Why Software Engineering Is Still The Best Career Option In 2024

For people in STEM

Computer Science students are having a tough time getting their first job in the current market, and they're worried about their future.

LLMs, bad economy, high supply of junior developers and low demand...

Is a career in software still worth it nowadays?

In my opinion, especially if you have already stepped foot into the field - for example you are enrolled in a CS program - the answer is yes, it's still a great career option.

But times have indeed changed and there are some hopefully useful considerations I can make.

1. Getting paid just for knowing some Computer Science and coding won’t be that easy anymore

Let’s face it: computer people in the past few decades haven’t had it very hard.

So much wealth has been generated through the invention and commercialisation of computer and software technologies, and so little capital outside of human labour has been required for this, that engineers working in these fields were able to absorb a lot of this wealth creation relatively easy.

Competition for these jobs was low, because they are inherently new professions, and you didn’t have to compete with many older people who’ve been doing this for decades.

It’s normal that the market is now adjusting.

In 2024, it’s not hard to find people with 10 or 20 years of experience in software development, and in the last couple of decades not much has really changed when it comes to creating software products.

The industry has converged to some technologies, which have become somewhat stable and standardised: object-oriented programming, web applications, containers, cloud, data analysis, etc. Some of these have existed for more than 2 decades, some for one decade (but they are still not ground-breaking even compared to what existed before them in terms of professionals’ skillsets).

Software engineering has (almost) become “just another profession” and it’s not anymore this “hot new thing that generates so much value and that almost nobody can do”.

2. The good side

It’s not all doom and gloom though, and in my opinion it is still a great field to be in, offering opportunities no other field offers.

2.1 Low barrier to entry

While the barrier to get an entry-level job has raised recently, it is still a very accessible field offering junior professionals great salaries and opportunities.

Less than 3 years should be enough to become a productive and qualified software engineer: a bachelor’s degree with internship/personal projects experience on the side and bootcamp/self-study with projects and internships are both valid ways to become employable as a full-time developer nowadays.

If you know how to navigate the European market, you should also be able to get a 100k+ job as an entry-level job. As I talked about in a previous article, the best ways to achieve this is to either target Big Tech companies within Western Europe, or to get a job in Switzerland.

2.2 Flexibility of being a Software Engineer

Being a Software Engineer in my opinion is still an amazing profession for the almost unmatched flexibility it provides.

One of the easiest profession to get a remote job, allowing for geographical and oftentimes also fiscal flexibility: if you want to be some sort of digital nomad or solopreneur, you can become a freelance software engineer contractor, set-up your company in a jurisdiction with very low taxes and choose work and projects that allow you to work on your terms in terms of schedule and location.

This is a pretty big deal in my opinion. Even if you are desperate and can’t get any decent job in Europe for some reason, you can still find work on Upwork or similar, and even if you end up making very little money (let’s say less than 30k/40k a year) you can incorporate in countries with very low taxes and live somewhere very affordable and have a great quality of life.

I will write an article about this in the future, but for example you could incorporate in Georgia, pay 1% tax on profits, and live in places like Georgia, Thailand, Portugal, Greece, Southern-Italy, Philippines, Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria, and many more, and live really a great life with less than 2k a month. Let’s say you were making 30k of profit per year, under this framework you would basically be living (almost) like a king/queen + saving almost 1k per month.

Georgia is not the only low-tax place. Estonia, Bulgaria, Poland, Malaysia, Thailand, Andorra, and many others can all be low-tax places for someone working as a freelancer making less than 100k a year.

2.3 The time of cheap offshore developers is kind of gone

While 10/15 years ago companies going offshore could get really cheap developers because some economies were lagging so much with regards to western ones, nowadays this is not the case anymore.

Let’s take Ukraine as an example: a country with very low cost of living, very low taxes, and a popular option for offshore development teams. Probably this will surprise you, but qualified senior software developers in Ukraine have been making around 4k-6k euros a month for several years now. This is net salary, as taxes there can be around 5%. These are more or less the prices everywhere in Eastern Europe if you’re looking for qualified, English-speaking, senior developers.

Bangladesh, India, Indonesia can have lower prices. Although salaries for skilled developers have dramatically risen in these places as well, as many western companies have opened huge offices there - India in particular.

But many western companies companies still prefer to hire remote devs in Europe than in Asia, because of cultural affinities, time-zones, regulations etc.

Latin America has also become a popular option for offshore teams and skilled developers there also get relatively good wages nowadays.

This to say that getting 1500-3000 euros in gross salary working remotely as a Software Engineer is really not that hard if you more or less know what you are doing. And given that this would allow you to choose your taxation and cost of living, it means that as a developer you will never have to struggle financially.

2.4 Value coming from software will continue to be created

It’s not like software is going anywhere anytime soon.

Everything continues to get digitalised: healthcare, logistics, commerce, supply-chain, administration, education, etc.

This value will continue to fall into the main resources necessary to build software: servers/computing, third-party software, and engineers.

2.5 LLM/AI are not your enemies

AI will not take your job, it will just change it.

It will for sure have a substantial impact and you will for sure need to learn some new tools, but Software Engineers are optimally positioned to leverage these tools in the most lucrative way.

If you know how to build software, you also know how to use APIs from AI/LLM providers and, with it, create software products that solve business problems and make money. You’ll be best positioned to do this compared to other professionals.

3. Pep talk

There will still be a subset of people in Software Engineering who will suffer though.

This is the people that often fits the stereotype of the “arrogant geek”: people who think that Software Engineering is an art, and that everyone who can’t code is an idiot, that “management” is dumb, that product/project managers are idiots, that marketing and sales are useless, that doing LeetCode is dumb, that the economy sucks, inflation, Trump, Biden etc.

You get my point, I hope.

These people were given relatively easy money in the past despite their unpleasant attitude, almost nonexistent social skills and scarse understanding of markets, economies and business.

There were just not enough developers so they had no competition and they could act like prima donnas and have recruiters come beg into their DMs.

I think these people will struggle a lot in the coming years as the market has changed.

So I invite everyone of you to become more entrepreneurial and to develop a sense of agency: take ownership of your career, be diplomatic, don’t focus just on software but learn about different markets, companies, taxes etc.

If you do this, you won’t have any problem and I’m sure you’ll do great in your career as a Software Engineer while enjoying your life!

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