The Truth About the Software Engineering Job Market in 2025

🤔 The developer job market is evolving before our eyes… what are your predictions for it in 2025?

I’m 63 and got laid off in July of 2023. I had some interviews here and there but after a year I started to feel discouraged. I have used ChatGPT to write some code and I learned python a bit and other technology. I am mainly a rails/javascript/react developer. At one time I was a C++ developer and have a BS in computer science from 1990. I am having a really hard time trying to decide if I should start taking social security. I really didn’t want to start social security this early.

I have been trying to teach music lessons but i don’t have many students and guitar center pays very little even though it’s good experience and fairly easy.

I have a hard time motivating myself to spend 12 hours a week in a cloud computing class. I like working with code and it feels like something different or more like integration. I did work on an AWS project for 6 months or so at my last job. Many years ago I enjoyed learning Rails from books and playing with my own projects. The cloud computing stuff seems like taking a lot of tests . That was the reason I avoided Java certification 20 years ago because it was a lot of memorization involved in taking tests

Being older and having gaps in my resume makes me feel like I am at a disadvantage even though I have worked at tons of companies over the years. I have worked on my communication skills and went to toastmasters in the past. I feel like being out of work for 18 months at this point is probably also working against me and just adds to the feeling of discouragement

How do you network while unemployed? Hang out outside the office you want to work at. Easy to say

I've just gone through all the comments. I just wonder why so many people are still selling the hope that the market could rebound again so they can have another 10 yrs of good life ahead writing code. It is almost on the level of absurdity. For over two years since the second half of 2022, tons of ppl everywhere are struggling to get a job. We are talking about ppl who have over 10 yrs of exp and still struggle to get hired. You think they are all stupid and lazy? The industry has turned into a red ocean. It's the very sign that you should get out, not in. Unless you can work directly in AI, i mean to improve or fine-tune AI model, otherwise your life would be better off in the long run just by staying out of tech industry. The time when you can feed your family by being a react/java dev is gone. If you do want to stay there, make sure you have business skill or another soft skill as well. No more pure coding roles bro.

I've worked in the industry for 8 yrs. I never had a problem getting a job. At most it was 2-3 months. And for all those jobs i've work for i never fully fulfilled all the requirements in the posting. Like i would apply for a full-stack role with just little bit of exp on React. Back in those days nobody cares. After all we SWE can learn. And I never had any issue getting the task done. If there is something new to me, i would spend hours at night and over the weekend to study it myself and come back to solve it. I meet the deadline and i deliver the result. I change my jobs every 1-2 yrs to make sure my skill is up-to-dated. And my new company was happy to see that. Never had any problem for 8 yrs. Then since June 2023 i've only managed to work two jobs for like five months (one for two and one for three), and i was unemployed for most of the time. I've witness myself how the market has completely shifted in employer's favour, to the point where SWE are almost begging for jobs. And those employers know it. They go on to press even harder. So you have SWE with 10+ yrs exp competing for junior roles and getting paid that way. And what really annoys me is the fact that they still have to be grateful for that, otherwise their mortgage loan would be terminated. It's all cooked. I don't want to say that way, but i do see SWE is becoming the new underclass, especially if you are burdened with home mortgage loan.

Yes people are right to point out AI is not there to replace human dev yet, but it does reduce the need for dev. The same will definitely go for contractors. But it happens slowly. That's why people still see SWE jobs there. But compared to few yrs ago the amount has decreased drastically. And ofcourse outsourcing/interest-rate do play a big role here. Overall AI & outsourcing & interest-rate all combine together to create the current nightmare. People would have to seriously reconsider whether they should just "upskill" and wait for the next booms, or just move on entirely. But just don't listen to anyone telling you "the best day is still ahead". See for yourself. Good luck everyone.

I am just going to not marry. Cost cutting max. No man no child. Just live in my small house

The empty words again, nothing new )) thank you, I don't want to die in front of the desk instead of living my life ))

Art and design – "just learn code lol"
Cs – "just learn trade lmao"
Trade – "just learn manual labour or something"

Your Face Just Like Abe Devilers. 😊😊😊

Hi bro can I network you? Which means add from LinkedIn and forget about

I was laid off on Jan. 6th of this year as a QA Automation Analyst. I had been in this job for about 6 years.
On the bright side, I got a semi-decent severance package and I have unemployment benefits for (1) year. My wife works as a part time job as a teacher's assistant so we do have income. My daughter attends a state school (we are in California) and her tuition is covered due to her dad's enrollment in a federally-recognized tribe.

What's my plan: I have been kicking around the idea of getting back into insurance. For the record, I am in my 50's and I have about 15 more years till retirement. I reckon I could get a Property & Casualty license and sell insurance so as to keep myself busy till about age 70 and then retire.

Stay Strong All.

Has anyone else noticed that they’ve started to remove the salaries from job listings. I’m asked what my expectations are only to be told what would had been considered a junior salary 10 years ago…

Well said, inspiring ❤

I had to turn on mono audio cause my left ear started to hurt

Been a developer since 1992. This career track is becoming increasingly exhausting. Thank God I'm almost done with it.

This video is like listening to chatGPT, telling you you must have 1000 skills under your belt for a job that barely pays a living wage, especially in Silicon Valley.

Wow… Have you heard about ai?

What is that AI assistant you are using in VS Code?

It's time for software engineers to start as juniors at middle-aged. Good luck.

Really amazing tips! Thanks

Got laid off too recently😢

Total BS. this AI revolution is not at all like other "bubbles" you mentioned. This changes everything dramatically. The market will recover but the number of jobs will be wayyy less.

I just literally started to learn how to become a front end developer yesterday Im from Northern Ireland do you think its a bad idea? 🤔

if you're still young, being a plumber, electrician and roofer is the way to go, these job will never replace by AI, not for another 500+ years

time for new startups that will be the next disrupters of the current humpty dumpties

0:30 Bold of you to assume they'd even take me. I gave up with tech and applied for McDonalds. Got rejected yesterday. It really is over

I’m working as a Solutions Architect for a consultancy firm, I don’t think I will ever go back to being a Software Engineer again. For those looking for work, my recommendation is to take on contract work for now.

If I can take one note from this video or rather the comment section beneath it, It's that you shouldn't read too much Youtube comments. Makes you de-motivated. Just go for it and see where it brings you. I don't plan to do this forever anyway but it is a great starting into my working career and the skills you learn aren't useless. Knowledge about python and cloud is not bad to have. As well as learning to communicate with the team etc..

These Indian managers in the US companies outsource jobs, and take advantage of the H1B visa system to flood the tech industry with unskilled, cheap labor from India, displacing millions of qualified engineers in the U.S. over the last 30 years. It’s a scam that’s hurt American workers.

… 2 weeks later: James, we have replaced you with LLAMA3 Agent

Junior devs got replaced by AI in 2023, mid levels got replaced in 2024, and seniors will be replaced in 2025

A lot of what you are saying cannot be more wrong man …

High value engineers should avoid companies that want contractor to avoid "long term commitment" – at all costs … The same way a high value woman avoids guys that don't want "long term commitment" also at all costs …

You cannot have the fruits of my labor if you are cheap, because I am not. And guess what, a better company will be very happy to do that.

And if you want to do contacting I am going to charge you 50 bucks an hour for 200 hours of work for a project that only needs 20 hours – that gets me making 500 an hour off of your cheap a$$ 😁

Thanks for your informative video. I got something useful here.

Networking is a hard truth to swallow for someone who gets along better with a computer than with someone else

Eastern Europe regarding IT is not low income area for some time already.

Being someone with software development skills and a sense of craftsmanship and ingenuity has NOTHING whatsoever to do with "turning yourself into a brand". WTF is this now, a goddamn popularity contest? You people are ruining this field.

The lemon is not worth the squeeze

Just get rid of HR, get rid of non-techies in the industry and get rid of mid-management. It's true that you should be really good and really passionate about your craft, even solving your own problems to demonstrate that you're good. We shouldn't have so much expectation for such a low pay-check, yes… LOW PAY-CHECK the salaries are the same for ALL the new things that were added. Everything got inflated to have more clown in the industry.