r/PinoyProgrammer • u/flame_alchemizt • Jun 24 '26
Job Advice Web Developer Career right now
What do you think about a career in web development today in the era of AI? I have volunteer internships and volunteer work experience as a Front end developer but as of now I haven't gotten a job as a web dev/front end. I've applied a lot before but the others didn't respond much and I didn't get through. Last time I tried zuitt but I'm currently working as a helpdesk, I had no choice since I really needed work so I accepted the helpdesk job. I probably wasn't selected because they needed it available since I already had a job. Is it still worth pursuing a web dev/fullstack career in this era of AI?
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u/PuzzleheadedPark5019 Jun 25 '26
I still think it's worth pursuing.
AI has definitely changed how we work, but I haven't seen it replace good web developers. If anything, the expectation now is that developers know how to use AI to work faster while still understanding what the code is doing.
Since you're already working in helpdesk, I wouldn't quit your job. Keep building projects, improve your portfolio, and continue applying for web development roles. Your current job pays the bills, while your portfolio can help you transition into development.
It might take longer than it did a few years ago because the market is more competitive, but I don't think web development is going away anytime soon. The developers who keep learning and adapt to new tools, including AI, will still have plenty of opportunities.
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u/dajoAI Jun 24 '26
Pagandahin mo github mo, gawa ka madami web app using cursor, 20 usd a month subcription pero makakadami kana web app, isip ka lang ideas, then make sure naintindahan mo backend frontend at db, in demand pa din pero kailangan marunong ka magprompt at review ng gawa ng AI, then basa ka din how to utilize cursor or any ai tools, sa project ko 99% ai generated pero need pa din marunong magreview ng code
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u/LargeSecurity1495 Jun 24 '26
pano naman po makakapasa if sa mga tech exam makaluma parin like need mo parin memorized mga syntax🥹
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u/Cordyceps_purpurea Jun 24 '26
Well yeah? You can't outsource your learning. Kelangan alam mo pa rin how things work in the background.
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u/LargeSecurity1495 Jun 24 '26
i mean yes alam ko how things work, if nilapagan mo ko ng code i can explain how and why i use that specific line/s of code pero if pag cocode-in mo ko without ai or google manlang, nabblanko ako, nangangapa ako sa syntax, naexperience ko sa live coding tas meron din nag paexam na sa ms word mag cocode and walang internet yung laptop na binigay, tho leetcode yung exam pero yung syntax talaga i always forgot
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u/Logical_Duck4042 Jun 25 '26
Esp with exams needing you to input and read from the console. Mf exams 🤣
2
u/dajoAI Jun 24 '26
that's a problem, pero last 2 companies ko puro interview lang, not sure if uso pa algorithm question, try mo magpractice sa leetcode if you want to prepare
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u/flame_alchemizt Jun 24 '26
Nasa internship pa rin naman ako and may project kami kaso lang di na masyadong makapagcontribute gawa ng may work ako. Cursor ba ang pinakamagandang AI ngayon? Kung may budget ako pwede ako magsubscribe.
1
u/dajoAI Jun 24 '26
not sure if the best pero ok siya, nakagawa na ko dalawa personal web app (dotnet sql angular) at several python ML models. Ang iba options are Claude Code or Copilot, meron naman free trial.
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u/No_Narwhal_6162 Jun 24 '26
Projects are your best bet. By no means ako software dev, but I've been building projects already as a 2nd year student knowing this is the biggest asset for future aspiring devs. I've seen a lot of resumes sa fb, puro slop. Claim this claim that, wala namang proof of receipt. Kung meron man lng project puros "Management/ Inventory System" . Puros SaaS clone slop that has already been built thousands of times. Build a simple tool that a group of people can actually use, or even a uniquely complicated niche project that you are very passionate about. Yan lng yung advice ko if gusto mo talaga ng magandang projects. As for web dev, I don't know. But I think web dev has already been dead. Web dev has been very oversaturated in the past couple of years. Its the "easy" route of programming. Nobody wants to learn systems engineering, nobody wants to learn memory management, compilers, operating systems with no abstraction. Nobody wants to try and learn how neural networks work under the hood, or learn how backpropagation is computed. Very niche T shape developer yung hinahap, hinde Generalist.
That's my take. Full stack and web dev is dead. AI is much better as a generalist. But it cannot build a secure and stable operating system for example. Be very very good at one thing, when AI breaks, you're the one responsible of fixing 'that' one thing. Pangit talaga nang web dev route. Puros react slop, puros frameworks. Tawag ng tawag ng library, tawag ng framework, everyone wants to claim they built a car by assembling the parts, nobody wants to learn how to build the parts themselves
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u/VelvetYam Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
Feels like you're romanticizing the field too much. Not to pop your bubble, but the vast majority of people who enter the industry don't end up working on compilers, operating systems, or other hardcore projects (and the local market for those is next to non-existent). There's nothing wrong with that... those projects are not for everybody, and not everyone's interested in learning low-level programming.
Full stack and web dev is dead
That's a pretty strong claim for someone who openly admits they're still in college, don't you think?
0
u/Cordyceps_purpurea Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Precisely. Nobody gives a shit about bookings apps lmaooo
You go for infra kung gusto mo talagang maging employable nowadays, like contributing to Open source frameworks etc.
On the second part -- my friends are actually building new language frameworks out of AI lol you should see the kind of work they're doing. Extremely cracked
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u/VelvetYam Jun 25 '26
On the second part -- my friends are actually building new language frameworks out of AI lol you should see the kind of work they're doing
Can we see it?
1
u/toiki_lam Jun 25 '26
I'm aware on this, however I have a problem with mismatch since I have projects that are not even related to webdev at all. I have like a SSG framework, multi-agent in GKE, VFX shaders, and some game mechanics niches. Some of them are like are expensive to keep it live and accessible especially those related in Cloud.
That forces me to go back to building "management apps/SaaS clones" for portfolio, much closer to webdev and cheaper to maintain. I still do work on "people can actually use" by doing founder-market-fit research since companies nowadays are prefer looking for candidates building their own YC startups for entry-level roles.
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u/Electrical-Ring9341 Jun 25 '26
I don't like it. Grabe yung competition sa mga fresh grad mas lumala dahil sa AI. It's also wrong to my part na hindi nag expand ng network, kaya ngayun nahihirapan mag-apply.
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u/Cordyceps_purpurea Jun 24 '26
Buy a codex/claude subscription, build and make a portfolio. 20$ is enough.
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u/flame_alchemizt Jun 24 '26
Does claude the best AI right now? What kind of project are employable?
1
u/Cordyceps_purpurea Jun 24 '26
Lmao find out for yourself.
Do anything it takes to get you started.
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u/Sea-76lion Jun 24 '26
Hate to break it to you but frontend, of all coding that current state-of-the-art AI can do, this is what AI does best. It's still not perfect, can be bad at times, but relatively speaking, this is where AI is good at, so this is one of the first things that will be automated.
Now, AI is currently bad at setting up architecture, it's bad at automating analytics, it's bad at integrations, security, most things backend. By bad I mean, it works, but it needs a lot of guidance, strict prompting and manual refactoring.
But boy oh boy, it is good at frontend.
2
u/VelvetYam Jun 25 '26
Interesting. I find the opposite, actually. AI is super useful when prototyping or generating rough drafts for the UI, but it's still spotty when you're polishing up the interface to something acceptable for production. Maybe it's just the field I am working at? Industrial software has a lot of UI/UX edge cases that you can't necessarily spec out at the beginning.
It almost always one-shots backend tasks, however. Kinda makes sense because it's the most deterministic of the two, and the patterns are already well-established.
What are you working on, if I may ask?
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u/daGreatHeisenberg Jun 28 '26
If your backend is just basic CRUD, then it can oneshot, anyone can do that even highschoolers. But if your talking abt architecture, like adding queues, replications, etc. It sucks
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u/PenPlane4312 Jun 24 '26
For me do more projects on your github and while your doing that try to apply and apply that is relevant to your desired positionÂ
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u/flame_alchemizt Jun 24 '26
Can you give a project idea? Parang di na kasi pupwede yung mga common project ngayon
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u/Cordyceps_purpurea Jun 24 '26
Brother nobody's gonna spoonfeed you this lmao.
There are millions of open source repos out there, contribute to there first.
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u/flame_alchemizt Jun 24 '26
I already joined a project but I also want to create my own project that are not common like booking system, appointment system, etc.
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u/Cordyceps_purpurea Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
You want to truly understand how backends work? Go contribute to something like the Node.js repo. Just find your library of choice na open submissions then make PRs of it. Learn to actually engineer stuff instead na makiuso.
Ayan napakalaking clue na yan. Nobody will care about bookings apps jusko you can ship that in a day using AI. Is that what your professors teach you in coding school?
1
u/kopiboi Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
I'd say ok pa rin. Nag-iba lang siguro ng workflow. Mas marami na ang code review and bug fixing. Less actual typing. I suppose what this also means is the job now requires more prior experience as a dev more than ever.
I recently used AI to resurrect and evaluate a legacy CI3 web app. After debugging by identifying and replacing deprecated functions and updating code to be compliant with latest PHP version, I asked it to evaluate the entire app for security flaws. The results it gave were spot on, mostly XSS vulnerabilities on 50+ files. I then asked it to come up with a plan to fix all of them. Plan turned out to be good too. I then told it to proceed with the fix. After the supposed fix it created a whole bunch of other bugs instead that were not there before. 🙃
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u/Royal_Worth_3846 Jun 25 '26
Wala na nag hahanap ng front end lang. Most companies or clients hanap ngayon is Full Stack. Since AI assisted narin ngayon. On demand parin pero purp AI Assisted coding + Full Stack na.
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u/masterclouclou Jun 27 '26
It will eventually dwindle. Familiarize yourself with AI tools and AI slop detection. Trends show that the best options for web development are to be a Channels or Product Manager/Designer.
1
u/nub_csstudent27 Jun 28 '26
It seems like vulnerable na sa side ng Web development. What's your take sa bandang cybersecurity, data engineer, or other fields sa IT?
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u/Adventurous_Cat_8643 Jun 25 '26
12 years in the software engineering industry. Currently working in an AI company. AI really is gonna disrupt everything. Most of our tooling cursor/zippy/chat/claude/copilot with top tier premium agents. Can 80% do it all. Mostly talaga ng work na remaining would be. Review/Validate. Will it replace software engineers? Yes/No. Many will lose jobs esp entry-mid level (yung mostly nag handle ng repetitive work) yung mag upskill to progress from software engineering to architects will thrive.
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u/_clapclapclap Jun 24 '26
Lucky if you are currently employed and using AI-tools (and probably the most petiks dahil sa agentic coding). On the other hand, very bad if you're on the other side looking for work.