My first newsletter (+ the future of software development)

Software development is about to change. Disclaimer: This is just the opinion of a human, and humans get things wrong.

Hey 👋

Welcome to the first

Andrew Codesmith

newsletter. I’ll be posting about tech, programming and travelling the world as a Software Engineer and digital nomad. New tech I’m learning, random sh$t I come across, and ideas/things I’ve been thinking about.

I’m currently freezing my ass off at home in England for the next few weeks, having been in South America for the end of 2024.

Anyway, Software Engineers are screwed right? If most code nowadays is AI generated.

Not quite.

console.log('Story time first')

In 2017 I worked as a recruiter.

I recruited in the Swiss pharmaceutical industry (soul was sold, but I quit after making the money I wanted). In my first weeks as a recruiter, my goal was to get new jobs to fill, and find candidates to fill those jobs (the job of a recruiter basically). I spent the first few weeks talking to candidates in my market. Having talked to a load of candidates, and hiring managers, I slowly discovered something.

The job that was my specialism, my ‘niche’, was slowly becoming automated, and jobs were also getting outsourced to India. I was seeing it right before my eyes. Jobs were disappearing, and junior roles no longer existed. My workaround as a recruiter was to branch out to other markets and countries.

What did candidates do?

How did junior candidates enter the field?

What did recruiters like myself do?

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They just adapted, and their roles evolved. No great firing happened. Tasks were replaced, but jobs weren’t.

If this sounds familiar, it has been speculated as a consequence of the AI revolution for Software Engineers.

Job markets are unpredictable, but they evolve and adapt. Talent, responsibilities and tasks change.

The job market I was recruiting in became more generalist, and the role of a junior didn’t exist anymore. But the pathways were just different to what they were in the past. Rather than juniors, they trained in a different area. Then once they reached mid level, they switched.

Job markets are impossible to predict though, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. At best we can do a calculated guess (what you’re reading right now).

Most developers are learning junkies and will just evolve with the role.

There will be a lot of disruption, but technology is change. It’s what you signed up for, and it’s what makes it so exciting to work in.

Here are some general trends I think are worth keeping an eye on, along with some opportunities.

Rather than being scared for your job, look for opportunities. (I’m purposely not considering AGI, as if that happens, we’ll be in a totally different world).

Here are some high-level concepts I’ve been thinking about a lot.

🤖 Totally new roles - as Andrew Ng speculated recently, that he thinks we’ll see new jobs like AI Product Managers. “The demand for good AI Product Managers will be huge. In addition to growing AI Product Management as a discipline, perhaps some engineers will also end up doing more product management work.” This makes sense since engineers already have a deep understanding of software. This is one example of new roles, which people likely jump into. Not because they have to, but because of the opportunity.

🤖 Less non technical staff - non technical PM’s, non technical recruiters. In general, non technical people will be less and less relevant. The harsh reality is that there’s a limit to how much value you can add, if you aren’t technical within a team.

🤖 Full stack - specialisation is not going anywhere for the time being (and should be your focus as a junior). In the longer term, the idea of becoming a full stack developer will be more realistic/expected.

🤖 CTO type role - In the longer term, the workflow will be. You work with the AI (agents) to tweak *it’s* code, maintain it and work to translate business needs into a product. Large bloated development teams will become less common (but there will be more software teams in the world, they’ll just be smaller). Freelance developers will do well.

🤖 Importance of UX/UI/Front End - How users interact with their favourite AI is going to be crucial. It could be worth billions in some cases. Companies will pay a lot of money if users find their AI beautiful, intuitive, and easy to use. If you are a front end dev, now is a great time to diversify. Learning UX or back end, will put you in another league (don’t have to be an expert, just being able to help out when needed).

🤖 Your ability to read and understand code will be more important than writing code. Gradually it becomes a more generalist discipline with less routine tasks and fewer segmented specialisms. A good example is how in 2020 when I started in tech. You could be hired on HTML/CSS and JS, and only do front end. Now it’s common to see cloud certifications as essential, as the role has consumed other specialities.

🤖 Oversaturation of AI/ML Engineers. When a job is voted ‘number 1 in the world’, years later it usually gets crowded. There is a huge demand right now, and salaries are crazy high, but with the amount of people studying, planning to enter this field, it will level out. The same happened in 2021 with blockchain. This shouldn’t put you off, just be aware that what’s hot now, likely won’t be in 2030. So it’s better to focus on what you are interested in, rather than chasing what’s hot. (I know developers who were in backend, then went to blockchain, now moving to AI. This can actually hurt your career, as you’re constantly chasing the shiny new thing).

🤖 Architecture skills, and greater general focus on performance, reliability, sustainability and security over traditional programming.

🤖 Cybersecurity and software development merging together. Terrible/buggy generative AI code = greater emphasis on security. One of the best paid areas of Cybersecurity is AppSec (devs with a few years exp who want to work in cyber). A relatively new field that grew from a focus on adding security to the development process.

🤖 Shift from ‘knowledge worker’ to someone who can find information well. High level problem-solving at all points of the software development lifecycle. Rather than just being a ‘code monkey’.

🤖 Loads of opportunities in AI, internet of things, virtual reality/AR, blockchain not just your typical mobile app/website builds.

🤖 Data, lots of data. We’re entering an irreversible shift towards data driven software. Getting an understanding of data science and machine learning, is a wise move.

🤖 Soft skills - getting closer to the ‘talking jobs’ in tech—are often the most lucrative paths.

Evolution is natural, software is (still) eating up the world, and there will be an abundance of opportunities for ‘tech literate’ people. Probably the most reliable resource to see what skills are going to be valuable in the next years, is the The World Economic Forum, Jobs Of Tomorrow report. It emphasises one of the key skills in the next decade, is going to be technology skills/technological literacy.

SO WHAT SHOULD I DO?!

Don’t pressurise yourself into thinking you need to learn it all. Focus on the one thing, that will level you up. Also keep an eye job listings to see what employers are now asking for. That’s what they call being adaptable.

Being adaptable will be key (but most devs are learning junkies, so will be fine).

Don’t freak out, just learn when you need to, and if you see an opportunity, and it excites you, go for it.

See you in the next one

A 👾

P.S. – New YouTube video on learning Data Structures & Algorithms is out now.