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Ask HN: Is it worth learning web development now?

18 points by jamilv ↗ HN
I was researching and planning on jumping into a dev bootcamp in the coming months. Actually its a back to back bootcamp, one for rails and one that teaches Node and mobile.

I am wondering if it's worth it to invest the time and money to become a good developer at this stage in the game?

My main concerns are A) if there really is a shortage that could use filling and B) when I have honed my skills a solid base (around 1 year in), would there really be a job for me?

I would love to hear your opinion!

For reference I am 25, my background is in IT and I am currently at a senior management level in a marketing function.

12 comments

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ISeemToBeAVerb
Why wouldn't there be a place for you? Web technologies are only going to increase in importance. If you're worried about competition, you'll need to get over that. Fear of competition comes from a scarcity mindset. Instead of focusing on what other people are doing (the competition), choose to focus on increasing your own skills and value. If you do that, you'll naturally surpass those people who choose to become complacent and put in the bare minimum. You have a marketing background, so that helps a great deal. There's no shortage of talented developers, but there are a shortage of talented developers who know how to market themselves and present their ideas and value to clients. If you're skilled at what you do AND you know how to market and sell that value to clients, the sky's the limit for you.
jamilv
It's not so much competition, but I have heard a lot recently about there being a web dev bubble of sorts. Especially with me being 1 year out from being a solid junior dev I just wanted to get the take of those in the field already.

I REALLY appreciate the input!

cjbprime
My sense is that there's a salary bubble, but not a job bubble. I think it would make sense to expect average webdev salaries in a few years to be lower than today's. Still seems to me like it's a good time to start learning, though!
rchenmit
there might be an abundance of CS majors these days, but its been argued that there still is a lack of quality CS majors (http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2014/01/08/are-there-too-m...). so if you can do the dev bootcamp and become a super hacker, then its worth it.

on another note, McKinsey predicts there will be a shortage of data scientists in the upcoming years, of 140-190K. (http://www.mckinsey.com/features/big_data). If you are good at math/statistics and are willing to learn how to code, data science boot camps may be something to consider (see below). Right now a lot of data scientists are people with PhD's but this likely won't be the case in a few years. My guess is data science bootcamps will start sprouting all over the place very soon (perhaps its lagging the dev bootcamp wave by 2-3 years..)

http://www.thisismetis.com/data-science http://www.thedataincubator.com

jamilv
That sounds cool!

I'm not sure I am good enough at math and statistics but I will take a look. It sounds super interesting because I know big data and data analysis is a MASSIVE industry that is on its way up.

joeclark77
This is a good point, and I would add, marketing is one area where there's a huge need for data science, business intelligence, analytics, data visualization, etc. You might specialize in using web technologies like d3.js in building analytic dashboards for marketers, or focus on A/B testing, SEO, and other areas that require an overlap of marketing knowledge and web techniques.
jamilv
Funny enough my idea is to spend my web project time building a marketing focused application. Any type of marketing analytics or marketing automation tools are quite expensive so I thought it would be cool to be able to make some simple automations myself later on.
CyberFonic
So you want to take a pay cut ???? Why ? Senior Marketing Management is a pretty good gig!
jamilv
I find it's not very flexible. The only jobs I seem to be able to get are in corporates and they pay alright (always below market though), but they grind the crap out of you and usually treat you like crap until your CMO level. Even then its probably not majorly different. I kind of feel 90 hour work weeks are better dedicated to development.

Also not too many openings at the moment to move into. I think of the bootcamp at least as a good opportunity to learn a new skill since I made a major move and quit my job anyways. So worst comes to worst I can go back to the marketing jobs but this time with a new skill.

S4M
I think it can always be useful to make a basic website. You can use it to prototype any idea you have, at work or during your free time, and see if you like doing that and want to keep improving your web dev skills.
webmaven
Yes, it is. The market is going to continue to grow (although it is possible that the field will continue to split into more specialized subfields than 'front-end' and 'back-end'), some of which may eventually have little connection to the 'web' as we still know it (possible example: 'devops').