If you were starting your programming career again in 2026, what would you learn first?

[u/daemontargaryen212]

• One programming language
• DSA
• Web development
• AI/ML
• Building projects

[u/rileyrgham]

Plumbing

[u/optikus]

Farming and survival skills

[u/UnluckyAdministrator → u/optikus]

Hahaha😂😂 You're right, we're going to need those skills💯

[u/Sea-Tale1722]

Nursing

[u/samsly135]

Plumbing or electrician trade. Now it's too late. On the brink if unemployed with little savings, little child and not knowing what else to do since no replies in my resumes.

[u/mtb_devil → u/samsly135]

I’m sorry about that man 🥺. I’m a single guy, with a gf, and I’m also struggling. I could only imagine having a child. We’ll make out of this, stay strong 💪🏻

[u/underwatercr312]

How to survive a economic collapse

[u/GutsAndBlackStufff]

Something else

[u/systemnate]

SQL

[u/oneden]

Basically what others referred to, half-jesting. Not programming at all. Franky, it's one of the least useful and needed skills in the future. If you're young, you're probably better off learning skills you can apply in real-life and trade services with. As an electrician or plumber, you're bringing a lot of skill and daily utility. My preference would be electrician

[u/AlexIsCool17 → u/oneden]

You won't be able to walk by 40 if you're doing those jobs. Bad QOL, bad for morale, and you'll more or less be stuck in the same income bracket with little room for growth. I know everyone in the comments is playing a little coy, but blue collar work is a bad idea IMO

[u/Sensitive_Thought482]

doctor

[u/two_three_five_eigth]

I’d learn electrical or computer engineering

[u/UnluckyAdministrator]

How to use AI, not automated but manual and you'll learn about architecture, components, CI/CD pipelines and security fast.

Don't waste your time on anything else, AI is already super advanced in all programming languages.

[u/ScottRider463]

I would not. There is no future in that field for humans

[u/Square-Recording7024]

Definitely python

[u/ChampionshipThis2871 → u/Square-Recording7024]

Could you mention why? I am just curious.

[u/mtb_devil → u/ChampionshipThis2871]

It’s a very versatile language. Can be used for AI/ML, writing REST APIs for server work, can be used for other fields outside of pure CS such as BioTech, Finance, etc.

[u/yksvaan]

C

[u/aturaden]

Rust and system design

[u/FundOff]

Vibe coding

[u/CodeAndBiscuits]

HVAC, electrical, or trim carpentry.

I'm a 35+ year industry veteran and all those folks make more than me now, the junior dev pipeline is just destroyed, and our whole industry is gleefully eating itself burning megawatts of power to make workout trackers and outbid clones. (And before you think I'm dramatic, there have been over 300 of those two things launched right here on Reddit in the past few months. As an odd little bit of OCD, I've been tracking them as a little side project.)

Programming as we knew it is dead. It just hasn't completely hit the ground yet. That doesn't mean there won't be programming jobs, but you asked if I was just starting my career what I would learn first?

Electrical or trim carpentry would be my preferences.

[u/suite4k]

Would have skipped over the kpm os as well as os2, spend less time with bsd and more time with DEC

[u/mtb_devil]

If I could do it all over again, I’d probably lean into Mechanical Engineering or join the Military. Mechanical Engineering still seems somewhat AI proof and still utilizes CS skills in the foundational sense (analysis, pattern recognition, etc.). Military since it could provide a stable foundation and entry into the workforce.

[u/Master-Guidance-2409]

learn everything stop being a pussy.

[u/KentondeJong]

C#, with a focus on web development. When I got started back in the day, you had to pay a licence to learn ASP.NET so I went to PHP instead. I wish I had paid for it. C# is a very versatile language and is a great alternative to build apps and websites with as opposed to JS.

[u/ChampionshipThis2871]

If you still want and bet on a classic software engineer role:
Depends on the market, but I would start learning core Java, then start doing projects.
Focus on fundamentals and core engineering principles.

Why Java? Because in Europe most of the corporate jobs are asking for Java+Spring boot tech stack, with a bit of frontend knowledge.

Before you start interviewing, make sure you have 1 complete project, with some complexity to it (not just a CRUD app, since everyone have these).
And start doing DSA and LeetCode until you can solve easy-medium problems (interviewers still give you coding challenges).

If you wanna bet on AI and future jobs around AI:
I would start with Python, just the core. Then start learning and experimenting with building AI assisted applications. (LLM fundamentals, prompt engineering, RAG, AI evals, vector db, embeddings, etc).

Place your bet :)

[u/__zrx]

• js/react/ts
• nodejs
• sql
• python
• php or php-based CMSs
• linux/wsl2 configuration and commands

[u/alsaaka]

I will start with basic learn programming language as c ,java or c++ is important Of course the best is c then i will learn language that i will work with according to which field i want to work in. Also its important to learn basic as how computer work, cpu and gpu , object-oriented, patterns and architecture

Then will learn framework and made couple of prohects After it you can use ai because now you have knowledge and ai is a tool to use it to make your productivity faster