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I stayed 6 months away from my computer during my parental leave.
When I came back, I was in shock.
Claude Code and Codex had gotten seriously good.
Tasks that used to require talking to three people? I could now do them with a single prompt.
I'd invested years mastering VS Code, but now most of my time was in the terminal.
Here's what I've learned since coming back, and what I'd tell any dev feeling the same confusion.
Getting hired is harder. Being a junior dev is better.
Junior dev role openings have decreased. Getting hired is harder.
But not impossible: get referrals, network, and build real projects.
But for junior devs who are employed? This is an incredible time.
Why?
You can onboard 10x faster. Ask Claude or Codex to explain the codebase. Ask it again. And again. It never gets tired of your questions.
You can skip straight to architecture. Instead of spending weeks learning a library's API, let AI handle that. Focus on why systems are designed the way they are.
You can operate at mid-level speed. The gap between "junior" and "mid" just got smaller.
Soft skills are no longer optional
No one can predict the future of software engineering.
But coding won't be the main part of the job anymore. That much feels certain.
If you could get away with poor communication skills before because you were a strong IC, that's over. Communication, public speaking, writing clearly: these are the new hard skills.
If yours are weak, start improving them now. (You can even use AI tools to practice 😉)
The IC job as we knew it is gone
I loved being an IC.
Waking up, opening my IDE, shipping code all day.
No meetings. No coordination.
Just me and the problem.
That version of the job is gone.
We can no longer afford to be pure ICs. Even if you only focus on delivering features and never go into management, you'll be managing an army of AI agents instead of coding alone.
The question shifts from how to build it to what to build.
A small number of exceptional devs will remain pure ICs. For the rest of us, the role is evolving.
Everyone is becoming full-stack
Being a purely frontend or purely backend dev is a luxury of the past.
With AI tools, you can pick up backend tasks as a frontend dev and vice versa. You might prefer one side, but you can't wait for someone else to handle a simple task on the other side.
The walls between frontend and backend are thinning fast.
Senior devs are scared too
I hear junior devs say they're afraid of AI.
Senior devs are too. I know I was.
When I first discovered Claude Code, I was excited. Then scared. Then excited again. That emotional rollercoaster is completely normal.
Companies have been laying off teams to double down on AI. The fear is rational.
So I stopped being scared and started being curious. What can I build faster now? What problems were too tedious to solve before?
Fear doesn't ship code. Curiosity does.
Tech is still worth it
I hear people talking about leaving tech.
Maybe they're right for themselves. But I still think tech is an amazing field. You learn constantly, the pay is strong, you create real impact through what you build. And yes, you can dress casually 😅
If you love this work, stay. Don't let the noise push you out.
What I'd do as a junior dev right now
If I love being a dev:
Employed: I'd sharpen my communication skills, build side projects to stretch my abilities, and read foundational books (The Pragmatic Programmer, A Philosophy of Software Design). I'd use AI as a learning partner, not a crutch.
Unemployed: I'd build real projects with AI as my partner. I mean really building them, understanding every architectural decision. I'd also volunteer for real-world projects to get experience that stands out.
If I don't love being a dev:
I'd start looking for what I actually love.
Now.
You don't want to spend years pushing through something that doesn't excite you, only to get laid off and realise you lost time you could have spent on something meaningful.
The irony? The skills AI can't replace (communication, judgment, knowing what to build) are the ones we've been undervaluing for years.
If you're a dev reading this and feeling the heat, you're not behind. You're at the starting line of a different race.
That's a wrap.
If this resonated, share it with a dev friend who might need to hear it ❤️
💡AI TIP
Use the Claude /insights command to analyse and improve your workflow.
