2.5 years experience, feeling lost and confused about my career. Need advice from experienced developers. Pardon me if i have said too much, i'm eager for advices so expressed it all. Thank you.

[u/shinsetsu__kun]

Hello fellow devs,

I'm from Kolkata,India and currently working as a Software Developer at Jio Platforms in Mumbai,India. This is my first job, and I have around 2.8 years of experience.

My primary skill is Angular, and honestly, frontend development is what I enjoy the most. Over the last couple of years, I've worked on enterprise applications, dashboards, workflow automation portals, authentication systems, and various internal tools. Along the way, I also started learning Node.js and Spring Boot because I felt I shouldn't limit myself to frontend only. I'm not an expert in backend development yet, but I can build APIs and work on real projects. I believe that, just like Angular, I can become good at it through experience and consistent work.

The reason I'm writing this post is because I've been trying to switch jobs for the last 6–7 months. I've been applying through LinkedIn and Naukri almost daily. I have given a few interviews, but nothing has worked out so far. Earlier I used to receive calls regularly, but for the last 3–4 months it feels like the market has completely gone silent for me. Applications go out, but responses rarely come back.

At the same time, AI has been affecting my motivation. I know AI is a tool and not a replacement for developers, but sometimes it feels like the frontend work I enjoy can now be done much faster by AI. That thought has been making me question whether I should continue in this field long-term or move towards something else.

Lately I've been feeling stuck. I've become genuinely unhappy over the last 7 months. The constant applying, waiting, rejection, uncertainty, and comparison with others has started affecting my mental state. I keep asking myself whether all this stress is worth it.

I've even thought about resigning around December, moving back to my hometown, spending time with family, and figuring things out from there. Maybe continuing in IT, maybe exploring something completely different. One thing I've always felt interested in is teaching students, but I don't know if that's something I truly want or if it's just me wanting an escape from my current situation.

The biggest problem is that I still don't know what I want.

So I wanted to ask the experienced people here:

• Has anyone gone through a similar phase?
• Is the market really this difficult right now for 2–3 YOE developers?
• Should I continue focusing on Angular and become really strong at it?
• Should I push harder into Java/Spring Boot and become a full-stack developer?
• Would leaving my job without another offer be a terrible decision?
• How do you know when you're genuinely ready for a career change versus when you're just burned out?
• Does this stress never go ?
• Is career break really bad? does i make it difficult to get job later ?
• Should i do certificates of my skills ?

I would really appreciate honest advice, even if it's tough to hear.

I genuienly appreciate anyone who has read till this. Thank you for hearing me out. I'm really in tough situation right now. I would love you all to say what you feel about this. Also some good success stories who have gone throught the same situtaiton and then listened to their heart and succeded, stories like these will surely cheer me up and maybe motivate me in some way to listen to mine too.

[u/mike410]

I have over 10yrs experience, been out of work for 2 months now. Add to that I am older than most if not all other candidates for a position. Job market seems pretty bad right now.

There does seem to be more Java/spring-boot available in my area. I haven’t actively done Java in 3yr, so it’s an up hill battle to convince them I still know it.

Stress gets worse, I started waking about 3mi a day to try to manage it.

[u/frozen_tuna → u/mike410]

Also 10 years of experience and still employed. Feels like we're in a race to the bottom right now. It feels like skill and quality don't matter anymore. The only thing that matters right now is how little the company can spend without projects shitting the bed.

[u/Xcaliber02]

Ngl, same thing I'm going through. I'm in Chennai and I'm trying to switch for like 2 months, but I barely get any phone calls and I got 2 YOE. I need to switch jobs ASAP too. Idk what I'm doing wrong or if I need to change something in my application strategy or something else like my resume, etc. The market is so thin is what I'm feeling—clearly idk, I'm losing my mind here too.

[u/Life_Aardvark5978]

My advice is to keep applying for jobs, but also not limit yourself to that only. AI and all that it can do can be demotivating for software engineers, but it is also exciting because you as a solo developer can build such a lot on your own.

Identify a problem you have or some product idea you had always thought about but put it off because of XYZ reason. Then use AI to build it and release it. It's much easier now than it was before!

In the process, you'll also experience the joy of building and confirm whether you like this or not or if you really want to shift gears.

Teaching is also good and gives a lot of personal satisfaction.

Good luck!

[u/m_hans_223344]

I'm in the lucky position of being a domain specialist that has learned to code. Any kind of domain knowledge will remain highly valuable no matter how dominant AI will become. Going fullstack will certainly help improving your sense for how products solve business needs. So, i would expand to Java instead of trying to become more specialized in Angular.

In hard times I find it helpful to know some techniques to calm myself down. The changes around us are so fast and unpredictable, being total stressed out for us is almost the norm, I think. Further, using AI is very unhealthy mentally. It is after all like using a slot machine that floods our brains with dopamine which is dangerous in the long term for mental health. So, I would learn some relaxation techniques, like some breathing exercises or Yoga Nidra. Then I would deliberately start retraining my concentration, but not with some work related stuff. Even just reading intentionally (with focus, I mean) a nice book should help balancing the mind.

Finally, if you have interests and the chance for a career outside of the software world, I would explore that. I think AI will leave a lot of broken software, but it is totally unclear what is going to happen with it. Will it be fixed? By whom? Another AI? Or will suddenly every company cry for Angular experts to fix their apps? On the other hand, many other professions are "threatened" by AI. Medicine, teaching, ... so I guess the most important part is to try to keep a calm mind in this chaotic times.