278. The State of Software Development

Where are we at in software development? Is software development going away? How is AI changing what it means to be a software developer? Is it possible to get a job as a software developer? These are the questions we will answer in today's episode of Dev Questions.

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

What is the state of software development? Last week we talked about the future of AI and how it will affect developers. But are software developers really going to be needed going forward? What about employment numbers? It seems like there are less software developer jobs than before. Should new developers even consider going into software development? These are the questions we're going to answer in today's episode of Dev Questions.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Software development is more than just writing code. So let's talk about the rest of it. Specifically, let's talk about the state of the job market for software developers. Software development is a very good career, and I would highly encourage people to get into it in 2025 and 2026. Now, I can already hear people typing angrily in the comments. Whenever I do an episode like this, I get people that implore new developers to quit or to find another career. Just the other day, I had a discussion with a developer who was encouraging future developers to quit software development and take up a trade instead. But before you start typing your comment, let me explain why software development is a great career to get into right now. Now to do that, I'm going to first address the objections. So objection number one, this other career makes more money. That's not how that works. And that's really a misunderstanding of what you're looking at. So a lot of times people will look at, let's just pick an electrician and let's you know pick US-based. Because I'm I'm US based, this is where my wheelhouse, right? So I've I've know a lot of electricians, actually. Um I pick a couple of them, uh, quite a bit of money. But let's talk about electricians. So maybe you think, hey, they're always in demand, everyone needs an electrician. And where I live in Texas, there is a demand for people in the trades because they're constantly building new houses around here. So that seemed like a great career. Well, yes and no, because yes, you can make good money as an electrician, but it's just like being a software developer in that vein. Like it doesn't just happen on day one. It's not that you say, I want to be an electrician, and all of a sudden people throw money at you. You have to, first of all, go through a lot more training than you do as a software developer. And that's not free training. But once you get through that, you say, well, but now I'm an electrician. Well, yes and no, you're gonna start off as an apprentice. You're gonna get paid very little money. And then you're gonna move up the ranks and get a little bit more money. But even after you kind of graduate and become a standalone on-your own, you know, uh electrician, you're still gonna be paid not a ton of money. You may get paid $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 to do your craft. And you're gonna do so in people's houses where it's hot, where it's cold. You're gonna have to do it in harsh environments that you're gonna have to potentially buy your own tools, you're gonna have to compete for jobs, because yes, even though there are uh there's a need for electricians, there's also this idea if there's too many electricians, they get paid poorly and then they don't want to do it, or there is a rush for the best jobs where everybody else gets the cheap jobs. Um, and what you have is a few people who make great money, and then more people who make decent money, and then you have a lot of people who make a little money or no money as an electrician. I know a few electricians that have been out of work for a significant amount of time. So it's not just this magic idea that, oh, we need people in the trades, therefore it must be great money or it must be great pay. And don't forget, it's not the same as working in an office. Um, but what you're doing is you're comparing the top end against a developer's low end. Because I can point to a lot of people that I know who are making great money. We're talking high six figures as software developers. I can point to a number of people who, when they lose their job, they immediately get another job, even in this economy, as software developers. I can point to a lot of people who have really good jobs as software developers, maybe making low six figures or high five figures as software developers. And I can point to a number of people who are unemployed as software developers. It's the same kind of thing. There's a very significant overlap in how that works, because the best in one industry is going to compare favorably to the lower end in another industry. That's how it's always gonna be. So this idea that another career will make you more money, first of all, careers aren't just jump over and do it. If it's easy to do, lots of people will do it. Therefore, it will be not something that you get a lot of money for. So it's supply and demand, right? If there's a lot of people that in the supply column, there's gonna be a lower amount of pay for that because the supply is so heavy. Um, if there's a high demand and a low number of people, well, then the pay goes up. There's a high demand for software developers, and there's a pretty good group of us. So there's a kind of balancing act we always go through. There's a you know, a push and a pull in that. The same is true for other industries as well. So I would definitely encourage you, don't just try and jump careers because one would make more money than the other when you look at one specific area or one specific group, or when you look at one category and think, well, they all must make that. It's kind of like looking at a doctor and saying, hey, doctors get paid tons of money. There's a lot of doctors out there that are just getting by. Um and you know what? They've gone through a lot more school, they've got a lot more debt, they've got a lot more worry on their plate than software developers do. It's a harder job. So don't just look at other careers and and do a false comparison. Number two, um, the idea that no one is hiring. Okay? I hear this a lot. No one's hiring. Or there's jobs out there where they're fake jobs, and they're not actually real jobs, and whenever I apply, no one is even looking at my my resume. I hear this a lot. And I have a number of times said, well, you know, can I help you? Can I look at your resume? And look at your resume and go, I can tell you why I'm not getting hired, because this is awful. And you're not representing who you think you are. And so you're blaming the hiring process, you're blaming the HR departments, you're blaming the HR systems when the reality is it's you, right? But you don't want to accept that. And that's what a lot of people go through. Now, I am not saying the hiring process isn't broken. I am not saying that the current job market isn't difficult. Those are all true. But when I look at people saying no one is hiring, that's not true either. I worked at a company a while back in Pennsylvania, and I know they still have job openings. And it's not a fake job, it's not a phantom job or trying somehow, I don't know. I'm not even sure what the motivations would be to do that. But no, they're hiring people. It's just they can't find enough people and they keep trying to hire more people. And part of that is because they don't pay a lot and they want mostly in person. Well, you know, there's some downsides there, but they are hiring. So I know a number of positions like that where they're open, but they're not the ideal work from home getting paid $200,000 a year type jobs. Okay. So yes, people are hiring. Uh, number three objection is employers aren't giving raises or they're cutting back. And so this is a bad, um, a bad field to be in. Find your friends that are making lots of money and getting lots of raises. Um, figure out which positions are because this is happening across the board. I'll speak for the US again, because again, this is my wheelhouse. Um, right now, yeah, companies are cutting back, and companies are kind of holding back on hiring new player people, and they're they're saying, hey, we're gonna do more or less, and they're trying to cut corners because they're not really certain about what's gonna happen in the economy, and prices are going up, but you know, job salaries aren't matching. And that's true across the board. So this is not a software development thing, this is an economy thing. So when you look at that and say, well, but yeah, I want to change jobs, we're gonna change too. Because this is the economy we live in. It's not just one particular area. And quite frankly, software developers are pretty high in demand when it comes to value. Um, number four excuse or um objection is that the industry is changing too fast. Um I hear this a lot from older developers who are saying, I'm just gonna get out because this industry is changing too fast. And I can understand. If if if you're done, if you're able to be done, if you can retire and you don't want to do one more change, I understand that. It can be hard sometimes to continually change. People love to get into a groove and just do that thing. The problem is that's not what companies pay us to do. Companies don't pay us to be automatons. They don't pay us to be what AI could be. They pay us to change and to grow and to shift with the rest of the industry. And you know, there is a bit of old man shakes his fist at cloud kind of thing where you know the industry is changing too fast. Well, yeah, but 10 years ago, the way we use smartphones is not how we use smartphones now. And the internet has changed and how we consume the internet. You know, 10 years ago, the biggest video platform was YouTube, and now YouTube struggles to be the biggest video platform because instead of doing five and 10-minute videos, now it's 30-second videos and one-minute videos that are ruling the internet. Um, and things change. And that those external changes have to affect then how we do our jobs and what we do for our jobs and how we build software. So part of this too is when people put their heads down and just work. I've seen this so many times. In fact, as a consultant, this was my wheelhouse. I would come in and help you when you had put your head down for too long and you got stuck. You're on old technology, I'm gonna move you forward, I'm gonna help you get back on the path of success, the path of modern software development, because you got too busy and you were doing the work you thought, but you forgot that part of the work is maintaining and growing and changing how you do things. You put your head down and got those bug fixes done, features fixes done, but you forgot that part of your job was changing with the rest of the world. So, yeah, it can be difficult at times, but that's part of what we get paid to do. Now, objection number five is employers want a senior developer, but they want to pay for a junior developer. Yep, that's true. And guess what? If you are a sales representative, the company's gonna want to hire a senior sales associate and pay you like a rookie sales associate. If you work in accounting, they're gonna want to pay for the best accountant possible, or get the best accountant possible and pay them like the cheapest accountant possible. This is true no matter what industry you're in. Companies wanna get the most value for the least amount of money. That's always going to be a thing. Okay. Just like when you go to the gas station and you look at two different gas stations, and one is $3 a gallon and one is $3.25 a gallon, usually go for the one that says $3 a gallon. You want the most value for the least amount of money. Now, it stinks that they treat people as if they do things, but that's where we're at. Now, there's also a part here that, again, can be hard to hear, but I also see a lot of people overestimating their worth. I've had people tell me I'm a senior developer. And I look at their resume and go, no, you're not. And they say, Well, yes, I am. I've got, I've I've been working in the industry for 20 years. That may be true, you're not a senior developer. Because it's not just that I have existed in the industry. I have been paid to be a developer for 20 years. That's not what it takes to be a senior developer. You need to have a different skill set than maybe they have. So overestimating your worth is also part of that equation. So these are the objections to why software development is not a great field or it's not a great time, et cetera. But let's look at the working conditions of software development because this frustrates me a bit. I have worked with my hands, I have done plumbing, I have done electrical, I have done things in the cold, in the in the heat. I have worked on buildings, I have built things, and I know what it's like. I have worked with people that work hard for a living. And I compare that to my life and go, boy, do I have it good. Um, my grandfather was a farmer, and my dad grew up on that farm. And in my mind, fortunately, I didn't have to. Um, because farmers work extremely hard. That's a that's a before sunup to after sundown type job all the time, seven days a week. And there's a lot of people out there that work really hard jobs, and it does frustrate me a bit when I see potential software developers or software developers who've been in the industry for a while say, no, you should just quit and do that other job instead, because it's gonna be better for you. We have it good here. Let's talk about how we have it good here. So currently, today, this is current industry. Typically, software developers work on average about 45 hours per week. Now, I want to explain averages here and typical, because some people say, Oh, I work 55 hours a week all the time. I get that. And you know what? That's hard, and maybe it shouldn't. Um, but this is typical at average. Okay, not everybody does this. Okay. Often, software development is on the high end of the pay scale at the company you work for. I have found that software developers are typically one of the highest paid quote-unquote normal employees of the company, you know, as opposed to management. I've always been paid kind of an equivalent to what Magic Pays gets paid or more, even though I wasn't necessarily always management. So work 45 hours a week, high end of the pay scale. Usually the work is in climate-controlled environments. I've worked in cubicles, I hate cubicles, I hate cubicles. I don't like them. I they're irritate- they irritate me. They don't I don't work well in them. That's frustrating. But I tell you what, it's still climate-controlled. I still have my own desk, and it's a whole lot better than a ditch in 100-degree sunshine, Texas, or in the freezing cold of Pennsylvania outside. So, yes, there's there's some negatives, and yes, there can be some bad environments you work in, but climate-controlled environments for software development is almost a given. Uh work items are provided, your laptop, your monitors, etc. And often training is paid for as well. So if you're a mechanic, typically in the US, you buy your own tools. This can be true for contractors as well, this can be true for other industries. For us, the company hands us a laptop, they hand us a desktop, they hand us monitors, they hand us our keyboard, mouse, all the rest, and say, just do the work. Now, also, our typical work hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. And you might say, well, that's you know, 45 hours a week, yeah. And then you know sometimes it's 5.30, sometimes it's six. And you put lunch in there and you gotta figure that out too. But 8 to 5, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Uh when I was growing up, my father worked in the warehouse, and he worked for a company where they had what they call a rapid rotation swing shift, where he would work two days, 12 hour days of day shift. So 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., I believe is what it was, and two days, and then he's off for two days, which sounds great, until you know that the the next three days he'd work night shift, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. And then he'd be off for two days, and then the next two days he'd work uh day shift for 12 hours, and then he'd be off for three days, and then work two nights of night shift, and that cycle would continue. That's a little harder than eight to five. That's a little more difficult, and it takes a lot more of your time, even though it might be a similar number of hours. Okay. Um, so eight to five is a pretty cushy gig. Uh little formal training is required for most roles in software development. You don't even have to have a degree. Whereas in a lot of roles, like for example, doctor, nurse, lawyer, lots of training, very expensive training, training that you go into deep debt for. And there are a lot of developers that have gone into debt for software development, and that's unfortunate because you don't need to, and you definitely don't need to compare to the cost you're paying for it. Uh you don't get the value out of it at that degree. Um, so little formal training isn't required for most roles. Uh work from home is possible. You might say, well, yeah, but my company doesn't offer that very often. I understand that. But you know what? You can't dig a ditch remotely. You can't build a house remotely. You can't plumb out a house remotely. You can't run electrical remotely. A lot of things you can't do remotely. Software development, you can't. Um, starting your own business in software development is easily accomplished. I've done it multiple times where I say, you know what, I'm gonna work someone on the side. And I'll do some consulting or I'll do some software development in the evenings. What does it take? It takes a laptop or a desktop and an internet connection. That's it. It doesn't take having a truck full of tools to build a house or tons and tons of money in a bank in order to pay up front for the materials needed for a job, or you know, so many other things that are very difficult for other industries or other roles. And there's an offer a number of companies out there looking for people who can do a side job or who can do some work on the side. So I've employed a number of them even here at DevForge, where we're like, hey, you know, can you do this thing on the side and just get some work done for me? Super valuable. Um and finally, the world is increasingly reliant on software. Look at look around you. What doesn't require software? Uh my keyboard has software install windows. My mouse does. I have, you know, a lot, I'm trying to avoid that in my house, but you know, refrigerators now can connect to the internets and toasters, and I think it's ridiculous. But there's some value too. Like my washer and dryer can connect, and that's actually helpful because it can ping your phone and say, hey, the washer's done. So your load of wash doesn't sit in the washer for half an hour while you don't realize it's done. Um there's there's some value there, but that means more and more things are being connected and controlled. And look at your phone, and your phone rules probably your life where you do a lot of things on your phone, from your banking to your purchase of food or your your order at the grocery store, whatever it is, you do a lot of things on your phone anymore. And what does that mean? Lots and lots and lots of apps. So those are all software. So more and more companies are reliant on software. My local, small, um, not a chain, just one store pizza shop is online. They have an online website, they have an online app, they have online ordering. All of that for a little mom-pop shop. Because more and more we're reliant on software as a society. So, yes, software development is on the rise. It's growing, it's a great career. And again, one I'd highly encourage people to get into. Now, the one last kind of disruptor to all of this, we talked about it last week, and that is AI. So AI is going to be a disruptor in software development, and it is causing people to go. Ooh, yeah, that all sounds great, but that was last year. And this year it's gonna be totally different because of AI. I don't think so. So first of all, some employers are trying to cut staff, okay? But we're already seeing the bounce back from that. We're seeing companies that cut staff that are now growing their staff back up because they realize it didn't work. You know, like there's companies predicting, uh I believe it was the company behind Claude said that you know 90% of all of all code will be written by AI within six months. And that was like nine months ago. That's not happening. Okay. And all these predictions of this grand thing is gonna happen hasn't happened. And so companies that were banking on this or thinking that's gonna happen are already walking that back and saying, no, you know what? Let's hire these people back. More companies are trying to integrate AI and improve their software with AI, which leads to more development opportunities. And it's interesting to see that even the companies are trying to do it by shortcutting and making the AI do the work, there's companies already springing up that are now taking advantage of that and saying, hey, we will check your AI-built work and we will work on closing the holes that your AI-built work does. And so what's that doing? It's creating more jobs in the industry to fix all the stuff that AI breaks. And I've got friends who are, you know, who uh do consulting and work with companies and help them on their software, and they're just salivating at seeing all these companies that are building AI-generated code because they see all the problems and all the work that's coming down the road for them because of it. So it's actually generating more work for more companies are hiring developers, and then more companies are hiring people to fix what the AI did for them. So there's opportunities there as well. And then building a product has never been easier, which empowers skilled software developers to create new companies and generate new forms of income. Now, I do say skilled because there's more to building a product than just having an idea and talking to an AI. You need to be a skilled software developer that knows the right questions and has built a number of applications before. But when you are, as you build up to that, well, building a product has never been easier because you now have a, well, that's for back a better word, co-pilot, a tool that can help you build out that software faster than you might have otherwise been able to do, as long as you are in control and you know how to guide it well, which takes work, it takes practice, and it's not getting right the first time. No software ever is. But it's a more of an opportunity now for software developers than it ever has been. So the bottom line is this the economy, it sucks. Jobs everywhere are tight. But being a software developer gives you one of the best chances possible to support yourself in this economy. You have lots of opportunities. You just need to put in the work to turn those opportunities into income. Okay? It's not just gonna fall in your lap, it's not gonna be as easy as it may have been in the past, but it's one of the best opportunities out there if you're a software developer. All right. So thanks for listening. As always, I am Tim Corey.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions. When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamtimCorey.com and enroll in a course.