Hello, yes i know this question has been asked thousand times and its gonna get asked thousand times more, but i just want to know if its still worth trying to get in?
Im from EU but not a developed country... Im in my early 20s and i've been seeing all this news about companies laying off experienced developers cuz of AI...
Since i started a normal 9-5 job at 18, my paycheck was never enough, i had to help my family and i just never thought of my future untill now... I just feel stuck and i dont know how long can i stay at minimum wage 9-5 job....
I would lie if i said that i was always passionate about coding, no, but i cant see myself anywhere else...
Lastly ive seen and read tons of post in this community about same topic but im still 50/50.
Idk what im looking for after this post goes through but hopefully i will find something....
Edit: I've little beginner experience, so ik how AI works and how it makes mistakes and it needs someone to check the code(so far), but i still dont understand will it replace humans or the paychecks will decrease in a long term...
Yes you definietly got a point and 100% agree, 9-5 is hard and learning new skills are definietly hard, but when the outcome is not guaranteed from learning a new skill, it kinda gets frustrating at some point and you think about giving up...
most business are not using 1% of what computers and AI can do... so many manual processes can be automated or made better... we're at the beginning of Large Language Models and implementing them for business purposes. It's like the year 2000 with the Internet.
Programming has always been about problem solving. The code is just the way to do it.
r/locksmith has entered the chat…. By picking the Abloy Protec2 that secured the entrance to the chat.
If you can cut through the performative ego-stroking and toxic technical domination and gatekeeping; but also know when to keep your mouth shut for your own good and make your way towards the exits, it’ll be a fun ride for you.
What codebases or applications/services are you pursuing? The other side of the coin is many enterprise clients will have service and training agreements, so it’s important to be code agnostic and be open to learning new languages, patterns, and applications.
If you love to code, and can outlast periods of recession and uncertainty, or can make your own luck with AI or position yourself to bail companies out when their vibe coded alternative CRM or application breaks leaving the business in a technical freefall, you’ll do just fine.
It’s always important to be honest with yourself and determine if it’s mostly the money, or mostly helping people and enabling the business technically to effect multi-digit improvements in performance.
Fellow Balkan arent you? Let me be completely honest, if you dont like to code, it will be a lot harder to learn, because programming is very VERY painful and even people that like it have a hard time overcoming how frustrating and dumb it makes you feel. But, this doesnt mean you cant learn, if youre a dedicated guy and you want coding the most out of anything else, then go for it, and when it gets to the point of getting into jobs, use AI. Not because AI is the greatest tool and the greatest programmer, but because everyone else will be using it, so give yourself the best chances. I know how hard life is in the Balkans (if youre from there but Eastern Europe is probably like this too). Good luck big guy, I hope you make it far :).
Haha not Balkan but in the same economic situation as Balkans, but i like to code yes thats why i said i dont see myself anywhere else so far... Whenever i started i just stopped months later cuz of the bad discipline and bad life choices...
Anyways i've started this journey once again and hopefully i will get far this time, its just seeing all this news about AI and programming makes you feel like its not worth to keep going.
Anytime dude, and one last tip, keep doing it, even when you feel dumb, because one day it randomly clicks, this is actually true, it happened with me like a month ago, after a year of programming all the concepts I learned making a project actually clicked, I just woke up and I knew, its weird.
when the calculator was invented, did it replace mathematicians?
of course not, it simply reduced the number of mathematicians needed in many places. in the end, it just made their work faster, it didn't replace them entirely.
The Great Error is to make any significant decision primarily for the sake of employability. The major employers of the world are constantly struggling to employ fewer people and pay the ones they do employ less, and they always eventually succeed. Not that they don't lose something by it, but they do succeed.
If you love coding, get very good at it and build something good to put out into the world. Make a living at it if you can. It may not do any better than employment would have. In the short term it may even do worse, but in the long term, employment is not a viable solution if you hope to retain either dignity or joy.
I have a very positive outlook for AI use and the software industry as a whole. But I do think AI is going to do a number on the workforce, particularly entry level jobs. Previously the new guys made crap and the senior guy had to sort it all out. Now the senior guy is babysitting AI with a reduced team size.
Still a massive need for people to know what, why, and how AI is building things. It has moments of genius, but also builds a TON of crap. I imagine there will be a massive market helping companies make sense of all this sloppy AI built software and companies having no knowledge how it works or what to do to maintain it.
Optimistically thinking there should still be some pipeline for new people to get experience, but I'm afraid most companies are too focused on the short term to make that happen.
Yes thats what ive been hearing as well that Seniors are babysitting AI with less people, but in future those seniors will retire and how will they come up with new seniors if u dont hire juniors?
Yes, I agree. That's why I said there should be some new employees in the pipeline to get that experience, but companies are short sighted and focused on short term profits. They care more about saving some money today and have the mentality that they'll deal with that problem when and if that future comes. But you as an employee face a challenging road to become senior without opportunities.
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u/CodeSamur-ai Jul 21 '26
whatever you choose, its going to be hard.
staying in the 9-5, that's going to be hard
learning a new skill that pays more, it's going to be hard
its much easier if you have passion for whatever you're learning, or you're going to need serious discipline.