I'm finishing an associate degree in Web Development and have started wondering whether I should pursue a different career. I don't dislike programming, the learning curve, or the problem-solving. In fact, I recently realized that I genuinely enjoy building projects, working through difficult problems, and seeing what I can create.
What's discouraging me is the job market. Applying for internships feels like competing against thousands of candidates with bachelor's and master's degrees, only to receive a rejection almost immediately. I worry that discovering programming later in life has put me permanently behind, and that my chances of getting an internship or eventually finding a development job are extremely small.
I've also considered data analytics and data engineering because I know Python, Excel, and SQL, but I don't enjoy spending my days working with spreadsheets or building dashboards. I've tried making several dashboards, and even though the work wasn't necessarily difficult, I found it completely uninteresting.
I'm now close to considering starting a business just to create a job for myself, although I have no idea whether it would make money. Should I continue pursuing web development, transfer into a bachelor's program, or seriously consider another career?
4 Answers
An associate degree can make the first job search harder, especially in the current junior market, but it doesn’t make the degree useless. Talk with your academic and career advisers about transferring to a four-year program and maximizing your transferable credits. You may be able to finish a bachelor’s more cheaply than someone starting at a university, while also improving your access to internships and campus recruiting.
If you want a backup plan, consider fields where your technical skills connect to physical systems, such as industrial automation, embedded systems, robotics, manufacturing technology, or engineering support. Trades and technical roles involving equipment can be less exposed to the oversupply of junior web developers. You don’t need to abandon programming immediately, but it may be worth exploring options that involve more tangible, real-world work than dashboards.
The entry-level programming market is unusually difficult right now, and web development is especially crowded. Candidates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees are also struggling, so the problem isn’t necessarily your ability. Keep building projects, but apply broadly and make your portfolio demonstrate useful outcomes rather than just technologies. Smaller companies, nonprofits, contract work, and internal tools can sometimes be more accessible than large companies’ internship pipelines.
Try getting practical experience before giving up. Look for a local nonprofit, animal shelter, community group, or small business with an outdated website and offer to help improve it. Even one real project can give you something stronger than another tutorial project: a live site, a client reference, and experience dealing with requirements and revisions. You don’t have to beat every degree holder on paper if your portfolio shows that you can actually deliver.
I did something similar for a small shelter and built them a replacement site over a few weekends. It gave me a live project and a reference letter, which was much more useful than having only practice projects to show.
Unfortunately, continuing toward a bachelor’s may be the most practical route. Associate programs can be a good stepping stone, but many employers still use a bachelor’s degree as an initial filter.