Software Development Careers in 2024

Hi! I wanted to ask you, is it worth it to pursue a career in Software Development in these times? It seems like there are barely any job postings about it, and when there is a posting, it’s almost always for a senior developer.

It’s not unusual as a computer programming teacher to get questions like the one above. There’s no single “right answer” to this question. There are so many factors at play:

• The state of the local job market
• Your own skills, experience, and training
• Your personality and interests
• The sheer breadth of the job market
• Your personal drive and passion for the field

What makes it even harder of a question to answer is that I’m already employed in IT as a teacher at the post-secondary level. I haven’t had to look for a job in quite a while. Also, I keep so busy that I don’t get much opportunity to rub shoulders with those actively looking for jobs or those who are looking for new hires.

It can be hard breaking into software development in our current market, and there are lots of factors/reasons that make it challenging. But there’s still going to be a need for software developers for many more years to come.

There are a number of things that you can do to help you stand apart from other graduates, but they will involve extra work outside of class. Here are some suggestions:

• Get good at git and version control. Use it regularly as a professional discipline, and it will gradually grow into a skill that you can market yourself with.
• Learn how to do automated testing. Start with unit tests but also learn something about integration tests and end-to-end tests. You should certainly practice TDD (Test-Driven-Development) as a regular discipline. Check out more about the importance of TDD by looking at Dave Farley’s YouTube videos; his channel is called ⁠Continuous Delivery. Also, explore something about ⁠BDD (Behaviour Driven Development) by checking out the various blog articles by Dan North on ⁠BDD, ⁠TDD, ⁠DDD, ⁠Testing in general.
• Decide on some programming language that you want to do a “deep dive” on. By “deep dive,” I mean going beyond the basics of the programming language and learning as much as you can about the language itself. In the process, you will be exposed to important programming concepts that go well beyond what we teach in school.

Beyond these suggestions, the only other thing I can recommend is getting to know yourself more as a way to see if this field is one you want to continue pursuing. A really good resource is a book called “Do What You Are” (currently in its 6th edition) which can find at ⁠their website. Through this, you can discover what kinds of things you may or may not like in a possible career as well as what types of careers there are to choose from.

I hope that helps, and I wish you success in your journey!