Thanks to all the AI coders out there, im busier than i've been in years
Posted by minimal-salt@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 266 comments
I've been freelancing on the side for more than couple years now, mostly helping startups and smaller teams fix bugs, add features, the usual stuff.
Used to be maybe 1 or 2 projects a month. Now I'm turning people away because there's too much work coming in. And I'm pretty sure I know why.
About 70% of the requests I get now are basically "we built this with AI and it doesn't work, can you fix it?"
tbh I'm not mad about it. The money's good and the issues are usually pretty straightforward once you dig in. Last few weeks alone I've seen zero input validation, hallucinated libraries that don't exist, payment logic that does the opposite of what the comments say. The security stuff is wild. Apparently 45% of AI-generated code has vulnerabilities and I believe it.
Don't get me wrong, people hired me to clean up messy code before AI too. But it used to be like 1 in 10 projects. Now it's most of them. And the pattern is always the same, looks clean, runs fine once and then falls apart when complexity hits.
My income's up like 40% from last year and I barely market myself anymore. People just find me when their vibe-coded MVP starts breaking under real use.
So yeah, thanks AI. Best thing that happened to my side hustle. Hope this keeps up:)
zeke780@reddit
How do you get this kind of work? I have asked before and I would love to do stuff on the side to make extra cash. The only people I know who are doing it are people who worked at y-combinator or some incubator and now just help out multiple companies / teams.
Unusual_Money_7678@reddit
It's less about the YC network and more about being visible where people go when their cheap MVP breaks. A lot of these founders aren't well-connected, they just used an AI tool and now they're stuck.
They usually end up on places like Upwork looking for a "bug fix" or "quick developer help". If you have a profile there and specifically mention you can debug and clean up AI-generated code, you'll probably start getting bites. It's a volume game at first but the work is definitely out there.
minimal-salt@reddit (OP)
I used to find them (or vice versa) on gig websites, but now almost all of them come through referrals from old clients and word of mouth
As for the startups, I used to work with a manager who later became an angel investor, he now recommends me to some startups for project work
zeke780@reddit
I have tried gig websites, but I am senior+ at FAANG (used to be staff+ / manager at a large company and a startup) and I assume my rate just isn't attractive. I have gone as low as 125/hr and got nothing with a pretty insane portfolio. This was early days with a site called the A team, and I was featured on their main page pretty much the entire time I was there, despite never getting any work. They didn't have feedback and just begged me to stay.
AchillesDev@reddit
Never do gig sites. You should have a strong network from your time there, you don't know anyone who has gone into investing or founded a startup or is in senior leadership somewhere? I charge anywhere from 225-300 an hour (or equivalent - I try to avoid hourly rates as much as possible), never worked at FAANG, or anything like that.
FAANG could be an issue if you're targeting startups though. It's a very different way of working and a lot of startup people have neutral-to-negative views of FAANG people.
former_wave_observer@reddit
225-300 an hour sounds crazy good - I'm closer to $100/h and even that seemed crazy couple of years ago. What were the biggest factors when building the network? Mostly people from which you've worked or people that you've met at some events? How to maintain the network? I think I'm a solid engineer but I think I'm having issues with keeping in touch with people after I/they change jobs etc. Do you keep emailing people every once in a while? Or just reach out when you "need" something?
AchillesDev@reddit
Almost entirely people I've worked with and professional communities (on Discord and Slack) that I actively participate in and make friends in.
I look at my network as basically friendships that began in the professional realm, so you maintain it like you would any friendship - check in regularly just to see how they're doing, be genuinely interested in what they're up to, respond to their posts on whatever socials you follow them on, help them out where you can.
In addition to that, especially when interacting more broadly (like in a Discord community or whatever), be helpful with no expectation of something in return. People remember that.
cecirado@reddit
What are the options to start when you don't actually have the network
AchillesDev@reddit
Building the network. Spend time at startups, make friends, be active in communities for whatever your specialty is, create useful content, etc.
EmeraldCrusher@reddit
Woof, I would love to have a conversation with you. Cause after 10 years, my connection network is incredibly weak and hasn't performed well at all.
I've been incredibly active in sports, board gaming, online gaming, and city run events. I've even attended a city council meeting or two, but I haven't quite built up anything that lets me do this.
AchillesDev@reddit
If you want to build your network in your profession, you should try to focus on professional communities. Those events are great for recreation and you'll never know who you'll meet there, and you shouldn't stop them, but for building your professional network you'll want to find some communities built around what you do/want to do.
Still-Tour3644@reddit
Why do you avoid hourly? I haven’t done contract work in a while but estimations were always inaccurate and new features always slipped in that it would be a pain to renegotiate a fixed sum
AchillesDev@reddit
It misaligns incentives. You are incentivized to work more slowly, the client is going to want it done as quickly as possible, and it's hard for either to forecast the revenue/cost. If it's something I've done a million times and have a really good idea of how long it'll take, I'll nudge them towards fixed cost, if it's an ongoing thing, I try to do monthly retainers with hourly caps (beyond that it becomes hourly at something crazy).
Another thing that was a huge help was to do a separate design contract for the more IC type of work. That's a fixed cost (2-5k) over a week or two to just dig into their code, get acquainted with their systems, and provide an extremely detailed design at the end stage. This means that they have an exit point if they want it (and can use the design with whoever they want), and you get paid regardless, plus you have much more information to develop a pricing strategy for the next phase. It's saved my ass a few times.
zeke780@reddit
I have worked at a startup as well, got acquired, but I was staff and built a lot of 0-1 stuff. I have a really solid network but I think a lot of the people I have worked with are career FANG+ types who are making 500k+ at their day job. Sure there are people who leave and try to do a startup but they are looking to poach you away, not get you part time.
AchillesDev@reddit
Same here, that hasn't really been a problem for me. But most of my experience is at startups (and founding a few short-lived ones).
Yeah, that's the tough part from being ensconced in the FAANG ecosystem, a lot of people at the bigger ones just don't leave. Early on it's more frequent (the Paypal mafia is a real thing, Uber had lots of people spin out companies in the early days) because that's when the entrepreneurial people are there and interested in the work.
It's been 50/50 for me. Usually the ones that want to poach you are game for a contract and will try to poach you over time, but that's nothing a "no thanks!" can't fix. I think half my clients this year have tried to poach me so far.
Gr1pp717@reddit
If by 0-1 he means from scratch, it's been a problem for me. Everyone is looking for experience with specific stacks. Not crap that I home-brewed a decade ago because similar tools back then weren't a good fit or didn't even exist...
sjaramillo10@reddit
They wanted you on their website just to brag about the quality of devs they had, but then clients would get interested and end up finding someone that charges less ¯\(°_o)/¯
zeke780@reddit
Its hard out there, and I think the vast majority of people just want a warm body, not an actual engineer
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
For 125 an hour you can get 5 engineers in the UK outside of London. Not as good as you maybe but if you're just building a basic Business app for 50 users or whatever you're probably a bit wasted anyway.
maigpy@reddit
this is just not true. 25 usd a hour gross? no serious developer works for thst money.
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/software-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,18.htm
Obviously this is employees not contractors which is a fair enough difference but at 125/hr.you can hire a full time employee for a year after as little as 2 months of getting this guy as a contractor.
maigpy@reddit
yeah, then in the new year you can hire the 125 usd/hour guy for 2 months to fix everything.
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
Perhaps. Really depends on what you're trying to build. You really don't need to be that good for most basic internal business apps.
maigpy@reddit
you don't need to be good until you: meet a roadblock you can't sort your codebase evolves into an unmaintenable mess your devops is poor and you cannot scale you have to regression testing /no automated testing and hence have no way to say if you're improving or regressing. wrong security settings / understanding compromises your app /department /company your domain /data model has logical fallacies and all kind of un fixable weird behaviour ensues etc etc etc
hiring not good people is hardly ever the economical thing to do medium /long term.
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
On average sure. But there are 25 USD/hr people who aren't amateurish. The pay someone receives is a moderate proxy for talent but particularly global it's not an extremely strong correlation.
maigpy@reddit
not in the uk, no. you won't find gold developers for 25usd per hour GROSS
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
That's £40k you can absolutely get good developers for 40k they'll just be 2-3 yoe. Just because most 2-3 yoe Devs kinda suck doesn't mean they all do.
The bar differentiating people who are professional and give a shit and don't is usually not monetary anyway. You can pay 80k and get people who think unit testing is a waste of time and pay 40k and get people who can setup the CI, the tests, the hosting as well as write the code.
It's just more likely you can get a better dev for 80k.
London obviously pays more on average so that's less likely but if you're talking about some rural area 40k is fairly doable.
maigpy@reddit
If you earn
$25 USD per hour and work a standard full-time week in the UK, your gross annual salary in GBP would be approximately £35,000 to £38,919.
that will get you the 0-1 years range developers. 5 of those working together for a year you are much better off paying the 125 usd guy for 2 months. much bette outcome.
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
It's £18.71 an hour which is apparently closer to 40k. Also anyway, I didn't exactly triple check the figures for an off hand comment. 3 Devs then for $40 an hour. £30 per hour or ~£60K a year would likely beat the single dev for any basic crud app for a couple dozen internal users.
My point originally was that 125 USD an hour is a lot and most people simply don't need someone who can scale something to millions of users. Most businesses are less than 300 people. And the biggest corporations have their own tech teams so who's the target market for that.
He almost certainly could get contractor roles for that money via the right agencies that work with e.g banks but not on a random gig work website.
And the situation just gets worse in lower cost countries like Bulgaria. For £60K you can get a guy with decade+ of experience.
maigpy@reddit
the point that you seem to miss the most is the "it doesn't take 3 women 3 months each to make a baby".
Anyway, you get what you pay for.
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
I'm not missing that. I'm aware of it, but it also doesn't take Ronaldo to beat a bunch of schoolchildren. If you're trying to build a system for millions or billions of users then you'd be absolutely right. For a crud app for 50 users you really don't get that much advantage from a very expensive person.
And you do get what you pay for but sometimes the guy assembling a DIY stores furniture is good enough because you can't afford the master carpenter who'll make everything by hand at 20x the price.
maigpy@reddit
no, you're better off with the 125 developer for 2 months per year. whatever the task.
good luck with your software!
Subject_Fix2471@reddit
false.
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
As full time employees? 22 an hour is £17 an hour or 35k a year. You can get Devs for that. Not as contractors but to say it's false is pretty wrong.
CandleTiger@reddit
Engineers are having $25/hr BILLABLE rate???
Usually the billable rate is double or more the actual take-home pay after expenses, time between gigs, etc. Minimum wage in the UK is £12.21/hr ($16.25 USD at the moment) Who is living in the UK on $12.50 USD/hr?
Gr1pp717@reddit
The gig economy is shit because we're competing against people who live in other countries. People who can survive on much, much less than $25/hr, even.
CandleTiger@reddit
Well yeah, sure. But I was responding to a guy who says they're working for that rate in the UK which seems optimistic, or pessimistic, depending on your viewpoint.
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/software-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,18.htm
I was talking about the employed rate not billable so yeah it's too low for contracting but fine. You can still get 2 at $50 an hour.
Contractors at banks make £800 a day so about the same as the guy was asking for but everyone else is making less than that because they by far and away pay more than most other companies outside of faang.
Ok_Cancel_7891@reddit
Hm, contractors at banks… at what roles or tech stack?
New_Enthusiasm9053@reddit
Generic Java senior.
Gr1pp717@reddit
Ah, I had thought he was saying the 25/hr in the context of gig work, but I see now I was just reading too much into it.
valdocs_user@reddit
Years ago, the one time I made an effort to get into freelancing on the side, it went like this:
Me: I can give you 10 hours/week for $100/hour.
Them: We're more looking for someone to do 100 hours/week for $10/hour.
Me: I don't think we're going to come to an agreement.
hidden-monk@reddit
That A team is a joke. So are most of gig platforms.
VivisMarrie@reddit
Has anyone ever found anything with A team?
dnbxna@reddit
Gig websites want $30-75/hr tbh
zeke780@reddit
I mean I was on the high end but I was also gunning for like fractional CTO and VP level roles. If you need a code monkey, sure, but I was framing it more as "I can architect your product and help you understand hiring, etc."
dnbxna@reddit
Right, I agree, it's just most of these platforms attract overly frugal clients hiring talent in lcol areas.
supermopman@reddit
Which gig websites would you recommend?
DisneyLegalTeam@reddit
OP full of shit. Grinding Reddit for consulting gigs
kyletraz@reddit
Yeah, this is predicted. Even with a developer skill set, I still need to revise the plan Claude created until it looks good. Then I can imagine how much work there is for us. We, as developers, are reading code more than ever!
kbielefe@reddit
It shouldn't be surprising, but somehow still is to some people, that more skilled developers get better results out of AI.
fizix00@reddit
Less skilled developers will get bigger lift out of AI tho. The skill premium is diminishing
Any-Neat5158@reddit
It all boils down to the fundamentals of CS to being with.
Are you building the correct software? Are you building the software correctly? In that order. The best built software is useless if it wasn't what you needed. But the correct software built so poorly that the overhead to understand what's going on is high, and the ability to expand it, maintain it.. etc is nearly impossible. Basically an "it works, but might as well just do the whole thing over".
Are you asking AI the correct questions? Are you asking said questions correctly? Are you giving it the proper context? Do you have any idea if or not the stuff that it pumps out is reasonably correct?
AI is perfect for an engineer like me. I've always been reasonably good at solutioning, and had more difficulty with implementation. I've analyzed the problem, I've arrived at a proper solution and I wrote the correct algorithm. Now I need to write the code to make those things happen. I CAN do it, but I'm slow at it for how many YOE I have. AI is the major time saver for me there. It can spit out something that's mostly correct and I can massage it to get it to where I need it.
otakudayo@reddit
This is absolutely right, but it's not just about being a skilled dev. You also have to be skilled at actually using the LLMs.
And I believe this applies to usage of LLMs in any field. I'm not an expert in any other fields, so this is just my assumption, but I just don't see how you get good long term value from LLMs unless you're skilled in both the particular domain/field, as well as being skilled when it comes to creating prompts and providing correct context, understanding when the LLM is beginning to hallucinate, when to take your work over to fresh start, etc.
GaladrielStar@reddit
Recently read a piece on Medium that would agree with you
https://medium.com/cross-cut-insight/expertise-is-the-linchpin-to-ai-success-84a1ab93db79
AchillesDev@reddit
It kind of depends. I think you need good planning, design, and verbal reasoning skills, and I've known many a dev who was skilled but did not have those skills. They inevitably flail with code assistants.
Ok-Regular-1004@reddit
Yes, and then they blame the technology and call their peers liars and charlatans.
bostonkittycat@reddit
I love this it warms my heart. I had similar experience where someone had 10 pages of prompts and used an AI site for React and NodeJS. I deleted all the nonsense code and fixed it. It is a decent gig fixing broken AI code. Not glamorous but pays the bills.
dantoso@reddit
how do you find clients / projects? Are you on Linkedin, Upwork, etc?
bicx@reddit
Going to start accepting these and then fix it all with Claude Code
alienfrenZyNo1@reddit
You and everyone else. I find it hard to imagine money will be made for too long fixing these code bases as others that can utilize llms better will just charge less. Also fact that llms are getting better all the time.
Quarksperre@reddit
No they don't really get better at debugging and other things.
They are incrementally get better at interpolating on existing knowledge. That's why there is a sharp gap between people who create web dev projects versus people who work in some other industry that work with less known frameworks or has real world input data.
If you have an issue that has 10k or 1m hits on Google, yeah LLM's are great.
If you do something that has about zero hits.... LLM's hallucinate like crazy.
But even with web dev you sooner or later enter territory with only very little similar code. So knowledge interpolation fails.
alienfrenZyNo1@reddit
I'm working with a clients solutions architect who thinks llms are useless. Little does he know I've been making the whole application with codex. Getting nothing but praise. Analytical thinkers I'm finding are struggling while it's synthetic thinkers time to shine.
Quarksperre@reddit
Lol. I am not against LLM usage. They are very useful for a lot of things. I am just saying that they are useless in areas without good example code bases. And thats super easy confirmable
alienfrenZyNo1@reddit
Are you talking c++? Can you please be specific on language? I have been using llms for a niche scripting language since chat gpt4. It's definitely gotten better and better at the language and right now I'd say chatgpt 5 is better than most devs in that space. The Internet wouldn't be flooded with examples of this language like JavaScript or Python and yet it performs fantastic. This is my experience anyways.
Quarksperre@reddit
C++ alone has of course a ton of examples. Millions and millions lines of code.
For me it's game engines in an industrial context. So yes, in parts C++/C#, and also in combination of a lot of CAD data, some old application interfaces.
Even without the game engines, the CAD part alone kills most LLMs as there are too many "new" things you have to do on a daily base. The whole CAD stack is filled with ugly scripts and 20 year old applications.
Besides CAD, it also sucks as soon as you have a bit more unique user data. Which is super common in a non-pure software dev environment.
Sensor data, new hardware drivers, images, old and obscure interfaces to old and obscure applications.
I don't even want to start with debugging in such an environment, because it already hallucinates with base functionality.
On a green field, LLM's are really great and yes they get better at that. Wouldn't deny that. But I dont see a real improvement on the other parts.
And my "metric" is super simple and works most of the time. If I google the keywords and get a lot of results, LLM's work great. If not it sucks.
Context really doesnt help there for a ton of different reasons. But it can be summarized with, context is not embedded in the weights and the output gets ugly very fast.
alienfrenZyNo1@reddit
Thanks for detailed response. I'm unfamiliar with that world so can comment. I'd bet money by next year it will be leagues better in your area. Lets see.
AntDracula@reddit
Ah a hype merchant appears in the wild
alienfrenZyNo1@reddit
Nah just have my eyes open. Unlike the sleepy rest who need to be told by "experts" what's happening. Also, have been using llms for a long time coding all the while listening to others not being able to do the same. This is like the generations of people who could never get used to using a computer all over again only with AI.
AntDracula@reddit
Whatever you say, slopper
alienfrenZyNo1@reddit
Lol experienced kid or what?
AntDracula@reddit
alienfrenZyNo1@reddit
While you are taking your sweet time on your one screen I'll be working.
AntDracula@reddit
Ok slopper
alienfrenZyNo1@reddit
I can't do so everyone else must be retarded, general consensus here yea?
Quarksperre@reddit
!RemindMe 1 year
I think I already have a bet open with that. But I am open to it. Its not like I am against LLM's at all. And everytime I struggle with some particularly shitty combination of frameworks and interfaces I would LOVE to have it done.
I am not super positive there but that's why it's called a bet.
RemindMeBot@reddit
I will be messaging you in 1 year on 2026-10-10 07:51:26 UTC to remind you of this link
CLICK THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
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chrisza4@reddit
People content with getting praise from business stakeholders early and neglect validation from tech stakeholders, is exactly why LLMs will create more job.
Particular_Theory472@reddit
How you used to market yourself?
RandyHoward@reddit
Experienced devs are definitely going to see an increased volume of work for a while because of AI, probably for years to come. The problem is that it's going to get harder and harder for entry level devs to find jobs. There will be lots of work for experienced devs who can fix AI slop, but those inexperienced devs are going to be left in the dust and it's going to decimate the job market for anybody starting out.
AntDracula@reddit
Juniors can do what we used to do: obsess over coding for months and years in your free time until soft skills are the last frontier, then they can fix the slop too.
po-handz3@reddit
I dont understand this thought process. You see 'more ai slop fixing contracts!'.
I see 'the bootstrapped startup hired half as many engineers, vibe coded a product out of thin air and then hired a cheap, no benefits, no equity slop fixer engineer'
RandyHoward@reddit
They're only going to be able to hire slop fixers for cheap without benefits if the slop fixers agree to that, which they won't. Why would any experienced dev take on a job for low salary and no benefits to fix AI slop? We're smarter than that.
po-handz3@reddit
Lol idk but there's tons of devs out there looking for work
chrisza4@reddit
Ton of devs can’t fix slop. Tons of devs can’t even refactor legacy code without suggesting 3 years full rewrite.
mckenny37@reddit
Fix all your tech debt with this one easy trick!
mmk_software@reddit
It'll take more luck, skill and creativity to get started than ever before. Maybe there's a consulting business model for students to help with mvp's and fixing vibe coded stacks, then after a few years being able to get proper career ladder roles. Still, that's a whole other prospect than the internship to employment pipeline that most people expect
Terrariant@reddit
Look at this, AI out here creating jobs
dnbxna@reddit
https://xkcd.com/1319/
AntDracula@reddit
Lmao
Spider_pig448@reddit
Automation always does
stonkytonka@reddit
Is this trickle down economics?
AntDracula@reddit
Based, my contracting has become a lot of this too. Or greenfield cloud projects to enable some shitty AI product 😬
mikaball@reddit
The secret is to rise the price of your service.
no_1_knows_ur_a_dog@reddit
When I was freelancing a decade ago I read an ebook that I can't find now but it was basically a beginner's guide to being a freelancer. And the author's suggestion was to price your services such that 50% of people end up turning you down.
That sounds like an absolutely wild number! But my brother (completely independently) had done the same thing with his own business, and what ended up happening is that he increased his rates until he hit that 50% number, and the rate he landed on was double what he used to charge. So he was making the same amount of money for half the hours.
silence-calm@reddit
Even the 50% might be too small, what matters is to increase the price so that there is still enough demand to keep you busy.
orchardtime@reddit
True, it’s all about finding that sweet spot where you can still attract clients but also work less. If you can consistently deliver quality, raising your rates can definitely lead to a better work-life balance.
oalbrecht@reddit
I 100Xed my prices one time for a SaaS product. It went from $10/mo to $1000/mo. That ended up being a bit too much, but customers do pay $500/mo for it. It was really hard to grow revenue when the price was too low.
dnbxna@reddit
The beauty of freelancing is finally sending your client that 42% rate increase, thinking it'll be a big deal and they just go, 'ok fine'. That's when you realize you've been under market rate the whole time.
darkapplepolisher@reddit
To some degree, I think there's also the impact of being someone who has previously proven that they can deliver. Gambling that 42% higher rate on an unknown factor might cause them to go elsewhere - spending that 42% on someone who is proven and is already integrated into working with the company is easier to justify.
AdmiralAdama99@reddit
Especially in software engineering, where ramping up / learning a new codebase can take awhile.
dnbxna@reddit
Unfortunately I wrote the whole thing from scratch so I was pretty familiar with the whole system. 42% was actually not enough lol
Gunny2862@reddit
I was always too scared to do this.
no_1_knows_ur_a_dog@reddit
Ya I got out of freelancing before I ever got to this level. I think it's different when you're early career and are hoping not to burn bridges. But if you're at the point where you have too much work, where you're turning down clients because you're too busy, then it's an easier call to make.
elijahchancey@reddit
Was the ebook Double your Freelancing?
OrganizationStill135@reddit
Would be very helpful to know that book title if you can find it?
no_1_knows_ur_a_dog@reddit
Honestly I just did a quick search and I'm not sure, I think it's this one: Pay Me... Or Else!
I could be wrong. I do remember reading that and getting insight from it, but the 50% advice might not be from there.
anomie__mstar@reddit
and gradually make it worse over time
add lots of ads
and demand ID if you want to be taken seriously in tech.
DisneyLegalTeam@reddit
Check the OP’s post history. OP is a scammer grinding engagement.
Disastrous_Fill_5566@reddit
I've checked. OP isn't a scammer, OP is clearly a freelancer who might occasionally self promote (I'll have to take your word for it, I didn't see any), but generally engages in topics around software development.
I used to be a freelancer and would occasionally try to find leads on social media, didn't make me a scammer.
Lj101@reddit
Where the scam? Scrolled for like 1 minute through his posts and comments and don't think I saw a hyperlink.
winebiddle@reddit
Or send them to me and I’ll send you a kick back
c0ventry@reddit
Send them my way. I have some bandwidth and I can cut you in 😎
Foreign_Addition2844@reddit
Shh.. dont tell him..
PlanktonPlane5789@reddit
Yes. If you're turning people away you're not charging enough. If you're only turning away a handful a year you might be right at the right price level but if it's a handful a month or more, bump those prices up!
chain_letter@reddit
my security friend says they’re also very busy
cea1990@reddit
Can confirm, code quality coming from our AI-happy contractors has taken a nose dive and it’s been interesting. Some of their solutions have been novel and clever, but most of the time I find myself dragged back in to talking about trust boundaries and input validation ad nauseam.
DigmonsDrill@reddit
SQL injections are up!
cea1990@reddit
Honestly, I don’t even care when they have vulnerabilities. It just gets super frustrating when I talk the same person through why “client-side security isn’t” every month because they can’t be bothered to review their own code.
It feels like their seniors have given up on them or just shoved em over to us for mentoring which isn’t exactly cool.
lallepot@reddit
Dude. Why should a dev review code? I mean we have AI for that, right?
cea1990@reddit
Oof, you’re gonna set my eye a-twitchin, hahahaha.
officerblues@reddit
100%, I made this post here 6 months ago that I was hired in a new job to fix the worst codebase I have ever seen, vibe coded with no care, then mentioned this would likely be a huge source of work for devs that could actually program. Back then, it was controversial and a lot of people were doom and glooming, but it played out pretty much how I thought it would, so far.
lallepot@reddit
I got hired as PM to build an ERP system. Once I started it turned out I should vibe code it.
Before that. They had non-devs building it on no-code tools.
I can see why you can make some real quick prototypes. I cannot in my wildest fantasy see it building ERP production code with only prompting.
The why that it makes up stuff in my applications and cv, is wild.
Low_Entertainer2372@reddit
Sure! Let's do the following, just import the most amazing library created in earth in order to create your project.
Your steps are simple:
- Import ANGULAR V1 into your project
- Success!
cd_to_homedir@reddit
That sounds great! Your suggested approach is:
✅ Easily testable 🚀 Executes fast 🧠 Smart and minimal
Would you like me to generate tests as well?
disgr4ce@reddit
Got it. You want to use the most up-to-date frontend libraries and modern best practices. No problem! First we'll install jQuery and Backbone.js.
oalbrecht@reddit
You want an enterprise grade frontend. EmberJS is your best bet. Want me to set that up for you? ✅
Low_Entertainer2372@reddit
Please make sure to be running Windows XP SP2 or greater in order to be able to run this locally.
Fluffy-Oil707@reddit
Laughed out loud
515software@reddit
It blows my mind how often I see stuff like this, how does someone not at least validate versioning….
Maybe I’m giving vibe coders too much credit?
I use AI to help me modernize code bases, but it’s only offloading specific tasks in a bubble to complete. Like updating versions and their components, example being like .NET 6 to .NET8 core, it can solve all the basic stuff but I take over when there’s business logic….
selucram@reddit
They don't validate versioning because the vast majority are not coders in the classical sense but "idea guys", they don't know how, where, or why they'd want to do it.
kirkyjerky@reddit
You mock my pain.
Low_Entertainer2372@reddit
you still working with angular? DAMN
xxryan1234@reddit
a lot of banks weirdly prefer Angular 2
Windyvale@reddit
As someone who dealt with both Angular 1 and Aurelia after V2
shivers
minimal-salt@reddit (OP)
AI brings us nostalgia, can't even get mad at it sometimes
Winter-Grand2830@reddit
Sounds like a terribly boring job
Climb1ng@reddit
Whats your job title/job description?
MushroomNo7507@reddit
Yeah I’m seeing the same thing from the other side. Everyone’s building faster, but maintenance is where it collapses. The code looks fine at first, but once real users hit it, everything starts falling apart because there’s no context behind how it was built.
That’s actually why I built my own SaaS — it generates requirements, epics, and user stories from real product context like feedback, docs, or API inputs, and then syncs that structure back into Jira. Basically it keeps the AI coding fast part, but makes sure what’s built can actually be maintained later. If anyone’s curious, happy to share it for free if you comment or DM me.
Possible_Cow169@reddit
Raise your rates. You’ll make more money with even less work
MetalHead2025@reddit
Where are you getting freelance developer gigs. Like with site(s)
son_ov_kwani@reddit
Share with me the gigs. Thanks 🙏 .
Sea-Frosting-50@reddit
what platforms are you getting work from?
ScotDOS@reddit
Fixing vibe slop or gluing various ai slops together or together with hand written code is so much more worse than doing the same to intern slop or aged slop.
But if there's enough budget for basically a rewrite, sure, I'll take it. But not under pressure.
yubario@reddit
Ah, we are in complete agreement here.
It is in fact easier to maintain AI generated code than most enterprise code bases that utilized offshore labor.
Perfect-Campaign9551@reddit
Fake AI post
AchillesDev@reddit
I find it hard to believe (unless you're just a cheapo on fiverr or upwork) that people are signing CSAs in order to have someone from outside fix a few bugs. My main client base is early startups and the most common work is actual consulting (audit existing code and paths forward, do planning, build hiring processes) along with the IC stuff, which I prefer, but the IC work is building massive features they don't have the resources for or end-to-end projects in my expertise (data, ML, cloud infra).
I mean, polishing MVPs is a line of work and one that's a major part of my own business. It's just now non-technical people want to push one through and honestly it's not the worst place to be doing this, and is a win all around. I can guarantee the startups still save money this way over either a) hiring an expensive eng or small team for an MVP before PMF or b) (more common) contracting with a terrible overseas bodyshop. In my time doing this, I've seen much, much worse from b than from vibecoding.
chrisza4@reddit
I don’t think OP meant literally fixing bugs. More realistic scenario is that a startup have, for them, unsolvable problems that stem from AI code and then they come and ask OP for help. And that helps include both giving advice and actually fix the issues.
I did some advisory gig for few companies that have code quality problems (in outsourcing era though), and it is similar that you can’t do pure consult without getting hands dirty a little bit, otherwise client would take my advice and implement in the most unforeseeable way possible and don’t get the outcome promised.
One client try that because they think it is cheaper to let their cheap developer do all of my recommendations. Then came back to me pretty quick and realized it needs strong developer to pave few path. You can’t just take general advice like “make an api that maintain backward compatibility” or “do feature flag” to not-so-good dev and expect it to work.
AchillesDev@reddit
I can only go by what they actually said, not something I cooked up in my head.
Yes, my gigs almost always include getting my hands dirty - and I prefer that. But it's not "fix[ing] bugs, add[ing] features," but much broader scope because it's a waste of time to do anything less.
I hope this isn't the advice you're charging for.
terraping_station@reddit
Attention is all you need
vmak85@reddit
You can thank Replit and all the other Vibe coding apps that pitch the idea that it's easy to make an app. I am one of those muppets. The more I learn about coding the more ridiculous their sales pitch seems. P.s I will contact you soon.... 😂😂😂
SikandarBN@reddit
How do you get this kind of work?
moiaf_drdo@reddit
Why not build a course around how to avoid such issues? Companies will pay you loads (there is even a course on Maven doing this and they seem to have insane traction) for this
mechkbfan@reddit
Half expected this
Keep hearing from friends about how non tech people are creating prototypes, getting excited, then wanting to take it to the next level
So they've got to provide a new goverance over the pipeline of work created by it. Pretty cool really. Shows you there's still lots of innovation to be had
zhamdi@reddit
What I'm thinking is that the new developers will start doing something else, the senior ones will keep working on AI bugs fixing and management, but then in 10 years, they will leave to pensions.
And there will be no juniors to replace them, and add Sam Altman said: AI is good for 1 min operations, the one year operations is easy too complex and will maybe never come to AIs. So we know these seniors will be needed, but we don't give juniors a chance to become seniors.
Long sorry short, senior devs who are thirty today, will have golden times in ten years, unless quantum computing takes over...
deadflamingo@reddit
Idk 10 years is a short time frame for a quantum take over. I think seniors have it in the bag here.
zhamdi@reddit
Depends, if Microsoft didn't lie about the new status of matter they discovered, and the processor they made with it, it might be down the road already
deadflamingo@reddit
Very interesting. I'll have to look into that
NattyB0h@reddit
Is the assumption that AI won't improve meaningfully over what we have today?
zhamdi@reddit
I only refer to what Sam Altman said, I can't pretend to know what AI builders are struggling with. It might be a communication strategy so we don't panic too
xXxdethl0rdxXx@reddit
I wish people would remember to be skeptical of posts that confirm 100% of their prior beliefs.
Unusual-Revenue-5552@reddit
Where to find those clients?
Wide_Brief3025@reddit
Honestly, the best way is to get involved in subreddits where your target clients hang out and answer questions or join real conversations. If you want to save time finding leads, ParseStream helps by notifying you when people mention keywords you care about and filters for the best opportunities. It cuts out a lot of the noise so you do not have to scroll endlessly.
Doge_Army123@reddit
I m also curious
user0015@reddit
Question for you. Assuming your freelancing is generally for websites/FE work. Do you generally find clients that are looking for heavy UI/UX, or more functional design? If it's UI/UX, what's your approach to learning it?
I've done a few odd jobs for friends and people I know, but I've never taken on paying clients before because when I tried previously, it always came down to:
1) Clients never know what they actually want.
2) Figuring out what clients need is impossible because they cannot communicate at all.
3) What they need is generally not complicated in the end, but they want a heavy UI/UX public facing site, even if functionally it does very little, and trying to decide on what to charge them for effectively a (very complicated) coat of paint makes my brain sad.
po-handz3@reddit
Let me get this straight, before a startup would have to hire a massive engineering team, but now they can get 90% of the way there with ai coding and 10% with a contract slop fixer engineer?
Sounds like an efficiency gain to me. Yall need to think about the bottom line
AdmiralAdama99@reddit
I dunno if the ratio is 90/10. There's probably an efficiency boost in there though.
The "ai then fix" pattern seems similar to the "outsource then fix" pattern.
Both of these patterns may have less to do with a long term efficiency gain though. And more to do with executive bonuses for driving down costs for a year or two, but really just moving the costs out farther. And by then the exec has pocketed the bonus and moved on to other things, so no accountability for the fixing costs they caused.
nieuweyork@reddit
How do you find prospective clients?
Old-School8916@reddit
how are finding clients?
minimal-salt@reddit (OP)
I used to find them (or vice versa) on gig websites, but now almost all of them come through referrals from old clients and word of mouth
LiteraryLatina@reddit
Damn, makes me wish I would’ve saved energy and made the time to build out side project clientele
Longjumping-Ad8775@reddit
Start now
LiteraryLatina@reddit
Damn it, I should. I’ve spent past 3 years as an EM so I have felt a bit rusty with hands-on but I do want to get back into a rhythm
creaturefeature16@reddit
It's the life blood (and heartbeat) of any service based business.
EmTeeEl@reddit
what websites? thanks
arena_one@reddit
Would you mind sharing the websites you used to use?
BatmansMom@reddit
+1!
Wide_Brief3025@reddit
I usually look for conversations where people are asking for help or solutions that match what I offer and try to provide helpful insights or direct messages if it's relevant. For speeding up the process and not missing good leads, I’ve tried ParseStream which actually notifies you when people mention specific keywords, so it saves a ton of time.
AdmiralAdama99@reddit
Yay. So good to see an AI post that is positive instead of the usual "my management is requiring me to use Cursor for X% of my work and they are tracking me and I am miserable". I'm happy for you and other freelancers and I hope your business stays booming
Upper-Character-6743@reddit
We're so back.
GoTheFuckToBed@reddit
what are are you working and with what tech stack?
joaopeixinho@reddit
How do you get into this?
thekwoka@reddit
This looks like a repeat of a post from yesterday
Ok-Ranger8426@reddit
Cleaning up and fixing shitty code is my favouite thing (in part because it's not that hard), so this gives me hope.
EmeraldCrusher@reddit
I had a solid pipeline like this from VC money for awhile but I've gone cold for a few years, how are you getting these leads? I'm quite interested in building a pipeline like this and am quite impressed at what you've managed to capture in this market, because it's something I know exists but couldn't exactly find it.
csgirl1997@reddit
On the bright side of all this AI stuff, I've never looked more engaged in reviewing other people's PRs lol
SelectTraffic8035@reddit
o7
ares623@reddit
This is good for AI
Main-Ad1592@reddit
How are you getting the contracr referrals as a freelancer?
kagato87@reddit
As I've been starting to use it, I believe every bit of that. I've even seen most of it, and that's just in my own attempts to use it!
Let's see, input validation - yup. File doesn't exist, crasharoonie even though I specced a default action. Hallucinated libraries? How about entire API interfaces! Can't make up it's mind what the logic is doing when I ask it to compare two different paths and tell me why they're diverging (yea, I know, "DRY", the functionality convergence came after the first version of both features).
Super narrow scope, "write a script to search for this specific pattern" or "create a schema index that won't blow through 400k of your tokens when you try to read it" - no problem. Simple tasks it handles quite well.
Convert this sql query to a strongly typed function (it's a nuisance when it's a big analytics function that outputs a couple dozen columns so I wrote a rule to convert it) - it finds typos and inconsistent naming, but then complains about RLS not being applied to a table that isn't even eligible for it (the needed key doesn't even exist on it), which it knows because it read the schema index to type the output... It's also funny how I had to add to the conversion rule things like "don't mess with the joins" because I've already spent half a day staring at query plans optimizing it and seriously don't undo my work!
And then there's it's complete inability to... Count! Oh man, I've given up on line numbers when talking to it. Not even being able to tell the time is one thing - I get it - but it can't count! And it's hilarious how and when it messes that up (not just line numbers).
thedifferenceisnt@reddit
How did you get into this gig and build clients etc?
ricefarmer2@reddit
fan fic
DestinTheLion@reddit
Well, send some of that extra my way plz!
minimal-salt@reddit (OP)
I have a feeling they'll be getting more soon :)
GoldOver4996@reddit
I really wouldn’t mind helping out for a fair starter rate either
rej-jsa@reddit
Got any ambitions of subcontracting out some of the excess demand?
Kur0Pala@reddit
How are you promoting yourself to do this kind of job? Recently became unemployed and looking for options at hand without having to go back to a full 40hr week…
biletnikoff_@reddit
What platform are you getting work from?
AchillesDev@reddit
Successful ones don't use gig platforms.
biletnikoff_@reddit
Tell me more
AchillesDev@reddit
They're a race to the bottom. You should leverage communities you're a part of, your network, and cold outreach, depending on which path you want to do as far as your marketing/outreach strategy.
lovebes@reddit
Hey I really want to do what you do to earn some money on the side. Do you have any tips on how to do this? I really feel like this is the new market.
Do you promote yourself? Do you have a business entity?
ILikeBubblyWater@reddit
r/thatHappened
prisencotech@reddit
Go on upwork. He’s not lying.
Careless-Dance-8418@reddit
Look at his post history, he's lying.
Careless-Dance-8418@reddit
For someone so confident AI has generated all this work for you, you sure have been posting a lot of conflicting comments and views about it...
I'm just curious, why do you make posts like this? Is it fear?
Bakoro@reddit
That's actually an amazing number.
Granted I generally don't do webdev, but of the people and places I have worked with, there's been roughly zero security considerations.
One place, we had a bunch of product lines, and we started doing a new product that would be shared across teams, that would actually need a security layer. Out of dozen people, no one had any real idea about how to implement user access levels or encrypting information.
Then we heard about shit from major corporations, where it turns out thatt they store everything in plaintext that everyone has access to, and suddenly X0% of the nation has their financial data compromised. It's been at least a dozen times that a major national/multinational corporation was found to have no meaningful security at some point, all way before any transformer LLM existed.
pandaExpressin@reddit
How do you go about freelancing?
PrinceBell@reddit
If you're turning people away, you can send them to me
yousernamefail@reddit
I recently took over a project that's been entirely vibe-coded and is having issues galore. We just finished road mapping what it's going to take to fix and and one of my devs said it would be faster to scrap it and start over. He's 100% correct, but the higher ups won't hear it, so instead we're just doing massive refactors.
Honestly, if that's what they want to pay me for, I'm good with it. 🤷♀️
MorallyDeplorable@reddit
Thanks for the freelance idea
pl487@reddit
A victory for you, but a defeat for the team that never has to be hired to build it.
maniaq@reddit
on a related note, so-called "vibe coding" with AI - if you actually DO know what you're doing - is a MASSIVE MASSIVE drain on your mental health, as you spend SO MUCH of your time fucking dealing with a fucking TODDLER
often going back and forth instead of making any real progress - because THE ONLY THING the fucking AI seems to do is tell you what it "thinks" you want to hear, instead of anything even remotely resembling the fucking reality of what you're trying to deal with
what's the old saying? "just enough knowledge to be dangerous"
General_Hold_4286@reddit
Why do those companies hire you instead of somebody else? There are a lot of unemployed developers out there
creaturefeature16@reddit
Same here, things are hopping. It was enough inquiries where I even threw up a dumb landing page just to capture some of the clickthroughs that apparently people are searching for on this stuff, although my work is almost entirely WoM at this point anyway, but hey, can't hurt.
roguelodge@reddit
Looks nice. I prefer to code in C# - I feel like there probably aren't too many c# vibe coders. Web languages are the way to go!
Intrepid_Result8223@reddit
When would you say one is ready to go for this? Like what skills need to be polished?
itsalwayswarm@reddit
How do you get clients? I need to get some too, need some money. ✌🏽
Blankaccount111@reddit
I completely predicted this in early 2023. That there would be a huge surge of AI rescue jobs coming in the near future. That sure its good in a "work=money" sense but that the job will suck cause its just untangling messes.
newEnglander17@reddit
I think most developers did.
Ok-Regular-1004@reddit
A lot of people are cynical about it, but this is the world working as it should.
Everyone is happy here. Vibe coder gets paid, consultant gets paid, the product works in the end.
pheonixblade9@reddit
only 45%?
MCButterFuck@reddit
For the people who wear snarky ass holes about the whole vibe coding thing it is a satisfying and deserved downfall. For the people who fell for the hype it's a tragic rude awakening and I feel bad for them.
Axelblase@reddit
Hey can you tell us what’s your stack?
DigmonsDrill@reddit
What languages / frameworks?
dirtymint@reddit
What tech stacks do you usually work with? Are these the same as what the AI has generated?
Hikingmatt1982@reddit
How do ya advertise? I want to get in on this slopfest! 😆
MrCallicles@reddit
how can we verify what you are saying ?
I'm not saying you're wrong or that IA will not effectively make slope and lead to this situation, but I see exact opposite posts like:
"IA make me code 1000% faster" and generally speaking, no proof beside the talking...
rej-jsa@reddit
I think there's probably a lot of variability in AI output quality. I've been using copilot since that's what my corp provides, sometimes it absolutely nails a solution and would be a +50ish% productivity boost (still gotta vet the solution and implement). Other times it spits hot garbage and I just give up and write/modify code myself.
PM_ME_UR_PIKACHU@reddit
What do you charge per hour?
spiciest_lola@reddit
Why did you tell the people shhh
a_fricken_humdinger@reddit
Well done! How did you get into that space?
eddie_cat@reddit
This is the good news I've been hoping to see! Lol good for you. Need any help? I love cleaning up shit code but I hate marketing myself 😂
ilovekittens15@reddit
You fix their issues with AI, don't you? :)
papillon-and-on@reddit
Would be silly not to. You’ve already got a load of context. It’s not a greenfield project which I’ve found AI can really struggle with.
And it’s probably 99% JavaScript projects. And AI loves that because there is so much of it out there. Also that’s where most of the vibers are in the first place making the mess.
StandardIssueDonkey@reddit
How do you price this kind of work? Are you doing hourly or fixed? Mix of both?
I've been fixing no-code, low-code and generally borked solutions for years. Looking forward to the new AI market.
minimal-salt@reddit (OP)
Hourly, most of the time. Old habits
StandardIssueDonkey@reddit
No I think you're right on that. Too many unknowns.
roguelodge@reddit
Yeah, I'm curious - it must be hard because the folks who use AI in the first place are the super cheap ones I would presume.
StandardIssueDonkey@reddit
That's my thought. I can see cases for both maybe depending on the client. I've been flirting with the idea of doing these rebuild engagements as an FTE as far as pricing.
DestinTheLion@reddit
Yeah I'm curious too
deZbrownT@reddit
I was wondering when this will become visible in the market. It was just a question of time.
SrDevMX@reddit
can you post a code sample of what you typically find and what is your fix?
I would like to do due dilligence on your claim, I lik to trust you but I would like to verify with my own eyses.
Don't worry for me, I have enough experience as a SW Dev to understand the issue and the fix.
scapescene@reddit
High quality troll right here
luckypanda95@reddit
Where do you got the clients? Would love to work on it too
AchillesDev@reddit
Network
RedbloodJarvey@reddit
A college friend who is now a CPA at pretty big startup thinks he can single-handedly replace their 15 front end developers using AI. He has no programming experience (except Excel). At first I was going to tell him I thought it was a bad idea, then I realized the kind of person who would take that advice is not that same person who thinks they can replace a dozen people. I'm patiently waiting for a status update.
thr0waway12324@reddit
It’s in your best interest to let him try. That way he ends up creating more work available for future devs just further pushing up our market value.
it200219@reddit
time to increase your charges. This need more visibility and trust me SWE would be more in demand then ever
7107@reddit
Man same lol. 2 or 3 more clients and im leaving my day job
thr0waway12324@reddit
Can you start an agency and hire folks that you train up to do some of that extra work?
Logical-Idea-1708@reddit
Send them my way. I need to get in on this
canadian_webdev@reddit
Seniors have job security forever woo
xamott@reddit
If I wanted to dabble in this on some nights and weekends where would I market myself? Don’t worry I’m no competition for anyone I only want to do a little bit of it.
Mixologist2512@reddit
Any advice for a recent college grad in CS who would absolutely LOVE to pick up some of the work you and I'm sure many others are having to turn away?
donjulioanejo@reddit
Wait, wait, it PAYS money to your customers? 🤔
Basting_Rootwalla@reddit
This is good to hear and confirms what I've been anticipating, but I realize I didn't put in the right actions to be ready to capitalize on it.
I'd imagine this will be a continually trend and market for a bit, but im realizing now that those who serve to benefit are going to be freelancing/contracting as opposed to being more of a FTE hire.
Going to have to consider if I can get myself out there for similar work since I'm currently doing the FTE job search rodeo.
Mustard_Popsicles@reddit
This post gives me hope for the future.
MasterLJ@reddit
This is the way
Askee123@reddit
I had a feeling this would happen 😂
Do you have any advice for those of us who want to find that kind of work?
jaktonik@reddit
Hey salt, I'm an experienced engineer that doesn't have senior on my resume, so I'm in the nightmare phase of looking for work and this sounds incredible. Do you have any tips for marketability? Or maybe tips on your favorite gig sites to work with getting started? Would appreciate anything you're down to share!
thoughtslikehammers@reddit
Is it mostly startup founders themselves who initially did the vibe coding? Or another "dev" that worked/contracted for them?
AllHailTheCATS@reddit
How did you break into freelance? I'm front end with 6-7 years experience and would live to go into contracting and work 100% remote from anywhere
Idea-Aggressive@reddit
There aren’t many opportunities available. Every job post gets flooded with applications. If that’s too much for you to handle I’m free. I’d appreciate to find work, full stack +15 I can work end to end. London/GMT. Top contributor in all open source projects at my previous role 4+ years. Mainly Typescript.
clamjabber@reddit
I'm working on one of these too
mistyharsh@reddit
I have a similar experience. Although I am not picking up such projects for myself, I am helping folks connect to fresher programmers who I personally know won't degrade quality further but rather leave in a good place.