For many young adults, becoming a developer appears very appealing at first glance. Exciting working hours, flexibility, possibility to work remotely, decent salaries, cool companies and products. It is true to some extent, of course.
However, after several years in the industry, developers typically understand that real-life software development doesn't look anything like those online courses, boot camps, and fancy articles that attract people initially.
Development is mostly not about coding. Actually, it is a bunch of stress, frustration, learning, communication, and trying to catch up.
Below, you'll find 12 harsh truths about software development that nobody likes to mention.
1. You'll Never Feel "Ready"
A lot of developers are looking forward to the magical moment when they will become professionals. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen to anyone.
As long as technology is developing, there will always be something to learn: new languages, new frameworks, new libraries, etc. Senior developers still spend lots of time finding solutions on Google.
Moreover, a company can suddenly decide to replace all the tech stacks with something different. And you won't have any choice but to learn new things once again.
What you should be ready for is the fact that your job as a developer involves constant learning and adjusting to new environments.
2. Only a Small Percentage of Your Work Will Include Coding
It may surprise you but most of your time won't be spent coding.
Actually, reading legacy code, sitting in meetings, debugging issues, reviewing pull requests, searching in logs, figuring out business needs, and explaining technical stuff to your manager takes quite a bit of your time.
Sometimes, it can take up to 6 hours to figure out a reason for a certain problem, only to later discover that the issue is as simple as using a wrong environment variable or typo somewhere in the source code.
In software development, finding a problem and solving it are much harder than implementing a feature.
3. Tutorials Give You False Sense of Security
It is great that you enjoy following online tutorials and implementing all the ideas presented in them.
However, when you start working in a real project, you'll face completely different reality. Tutorials often make developers believe that everything works flawlessly.
While working in tutorials:
- All dependencies are installed properly;
- The APIs used behave as expected;
- All the requirements are clear;
- Everything works perfectly fine;
In reality, in a real project:
- Your company may still use outdated documentation;
- There may be constantly changing requirements;
- A legacy system tries its best to fight you back;
- A part of the project was developed by people who had left the company months ago;
4. Burnout Is a Reality for Software Developers
It is important to understand that in the software development industry, burnout is quite common.
Since technology evolves constantly, many developers feel pressure to learn new stuff, such as:
- New frameworks;
- New programming languages;
- Artificial intelligence tools;
- New approaches to architectural design;
- Various cloud computing technologies;
What happens to many is that they keep coding and learning at night to compensate for not spending enough time coding during the day.
However, you don't have to work every weekend and develop personal projects at night just to deserve your career as a developer. Rest is essential.
5. Good Communication Skills Can Compensate Poor Programming Skill
A lot of developers think that coding is everything. Well, it isn't.
If two people share equal technical skills but one of them can effectively communicate ideas and requirements, the first one will definitely win.
You will need to discuss things, explain some concepts, create understandable documentation, discuss trade-offs, and collaborate with other members of your team.
Most job opportunities come from trust rather than knowledge. And you should remember that good engineers are not necessarily the loudest or most intelligent people in the room.
6. Legacy Code Will Make You Think Twice
Everyone wants to build something from scratch. But it is a rare luxury in most cases.
The thing is, after several years of working in this sphere, you stop blaming legacy code for everything. There are cases when messy code exists for reasons such as:
- Unreasonable deadlines;
- Changes in requirements;
- Resource shortage;
- Shifting of business priorities;
It is important to recognize that judging the code by its appearance without knowing its history is rather unfair. One day, somebody else will blame your code for something.
7. Imposter Syndrome Is Quite Normal
There is a misconception that experienced developers do not suffer from imposter syndrome. It is not so.
Even though a developer has extensive experience in software development, they can still:
- Feel stuck during an interview;
- Not be able to solve a seemingly simple problem;
- Not remember syntax;
- Feel lost in a complex codebase;
What differentiates a beginner from an experienced developer is the ability to recognize such symptoms as completely natural and not be afraid of them.
Programming always implies putting people in situations in which they don't know much about something.
8. Simple Features Are Not So Simple After All
Non-technicians often assume that it takes developers very little effort to implement some functionality.
However, adding a button or changing its behavior requires:
- Back-end changes;
- Database modification;
- Updating APIs;
- Testing changes;
- Checking whether a feature is responsive in mobile version;
Such features may look rather simple when discussed at a meeting. However, they often imply additional challenges that weren't taken into account initially.
Experienced developers know that they shouldn't underestimate the complexity of software. They are cautious while estimating the time required to complete a task.
9. AI Will Transform Software Development Industry But Won't Replace Developers
AI tools are gradually changing the software development process.
Today, developers actively use artificial intelligence to:
- Generate boilerplate code;
- Implement refactoring;
- Create documentation;
- Find possible errors;
- Learn new technologies faster;
Despite all that, AI can hardly make decisions related to the architecture or business of the project. It cannot think of solutions to problems and consider all trade-offs. And that is the core competence of every developer. And for teams publishing technical blogs or documentation publicly, tools like Quetext help verify that AI-assisted content is original before it goes live.
If you use AI tools, your productivity will certainly increase in the near future.Tools like Kuberns are a good example of this shift. AI handles the infrastructure and deployment layer automatically, so developers spend less time on server configuration and more time on problems that actually require human judgment.
10. The First Job Is the Hardest to Get
Becoming a software developer may be extremely difficult for many young adults.
Now, you compete not only with graduates of boot camps but also graduates of universities and developers that became self-taught after being rejected during previous applications.
Some people simply give up due to too many rejections and frustration, especially since they cannot find a developer job.
The main problem with hiring entry-level developers is that employers are not interested in coding abilities of candidates. Companies hire candidates capable of working on real projects and collaborating with others.
11. Not Every Passion Should Become a Career
It often surprises many people that many developers lost their love for programming after joining this sphere. It occurs mainly because software development is much less romantic at work.
The thing is, programming becomes another job that brings routine and other typical job-related aspects, including pressure.
Deadlines, meetings, technical debt, office politics, etc. make developers feel stressed and distracted. Thus, passion gradually goes away.
It doesn't mean that software development is bad. It means that developers need to separate their personal life from professional activities.
12. The Industry Values Consistency Over Genius
When people talk about great programmers, they often assume that these individuals are geniuses who can develop excellent code instantly from the first try.
In fact, such a programmer can hardly exist. Long-term success in programming is rather the result of consistency than genius.
Those who become skilled developers never give up and continue learning. They stay curious, adapt to any situation, communicate well, and improve continuously.
To sum up, software development offers a good career, especially with great financial reward. But it is far from being fun and effortless.
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