When you hear the term Developer, it's easy to assume that daily coding is a given. But in today’s tech industry, many developer roles require surprisingly little coding. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just because of artificial intelligence (AI).
Let's head back into history a bit: in the 90s programming in C or Pascal was the norm. However, developing some products from scratch required mundane work and lots of time. That's why high level programming languages appeared. At the expense of more resources used, C# and Java gave developers the opportunity of achieving more. That's how SaaS emerged, with complex software that consolidate the web foundations as we know it today.
Someone once told me that for sure me as a Software Engineer I see everyday only binary 0 and 1. I answered him that very rarely! In fact if I see something more "codified" it's probably a HEX number. The truth is that very rarely you may work as a Developer on a project which runs only on a client machine. In an interconnected world, applications heavily rely on network connections to sync with the cloud, perform updates and so on.
The market demands are so high, that tech giants now leverage micro-services which serve a single purpose and are highly scalable. Monolith architecture is super outdated. You can read more about monolithic architecture here.
By the end of 2020s, all reputable companies migrated their apps to be part of a micro-service architecture. In conjunction with cloud, lots of services are leveraged out of the box, including:
All of these involve abstracting lower layers into higher end solutions which don't require heavy coding. You never reinvent the well in IT! If you need to calculate some integral function, you use already developed packages, you don't create from scratch your own function.
What this means in the end is that a Software Engineer will focus more on problem-solving, bringing pieces of puzzle together and user experience. That's why chances of seeing 0 and 1 are basically zero 😊.
We also face today a strong emphasis on soft skills. A developer simply is not a rock star hero pushing code and be praised like a king. We are part of a team which has a great sense of purpose and is aligned with the customer needs and company policy.
Developers tend to be introverts by nature so I recommend you to check this article to find out more.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has certainly reached a level where it's quite reliable today. You should take with a grain of salt the output it produces, but still it's amazing how helpful it can be! Let me give you some examples from my recent development work:
It’s a myth that AI is the main reason developers are coding less. The truth is, technology has matured to the point where building software no longer means writing every line of code manually. And as the industry evolves, so too does the definition of what a developer actually does.
If you’re considering a career in tech but don’t love coding, don’t worry: there’s still room for you in the developer world!