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The Developer Job Market Is Insane 🤯 5 Tips On How To Survive

Dragos Nedelcu on November 15, 2023

Have you ever wondered... If software developers are so in demand, why is it so hard to get a developer job these days? Why the long interview pr...
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wraith profile image
Jake Lundberg

Great article! You hit on some really valuable points in here! Love that you took an approach that wasn't telling people to just "go learn more frameworks and tools"! I really hate when I see this advice being given to young developers. Being a "senior" developer is so much more than the tools you know.

Keep up the great work! I look forward to reading more of your stuff!

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dragosnedelcu profile image
Dragos Nedelcu

Thank you @wraith!

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Scofield Idehen

The market is difficult right now due to the challenges you mentioned but being a senior developer has more to do with the mental shift of the mind.

I believe more companies will lay off and AI would increase productivity and this itself would push down the need for seniors.

So even juniors will do what seniors can do with AI.

I believe everyone should learn to think outside the box as we are in the stage of Transhumanism.

The point where it all meets.

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harvey_56 profile image
harvey

AI is likely to make things more difficult for inexperienced devs. Firstly because you don't become a better engineer by asking someone else (chat gpt, copilot) to do your job for you. Secondly : I've seen a meme that sums things up well : before chat gpt "10h of coding, 5h of debuggin", after chatgpt "1h of coding, 25h of debugging".
I mean, I've seen that personally with a colleague who over rely on chat gpt. He can deliver fast, but the code is a mess, and adding new features and compiling the whole thing is such a headache. I have to redo his work. I should say chat gpt 's work.
The over reliance on chat gpt (mostly by inexperienced devs) will mean huge technical debts, and growing, in a close future. And technical debt is fixed by senior developers, who understand how shit works.
AI can only mean more work and better salaries for seniors devs.

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scofieldidehen profile image
Scofield Idehen

There is an article on dev on this, "Dear Junior Dev!!!", while I believe AI has done some good but reliance on AI has not done any good to the development community.

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fernandezbaptiste profile image
Bap

Insanely well written article. Really puts things in perspective with the current macro context. Thanks for this!

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Dragos Nedelcu

Thank you for the feedback @fernandezbaptiste

I appreciate the kind words :)

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Paweł Ciosek

Great article! 👏👏👏

Thank you! 🙏

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Dragos Nedelcu

You are welcome @pavelee!

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James Wilkinson

'Bout time someone said it.

I swear every dev I speak too are like "it's all fine, nothing has changed" and I'm like man, am I the only one who sees this shit?

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Dragos Nedelcu

Can understand @jaywilkinson

Unfortunately, many realise that after they get laid off and the job search is totally different from what it was years ago, but then is usually to late

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jaustinUF

Excellent article and analysis! Worth wading through the brash commercialism for the nuggets of insight and vision of the future.

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Dragos Nedelcu

thanks jaustinUF, glad you got value out of it :)

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Sam • Edited

Loved this article! Would you mind making one which breaks down the full developer roadmap?

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dragosnedelcu profile image
Dragos Nedelcu

Yes @sampdiamond!

Actually working on that at the moment! Will need a few weeks to wrap it up. Let me know if you want me to mention anything specifically there :)

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Dragos Nedelcu

Will do @juleeana99

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Dragos Nedelcu

Spam! Please remove, it doe snot add any value to the community

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Emmanuel Katto

Amazing article, thanks for sharing these tips!

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Dragos Nedelcu

You are welcome @emmanuelkattoo

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Javier Riveros

Great article, very complete, and insightful. Thanks for sharing

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Dragos Nedelcu

Thank you Javier, glad you found value in it!

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ivorspring

can you write an article on the coding interview, is where I get rejected most...

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Dragos Nedelcu

Will do @ivorspring

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Dennis • Edited

Really great article - thanks a lot :)
I think it could be really beneficial if you wrote more about the use of AI tooling as a developer. Thanks in advance :)

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dragosnedelcu profile image
Dragos Nedelcu

Added to my backlog @holmes-solution

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Bridger Brown

Hiring managers don't see your 'senior dev mindset' though, they just see your resume. I don't think this really helps give hope for junior level developers. I guess I just have to buy your courses, right?

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Dragos Nedelcu

without the Mindset part, you will simply quit too fast before seeing results, the CV part is fixable, take a look at our YouTube channel. And if you think we can help you and you need our help, than why not buy our stuff :)

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harvey

The senior dev mindset won't magically come. It will naturally come after you've put the hours of hard work. Someone said you need 10 000h to master a skill. SW is not different. You certainly don't master SW after a 3 months boot camp. Practice everyday. Practice, practice, practice. There is no shortcut. And asking chat gpt to code for you won't make you a better engineer. You can lie in your resume as an attempt to show a senior dev mindset, but that won't get you far. Like with any other industry, any skill, the secret to succeed is : hard work.

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J Lo • Edited

You touched on supply and demand … basic Econ concepts beyond the current generation. But left out the real reason for layoffs and long hiring process: Immigration! There are approximately 2million H1-Bs visas working in country at any time thanks to EVIL Democrats and EVIL Republicans who push these policies to make the tech donors happy. There are another approximately 2 million OPTs visas hired by the victim’s (recent grads) universities. ( your university is competing for your job that you paid 200k to get trained for) YOU are competing with at least 4 million low skilled immigrants for those entry jobs. They are cheaper, don’t come with college debt, and work 80hrs a week without complaint, and they can’t quit or they lose the work visa. That does not include illegals. DJT was the one who stopped the immigrant flow and is the reason tech wages ( along with everyone else’s) rose from 2016-2020. FJB reversed all these policies and also stopped enforcing the LAWS we actually have. Is it coincidence that the huge layoffs at tech giant’s correspond to the numbers of visas they got approved? Keep supporting these policies by your votes and watch your wages continue to fall-

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aloksdiptim profile image
alokz diptim!

Spot on

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Caner Demirci

That's all a game but life is not a game. If you can't pay your rent you can't explain to landlord :)

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Luke

Thanks for share this article!