As programmers, we live in a kaleidoscopic world of technology. We may also be among the first to feel the impact of technological change. But could there be a pattern in the wave of technological change coming our way that might better prepare us for the future? Let’s open our imagination and predict how the profession of programmer could change over the next 10 years.
Programmers will become more versatile
Many articles and works of art depict the future of programmers as too sci-fi or dramatic, but based on what we see and what is happening, one thing is clear: programmers will become more versatile. If you are an iOS programmer, you must be aware of the changes in the market in recent years, from the rush for iOS programmers to today’s so-called Internet winter, one of the reasons behind this is that there are countless training institutions in the market, like an assembly line to produce the most successful iOS developers. Similarly, for the designer community, more and more companies have moved away from a single UI design to a combination of front-end development capabilities.
The pace of change is so rapid that many programmers or designers complain about it, but the changes reflect the lowering of barriers to entry in all technology-related industries and the ongoing convergence of professional fields. With readily available learning resources and easy-to-use tools, future programmers will be equipped with more professional skills. They will be able to use two or three different programming languages to solve problems in different fields while mastering one programming language. They will also try to expand their skill stack to product, design, marketing, operations and other areas, and compound programmers will be welcomed by more enterprises. Having at least one compound programmer will become standard staffing for startups.
Programmers will be more diverse
It’s going to be a very interesting world in which more and more new fields will emerge, and traditional industries and areas of expertise will be increasingly segmented to meet people’s differentiated needs. In this process, programmers will undoubtedly become the main drivers of this change, and their careers will also take on the trend of diversification. Today, we can hear a lot of new words in the field of technology, such as: big data, machine learning, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, VR/AR, chain blocks, unmanned, Internet of things, and so on, the future will be to further study the domain and the development direction, its depth and complexity is to master a programming language can match. Past master a programming language can be loaded in the field of various industries and times are over, instead, the programmer will become more “monopoly”, they will be as early as possible to determine their own professional direction, and spend a lot of time and effort to become an expert in a particular aspect, they may no longer even be called a programmer, instead, some of the new name will appear, In the field of big data, for example, we refer to programmers who analyze data as data analysts or data scientists, but in other fields, there will be more new words used to refer to programmers.
The tool explosion has made programmers more productive
We’re in the midst of an explosion of tools, tools for development, design, and collaboration, but I’d say this is just the beginning. More and more great tools will be developed for niche purposes. These tools have become smarter by taking advantage of the power of hardware, and they can even take over many jobs that once had to be done by programmers. In the future, all good tools should be plug-in. Instead of using large and bulky software, programmers will install plug-ins to assemble the most suitable development environment according to their own needs. This will also make the creation process of programmers fun and efficient.
Cloud services accelerate innovation
The other big change comes from cloud services. We’ve compared cloud services to water and electricity in our daily lives, but it’s still programmers who can use them to create great products and services. Cloud services will can provide developers with a large number of plug-and-play components, the basis of making programmers no longer need to reinvent the wheel, to create such as data storage, image processing, data encryption and other basic services, and all will be open in the form of the API in the cloud, based on these basic services, product development and iterative speed will significantly speed up, While the cost is reduced due to on-demand cloud services, this will undoubtedly accelerate the pace of innovation, and it is believed that more and more excellent products and services will continue to be developed to improve all aspects of people’s lives.
The functions of the programmer are further expanded
Today, the Internet industry is undoubtedly the largest concentration of programmers, almost everything is created and driven by programmers. And in this Internet banner, Internet technologies such as cloud computing, big data and thinking are also rapidly permeate almost every industry, more and more far-sighted enterprises put forward by the IT drive strategic business development company, the IT department, is becoming more and more important in the traditional industry, they are no longer responsible for the information system maintenance support department, You need to really understand the business and drive innovation in the context of the Internet. Programmers as the cornerstone of IT departments, their functions will be further expanded during this period, they need to be able to closely combine industry thinking and program thinking together, through technical means to creatively solve the pain points of enterprises or industries. They may be project manager, requirements analyst, designer, developer, tester, and operations person throughout the life cycle of a product or system, and they need to be able to control the whole situation, not just the writing of the code.
Programmers are becoming more of a lifelong career
There was a time when being a programmer was considered a youth job, and many people lamented that they had failed at programming at the age of 30. However, as programmers are deeply combined with more and more industries, their value is recognized by more enterprises and even becomes irreplaceable. In terms of material and career development space, they will get more stable development, which also makes more people willing to take programmers as a lifelong industry. However, as they grow older, they may no longer be called programmers, and may be replaced by XX experts, XX scientists, TECHNICAL directors and so on. But they are not divorced from the essence of programmers. On the contrary, they will not throw away technology as easily as those management IT people did before. They are more focused and adept at programming to solve critical problems. They are both programmers, but also industry experts or managers beyond programmers.
Freelance programmers will emerge in abundance
In recent years, due to the significant increase in IT staffing costs in first-tier cities, more and more large enterprises are or plan to split their IT departments, set up specialized software service companies, and move their main development teams from first-tier cities to second-tier or even third-tier cities, which is essentially a form of IT outsourcing. More small and medium-sized enterprises, without their own RESEARCH and development departments and limited IT funds, have gradually accepted crowdsourcing to solve their internal IT problems. As apes regiment, code (Coding), pig eight quit IT crowdsourcing platform matures, and remote office conditions mature, the software development service will be more and more by the free programmer or development team to complete the group, the programmer’s employment market will gradually flow to the low wages overall lower-tier cities, where a large number of free programmers will appear, No longer constrained by geography, most will work from home.
Another change: The proportion of female programmers will be much higher. I know a lot of great female coders who are as good as any of the men on the team, and who always surprise the team with good advice from a female perspective, more emotional feature designs, etc. Freelance programmers can be a good career choice for women, who can work from home, better able to balance family and have the freedom to choose their work hours and workload according to the situation.
Programmers are more international
This year, I attended some technology conferences, such as Cloud Computing Conference, Architect Summit, etc., where I often saw foreign technical experts speaking in English, but they worked for domestic companies like Baidu, Alibaba, or Huawei. I’ve also worked with programmers from different countries like the US, Germany, India, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. Everyone can work well together on the same goal or interest regardless of geography or language.
At the same time, we are seeing more and more mainstream Internet companies willing to open source their core technologies and leverage the power of the open source community to promote the development of a technology. Today, in almost every technology area, we see two or three major open source technologies, and more and more domestic programmers are participating in these communities and becoming contributors to the technology. Programmers are becoming more international, and by working with good foreign programmers, they can become experts in a particular technical field, and through this international collaboration, it can help them build influence and gain more opportunities for excellence.
There are great programmers out there
There are certainly some great programmers in your mind, such as Linus, the father of Linux, James Gosling, the father of Java, etc. Their contributions to the field of software are obvious, but when it comes to human contributions, they may not be so obvious. That is likely to change in the future.
In ancient times, people could only create spears for hunting, but today, with the wisdom of people from all walks of life, we can create high-speed trains, large airplanes, and explore the universe. But getting closer to solving the problems that humanity faces may not be possible with the wisdom of a single group of smart people. The great programmers of the future may not be able to create a new programming language or a great software product, but to use their groundbreaking ideas to help mankind overcome world problems such as disease, energy and hunger with the help of technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. Imagine a day in the future when a Nobel Prize in a particular field might be awarded to both a biologist and a computer scientist for working together on diseases we can’t beat today.
Programming teaching changes the next generation
More and more foreign schools have taken programming as a compulsory course into the education system of middle school or even primary school. More and more parents in China are starting to let their children learn programming at an early age. Programming is not as simple as teaching a development language. It gives people a new way of thinking that, if mastered at a younger age, will make them better equipped for future work and life.
Similarly, in the field of professional teaching, we can also see that relevant subjects in universities will be set up in the form of multi-disciplinary intersections, which will be closer to the needs of practical work. The new generation of college students can choose to study two or any combination of UI design, programming, big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and other disciplines at the same time. More companies are also offering practical training such as boot camps to college students. More people who want to teach themselves how to code can do so through online videos, interactive learning platforms, and training courses. In short, you will see more and more people around us who have mastered programming in different ways.
Programmers what the future holds, in the short term, it will still be a popular career in all walks of life will need, but in the long term, as programmers this profession itself evolution of self and the amplification effect, included in the basic education in the future, we may never see in the traditional sense can only programmers write code, instead, everyone is a programmer, They use programming to solve problems, achieve goals, and create in their respective areas of focus.