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More like easy tech careers that pay big from the get-go after a bootcamp are imploding. Those workers with a lot of experience and those with the skills, passi

More like easy tech careers that pay big from the get-go after a bootcamp are imploding. Those workers with a lot of experience and those with the skills, passion and patience, willing to push through the rough tides will be rewarded in the end. However, SW dev is still a tough career, requiring constantly learning the new things in your free time if you want to stay employable, that's not to be understated, especially considering the ageism in this racket, and how quickly things become obsolete compared to other credentialed professions where you're basically set for life once you get that piece of paper and not have to go through rounds of hazing interviews and take homes every time you want to switch jobs. It's not for everyone.

taylodl 2y ago
I've been developing software for a living for 40 years now (even longer if you include when I wasn't developing software for a living) and I feel that the pace of change has dramatically slowed down in the past 10 years: - We've stabilized web front ends - Mobile application development has stabilized - Architecture patterns are well-known and there are plenty of (now legacy) products with which to implement them - Ditto with integration patterns and APIs - We finally have security figured out (OAuth) and I now have the means to identify and authenticate a person who's not even in my own repo - We have tools such as Copilot taking the grunt work out of coding - leaving developers to work only with the most interesting bits - I could go on with lots of stuff that has now matured I feel like it's easier than ever to develop software, and like I said, the pace of change is rapidly diminishing. I think software development has finally become a mature practice. Admittedly, that takes some of the fun out of it, but we knew that day was coming anyway, right?
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  >I feel like it's easier than ever to develop software, It's also inversely proportional more difficult to get hired nowadays in those fields though. Back then when (for example) mobile dev was just getting started you could get hired with absolutely zero experience since nobody had any experience, but now there's a laundry list of requirement even for junior positions which are few compared to senior positions and the strict requires there in terms of experience. Good for those who already had 10 past years of experience and learned the necessary background knowledge, bad for those entering now when the bar has been raised.
  - taylodl 2y ago
    Isn't that how all mature industries work? Now that things have settled down and have been standardized, there's a set of things that all developers are expected to know. It was easier to "wing it" back when that wasn't the case. People used to evaluate you based off your aptitude and ability to learn new things and stay abreast with the industry, nowadays those skills aren't so valuable as is someone who knows how to do the work and get things done on time.
    - randomdata 2y ago
      That's how it works when an industry is flush with candidates. Software development is the "in thing" right now, so software businesses have endless people to choose from, and thus get to be picky. All that goes out the window when you start having difficulty finding people to hire, though.
- vdqtp3 2y ago
  > it's easier than ever to develop software I agree that there are a lot more solved problems, but I find it much more complicated to develop software now than in the past. You used the example of web front ends, but how large is that toolchain? How many different steps and tools do you need to be familiar with to take a project from concept to end user?
  - taylodl 2y ago
    I do wonder how much of my finding everything so simple today is a function of my having done this work for 40 years? OTOH, there are solutions that can be easily built today that would have been nigh impossible to have built in the past. I think the problem now is a pedagogical problem. I don't think we need nearly as many computer scientists as we do people who are practiced in the craft. We need more tradesmen than experts, more blacksmiths than metallurgists, so-to-speak. But I don't think the typical "software bootcamp" is a good trade school. We need some kind of trade school and apprenticeship solution where after a couple of years you're a solid developer with real-world experience.
- marcosdumay 2y ago
  Alternatively, we are in a lull period and tumultuous times will come back as soon as somebody makes something good in a higher layer than we use now. Personally, I think we are due for some collapse of the fundamentals.

taylodl 2y ago

I've been developing software for a living for 40 years now (even longer if you include when I wasn't developing software for a living) and I feel that the pace of change has dramatically slowed down in the past 10 years: - We've stabilized web front ends - Mobile application development has stabilized - Architecture patterns are well-known and there are plenty of (now legacy) products with which to implement them - Ditto with integration patterns and APIs - We finally have security figured out (OAuth) and I now have the means to identify and authenticate a person who's not even in my own repo - We have tools such as Copilot taking the grunt work out of coding - leaving developers to work only with the most interesting bits - I could go on with lots of stuff that has now matured I feel like it's easier than ever to develop software, and like I said, the pace of change is rapidly diminishing. I think software development has finally become a mature practice. Admittedly, that takes some of the fun out of it, but we knew that day was coming anyway, right?

Rinzler89 2y ago
>I feel like it's easier than ever to develop software, It's also inversely proportional more difficult to get hired nowadays in those fields though. Back then when (for example) mobile dev was just getting started you could get hired with absolutely zero experience since nobody had any experience, but now there's a laundry list of requirement even for junior positions which are few compared to senior positions and the strict requires there in terms of experience. Good for those who already had 10 past years of experience and learned the necessary background knowledge, bad for those entering now when the bar has been raised.
- taylodl 2y ago
  Isn't that how all mature industries work? Now that things have settled down and have been standardized, there's a set of things that all developers are expected to know. It was easier to "wing it" back when that wasn't the case. People used to evaluate you based off your aptitude and ability to learn new things and stay abreast with the industry, nowadays those skills aren't so valuable as is someone who knows how to do the work and get things done on time.
  - randomdata 2y ago
    That's how it works when an industry is flush with candidates. Software development is the "in thing" right now, so software businesses have endless people to choose from, and thus get to be picky. All that goes out the window when you start having difficulty finding people to hire, though.
vdqtp3 2y ago
> it's easier than ever to develop software I agree that there are a lot more solved problems, but I find it much more complicated to develop software now than in the past. You used the example of web front ends, but how large is that toolchain? How many different steps and tools do you need to be familiar with to take a project from concept to end user?
- taylodl 2y ago
  I do wonder how much of my finding everything so simple today is a function of my having done this work for 40 years? OTOH, there are solutions that can be easily built today that would have been nigh impossible to have built in the past. I think the problem now is a pedagogical problem. I don't think we need nearly as many computer scientists as we do people who are practiced in the craft. We need more tradesmen than experts, more blacksmiths than metallurgists, so-to-speak. But I don't think the typical "software bootcamp" is a good trade school. We need some kind of trade school and apprenticeship solution where after a couple of years you're a solid developer with real-world experience.
marcosdumay 2y ago
Alternatively, we are in a lull period and tumultuous times will come back as soon as somebody makes something good in a higher layer than we use now. Personally, I think we are due for some collapse of the fundamentals.