I feel like the discussion around this post will suffer from a lack of specificity over what a &#x27;software developer&#x27; is.<p>Someone who works primarily on small javascript web applications has a really different job from someone who works on a large application built on a LAMP stack, or someone who writes complex iOS applications, or someone designs self-driving car software for Google, or someone who works on embedded software for pacemakers, or someone who writes operating systems or designs programming languages.<p>Each of these jobs probably have a particular set of paths that lead to them. Two people who are both &#x27;software developers&#x27; don&#x27;t necessarily have similar skills, training or education.