3 Career Traps That Nearly Ended My Dev Career
I'm going to share with you 3 career pitfalls which almost derailed my career as a developer and how you can avoid them.
When I got hired nearly 11 years ago, I knew much less than the average coding bootcamp grad and made too many embarrassing mistakes to count. I thought I'd be fired more than a few times (and I probably deserved to be). Through trial, error, grit and the patience of some really talented developers, I got better.
Unfortunately, I see a lot of early career developers and people learning to code making the same mistakes I did.
You don't need 11 years of coding to learn what I'm going to share with you here.
Fake it til you make it is not a career strategy.
Coding as a profession is so much more than writing code. Writing code is the obvious part.
Tech changes fast - your current tech stack won't prepare you for the future
Titles matter more than people admit
You'll be paid more for good judgment than whatever language you know
Public speaking will go from nice-to-have to required sooner than you think
I am a firm believer that anyone can learn the skills needed to avoid the pitfalls I'm going to lay out. Before learning to code, I was addicted to drugs and alcohol, had an awful stutter and was bald.
I'm still bald.
But I'm sober and stutter free for 11 years!
The tips I'm going to share won't keep you from losing your hair, but they may very well keep you from losing your career.
Let's dive in.
The framework developer trap
"When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
A framework developer is a programmer who can only be productive within their given framework.
Once you give him a problem that involves working one layer below the framework, like using vanilla JS for example, they crumble.
Bootcamps churn out a lot of these types.
I get it. Companies hire for React developers, not JavaScript developers.
The danger in becoming over-reliant on abstractions like React or Next is that once your role changes, the framework changes or you have to debug something that requires deeper knowledge - you can't.
This is why we're so big on fundamentals at Parsity and why our mentees have have gone on to work on full stack, backend, blockchain, cloud, mobile or data.
You can go years into this dead-end career path without feeling the pain. Next thing you know, you're laid off and have to interview or the company changes tech stacks and you're back to being a junior developer again.
The solution is simple but not easy:
Understand your primary programming language and how it works beyond a basic level of command.
Read a book or 2 on this language and its quirks.
Frameworks are just abstractions over the language. Look up the patterns Angular, Vue and ReactJS use and why. They're not magic, they just seem that way. If you don't understand the magic, peel back a layer or 2 by looking at the source code.
Look up design patterns. Maybe read a short book on the topic. (yes, books are still relevant)
The developer in a hoodie trap
"I don't like working with people."
Someone told me this on the phone when I was asked them why they wanted to be a developer.
I hate to break the news to you - but it's ALL about people.
I tried my best to hide in my coding hole for the first 3 years of my developer career.
It looked like this:
Never speaking in meetings
No opinion on the product
Only speaking with people in the eng department
No promotions
And then I got called out while working at a small start up by the CTO.
"Brian, we really need you to speak up during planning sessions. We're trying to build this app WITH you - not just tell you what to do."
That stung at the time.
The audacity!
Asking me, a shy developer, to speak up?!
Years later I'm so grateful he called me out that day.
My career had a dramatic acceleration when I started having an opinion. I was no longer the invisible developer - I was someone who was helping avoid problems early with good questions and shaping the direction of the team.
Raising my hand to share an opinion was never easy. My heart raced. My mouth got dry. I did it anyway.
Here's how:
I wrote down my questions on a piece of paper before the meeting starts so I could read it aloud easily.
I volunteered to lead one lunch and learn per quarter to force myself to present.
I recorded videos going over complex projects or features I had done to share them with the team in a public channel so people could understand the work.
I now learn how the companies where I work make money and then think - hmm - how can we make more? (turns out, companies love money)
The Hype-Driven-Development Trap
I bumped into a guy on the train I met ages ago who had been learning to code for years. I asked him how it was going.
"I switched from web dev to cloud and then tried out security but I think now I want to go all in on AI/ML since it's so hot right now!"
While you can’t JUST stick to the basics, if you chase every shiny new technology you will become a Swiss Army Knife developer. You can do a little of everything… poorly.
I wish I had told him that this manic route he was taking wouldn't pan out. But I just stood there and said "oh... cool."
Shame on me.
So I'll tell you what you should do instead:
Identify mega vs micro trends in software development.
Recent mega trends include LLMs, NextJS and RAG.
Micro trends might include MCP, edge computing and AI agents.
Use side projects to gain experience with technologies that make up mega trends and keep your skills relevant.
Gamble a bit with the micro trends. If you’re lucky, some of them will become mega trends and you’ll be first in line to take advantage.
Your time is limited. You simply can't learn it all. If you learn a few layers below the framework and programming language of your choice then you will have the necessary foundation to do many things. System design, coding principles and scalable architecture will never go out of style.
A side note for 2025
It's harder than ever to stick to the basics. AI marketing is good. I was nearly fooled into thinking AI might replace the need for solid fundamentals.
I now see after nearly a year working with these tools that having good judgment will be a super power going forward. The basics are MORE important when coding agents can write slop code at scale.
Let me take it a step further:
Most people telling you that coding is obsolete or that AI can do most of your job as a developer have no clue what they're talking about or don't code for a living.
As always, I hope you find what I write helpful.
I run an anti-coding-bootcamp where you won't write code for the first 8 weeks. Our unique program is customized to you. We only accept a few people per quarter. Apply here.