Here’s the deal — you’re in your twenties, freshly graduated from college. Maybe you’ve flirted with coding in the past, or hacked your way through a few websites, and generally, you have an affinity with modern tech. Or perhaps you are a psych student who enjoyed working with statistics, and you’re starting to realize that you have to pay those bills eventually.
Sooner or later, you’ll need to find yourself one of those “tech jobs”.
Before I started working as a Mendix developer I had serious doubts about my future career path. I liked writing code, but I didn’t see myself doing that all day, every day. But I did like building things. I like looking back at a days’ work and seeing the results. That’s what building software is. I didn’t know about Low-code until I was approached by my previous employer who explained the Mendix platform to me.
As a Mendix developer, you build digital applications without writing traditional code. Instead, you’re building applications using prebuilt parts. You design pieces of logic called microflows, which Mendix translates into things computers can understand once you launch the app. A microflow looks like a traditional workflow diagram. It has a start and an end and executes the pieces of logic in between.
Because the pieces are prebuilt and ready to use, you can develop logic up to ten times faster than traditional coding methods. And because the learning curve is much less steep than coding, it’s a lot easier to get into. You don’t need a computer science degree to work with Low-code technologies. In fact, most Mendix developers come from completely different academic fields. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Mendix developers with diverse academic backgrounds such as biomedical science, psychology, and industrial engineering. And while the IT sector continues to be a male-dominated world, this stereotype doesn’t hold up as much in Low-code. Women even outnumbered the men in my team at one point.
This diversity in backgrounds leads to Low-code developers often taking on more diverse responsibilities. It is no coincidence that Low-code developers are often referred to as business engineers, although I still prefer to refer to us as developers. A business engineer forms a hybrid between a business administration expert and a software engineer. It means they can understand and translate business needs into software requirements, but also transform those requirements into real software. Most of your day is usually spent developing, but you can be involved in many more parts of the software development process. At my previous employer, it was no exception that business engineers were involved in other activities such as sales and user experience (UX) design.
Even within Mendix, you can choose to expand into different territories. You can decide to focus on front-end development by learning everything there is to know about styling or you can become an expert back-end developer integrating your system with other systems. You can also choose to dive deeper into the Mendix core by learning about Java development. Most Mendix developers have specific expertise that they are most interested in, but you’ll most likely work on all those areas at some point. Traditional software engineers don’t often get this luxury.
All this means you have a lot of options for career growth. You could start as a basic Mendix developer but later choose to expand into other territories. If you find that you have a knack for selling the platform, you can do that alongside your main gig. If you feel comfortable designing applications before building them, there’s usually an opening to do so.
A lot of that flexibility also comes down to companies supporting your preferences. Most companies active in Low-code are great places to work. They have to be, in order to attract and retain the right people. If you haven’t noticed, Low-code is booming and so are job openings. Finding new business engineers is challenging and companies want to keep employees happy and satisfied. It also means that if you choose to work in Low-code, you’ll be almost certain of having a job for the next decade or so. And while something like job security sounds like the dullest topic to talk about at first, the feeling that you can find a job anywhere is truly comforting.
If you want to work as a Mendix developer you have a number of options. If you choose to work in consultancy, you’ll have the opportunity to work on projects for different companies. It’s a great way to gain professional experience in different environments. In the past four years, I worked for companies of all shapes and sizes in fields such as finance, insurance, health, and government. If you are unsure what you want for your career, working in consultancy is the perfect way to explore your options.
Alternatively, you can choose to work for a company that uses Mendix apps directly. Or you can choose to apply for a job at Mendix itself. As I don’t have hands-on experience with either, I don’t feel qualified to talk about those options, but I’ve heard positive stories about both.
The freedom and growth opportunities that you get as a Mendix developer are great. And you can even decide to move into freelancing, as I recently did. Whatever you decide, as a Mendix developer you’ll always have the satisfaction of building amazing digital applications with real-world impact.
This blog post reflects my personal beliefs only. It was not written in conjunction with Mendix or my previous employer Finaps. The first version of this article was already published during my time there. This updated article reflects my latest thoughts on the subject.