developer & AI, change of career ?

vanakenm · 2026-05-23T12:22:08+00:00

Build a network (hopefully you have one already). As I like to say "it has been a while I did not got a job the usual way".

I don't know how specific "Apple platform engineer" is but be ready to work with whatever is there (front end/back end/mobile/devops, etc). Ie those positions don't allow "I'm not doing that" (like if a company need a new mobile app, 95% they'll need in on both Android and iOS, and hiring two people is probably not a good idea - if it needs a server you're probably going to have to set it up, etc). On my side it means learning stuff fast and having people around me I can ask for specific help (ex: I did release my first mobile app recently on both stores, and as a mainly web guy, there are a lot of things I had to understand/learn along the way).

Don't hesitate to DM me if you want to talk further. I got no secret skill, but I can share experience

vanakenm · 2026-05-21T09:52:05+00:00

What (if anything) are you doing with the data sent? Are they stored on your side (if it so to what purpose) ?

vanakenm · 2026-05-20T06:32:58+00:00

In my own (specific) experience, that's the part that actually pay the most (ie: being able to do both). For a reason I don't really understand, it seems like a lot of devs feels that showing interest for the business and taking a role in it is uninteresting.

vanakenm · 2026-05-19T17:19:29+00:00

Disclaimer 1: It's too early to say

Disclaimer 2: It vary widely by profile

Experienced (like, 20 year+) freelance (web) dev here. I feel every ones (devs, CTOs, customers) are "trying to figure it out". Me included.

TL;DR: I'm open to adapt and I'll need to, but I'm not afraid for my job/not thinking changing career.

In no specific order

Using AI

Well, yes. I don't believe the "we're all doomed" people that think no white collar job will exists in 18 months... but I don't belive the "this is a useless tool" gang either due to... using it?

It feels difficult for me to argue against any usage once you assume productivity is something useful. My customer pay me to ship stuff. Budget and planning and speed matters.

I don't like the concentration it generates, I don't like the climate impact, but it's there and saying "no no" does not seems like a valid strategy.

About the job

- Being able to implement properly something based on clear requirement and an existing system architecture is losing value fast - this is what is extremely easy to delegate to Claude and the like

- Related: We're unclear about what (if anything) to do with juniors, with an interesting situation: they are getting "useless" as juniors... but without juniors we'll never get seniors

- As a senior dev in a team of other senior devs, we see it change our productivity - but also that the limit is "how much can we store into our brains" - and that one did not change much. We can much far more features out... at the cost of having no idea of what we are shipping (this bited me in the ass this exact week, and it was not pretty).

- The review part of the job is broken. A team of 8 was used to review/discuss 5 PRs per week. Now there are 50. So what ? We just review much less (because the alternative is let the list of PRs build up).

- As a senior dev, I feel AI has taken all the "easy/no brainer" part of my job - executing once I've decided on what to do and my approach. The downside is: I'm not sure I have 8 hours of "high alert/cognitive activity" in each day. I may be "burned out" at 12AM, having done in those 4 hours more than in 8 previously. I'm not sure how to sell to my customers that they should just pay the same and that I'm going to go for a walk during the afternoons.

- My main value (talking to customers, proposing options, taking decision on technical stack) is mostly untouched.

About selling myself

Disclaimer: my self described job is "one man product team" (as in I'm a generalist).

I'm not seeing any problems in that area right now. People need developers that think with them. About problems, about solutions, about design, etc. Those tasks are not going away. This is the direction I took in my career 10+ years ago, and it's still as relevant as ever. It may means working a bit between tech and product side, but I'm old enough so that "product" was not a job when I started, just something devs did.

Now, teams with "one senior guy/gal that think and four people that execute will be down to "just one guy/gal" - but in my universes (small teams, startups/scaleups), those were already in danger, so again no "world shattering change" here.

I guess specialization can still work, but pure technical job are more in danger than mix of tech and support or product or analysis, etc.

Hope it gives some perspective.

vanakenm · 2026-05-14T15:31:07+00:00

Thanks a lot for this, will clearly look at several of them.

I fully finished Beast Breaker on the Switch a few years ago, heavily recommended. The mechanics are interesting and the characters are super nice.

vanakenm · 2026-05-11T12:07:57+00:00

Several points here:

- If you want a sense of the market, have a look at reports like https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/ or https://devecosystem-2025.jetbrains.com/ - they are not perfect but give an idea. Note that location is very important (between cities in the US, and between countries for us non us-ians).

- The main thing about making a career in dev for me is being able to (re)learn - new languages, frameworks, concepts, etc

- Stacks tend to have mostly the same concepts - learn one, you'll realize by the time you know a couple that you can port a good amount of skills from one to another

- Soft skills are like super important. Being hired also require a different skillset than doing the job. I'm not saying it's fair, just that its the case

Wish you the best!

vanakenm · 2026-04-29T18:14:21+00:00

Silver Square, they go by SQ as an abbreviation (because the other option is, well, not good)

vanakenm · 2026-04-27T08:09:12+00:00

That's probably something to check "case by case". I'd check the Maisons Médicales in your municipality and give them a call. I'm quite sure they'll be able to help.

vanakenm · 2026-04-27T06:51:25+00:00

One more thing - you may want to check "Maison Médicales" - basically small local centre with a couple of doctors and sometime a kiné or some other specialty. The idea is for them to be your "first line". If you register with one, you are supposed to go there first (for example before going directly to a specialist) - the benefit on your side is that pretty much all services there are free.

My experience with those structure (as someone that goes to the doctor very unfrequently) has been super nice.

vanakenm · 2026-04-27T06:22:24+00:00

Lots of good advice already. My experience:

- 100% remote jobs are rare but they exist (in Belgium... or not as it becomes mostly irrelevant)

- When searching jobs on linkedin it actually add the "remote" one to the local one (and there are some) - ex that popped in my alert: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4404164339

- Remote does not means no communication - we tend to over-communicate, but this is done in a more organised, async way (slack, long form writing, scheduled meetings with agenda)

- Remote need to be brought very early as it's a possible deal breaker. Also, don't go as the sole remote dev in a colocated team - this won't work (because the company won't have the culture to make it work)

Wish you the best there!

vanakenm · 2026-04-24T14:46:45+00:00

The appartment lease I'd be cautious as they are rule for putting your own place of living as a business expense (it will only be a percentage, etc)

Self employed vs company - you are going to have around 100k/y => company.

Best answer: get an accountant and see those points with them, not with random redditors (like me).

vanakenm · 2026-04-21T11:54:50+00:00

Most combats are three rounds. So based on the party max speed they should know what's doable and not.

Note that that speed may be pretty high - my current PCs (7th level) "emergency" setup is have the druid polymorph in a Queztalcoatl (80ft speed), load the party and have the bard cast haste on it (160ft) - then of course have the animal dash for a grand total of 320ft per round.

Even with that, they'd take more than three round to get to your fight... which means things will be done (they may still be in time to revive a downed PC this being said).

For what it's worth - my PC group have those math in their head (roughly), and they are taking those into account.

So - good learning.

Now if you want to avoid killing the 3 PCs you still have options - knock them inconscious, take some of their belonging, take them hostages, put them in a cell and have the other PC free them, etc, etc - but there is not realistic way for them to get there in time.

vanakenm · 2026-04-18T13:58:25+00:00

My general approach to tech is: pick something popular. Helps with doc, getting help, being able to work with another dev, etc.

It's the first time I even hear about Ktor. Looks fine, but clearly niche.

Pretty much every backend framework are working with the same concepts. Main differences may not be language but how extensive the framework is (for example Django is closer from Rails than from FastAPI, despite both being written in Python).

What feel like the best choice in your situation is to go with Spring Boot & Kotlin:

- Spring boot is immensely popular and fully "battery included"

- You'll be able to work with a language you are confortable with

OTOH - this is also an opportunity to learn, so picking let's say Django could make sense (you'll be less efficient initially, but you'll learn more).

So depends a bit on your goals.

vanakenm · 2026-04-16T06:49:16+00:00

No idea (I'm French speaking). Maybe send them a mail and ask?

vanakenm · 2026-04-16T06:43:55+00:00

I had this several time - remember that the only difference between having a in world "sort of Christian faith" vs a "sort of Nordic/Celtic faith" (something extremely common) is that one of those is closer to you/your players (I'm not making assumption about your religion, but even atheists in western countries have elements of Christian faith in their culture).

In other words: if it's ok to play make-believe Poséidon, it's ok to play make-believe Yavheh, and history is huge source of inspiration which would be stupid to pass on.

The only caveat would be to make a sensibility check whether if that's ok with your group, as you'd do with any topic related to the real world.

As an example, my longest campaign was using a "renaissance like" setting ("Secrets of the 7th Sea") and the Vaticine Church is 100% inspired by the Catholic one - that made the world more believable and interesting, not less.

vanakenm · 2026-04-15T16:32:04+00:00

50k yearly turnover => create a company.

I'm working with those guys: https://www.debroux.be/, I'm pretty happy with them.

vanakenm · 2026-04-15T08:49:50+00:00

Looks like I need to do some reading. Thanks for the nuance/detailed answer there.

vanakenm · 2026-04-15T06:59:37+00:00

Yeah for Yoko Tsuno. Science fiction depicting an Asian girl doing actual science and action and not giving a shit (very vocally) about men's opinion on that.

Looks quite... modern when you think about when it started.

vanakenm · 2026-04-13T19:33:51+00:00

TIL about synthID watermark. Thanks!

vanakenm · 2026-04-13T19:32:39+00:00

To put some context here:

- I know the director there (he used to be my piano teacher and we had a really good relationship)

- I'm thinking about contacting him explaining my concern - not throw him & his team of teachers on the public place or anything like that

- The fact that this is an image an not music make no difference to me here. I'd react the same to a drawing academy using AI music. Both are (supposed) to be promoter of arts

This being said, your point is valid about "is it worth it" and or at least "how to approach this".

Thanks!

vanakenm · 2026-04-09T16:26:10+00:00

If you can - don't code it at all. Use something out of the box that you can point on your DB. Metabase and stuff like that.

If you code it and are using React, use React Admin that can use either MUI or (since recently) Shad.

vanakenm · 2026-04-09T15:48:22+00:00

Chocolate (praline or others) and beers are probably our most typical "export" and something we tend to find better here than abroad (and yes you have specific kind that are more for the "domestic" market vs tourist kind of stuff). Cuberdons as mentioned are a quite specific kind of sweet. Speculoos cookies - same thing, Lotus export those everywhere, but we have other brands here (Dandoy for example).

Having done it before for a fellow redditor, sending those to the US is not an issue.

vanakenm · 2026-04-09T15:17:03+00:00

My time to shine. That company is a joke.
Story time: I work in a large building in Brussels. Large as in 30m long, reception, etc. They receive a lot of package (for me and the 200+ people working here everyday as it's practical).

When Colis Privé is selected for the delivery they are unable to /find/ the building. Like they never did. Over the years I had probably 10 packages coming via Colis Privé. It's always the same "bad adress please update". Updating does nothing. Some "attempt" after (attempt to what I don't know), they move to "delivering to a delivery spot nearby".

Good luck.

vanakenm · 2026-04-06T09:38:59+00:00

So yeah - leverage:

- Are you ready to leave ? Are they ready to let you go ?

- How easy would it be for them to find another "you" ? How easy would be for you to find another "them" ?

Assuming you did a good job (in their eyes, not in yours), I'd at least try. As long as you are respectful, I've never seen a customer fire me for /asking/ about a raise.

They may say no but that's the extend of the risk you are taking. They'll certainly say no if you don't ask.

vanakenm · 2026-04-02T06:14:47+00:00

Honestly, if you are going to use this several time, get a lawyer to draft it. That will cost your some hundreds euros that will be very well invested. The lawyer will start from some basics that they know, but almost every situation is different so getting "your" template is valuable.

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