What's the Software Engineering Job Market Looking Like for 2025?

Greetings, dear community!

Inspired by how helpful this topic from last year seemed to be for so many, I decided to create another one for 2025.

I think we all know what the job market has been like for self-taught developers in the last couple of years: pretty much gruesome, with occasional unexpected strokes of luck just enough to keep us from giving up. At the end of the day, nothing’s going to replace years of hard work and dedication. All we want to rest assured in is that all our labor isn’t in vain. What does 2025 look like? Is it pretty much the same as last year, or are we seeing some changes?

It seems to me, and I could be completely mistaken, that a new skill slowly but surely becoming essential to employed programmers is leveraging AI to increase productivity. Companies know AI is still bad at even straightforward software development. But they’re also aware of how much more productivity per developer would increase if they could combine human problem-solving skills with the impressive data processing capabilities of AI systems. What do you think of this? I’m of the thought that this is only something to consider for advanced programmers, as AI could become a crutch to beginner developers if they never learn to code without it. Do you think it’s worthwhile for intermediate or advanced developers to learn how to incorporate AI into the workflow to increase productivity?

I would like to be clear, I do not mean utilizing AI to code for you, but rather to speed up mundane tasks, such as debugging.

Personally, I dislike all forms of AI in programming (what aspiring developer doesn’t?), and still believe in the good old, 100% human way of building software, with all the difficulties and delays that may come with it. Still, one must adapt to a changing world if they intend to find employment with their skills. I would love your thoughts on this, both novices and experts alike.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this overly-long topic description!

Keep codin’, keep goin’,

Nicolas, 18

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I don’t disagree but I think the use of AI is something no one cares about when they are looking to hire you? So yes, after you get hired maybe someone suggests you start using it in some aspect of your job but I haven’t heard job interview stories about this. (So my guess is that in 2025 you will not need to worry about this when you are searching for a job). Interested to see what others say.

I have heard on the other hand that in addition to the usual suspects that you are asked about at an interview, interviewers may want to know what methodologies like Agile/Scrum do you have any working experience with. I think they just ask that to finish off an interview (it probably doesn’t do much harm if you haven’t used them much), but it may be a nice boost to the interview if you have practical experience there (so that would be a more interesting avenue for learning if you are hunting for a job instead of the AI-helper avenue)

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Good point, @hbar1st. Perhaps it will take a few more years before this becomes a common practice. Also, such additions may not be as applicable to first time jobseekers as long time employees. I can totally see companies introducing AI leveraging for increased productivity for their existing employees, but you’re right, I haven’t seen it on job listings that often.

And thank you for the Agile/Scrum tip. It’s for tips like those I created this topic.