I’m looking to switch into a tech job in the future, and I’m wondering if web development could be a good choice. Ideally, I’d like an interesting job with a good work-life balance, and I would even be willing to take a pay cut later in my career in order to have more free time. I’m hoping to get some insight into the profession. I have three questions:
-
Is it hard to find a position in web development with good work-life balance
-
I’m considering getting a bachelors in computer science from WGU. Is it worth it or is the self taught route better?
-
Does anyone have any experience in the program?
You must log in or register to comment.
Web Dev can be a focus, but you’re still just looking at development in general.
Any time in the past 40 years I would have told you absolutely. How things are going to turn out in the next couple years I couldn’t tell you for sure.
About half a million tech workers have been laid off in the US over the past year. I expect salaries to come down, and work/life balance to take a hit. How much of one is still in the air.
In six months it’ll probably be a lot easier to answer this question.
According to layoffs.fyi, the number is closer to a quarter million. There are around 4.4 million devs in the US, so that’s something like a sixteenth of the workforce. A 6ish% unemployment rate isn’t terrible.
We weathered the .com burst, which probably had much higher rates of layoffs.
I tend to be a pessimist, but I think we’re in okay shape. If you’re motivated, I think it’s a great field to get into.
And let’s face it, the bottom 6% could probably barely code.
You may be right about that, but the implication that there is an exact overlap between the least skilled and the unemployed is not true. Plenty of devs got laid off even by the most selective companies.
- Not in my experience. It really depends where you live. Any big corporation is going to be worse than a smaller local company.
I recently left a high stress remote corporate job for a local hybrid job.
For smaller companies losing a developer is a much bigger deal so they tend to try and keep you happy much more.
- If you have the means getting a degree will certainly openany doors that may otherwise be closed.
After a couple years experience it doesn’t really matter tbh.
But many bigger companies will filter based on degree as a way to reduce applications.
Plus there’s much less competition for local jobs Vs remote.
That said I have a degree and don’t know much about the self taught route. But that’s my understanding.
All jobs are different. There are some in my country that offer unlimited holiday. Essentially you don’t have a fixed number of days but you still need approval.
So if you’re on top of all your work and they can cover you you can just take a paid month off when ever.
But these jobs are obviously harder to get.
It’s very varied and you’ll like have to hop around as your career progresses. Working corporate made it easier for me to get better jobs even though I hated it at the time.