Thoughts on Beign a Software Engineer in the age of AI

I started my career as a software developer 17 years ago. At that time, finding a job was way, way easier. I started as a web developer, and I remember my first interview—I was asked what HTML tags I knew, a few questions about HTTP, and some PHP questions—and I got the job. Don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t much information available back then, mostly manuals and language specification docs. It was the time when Stack Overflow had just started or wasn’t well known yet. I even contributed a little bit.

Learning was hard, the work was interesting, and I was happy—learning new things along the way and working on hard, challenging problems.

However, things kept progressing, and now AI is everywhere. I use it daily. It’s just so much easier to get things done nowadays. I can build games and tackle hard, complex software projects with the help of AI. It allows me to write the boring stuff quickly and actually focus on the bigger things.

But the question is: what’s next? If anyone with AI can write good software, what’s my advantage in this career path? I don’t see it anymore. Yes, I have experience, I’ve learned a lot over the years, and that definitely helps—but in the long run, I think programming will become some kind of “bus driver” job in most cases.

It’s both a fascinating and a scary time, especially for new developers. I also see a lot of challenges for frontend developers, especially those who don’t know anything about the backend. (This is similar to what happened to HTML/CSS coders back in 2010 or so—there used to be HTML template coders, but now you don’t see roles like that anymore.) I think we’re reaching a point where companies don’t just want frontend developers—they want full-stack developers, simply because you can use AI. I’m already seeing this with some of my friends (frontend devs) who are currently looking for jobs in this market.

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