Development and web design have emerged as two of the top career choices. By 2032,  229,000 web developers and digital interface designers are expected to be in the U.S.  

Unfortunately, the job market is expected to slow in the coming months. Experts predict that there will be an overall slowdown in early 2025, with companies expected to create half as many jobs by March 2025.  Plus, on average, there are only 16,500 job openings in the development and web design field per year.   

Job hopefuls must take some steps to stand out against the competition. There are several ways to future-proof your web design or development career.  

Find Your Industry  

It might seem like an easy decision, but it is important to find the sector that you thrive in. You can do this by:  

• Playing to your strengths. Do you excel at building omnichannel experiences or adapt to changing trends well? Then e-commerce might be for you. Are you passionate about building digital experiences that have the power to influence the next generation? Education could be a great fit. When you are working on your talents, it will give you a huge competitive advantage. Plus, you stifle your creativity when you grow bored with what you do.  
  

• Entering a resilient industry. Organizations in every industry will have their seasons of difficulties. However, five industries are more on the “recession-proof” side: e-commerce, healthcare, financial services, education and gaming. All five of these sectors have a higher probability of surviving disruptive events like AI job replacements, global lockdowns and recessions.  
  
• Making sure your time is a well-spent investment. Let’s be honest: some projects do not pay well enough for all the time and energy you pour into them. Unless you have produced a way to deliver digital products quickly, it might not be worth the trouble when you can be focused on higher-value tasks.  

Explore New Perspectives and Bring in Fresh Ideas  

To have a successful career, you do not necessarily need to have a background in one of the future-proof industries listed above. One of the best ways to set yourself up as a unique job candidate is to come to an interview with a fresh idea of how to shake things up.  

For example, say that you have a passion for developing digital experiences for newspapers. You can come into the interview with ideas on how to engage a digital audience in conjunction with print and offer other specialized skills and services that might benefit them such as website or app audits, SEO, security and performance optimization, QA and testing, and more. This showcases your versatility and highlights all of your skills.  

Have Better Collaboration with Your Developer/Designer Counterparts  

While developers and designers have different day-to-day responsibilities, both have the same end goal: to deliver seamless digital experiences for end users. To stand out against competition, it is important that developers take a moment to consider the challenges web designers face and vice versa.  

For developers, this means it is important to learn more about the principles of design, such as visual hierarchy, navigation, use grids and responsive design, and highlight a want to be involved in the design process earlier.  Doing so will help HR and recruitment teams see that you care not only about the behind-the-scenes mechanics, but also the visual appeal of the product.  

Likewise, for designers, I would encourage you to understand the technical constraints developers often work with. These include, but are not limited to:  

• Hardware constraints such as processing power, memory and storage  
• Software constraints such as framework and library limitations, legacy systems and API limitations  
• Performance constraints such as latency requirements and scalability  
• Security and privacy constraints such as compliance measures, access control and data encryption  

Future-Proofing Your Development and Design Career  

With generative AI continuing to accelerate digital transformation and a world of technological advancements yet to be discovered, it is an exciting time for developers and designers. Regardless of the state of the job market, these professionals can “future-proof” their careers by finding the right “niche,” bringing new ideas to the table and working to understand their developer and designer counterparts. With these tips, digital experience professionals will set themselves up for success in 2025 and beyond.  

Kathryn Grayson Nanz is Design and Developer Advocate, Senior at Progress