Get oriented in 3 questions
Click your answers: at the end, a summary and the right links for what comes next. You can go back or start over any time.
The market truths
What I wish someone had told me. My take, lived and honest — expand each card.
Freelancing gets sold as freedom: your hours, your place, your rules. The reality is often a contract that looks a lot like a permanent job. Same hours, same team, frequently on-site or hybrid, embedded in the project like any employee.
The real difference isn’t in the day-to-day. It’s the status and the risk. No bench: the day the mission ends, no one pays you while you look for the next one — that’s on you. No paid leave, no safety net.
Freelancing isn’t “working less” or “laptop on a beach”. It’s carrying the risk yourself in exchange for a bit more margin and independence. It can be worth it — just choose it with your eyes open, not for a fantasy of freedom.
A lot of people assume full-remote is the new default. In the “classic” French tech market (big corporates, large mid-caps, consultancies), it isn’t. On-site and hybrid dominate, 2-3 days in the office is common, and it’s tightening rather than loosening.
Real full-remote lives mostly in product startups / scale-ups, for rare or in-demand profiles. It’s not “everywhere”, it’s “in some places, for some people”.
So if remote is non-negotiable for you: don’t apply randomly. Target genuinely remote-first companies, on the stacks where you’re scarce. It’s doable — but you hunt for it, it doesn’t fall in your lap.
Going through a consultancy (ESN) is a real way in: you level up, you see varied projects, you get a steady salary. But there’s a rule of the game they rarely spell out: you won’t know what they bill you at to the client.
The margin is opaque, and your salary negotiation is boxed in by internal grids. You can earn a comfortable day-rate for the consultancy while staying on your base salary. It’s not “evil” — it’s the model. But better to know it before you sign, and negotiate what you can (training, seniority track, choice of missions).
Knowing the rules doesn’t make you cynical — it makes you better at standing up for yourself.
Everywhere you hear “AI will replace developers.” Recent data tells a more precise — and, if you’re starting out, more worrying — story: it’s not the job collapsing, it’s the junior entry door closing.
In the US, a Stanford study (“Canaries in the Coal Mine?”, 2025, based on ADP payroll data) found that employment of 22-25-year-olds in the most AI-exposed jobs fell about 13% since late 2022 — young developers among the hardest hit — while older workers in the very same jobs were barely touched.
In France, the APEC shows the same trend: recruitment of junior executives dropped 19% in 2024, and IT roles 18%. AI absorbs the simple tasks — exactly the ones you used to cut your teeth on. The bar to get in is rising.
My takeaway: if you’re starting out, don’t bet on “I code the small task I’m handed.” Bet on what AI won’t do for you — judgment, architecture, communication, domain understanding. That’s what makes you hireable today.
SourcesStanford Digital Economy Lab — « Canaries in the Coal Mine? » (2025)APEC — Prévisions 2025
Online, you keep hearing “everyone does React” and “Angular is dead.” On global usage, React does dominate: ~40% of professional developers versus ~17% for Angular (Stack Overflow 2024). And on raw job volume React leads too, including in France — let’s be honest about it.
But calling Angular “dead” is wrong. In France it keeps a solid, durable enterprise niche: banking, insurance, industry, large groups, consultancies — often paired with Java or .NET. These companies have run on Angular for years and won’t rewrite everything tomorrow.
And there’s a counter-intuitive effect: because Angular is less “hype,” there are often fewer candidates competing for those roles. To my mind, betting on Angular in France isn’t following the trend — it’s playing a stable niche market where profile competition is more reasonable than people think.
That’s exactly why I build around Angular: not because it’s the most hyped, but because the French market still wants it, and durably.
Let’s be honest: between a big corporate, a large mid-cap and a consultancy, the day-to-day feels pretty similar. Heavy processes, legacy, meetings, little room for creativity. It’s not a tragedy — it pays the bills and it trains you — but don’t expect adventure.
The real exceptions (healthy culture, genuine remote, a product you actually build, autonomy) do exist, but they’re rare, and you earn them: you have to hunt actively, not hope to stumble in.
That’s exactly what I try to dig out and share — the hidden gems, the companies doing it differently. We keep looking. They’re out there, just not on every street corner.
After chasing the perfect company for years, I landed on one idea: what if, instead of waiting for the exception, we built it?
That’s my through-line. Keep looking for the rare good opportunities, yes — but in parallel, build my own products. Bit by bit, on the side of employment, aiming one day for autonomy. It’s not a “quit your job overnight” plan, it’s a trajectory, with patience and a lot of invisible work.
I’m not claiming I’ve made it — I’m right in the middle of it, sharing the road honestly, failures included. But I’m convinced of one thing: the best way to stop being at the mercy of the market is to build something of your own, on the side.
The market observatory
The French Angular market in data — day rates, stacks, hiring trends — to back these truths with sourced figures.