Is Web development oversaturated

#webdev #programming #productivity #learning

I signed up for various freelance websites and what I realized is web development is extremely over-saturated, some jobs would get posted and literally 1 minute later 35 Indian proposals with the minimum price from people who barely speak English and didn't even read the job description I couldn't even get a job because by the time I finished reading the job requirements which takes like 3 minutes the number of proposals is over 50.

I read a few comments on reddit about how a ton of people are getting into CS, mass immigration from countries where everyone is into CS (like India) made the market for some programming fields oversaturated and derived the salaries low.

NOW to my question that I made the post for, what other field should I start getting into? my goal is to maximize as much money as I can get I know I need to have passion and all of that, but I looked into most programming fields and I really enjoy most of them, should I switch fields?

also to clear things up, I'm just a student I don't know much unlike most of you here do it would be great to get input from more knowledgeable people, I have nothing against Indian I'm just stating an observation, the NICEST people I met online were Indian, I have nothing against immigration I'm an immigrant myself, I'm just stating observations from things I saw and online and irl.

Top comments (5)

Kevin • Aug 5

Several things to unpack here:

Yes, there are a lot of entry-level devs in the space that operate as a one-man/woman show. These folks can likely get the job done for small businesses that are going from having no online presence to having a simple landing page. If these are the types of jobs you are looking to fulfil, then you're kinda out of luck in a practical or realistic sense.
Apart from creating SPAs for the local deli, web developers are also employed by much larger corporations to do much more. Is it a competitive space? Most definitely. But is it as bad as it seems? That really depends on where you're located, but for the most part, hardly the doom and gloom that is oft presented.
This leans a bit closer to "life advice", but I don't know you personally, so please take it with a massive grain of salt: Reddit is not a place where you want to be taking the things you read seriously. Of course, this varies between the subreddits. But ultimately, you have absolutely no idea where these folks are located, what their background is, what their beliefs are, what inherent biases and agendas they may hold, etc. Doomposting (and by extension, shitposting) draws engagement, and believe it or not, there are folks out there who genuinely derive some of their self-worth from upvotes and comments. No judgment to them on my part, just want you to be wary of the content that you consume and/or internalise.
To round it off, it is great that you're curious and looking out for your own future. That said, I think it will be wise for you to reach out to and engage in two-way conversations with folks who you feel you can trust, as opposed to the one-way consumption of content online. Discuss with people in the comments here on DEV community, reach out to people you respect on LinkedIn, look out and sign up for local meet-ups or sharings.

Most importantly of all: Stay curious always, and don't let random strangers on the interwebs sit in the driver's seat of your life. You got this 🙂

Syakir • Aug 5 • Edited

As a webdev myself. Yes, Webdev is oversaturated, especially front-end. Programming jobs in general also declining due to tech winter. Some research articles i read say it predicted to end in 2025. But who knows. I believe it will be a lot more programming jobs in the future after this tech winter.

If you enjoy programming, Keep learning and building stuffs. But in different stacks. Currently, the trend is on everything related to AI. So the best bet if you learn new thing probably related to AI, like machine/deep learning.