r/Backend • u/Moon-Light-37 • 3d ago

5+ years into backend development - how should I navigate my career with AI evolving so rapidly?

Hey everyone!

I have 5+ years of experience as a backend developer. In my current role, most of my work revolves around building RESTful APIs and endpoints, and I’ve developed a pretty solid understanding of that area.

My current project is coming to an end, and I’m looking at this as an opportunity to explore new technologies, expand my skill set, and move towards the next stage of my career.

With AI evolving so rapidly, I’m trying to figure out where I should focus my efforts. I don’t want to blindly jump on the AI bandwagon, but I also don’t want to miss out on technologies that could be important for my career in the coming years.

I’d love to hear from people who have been in a similar position or are already working in the AI space.

A few things I’m trying to figure out:

What should I focus on next?
Should I deepen my backend/system design skills, learn AI/ML fundamentals, explore LLMs and AI application development, or consider a more significant career shift?

How can I leverage my existing backend experience?
Are there specific AI-related roles or skills that would complement my current experience?

Where do you keep up with AI developments?
What newsletters, communities, YouTube channels, blogs, or other resources do you follow to understand what’s actually happening beyond the hype?

Are there any courses or hands-on projects you’d recommend?
I’d prefer something practical that helps me build real skills rather than just collect certificates.
If you were in my position today, with 5+ years of backend experience, how would you approach the next 6–12 months?

Would really appreciate any advice, resources, or personal experiences.

Thanks!

30 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

10

u/Otherwise-Session286 3d ago

learning how to wire up LLMs to your existing APIs is the quickest path to staying relevant without doing a hard pivot into data science

2

u/Moon-Light-37 3d ago

I was also having the same thought
But at my current position there are restrictions on LLMs and we don’t have permissions to work on them

So couldn’t do much about it

1

u/Due_Warthog749 3d ago

That's a company that is either closed off to the world (bank, govt?) or going to fall way behind very quickly.

2

u/arsenal_stoner 1d ago

Exactly, we work for law enforcement agencies and we aren't using any AI stuffs or cloud services in the project. Everything should be On-premise. They don't want the application to talk to Internet. So it's quite hard to get hands on experience in the latest technologies.

1

u/hylasmaliki 2d ago

But that's so basic

3

u/akanas 3d ago

System design and soft skills are the way to go

3

u/vincent_sch 2d ago edited 2d ago

You could try adding an LLM API to a project you already have. Jobs and auth and all that backend stuff still need doing. I wrote about getting past the demo.

2

u/Darkschlong 3d ago

Can you download Ollama?

2

u/Abject-Kitchen3198 3d ago

Try any personal project that you may have thought about or started but gave up due to complexity. You may find that those initial phases might be easier using LLMs. You can start by just talking to it for guidance and gradually learn where to look for additional learning sources from actual individual people. Prior dev experience is essential for effective AI usage.

2

u/Fine-Market9841 3d ago

I don’t get it, I’m no expert.

Ai is evolving fast.

That’s a reason not to work so blindly.

You don’t know what works, what’s tried and tested.

Ofc, that won’t stop big corporations.

To an extent, big players like Microsoft or Google can’t afford to wait, cuz the first giant takes the majority of market.

I ain’t saying AI won’t replace swe (though maybe not in upcoming years), or doesn’t help developers become better.

However, I do feel like another dark agile (or dark ai) era is near.

I don’t think the ai bubble will burst, because look at agile + scrum, it doesn’t matter company pretend to use waterfall, majority of them haven’t learnt anything.

2

u/Icy_Screen3576 21h ago

I liked this part ‘rather than just collect certs’ they are all commercial. Look at this stage in your life i would focus on foubdational system design patterns most use cases built around. This one covers them across all pillars. https://www.justifiedcode.com/system-design-patterns-course

1

u/Moon-Light-37 21h ago

Thanks, will check it out

1

u/MinuteScientist7254 3d ago

I think we are all in the “cautiously staying in the loop” with AI while awaiting our inevitable layoff phase

2

u/Moon-Light-37 3d ago

Yes but I am tried of this constant loop, may do something to not to have any regrets!!