I started to learn to code about two weeks ago, but I’ve just discovered FCC. I love the idea of following a curriculum, doing projects, and earning a certificate. I’ve used WordPress to create a website for my husband’s business, and thought I’d learn what goes on under the hood and become a “real” web developer.
But I’m starting to get a little worried that since tons of people are out of work due to the current situation, there are a lot of people out there deciding to learn to code.
Will there soon be more coders then there are jobs?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics between 2018 and 2028 there will be a 13% growth in employment for Web Developers. It looks like the average is around 5% growth for other jobs.
That doesn’t give us a complete picture of course. For example, we don’t know how many junior developers will be entering the job market in the near future or how many positions are available. However, I’d say that in general there aren’t a lot of people who are bonafide full stack web developers.
So, if you have time and the dedication then just go ahead and give it a shot. Getting a job will be dependent on how much work you’re willing to put in and how knowledgeable you become.
The worse that could happen is you gain a new skill and a life-long interest.
I don’t believe there as many people as you’re imagining gearing up to become professional developers.
But let’s assume there are enough doing just that, because of quarantine.
How many of them do you think will continue this path - at the same pace - for the next 1-2 years (or at a slower non-quarantine pace, for 2-5 years), in order to become proficient enough to get a job?
I don’t see the market being flooded anytime soon. Not because of covid anyway.
But I’m starting to get a little worried that since tons of people are out of work due to the current situation, there are a lot of people out there deciding to learn to code.
I do not believe the majority of people will suddenly take up web development, and successfully change jobs quickly due to the pandemic. Its very possible those that already thought about it, will “go all in” to switching careers at this time, but this is probably not very widespread.
Will there soon be more coders then there are jobs?
Pandemic or not, I don’t believe there will ever be enough developers for all the jobs available anytime soon, or even ever. This doesn’t mean companies will get desperate and hire anyone. Another affect the pandemic will have is the increase use of remote work, thus making job hunting harder, as competition can come from anyone from anywhere.
There will always be jobs that need determined experienced people who can do the work. Keep it up, keep going, and keep learning and you will eventually make it. It might not be fast or easy, but its not impossible for anyone.
In relative terms, yes there’s a glut of front-end developers, and it pushes salaries and opportunities down. In absolute terms though, the growth in demand still exceeds the number of developers. A lot of front-end dev can be jobbed out piecemeal to low-paid contractors, yes, but there’s going to be a demand for bespoke work for the forseeable future. An increasing demand during the pandemic at that, as companies look to buff up their online presence.
As for backend, the only positions I see vanishing are for entry-level sysadmins, since everything’s going cloud. Developers manage the individual systems just as part of the app, and a handful of cloud ops engineers can manage what would have taken many teams of system and network engineers before. AWS or Azure certification will pay the bills and then some.
Keep your skills up to date and flexible and you’ll be more than fine.
