I’m looking to switch into a tech job in the future, and I’m wondering if web development could be a good choice. Ideally, I’d like an interesting job with a good work-life balance, and I would even be willing to take a pay cut later in my career in order to have more free time. I’m hoping to get some insight into the profession. I have three questions:
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Is it hard to find a position in web development with good work-life balance
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I’m considering getting a bachelors in computer science from WGU. Is it worth it or is the self taught route better?
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Does anyone have any experience in the program?
Web Dev can be a focus, but you’re still just looking at development in general.
Any time in the past 40 years I would have told you absolutely. How things are going to turn out in the next couple years I couldn’t tell you for sure.
About half a million tech workers have been laid off in the US over the past year. I expect salaries to come down, and work/life balance to take a hit. How much of one is still in the air.
In six months it’ll probably be a lot easier to answer this question.
According to layoffs.fyi, the number is closer to a quarter million. There are around 4.4 million devs in the US, so that’s something like a sixteenth of the workforce. A 6ish% unemployment rate isn’t terrible.
We weathered the .com burst, which probably had much higher rates of layoffs.
I tend to be a pessimist, but I think we’re in okay shape. If you’re motivated, I think it’s a great field to get into.
A 6ish% unemployment rate isn’t terrible.
What bothers me is that this number is across industry, its not like people can easily move to other company, because other companies also had layoffs. At least I have this feeling from reading comments from people that can’t find job for half a year on HN and reddit.
My very large, primarily software development company isn’t on there. Layoffs.fyi doesn’t have them all.
The work will certainly exist for the foreseeable future, but it’s going to be hard to break into for the next few years.
I don’t think it’s necessary true.
You can’t compare the employment of a former google/twitter/xxx bit tech dev to a junior just starting. Lived the precedent crisis and it’s often easier to employ a cheap dev than a more expansive one,
But, it will clearly be harder no matter what.
As for OP, web dev is always a solid choice. If you really want to boost your resume, you may want to build some experience as an app dev too. It’s often very looked for.
And let’s face it, the bottom 6% could probably barely code.
You may be right about that, but the implication that there is an exact overlap between the least skilled and the unemployed is not true. Plenty of devs got laid off even by the most selective companies.
And they probably got hired by another company. My company layed off devs, and we’re currently hiring permanent remote devs.
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Here in the US, there are a plethora of web dev jobs available once you hit the mid / senior level. I’d say on a high-level that about 80% of them offer pretty good work-life balance. Every web dev job or gig I’ve had in the last 7 years has been extremely flexible.
Happy to answer any other particular questions you have.
How many years does one have to spend as Junior to consider themselves semi senior or senior?
A decent developer will be mid level in 1-2 years.
What is your current career? I was an Electrical Engineer until 2017 and was also considering a CS degree. I opted for a Web Dev boot camp instead as a lower timeframe/cost test of my ability to pivot.
I was able to land a job 8ish months after graduating and am now a Sr. Software Engineer. I think my previous engineering experience did help me get my foot in the door but one of my bootcamp grad buddies also broke into a web dev job without any bachelor’s degree.
The CS guys here may scoff at me but the boot camp route made sense for me and it may for you as well.
It’s definitely not a shoo-in. You have to like to code and have a passion for it. I liked it in high-school so it wasn’t liked I just pulled the “lets try a coding career” out of thin air.
I currently work as a server. So, if I went the bootcamp/self-taught route, I’d be applying without a degree and from a completely unrelated field. With that in mind, I’m estimating that it would take me about 2yrs, maybe less, to get my degree and cost $ 7,600. I know boot camps are usually faster than that, but they aren’t too much cheaper. So, I’m wondering if, in my situation, the benefit of a degree would out way the ~ extra year and the time after spent learning job specific skills.
Ha my buddy I talked about was also a server!
2 years to get a computer science bachelors?
Bootcamps are definitely a gamble. They vary in quality too. But, I guess I’m just here to say that it worked in my case! So it’s a valid option if the other factors make sense.
Do you know at this point if you like to code?
Ya, with WGU I would be able to transfer some of the college credit I already have. So, for the most part, I wouldn’t have to take any general ed courses, and I can take a good portion of the other classes via study.com then transfer them. After that, I would have about 11 classes I’d actually have to take through WGU. There’s a good youtube video I could link regarding it if anyone is interested in the specifics.
As far as liking to code, I have very minimal experience (hello world, if statement, etc) in python from a while back. So, I don’t really know if that would translate into enjoying coding in a professional environment, but I do have a general interest in technology/computer science. Do have any recommendations for how I could get a better feel for whether I would enjoy it or not?
Thanks for the response by the way!
Honestly, that’s kinda how it happened for me. When I remembered I liked coding I started tinkering with Python for a couple of weeks. I enjoyed it enough that I started to wonder if I could do it as a job instead of Electrical engineering. That’s what lead me to look at education options.
If you’re looking into web dev specifically… you could try writing some very basic websites for a week or two with HTML, CSS and maybe some Javascript. If you find your curiosity and your excitement when you get something to work outweighs the frustration of hitting learning roadblocks…then it’s probably safe to say you’ll like it and will thrive!
If you completely lose momentum and have no desire to try again or keep learning…then switching to it as a career will probably be a painful grind.
And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t even really know what web development was when I joined the boot camp…I just knew I liked tinkering with the Python stuff that I did.
Will do. Your advice was super helpful, and thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
I think you missed your other 2 questions. In only see 1 question currently.
Yes, thank you for pointing that out. I must have gone over the character count. I just posted the other two.
edit: deleting the imagine Increased the character limit
- Not in my experience. It really depends where you live. Any big corporation is going to be worse than a smaller local company.
I recently left a high stress remote corporate job for a local hybrid job.
For smaller companies losing a developer is a much bigger deal so they tend to try and keep you happy much more.
- If you have the means getting a degree will certainly openany doors that may otherwise be closed.
After a couple years experience it doesn’t really matter tbh.
But many bigger companies will filter based on degree as a way to reduce applications.
Plus there’s much less competition for local jobs Vs remote.
That said I have a degree and don’t know much about the self taught route. But that’s my understanding.
All jobs are different. There are some in my country that offer unlimited holiday. Essentially you don’t have a fixed number of days but you still need approval.
So if you’re on top of all your work and they can cover you you can just take a paid month off when ever.
But these jobs are obviously harder to get.
It’s very varied and you’ll like have to hop around as your career progresses. Working corporate made it easier for me to get better jobs even though I hated it at the time.
Thanks! I appreciate your insight.
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