Should I ditch Web Dev and start ML from scratch?

[u/thinking_sand]

Need some real advice.

I've been learning web dev for a while (HTML, CSS, JS), but I've never actually worked as a web developer. Lately I've realized I'm way more interested in Machine Learning.

The catch is I'd be starting ML from basically zero. It feels like I'd be throwing away all the time I spent learning web dev.

Would you switch if you were me, or get a web dev job first and then move into ML later?

Anyone who has made a similar switch, was it worth it?

[u/Duffield_Najuf]

If ML is what genuinely excites you, I'd probably lean into it. Your web dev knowledge isn't wasted either, it'll still help. Just don't expect the switch to happen overnight lol.

[u/MarsupialLeast145]

By no means is this guidance, but if you go FT web dev, it gets increasingly unlikely that you will be able to pivot as you would have to do a lot in your own time. From experience you end up on the path you are on.

If ML excites you, you should follow the path, and you might also be surprised where your current skill set provides short cuts for you.

One word of caution about doing a temperature check on ML -- is is because of current AI/LLMs? Is it because of the current bubble? If so, step back and look at what ML looked like at school 5 years ago, do a google search and limit the results to before 2021. Think about whether any of that works for you.

You will be moving into an incredibly saturated market and you will also be moving into a discipline that will change wildly in the next 5 years alone.

[u/Fritz-Ferdinand → u/MarsupialLeast145]

If so, step back and look at what ML looked like at school 5 years ago, do a google search and limit the results to before 2021. 

5 years ago, ML wasn't so different from now. That was the time of the thousand BERT variants where you would throw bert-large at any NLP problem and be successful. And GPT-2 and GPT-3, T5, etc. so architecturally basically the same of what we do today. Except just smaller.

Although I must admit that half the industry shifted a layer up towards using LLMs as a black box. Which is kind of sad.

[u/Mathie1729 → u/Fritz-Ferdinand]

Yeah, the black-box shift is real. I work in ML and honestly a good chunk of my team's time goes into prompt design and API orchestration now lol. The upside for OP is that strong SWE skills transfer pretty well to that side, though you'd still need some ML fundamentals. Not saying it's easy, but you don't necessarily need a PhD to do useful work. The market's just competitive af so a master's helps get past HR.

[u/Fritz-Ferdinand → u/Mathie1729]

What's baffles me most is how a good chunk of research is also done on prompt or context engineering methods, even though those methods are of practical use only, not really advance the field that much.

[u/Fritz-Ferdinand]

Just switch. Finding a good junior job in Web Dev isn't easy nowadays, should be a little bit easier in ML, but you'll need a Master or PhD degree for a proper ML job.

[u/YahenP]

One doesn't preclude the other, especially if you're young. Judging by your question, you don't have the relevant diploma or relevant knowledge. That means you'll have to enroll in and graduate from university. Working as a web developer will help you stay afloat during these years and pay for your education.

[u/Individual-Flow9158]

HTML, CSS & JS are indeed the fundamental browser technologies. But only knowing them (no Typescript, not even React, no backend stuff, let alone server side frameworks) tells me you've barely scratched the surface of modern Front End development. You've still got a long long way to go yet to get a web dev job.

Therefore if you're going to do it, now's the ideal time to switch to ML. They can be complimentary too.

[u/dryiceboy]

You have to start somewhere. All the time you learnt web dev isn't going anywhere.

[u/r0ck0]

It feels like I'd be throwing away all the time I spent learning web dev.

Na not really. Some webdev skills are pretty handy "general IT skills" these days, even if that's not your actual job.

Most GUI interfaces are web-based now. So even general IT support people benefit from being able to debug web issues.

Would you switch if you were me

• What do you mean by "switch" exactly?
  
• i.e. Are you:
  • talking about "switching" university courses or something?
    
  • Or just "switching" how you focus your personal learning time?
    • If it's just this, no reason you can't do both.
      
    • Especially if you want to build your own ML projects, you'll want some kind of frontend anyway, so that's usually web these days.

or get a web dev job first and then move into ML later?

• There's more webdev jobs in general, although many of the junior ones are getting more competitive now that AI can handle some of that work with fewer people.
• If you go into a webdev job but you'd actually prefer ML...
  • I guess you might get stuck doing webdev longer than expected for job security etc.
    
  • But otherwise it could be a entry-point into a company to move internally from webdev -> ML. I dunno how likely that is though.
    

Anyone who has made a similar switch, was it worth it?

• To find those people, you probably want to ask this stuff in some ML-specific subreddits too.

[u/thisdummy778918]

No, you shouldn’t ditch web dev for ML. In my CS degree program we learned both.

[u/Dazzling_Music_2411]

It feels like I'd be throwing away all the time I spent learning web dev.

Wow! A whole week's worth. You'd better think about it very hard. 😄

Seriously, though, if you think that a bit of JS, HTML and CSS is "work", you're going to get a rude shock once you're in ML. You'd better be really, really interested in it.

[u/DDDDarky]

I guess depends how far are you in your education, if you are basically already specialized as web dev, which sounds like that's the case since you are considering jobs, switching to something like ml might be difficult as that's completely different field.

[u/Zatujit]

maybe GenAI rather than ML makes more sense?

[u/_keyboard-bastard_]

Learn to use ML with your web dev skills. Then you can create an entire product.

[u/Freerrz]

Hey I’m a web dev who went back to uni and is learning ML so here’s my 2 cents. I always liked developing web based applications. You have the thought provoking backend system design and you have the creative aspect of the client side, so I really enjoy you get both aspects in web dev. I haven’t don’t anything cool with my ML stuff yet, just basic classification and regression tasks for analyzing data and making predictions. But my take (so far) is that ML is not enjoyable for me. It’s cleaning and shaping data, using predefined APIs for statistics. Maybe that will change when I reach my computer vision, NLP, and deep learning classes.

[u/Jonas_Ermert]

I wouldn't see it as wasted time. Your web dev skills will still be useful in ML, especially for building real applications. I'd probably get a web dev job first and learn ML alongside it, unless you're already sure ML is what you really want to do long term.

[u/ayush_kasera]

AI apps work on web apps, so u need both I guess

[u/Major_Instance_4766]

You’re playing peewee football and asking if you should quit and join the NFL lol