Hi everyone,

I would really appreciate some honest and realistic opinions from people already working in the industry.

I’m 44 years old, currently working full-time outside tech, and for the last year I’ve been learning JavaScript and React very consistently before work every morning. Recently I started focusing more on:

data flow

selectors/helpers

React architecture thinking

TypeScript fundamentals

API/async flow

clean Git workflow

I’m not trying to become a “10x AI startup engineer”. My goal is much simpler:

to become a practical frontend/product developer and eventually get a stable hybrid/on-site role in Poland or possibly the UK.

The reason I’m asking is because online discussions are extremely confusing right now:

“React is dying”

“Next.js is mandatory”

“AI will replace juniors”

“Frontend is oversaturated”

layoffs everywhere

At the same time, companies still seem to build products and hire developers.

So I’d really appreciate honest answers from people actually working in software…