I've got a friend who's curious about getting started in the NetSuite world, either as a functional consultant or more technical. Need to study either way, no prior experience. Is now a good time to get started? Not sure how’s the job market looking these days for juniors, etc

I would not recommend the technical/programming track in 2025

Could you share a bit more on why? I have been reading that the programming track in general isn’t great right now for Juniors, but in the past I felt NetSuite job dynamics were different. Also recently I saw that NetSuite customer base seems to keep growing, so I guess that perhaps that means those type of skills will still be relevant and demand will be there... But then of course AI is such a disruptor that is hard to tell 🤔

The biggest problem for a new or entry level programmer right now is that the opportunities will be hard to get, and it will be incredibly difficult to prove your worth, unless you have some other skills in the bag as well, and you have to be good enough to be pushing towards a junior level role or managerial position right from the start. Having good soft skills will help a lot, too. With so many applicants and so few opening, it will be extremely competitive, unless you have some advantage, like being in a less popular geographic area where a company wants someone for an fully onsite role. If they are just new to NetSuite, and not programming or IT in in general, that's a whole different thing. Diversifying your skills is never a bad idea. I learned more from professional mentorship than any textbook or online course, without question. An in person role is a great way to get that, but those opportunities are also harder to find now. It isn't only AI (though that's a big part of it). Even before AI, tech companies were downsizing for various reasons. Technology growth isn't happening at quite the rate is used to in all areas, however picking the right boat (maybe it's NetSuite, maybe something else) can still help you ride a smaller wave to success in various niche areas and platforms. There's also the challenge of many tech companies being primarily remote. That sounds great, but for a new programmer looking to learn and advance their career quickly, it may not be. Remote work is great for people with a lot of existing skills. It's less great for people with shallow or fewer skills. You need more oversight and feedback to help you learn and improve, and it's harder to get remotely.

Totally agree with all your points, Scott. I’ve noticed the same thing with colleagues. Remote work can be great, but for people just starting out, it really makes it harder to get the mentorship you need early on.

On a personal note, after a 17 year career in programming, I have recently made the switch to data engineering, for a few reasons. One is having more skills to help me stay competitive, which gets harder at my age. Two is that I do see AI eating away at jobs like ones I used to have, and many of my former colleagues having to reckon with either using AI for more and more of their work, or being replaced outright. Three is that while something like generating code can be easily achieved by LLM's (we won't speak of its quality or correctness), AI's can't build a system to capture, manage, and produce business insights from data quite yet, so I consider this my way avoiding the oncoming AI attack, maybe just for a little bit longer. Even if you don't want to quit your current job or employer, now is a time when all people working in the tech sector should be taking a hard look at their short and long term future. I figure it's better to make hard decisions now, on your own terms, than wait until they are forced upon you.