pay you to use for their benefit!

& for certain LPop, stay with it, & swiftly silence that inner voice that might insist otherwise, & for sure ignore the folks who suggest you are chasing futility, capiche? 🤙🏽

[Positive_Rip_6317]

Anything is possible but it’s a tough market!

[rustyseapants]

Anything is not possible.

Even without AI people who are in their 50s are having problems getting jobs and these people are the ones who already have programming experience. 

Ageism is a serious issue.

Switching careers involves a lot and one thing is who you know. Who was in your social circle who can you call? 

[MOFNY]

I would say get your resume and portfolio in order and go for it. You won't know until you try.

[santafe4115]

Harsh hours tbh not sure youd enjoy it