Denver-area software developers and training organizations scramble to adjust as AI and tech industry changes reshape the job market.
By Jackson Guilfoil – Reporter, Denver Business Journal
January 15, 2026
“Learn to code,” one of the tech industry’s most dogmatic mantras, is dead at its creator’s hands. Now, the labor market is demanding additional skills.
In Colorado, workforce training programs that used to get people without computer science degrees into well-paying software engineering roles have changed paths. Now the demand has shifted more to cybersecurity and development operations, a field integrating software development with IT functions. The change means programs built to get people from nontraditional backgrounds into high-salary technology jobs are making significant changes to their curriculum.
One organization, ActivateWork, will not offer training in software engineering during this year’s 15-week boot camps.
It’s a necessary change, because now is an especially brutal time to be a job seeker in the field, said Kathryn Harris, ActivateWork’s president and chief operating officer.
“You’ve got less jobs in software development, you got a lot more people on the market,” looking for work, Harris said. “So it’s totally crowding out our college graduates, let alone more challenging for the people that we have been training in software development.”
Overhiring before the pandemic and layoffs pushing skilled and experienced talent back into the market have coincided with a radical shift in how entry-level jobs in the profession are performed — namely the use of AI to automate significant parts of basic software coding. Those trends have combined to make landing a job in software development more difficult, ending years in which the tech industry promoted the profession as a pathway to surefire employment in high-paying jobs for almost anyone.
This is a brief excerpt of a longer article that includes industry insights from ActivateWork President & COO Kathryn Harris, as well as quotes from ActivateWork graduate Juan Marquez about his experience with the program and the meteoric trajectory of his tech career. Read the full article here.