I have 15 years of experience, coded in various languages, and solved multiple problems. I started my career when being a software developer was a hot commodity.
Looking at what is happening around us, I have to say a few things, and I will stay realistic. Things may sound harsh, but it's better than divulging in some copium.
Don't Do Coding Bootcamps
Just don't. You will not land a job after three months of learning how to code. Why? You won't know how to code in that amount of time, and it's impossible.
In the golden years, when the bootcamp craze was starting, I worked in a company that recruited many junior devs from bootcamps. Then they realized most of those people could barely set up a project and were able to write simple http controllers slowly. That's too little to call yourself a developer. They tried to educate them more by leaving them with a dedicated senior dev answering their questions (kind of a dedicated mentor). After learning something, several people took that opportunity and left the job for something else with a slightly better salary. Management wasn't pleased. Then, the layoffs started.
What most people in such a position did? Most of them were focused on keeping the job, "selling themselves" better and trying to impress their bosses. Nobody focused on actually learning how to code better. Also, if you try to impress someone with small talk / fast talk, it only shows that you have no skills and feel uncertain.
Conclusion? Coding bootcamps / coding schools promised them six-figure jobs after a few months of learning, which is a plain scam. Then, most people couldn't cope with that or coped in a non-productive way. Don't be like that. Spend more time on learning, and do not expect others to push the knowledge on you.
How AI Affects Jobs?
When I started 15 years ago, entering the job market as a junior developer with very little knowledge was possible.
Now, to start a job, you need to be better than ChatGPT, plain and simple. Why would anyone hire a junior if an AI can do the same amount of job in a shorter time and about 100x cheaper?
That means the entry point is higher. Previously, you could start as a junior, then get a salary rise every several months, and slowly climb to senior.
Now, you can't. First, you won't land a job, and if you do, you already have to be at least a developer because you are competing with an AI.
Conclusion? No good way to alleviate that. You should try releasing your apps and other digital products instead. It sounds harsh, but it might be easier than landing a job. Also, your app / digital product might start to earn something.
Be Independent
If you land a coding job, be independent. Ask only a few questions about how to do things in the tech stack. People may tell you at first that there are no wrong questions, but in practice, there are. You should figure out most things by yourself.
Why?
Let's say the company hires a senior dev for $10k/month and a junior dev for $2k/month. Suppose junior dev takes away 2 hours daily (25% of senior developer time) to solve every issue they meet. In that case, the business loses $2.5k/month of senior developer time and ALSO has to pay $2k/month to a junior dev. So the business LOSES $4.5k/month by hiring you.
What do you think is going to happen? Yes, I saw people fired over this. Some businesses are prepared for onboarding juniors, but those are few and far between.
Also, only expect others to teach you something. You have to own your education. That doesn't mean people won't help you, but don't do that to the point that it hinders others' work.
Coding Courses Won't Help You (The Way You Think)
What will then? Coding. Code a lot. Don't pay for another course or another 'inspirational example for beginners' - most of them are worth nothing. Trust me, even if you feel down, the best you can do is to make something - any project, app, website. It will give you much more value than staying in the permanent beginner/learning mindset.
The really useful skill is to learn how to learn from the framework / programming language documentation directly and not relying on processed knowledge.
Focus On One Thing
Technology changes fast; each month, new frameworks and libraries are emerging. There is always a temptation to switch technologies, but you will only learn a little this way. I guarantee you will bring a lot more value as a good vanilla JS developer than a JS developer who barely knows the eight most popular frameworks.
To Sum Up
Focus on producing good, maintainable code fast, stay independent, and learn by doing.
The substance is what the current market is missing the most.
Latest comments (111)
Thank you for your insightful article.
The example you provided about the cost implications of hiring junior developers versus senior developers was particularly enlightening.
It offered a fresh perspective that I hadn’t considered before.
Your article was very good, and I agree with everything you said, I'm trying for a JR position at the moment, because I think I already have the skills for it, so I really enjoyed reading your work, congratulations!
I can add: do personal projects, small and many, not big and few.
you'll learn REALLY fast. 11y of dev here, most of it on personal stuff. employers care about what you know. it's pretty easy actually, people make it complicate with all these resumes and stuff
Really good article for junior developers.
Great points, thanks for sharing!
Pre-YouTube, there was books with titles in the form of Learn how to program in X in Y days. This has been with us a long time. It is preying on people's interest for a straightforward fast track to a job. Thanks for writing the post. I had an overlap of experience helping junior developers too
Yes, many years ago, the way of working was far to be what it is now. I could say I come from a world which does not exist.
I am not a Dev in a pure sense of the term, more a sysadmin and I do coding since there days you cannot do without.. But the same does apply!
I also agree, these days the bar to start any job is far more higher than years ago.
I have seen 'job description' for 'junior' and I can assure you the 'junior' needs to know his stuff pretty well. Basically the employer will not babysit you!
Anyway this apart, Any training as boot camp, courses or else are not the magic bullet. Theory is one thing, but practice is another. The Real word is not like text book, far from it!
Yes, they will/might give you some good bases to start of and obviously learn the basic, but it will not make you an expert.
To be an expert, this is down to you and only you.
As stated, create projects big or small, if the idea is good you can even publish it on Apple Store or Google Play or else.
This will built your portfolio of what you have done so far and this will also give you experience.
This is the same for any job. It does not have to be 'coding' related.
One last thing, you will never stop to learn or have to learn. What you knew yesterday will be obsolete tomorrow. This will still be relevant when you will be going up the food chain. Even when you will be a so call 'senior' you will still have to learn....
Yes, these days AI is everywhere.
I would say this, not only the juniors have to be worried, after all every one is in the same boat from junior to senior.
Do you need 3 seniors or 2 seniors, 1 junior and AI?
Bottom line it is all down to cost.
It sounds very legit.
But, the reality is that a bootcamp course is better than nothing, just for experience.
If you'll say to the junior, just learn and write code by yourself — that's nothing for him.
He is not competent enough just to figure out where to start from, which information he should learn at which step. And to be honest, I can't imagine how hard it's to be junior these days. It's really hard to navigate through these crap of different smart terms and technologies.
So for sure, there is no such thing like — become developer from 0 to senior in three months :D
But in the same time, for growing up, all the instruments that you found are good if they are useful.
I'm still a junior developer. Although I understand what you said, however, it's a bit different from my opinions. Of course, it would be different as everyone has their own perspective.
Don't Do Coding Bootcamps
I understand your point of view. In some advertisements for coding bootcamps, they promise salary and jobs don't make sense. If someone comes to think of it a little bit, it would be obvious. There are tons of talents struggling to get a position out there. But a bootcamp can be a good option for people like me. I don't have any titles like university or prizes from competitions or something else. Graduating from a bootcamp is like a certificate for me, and in fact, there are people trying to help people, of course as you said, some of them may be not passionate about it but there are people who really want even a little bit of help. Besides a course, you should be working hard and code a lot. This is the fact never be changed but the point is that coding bootcamps is a good option for some people.
Be Independent
Yes, it's very true and I think if somebody keeps working as a developer, at the end of the day, they will be independent. The way I see it, it's inevitable. Anyway, I don't understand the loss part you compared with salaries. That's what they do. If a senior developer trains 10 junior developers as 4k/month people from 2k/month. It ends up helping the company. I think this is a problem these days. Hiring entry developers with 5+ experience jokes came out of this I think. No, everything can't be calculated as money. There are always people around the world who are better than us and earn much less money. It doesn't mean putting all effort into teaching them, some of them may need some help to be glow.
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