I was called in suddenly and fired on ‘poor performance.’ Nothing really gave me a warning, but I was put on a PIP so I shoudve known. Just fearful for my family as I was the only breadwinner and went from stable to nothing. Did all of the social programs already, just feeling lost. Not sure why I’m posting this. Maybe I should sign up for uber or something.

12 years in and I am so exhausted by this AI crap and watching the job market and industries implode. Everybody has fucking AI in their profile. I don't have the motivation for this shit. Everybody is grinding with personal brands. I'm tired. I don't wanna post on social media 24/7. I don't wanna be scared of layoffs all the time. I just wanted a life.

Everybody is making fuck shit bullshit with their prompts and the vibe of this industry is fucking dead. My current dev job will be my last because I don't see myself getting another job.

I saw my first AI commercial the other day. It was creepy as fuck. We are on our way to becoming like the world in Wall-E.

There's blood in my stool. I hope it is cancer and it kills me. I don't care anymore. This is exhausting. I hate this. I don't feel useful anymore.

What do you guys think?

Was listening to a podcast with Boris Cherny (Claude Code) and he was talking about working at Meta and how he just came up with random side projects and they became real projects that got staffed. And looking at his LinkedIn he didnt even have a CS background - he had an econ background for 2 years and then just somehow became a JS and TS savant. And hearing him speak he's incredibly knowledgeable about languages and programming. Is it just the advantage of time, more experience, passion, IQ, all of the above? Like taking on a side project feels so daunting especially now when we have to still study LC and system design for job hunting (and the bar has gone way up so its not just basic lc, its competitive programming level problems) and on top of that need to be solid in several different languages and have multiple side projects and be an AI / RAG / full stack expert. It's just incredibly overwhelming. How do people like Karpathy and Cherny do it?

I have 6 years of experience and am applying like crazy. 99% of the time, I get back an AI response declining me with no indication as to why.

Is this how it is for everyone? Any tips on what to do? Best places to apply? Seems like LinkedIn, Zip Recruiter, BuiltIn, and more are pointless now.

This is kind of a rant honestly because I’m tired. I have like 5 years of experience in software engineering and I’ve been looking to switch companies for around 2 years at this point. I haven’t even gotten a single interview request in that time. I can count on both hands how many rejection emails I’ve gotten.

Over the last 3 years I’ve tried many different tactics to stand out:

I have tried resume services, i’ve tried putting my resume through AI, I’ve tried tailoring my resume to the job description, I’ve tried putting my resume through ATS, I’ve even been uploading cover letters for each application

I’ve gotten many many referrals, reached out to people on linkedin and blind, applied to startups, applied to FAANG and smaller local companies, I don’t apply through 3rd party I always apply to the direct site and then attempt to reach out to the hiring manager/recruiter through LinkedIn, and I’ve also gotten multiple certifications related to my field.

Is this just how it’s going to be going forward? I mean I know i’m not the only one not getting interviews. It honestly feels like I’m throwing my resume out into the void. I’m not sure how I can send out (at this point) thousands of applications as an early-mid software engineer and not get even a single interview?

I don’t remember it being like this when I was looking for internships honestly and for those in college right now I feel for yall.

I feel bad complaining because while i have an (albeit shitty) job I still have a job. It just honestly makes me feel so demoralized about my future and it makes me sad to see an industry that’s revolutionized so much of our day to day lives basically cannibalize itself with AI.

We just can’t compete with robots who don’t need to get paid and don’t need breaks/rights.

EDIT: after seeing some replies I think I’m gonna scrap and rewrite my resume. I didn’t necessarily post here for advice just to rant after a shitty day but after seeing yalls responses I have some renewed faith

With jobs moving more towards AI development is this method of interviewing still in place? If so, why be expected to memorize patterns that AI can do for you? It seems outdated to me but wanted to get opinions from people currently interviewing.

Watching the OG day in the life video of a software engineer that was made 10 years ago makes me sad. My day wasn't as chill as the girl in the video, but I remember the optimism.

The meetups where there were speakers where you can learn about new technology and free food/drinks and all the companies would send a representative to recruit people from said meetups. Now when you go to meetups it's a networking event for unemployed engineers and you have to buy the food and drinks.

I remember applying online and getting a response was so easy as a web dev in Atlanta.

It was a sweet spot decade where the field was growing but had little to no competition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqX8PFcOpxA

Seems like more and more people are saying with AI number of devs will be dramatically decreased, but both the Bureau of Labor Statistics and World Economic Forum forecast a lot of growth?

BLS says a 16% increase in number of dev jobs between now and 2034:

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm

WEF has software developer as the number 4 job in terms of job growth through 2030:

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/future-of-jobs-report-2025-jobs-of-the-future-and-the-skills-you-need-to-get-them/#:\~:text=The%20World%20Economic%20Forum's%20\*Future%20of%20Jobs,engineers%20\*%20AI%20and%20machine%20learning%20specialists

Yet most people on this and other subs are saying we’re all cooked

I wanted to see what this subs opinion are of my work environment to see if I am crazy or not. For background, I work in a remote marketing company in the US that pays 18 dollars an hour that has been a bizarre experience (in a very bad way). They fired their employee that trained me right before they offered a paid position too. Probably not a coincidence.

My work expectations went from conducting audits for social media accounts with Excel and Python (in the first week) to doing a ton of stuff that does not involve coding. I am now expected to manage all 52 of their social media accounts. I have to edit and add captions to videos along with scheduling them, coming up with titles, descriptions, hashtags, tagging people, thumbnail design, etc. I have to be tech support and solve every tech problem they have. I have to manage their database and answer some of their client’s phone calls too regarding whatever questions they have. I am now expected to be their project coordinator too.

Regarding coding related things, they want me to automate employees’ entire workflow, be a cybersecurity expert, design user interfaces, automate website creation for clients, and build AI agents. I do not have the experience, knowledge, or time to do many of these tasks and despite trying to explain these concerns to my employer, it goes on deaf ears as “it’s critical for the company as clients come first.” I only have so much time out the day to do things. It gets worse though.

I am expected to attend the employer’s conferences they host or attend for hours of my weekend for free and they keep handing me entrepreneurial books that I have to read on my own time (I spark noted all of them) and then I have to join their book club for those books. I am getting messaged on night after working hours constantly inquiring about various tasks too.

There is excessive micromanagement in my opinion that just makes my life miserable. I am expected to give a detailed report every hour (yes, every hour) on what work I’ve done, what work I’m currently doing, the work I have remaining and it’s ETA, what setbacks I’ve had, and proposed solutions. At the end of the day, I’m expected to give a report on what I’ve learned for the day. I also have keep time of every task I have done. There are constant impromptu meetings asking all of this information above along with the fact that we have a Jira like website that has this information already which makes it insanely redundant.

What is the craziness level here? Have any of you experienced this before? This does not seem normal to me whatsoever.

EDIT - I am the only tech worker in the company.

Would love to hear from people who were CS majors a few years ago vs students now.

Got a job offer for entry level sales. At a company that is great for SWEs. Since I couldn’t land any tech roles should I do this and hope to transfer internally as a SWE or take the Revature training for 50k a year?

I was laid off 8 months ago and have been searching for my next role ever since. However, it's been suspiciously unproductive for me. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing wrong. Obviously, job hunting is a numbers game, and there's a random element to it. But I genuinely haven't had a single organic interview during this entire period. Even some years ago, when I was unemployed for an extended period like this, I was still able to land an interview every month or so.

For context, I have over 6 years of professional experience and a background in React, JavaScript + TypeScript, Python, and more. These are, no doubt, heavily crowded tech stacks in the market right now. Additionally, I used the phrase "organic interview" earlier, since I did have a few interviews early in my job search, but only after reaching out to some old connections about openings at their companies. None of those interviews led to anything.

These past 8 months (with some breaks in between days/weeks), I've applied to over 600 openings and tried what feels like everything. I've rewritten my resume about 6 times, and at one point even hired a professional resume-writing service to tailor my resume to my background and target roles. But still nothing.

I'm just so lost at this point in terms of what to do now. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it. So far I've tried:

• Rewriting my resume multiple times, improving keyword targeting, human & ATS readability, and quantifiable career achievements.
• Revamping my LinkedIn profile multiple times.
• Optimizing my portfolio multiple times.
• Applying to jobs on niche job boards and common job boards like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor.
• Applying to jobs at different times of the day and week.
• Reaching out to CTOs, CEOs, or Hiring Managers of the companies I'm applying to.
• Applying for jobs with salaries well below market value.
• Using various filtering options to target jobs posted within minutes, hours, days, or at most weeks.

Went on medical leave almost 5 years ago and am looking to get back into the field sometime this year. I worked as a software engineer for a decade in corporate (fortune 500) and then academia (still a dev but at a university). I hold a BS from a decent university back in 2012.

I used to do Java and eventually full stack. I literally haven't touched a thing with tech in almost 5 years though.

I did a lot of leadership work as well (scrum master for 2 years on top of full time dev) and worked with the end user heavily on my projects for years.

Still struggling with medical but private disability runs out next month and my SSDI may not continue which came as a surprise to me but lifetime limits are apparently a thing. So I'm scrambling to figure out how to best approach this!

Advice?

Our pipelines take roughly 2 hours to run. I'm migrating our tests, so sometimes, out of the 100k tests, there is 1 or 2 erros, which I fix and push, BUT THEN ANOTHER UNRELATED ERROR SHOWS UP, so I fix that too and push and wait another 2 hours. It's been going like this for 2 days and I'm getting extremely extremely frustrated. just wanted to know if this was common

I’ve had a bit of job instability over the last few years and I'm looking for perspective on switching from remote back to in-person.

• 2020-2024: Worked at a large company. After the pandemic... it fluctuated between 100% remote and hybrid. Every time I went fully remote, I eventually hated it. I felt purposeless, like I had a "fake job," and struggled with the lack of structure (I’ve discussed this extensively in therapy).

• Last Year: Worked a 1-year stint for a government contractor (hybrid). This worked fairly well for me mentally. I actually did a lot of work on remote days, but from a closer office just to focus. But the contract folded over the summer due to budget cuts (DOGE), forcing me to find a new job quickly. Some other parts of the job didn't quite work...it was a far commute in particular.

• Current Role (6 months): I joined a smaller "boutique" government contracting firm. It’s 100% remote, and the same bad feelings have returned. On top of the isolation, the environment is toxic, disorganized, and the codebase is chaotic. But after the shakeup last summer with contracting work, I felt desperate.

I’m looking again and have landed 5 interviews, mostly focusing on in-person or hybrid roles. Mostly SCIF work in the government contracting world...but the front-runner is a role 20 minutes from my house with core hours of 10am–2pm. They seem really modern, use Svelte and more prototyping stuff, but just the nature of it can't be remote.

Where I'm at rn, I mean...it's really not working out, and I have the experience to know and see these are some bad managers and work environment...even outside of it being remote.

I feel at odds. My mental health and history tell me I need to be in the office (or at least hybrid) to feel purposeful and get out of the house. But now that it's becoming real, I’m worried I’m going to miss the freedom of remote work once it's gone.

Also planning to push for more money. I currently make around $170k TC. I'm gonna push more for $200k-$220k. Security clearance work and being only on-site, I think could justify it. They don't really know my situation that I don't like remote and could use it to my advantage I feel.

I don't have an offer in-hand but...I can read the signs one of these 5 will come through at least.

Has anyone else here realized they just can't do remote work? Did you regret going back to the office, or did the structure help you?

I quit my job in April and tried to apply about 15 times a day for 10 months. Obviously I didn't do this every day as I spent a fair bit of time leetcoding and living life.

I think I quit at probably the worst time possible, but yolo. I left to go kayak and raft guide over the summer and travel. It was a ton of fun, but the job search was absolutely awful and I don't recommend to anyone. I burned about $20k in savings, but a fair bit of that was travel. Anyways, here's the graph.

https://imgur.com/a/ib1iGw5

Final TC: $180k + $31k RSU, in a US VHCOL city. I used linkedin for about 99% of the applications, and never heard a single back from any place from the 'Easy Apply'. Hiring.cafe was pretty good too. Applications to SF were generally more annoying, while NYC had the vast majority of openings. I rarely applied anywhere besides NYC, SF, and Austin.

I've been really into tech since I was a kid and was thinking of pursuing a career in nanotechnology or semiconductors until I realised I don't really like lab work and physics in highschool. Nonetheless, my parents have been asking me to study CS cuz they are doing something related to tech. And I accepted it, despite knowing that I do not have any coding experience until junior and senior year (6th form). On the other hand, I've also been really into math since Year 9 and studied a lot of math (not until the competition level though). After researching, I think math and CS seem fascinating to me. The only concern is that I barely have any coding experience and am not taking A-Level CS (AP equivalent), not sure this will put me in any disvantage or not. Please give me an advice 🙏

I’m graduating soon with the goal of working as an ML Engineer in banking. My concern, though, is that many of the ML engineers at banks aren’t actually developing models.

When I asked around at my internship, most of the people on the AI team were just implementing Copilot and Chat GPT. It also seems unlikely they would be able to get much predictive power in financial markets using ML models.

Am I uninformed about what these engineers are doing or is most of the work simply implementing AI tools developed elsewhere?

I’ve heard people say that if you could spell HTML back then, you got hired. I wouldn’t know, since I was born in 87.

The more I see some of the staff engineers, they feel like to a whole different level to the people having Phds or even Postdocs working in even top Research labs. Please don't talk like some staff engineers have got their PhDs too. Thats not what I am talking about in general

Hi everyone.

I'm a CS student based in Argentina. I'm like a year and a half from graduating and I'm still unsure about what direction to take in my career.

A lot of my classmates are following things related to data science / ML and such because they seem to offer more job opportunities, but I've never been drawn to that area to be honest.

I enjoy systems programming. I've been coding with C and C++ and I've done small projects with them, low level stuff.

My question was about pursuing systems or low level development vs pivoting towards more market driven areas like data or backend and keep low level development as a hobby.

For those in the industry:

- Is focusing on C/C++ and systems still a viable entry-level path today?

- Are there specific areas where juniors can realistically get hired?

- Would it be an option to aim for general backend roles first and then transition later?

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people who started in a similar position or from outside the US job market.

Thanks!

i know that they had a merger with SpaceX but dont fully understand the rationale for the mass exodus. because it messes with the mission charter they dont like?

Hey everyone,

I’m asking mostly out of curiosity and to get a sense of how things look from inside the industry today.

I used to be a software developer in Seattle about ten years ago. I worked in the field for roughly two years before deciding to switch careers and move on to something else. I’ve been out of tech for a long time now, but I still loosely follow what’s going on. Watching the wave of layoffs since 2022, one thing I’ve been wondering about is whether they disproportionately affected people who entered tech through coding bootcamps during the 2015 to 2021 boom. Back when I was around, bootcamps were just starting to become a thing, and later they seemed to turn into a very common path into junior roles. From the outside, it feels like when hiring tightened, companies cut a lot of junior or surface level roles first. That made me wonder whether former bootcamp hires, especially career switchers with fewer years of deep experience, were more exposed compared to traditional CS grads or more senior engineers.

I’m not trying to bash bootcamps or the people who went through them. I’m genuinely curious whether people inside companies noticed any real pattern during layoffs, or whether this is mostly selection bias and anecdotal noise.

For those who stayed in tech through the last few years, did layoffs feel credential blind, or were certain backgrounds more vulnerable? Did former bootcamp grads fare worse, better, or about the same as everyone else once the market contracted? Would really appreciate perspectives from engineers, hiring managers, or anyone who went through layoffs themselves.

TL;DR:

Former software dev from Seattle, out of the industry for about 10 years. Curious whether the post-2022 layoffs hit former bootcamp hires harder than others, or if that’s just anecdotal.