Ask HN: Is web development still a viable career choice?

lol, it takes YEARS to be a good developer. It depends of where you live and what are your expenses and local job market among many other things.

But if you thing 6 months is a lot, maybe this is not the thing for you.

It is entirely possible to dislike React for being React, rather than for the fact that it's not minimalism. I have to work with React, and it's a constant source of pain for me.

If you're advocating for traditional server-rendered websites (perhaps with very small bits of interactivity via JS), then you're #3: A backend developer.

If you're suggesting building a complex client-side app, just without a framework, then I reckon that this is just a variant of #1. But you'd better be a very experienced developer, or your code is going to be a complete mess. This isn't really a viable path for a new developer just starting out.

What you're missing is three fold...

1: Where do people hire freelancers.

2: Sales skills.

3: An alternative to worrying about 1 and 2.

1. Create a profile and Upwork. While everything you'll read about Upwork will be negative you need leads. Upwork gets them for you and yes you can create your own website and start there but Upwork already spends a ton of money on ads / SEO and content marketing to keep generating leads. Take advantage of it.

2. Learing how to sale is critical for everyone, especially web designers and developers. Go down the YouTube rabbit hole and got to Amazon and search for sales books. There are a million ways to sale things so read the first chapter of each book and read reviews until you find something that sounds like you can feel comfortable using with clients.

I recommend Jonathanstark.com, Doubleyourfreelancing.com and read How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients

3. Alternatively you can skip the above and do one of the following. Subcontract with a marketing agency that needs to hire a developer. Find them using Google and could email them. Tell them you will lower your rate since they're getting the clients and that you don't like sales.

Finally you can hire a sales person on 100% commission to find clients in need of web development and if they ever find a client that doesn't match your skill set outsource the work using your same Upwork account. Upwork allows you to not only freelance but to hire as well.

The sales person should get 50% of the project costs upfront to start and upon delivery the client would pay 50% when completely satisfied.

Pay the sales person 20% to 30% of the project or agree on a fixed fee. They don't get paid if they don't find a project for you so make sure and hire many salespeople.

Finally if you're smart (which you seem to be) don't worry about knowing everything before you jump in. I've been freelancing since 2004 and run into new technology I have zero clue about. Howler I simply read the documentation or watch videos and boom new knowledge.

Start now and be confident in yourself!