DEV Community: Pavle Janjusevic

IT job market - Are we done?

Pavle Janjusevic — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 15:53:58 +0000

Since October 2022, the IT job market has taken a drop like we've never seen before. Perhaps those with 20+ years of experience had seen something similar during the 2008 world economy crisis, but since then, this is the biggest hit we have experienced. Developers with little to no experience find it nearly impossible to get on companies' radar. There is an article on the web which talks about a small startup company listing a job position and receiving 3000 applications, a number that was considered normal for FAANG companies.
Even those with multiple years, and even 10+ years, of experience are not receiving job offers anymore. The section of the market that appears to be hit the hardest is traditional software developers and software engineers.

What actually happened, and why does it appear to affect almost all companies?

I will try to explain it in the simplest terms. Tech companies mostly borrow money from banks to use for their expansion, expenses, etc. Interest rates from banks are determined by market projections. In 2021, those reports showed that IT would rise extra fast, and people were moving to online services due to the COVID lockdown. Companies' money borrowing policies were not as realistic as they should have been, and they ended up overemploying. Everybody who borrows money is affected - and that is everybody. What does that mean? Companies that previously hired for all roles like mad are now only hiring for critical roles for business operations.

The 4th Industrial Revolution

As the invention of the internet removed many jobs, it also created many more on the other side. AI will affect the software development space but not in the way you might think. At least at the current level, it can only be a tool, not a replacement.

So, is coding going to die off?

Actually, not at all. All the new companies that will emerge in the years to come are going to need developers. Why? Well, because software development is a very complex task that generates a lot of revenue for a company. Think of it this way - You are doing something for $3000 per month while your work makes the company $30,000. Do you think the business world suddenly doesn't want a money-making mule like yourself? Of course not. We are under a recession, and an end is going to come, as with every recession.

Projections

It is hard to make projections during a recession - what it will look like after it, how long it will last, and stuff like that. With a lot of moving parts, even people with access to information we don't have would not dare to make claims such as "Everything will come back to normal in X months." Even defining what normal means after a recession is a task on its own. But there are certain things we can say. The skillset that you use every day as a software engineer/developer is never going to die off. Your day-to-day work will most probably differ a little bit in the next couple of years. But what will stay the same is that you will still be solving problems and probably making similar money from solving those problems. You will communicate with your fellow colleagues as you are doing now, and how well you do it will increase or decrease your value on the market.

Conclusion

Instead of looking to change careers out of fear that your career path will become irrelevant, I would advise you to dive deeper. When choosing to pursue or continue a career path, don't look at your job market one year from now. Look 10-20 years ahead. The past year and 2023 are just a bump in a 20-year timeline, in which I believe and hope there will be many more positive than negative trends.

Unleashing the Power of AI: The Rise of B2B Websites

Pavle Janjusevic — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 09:15:46 +0000

Unleashing the Power of AI: The Rise of B2B Websites

AI has become the talk of the town in recent months, captivating not only businesspeople but virtually everyone. A fascinating trend has emerged with the proliferation of B2B websites that harness the extraordinary capabilities of large transformer models like GPT-4 behind the scenes.

But how do these services actually work, you might wonder?

Imagine this scenario: you desire to extract data from ChatGPT to enhance your website. For instance, you wish to incorporate a captivating copy that resonates with your audience. Enter the realm of prompt engineering—the pivotal connection between you and the perfect data.

That's where groundbreaking services like ### Copy.ai come into play, revolutionizing the user experience. By providing an intuitive interface, they empower you to effortlessly configure your preferences, blend them with a meticulously crafted prompt, and obtain the desired outcome—no prompt engineering expertise required. These companies offer a tantalizing proposition: freedom from the complexities of prompt engineering.

Now, why are these services so incredibly valuable, you might ask?

Undoubtedly, GPT-4 boasts immense power. It possesses the potential to revolutionize numerous domains. However, leveraging this power requires meeting certain criteria. You must provide a clear and precise description of the problem you aim to solve. Suppose you're generating copyrighted text; then, a few crucial considerations come into play:

Tone: Does the text emanate a friendly and approachable vibe that resonates with readers?
Authenticity: Does the text bear any trace of being AI-generated, or does it exude a human touch?
Context: Are you generating text for a website, a captivating blog post, or a captivating marketing campaign slogan?
Fortunately, all of these factors can be conveniently abstracted through a clean and user-friendly interface. This brings us to the most remarkable aspect of services like this—the level of abstraction they offer. Even individuals devoid of prompt engineering knowledge can now effortlessly attain precisely what they desire. Gone are the days of tinkering with prompts; instead, a simple click or a few words suffice to articulate your requirements effectively.

The Unfolding Landscape of Possibilities

In the years to come, as these models continue to evolve, unlocking even more remarkable capabilities to tackle complex problems, their applications will expand exponentially. This signifies a tremendous opportunity for businesses that can provide a layer of abstraction over existing transformer models.

Not only does running such a service offer cost-effective advantages, leveraging pre-existing infrastructure, but it also centers on user experience and presentation. After all, the majority of individuals will never delve deep enough to unlock GPT's full potential. Hence, simplifying the process and empowering people to harness this technology effortlessly will undoubtedly hold immense value in the future.

Your best bet for future of software development

Pavle Janjusevic — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 11:23:40 +0000

Impact on the job market

It is 100% percent certain at this point that AI will impact the job market, in terms of wages, the opening of positions previously not existent, and removing opportunities of old jobs by automation. One concern with the emerging tools is the adoption part. We can have AI that can do everything, but how long until upper levels of company management will trust it to make decisions that affect the company's future? Hard to tell.

Two ways of thinking

As new versions of GPT have come along, people are divided into two main schools of thought. One group agrees that GPT will replace some mundane tasks and will make the developer journey easier. Another group thinks we are doomed to be replaced in a couple of years. To understand the danger of AI and its impact on software developer jobs, let's list a skillset of a good software developer.

Technical skills

Software Design
Coding & Programming
Testing & Debugging
Writing documentation
Collaboration & Communication

Soft skills

Problem-Solving
Communication
Teamwork
Collaboration
Problem articulation

AI will serve as our tool

In this phase of AI development, it is still in its infancy. Although certain AI models can do some specific tasks very well, they will not replace us in the foreseeable future. For example, GPT-4 helps us in writing templates, boilerplate code, tests for some functionality, etc. I watched a video of the guy commenting on AI changes in recent years that impact software development and his take was that development space had something similar in the past: "Low code/No code" platforms. With these kinds of platforms, you could build a functioning app without any technical knowledge. These kinds of platforms have their use but as you can see they did not affect the job market significantly. It would not be fair to compare low code/no code solutions with large AI models in terms of their impact.

Ai will take our jobs

If we assume that AI models will grow linearly in the next years, it is fair to say that they will be capable of handling almost all aspects of software development. That assumption would be wrong since AI and the toolset around developing large-scale models are improving by the order of magnitude every year. When something gains media attention it means it also gets more interest from investors. More investors, more money, better infrastructure, faster improvement, you get the trend.

Your skillset - broaden it

Let me make my point now. Regardless of the area of software development you are involved with, you developed a skillset. The list above divides it into technical/non-technical. It is ( and will be ) easier for AI to replace people who are specialized in doing one thing very well than somebody with a broad specter of skills. Look at AI as a partner and a potential colleague.

Don't think about AI replacing you, think about what can you do that nobody can replace.

The major chunk of software developers don't give too much attention to soft skills, and with the AI revolution that we are undergoing, I think it will be more valuable than ever.

Let me put it this way: Do you think that a person with the skills that I listed above will have a problem finding a job in the future market? If you think so, you don't fully understand how hard is to be at least slightly above average in all listed categories.

Conclusion

AI has come, and it will impact every part of life including software development. What we can do is adjust our skillset according to it. One of the best friends of growth is competition because it forces us to improve ourselves to be relevant. When a
company gets competition in the market it is forced to improve its product to stay relevant. If AI becomes our competitor at one point in the job market, we will need to improve our product. Our product is our skillset and what we can provide to our company and our society.