My Future in Web Development: AI's Impact & Career Path - An Honest Discussion for Experienced Devs

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Hi FreeCodeCamp community,

I’m currently working through the Full Stack Developer curriculum here on freecodecamp.org, trying to truly master everything. I’ve been at it for about 2 to 3 months now, studying 3 to 4 hours (sometimes more) per day, 6 days a week. I manage to fit all this in during my work as a delivery rider; whenever I have some downtime, I find a bench, pull out my Chromebook, and study like crazy.

I’ve genuinely learned a lot already. My current fear, though, is that with AI tools like Gemini and ChatGPT already capable of so much (they’ve helped me with explanations for assignments whenever I get stuck), I’m worried that by the time I complete the entire Full Stack Developer course, everything I’ve learned will be outdated, and I won’t be needed anymore.

Also, I’m wondering if I could better spend my time over the next two years learning something else instead? Or will finishing the entire Full Stack Developer program (if they even complete it, given the rapid changes) still be incredibly valuable, and are my fears just that – fears – meaning I’m on the right track?

My goal isn’t just to be able to build a website (because if that were the case, I could calmly continue). I genuinely want to move beyond being a delivery rider, pedaling over 500 km a week for 40 hours just to barely make ends meet. My aim is to earn a considerably comfortable income.

So, if there’s something else I should focus on to achieve that goal of a substantially comfortable income, please share your thoughts and be honest. I’m especially looking for insights from people who truly understand the industry and see what’s changing. Not from those who’ve just started, as I don’t think they can oversee this.

I’d love to hear from you. I typed this in Dutch and used a translator, so I hope everything translated well. If anyone has questions, please let me know. I’m currently almost at the end of the CSS phase and expect to start JavaScript in about a month, or maybe even sooner.

Regards,

Rik, Delivery Rider at thuisbezorgd.nl :slight_smile: And thanks in advance for your effort!

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hello and welcome to fcc forum :slight_smile:

  • is it though?! what ai is doing is making work less for your tasks, but this role requires more and more human intervention for real life industry products…

learning how to code and using tools to achieve this role isnt going to get outadted but rather ai is going to help you get there faster, at least thats how i see it

anyways, that was my two cents about this, happy coding :slight_smile:

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Hi @rikdev1986 !

Welcome to the forum!

I wouldn’t worry so much about mastery right now but rather truly understanding the core fundamentals of software and practicing a ton.

Deeper understanding of these tools and concepts comes with experience on job and solving real world problems.

That is the fear of most new developers. Main reason being is that they don’t truly understand what the job actually is.

You don’t get hired as a developer to write python code, or JavaScript, or C++ all day.
You get hired to solve problems for businesses.

Businesses in all sectors have tons of complex problems that they need solutions to and that is where a good developer comes in. They need to be able to assess the situation and design a solution. Then, they implement it with code.

The best developers I have every worked with have always been the ones that can go into any hairy situation with a hard problem and sit with it until they arrive a solution. They truly know how to dive straight into the unknown and tackle some hard issues and they keep persisting until they succeed.

That should be your goal over the career. Become a great problem solver and code is just the way you implement those solutions.

All of these AI tools are good at producing code with clearly defined prompts and tons of existing code out there it can reference. But once you give it something more complex and more intricate it struggles.

Will AI continue to improve?
Of course. But will AI remove all of the problems that businesses needs solutions to? Absolutely not.

There will always be problems that need solutions. That is why there will still be a need for good developers.

Programming as a career requires a lot of persistance, grit and continuous learning of complex concepts. Those interested in pursuing this career need to accept the pros and cons and ask themselves is it worth it to them.

The journey to become a programmer is not easy but 100% doable.
Then once you land that first job, you will still spend tons of time learning and being challenged to get better.

So if you are willing and wanting to sign up for that, then yes you should still continue to learn these skills. :+1:

Hope that helps

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Hi,

Thank you both for your thoughts!

I guess i’m pretty good in problem solving, so with that in my mind, and that my fear is just a fear, but not the reality i will keep going. And i will start learning english on a daily schedule also, because it **** a bit, i did understand everything but i see everthing is in english, so its very important to be in this business.

Thanks!

Greats Rik

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You can consider the English for Developers course on the freeCodeCamp site