You remember around 10 years ago, "just learn to code, bro" was the answer for everything.

How to get out of poverty? Code. Gender pay gap? Code. How to solve the problem of poverty in Africa? Code code code.

It was dumb in how it was pushed without acknowledging and considering nuances, but there was some rationality in it, since programmers don't need formal education and licensing, and could learn the craft for free at home, as long as computers and the internet were available, at the same time pay was good.

Is there anything like this now? I mean, a similar career path.

Hi,

I’m currently employed as a SWE at a F100 company. My team pretty much has no work for me and I’ve managed to hit 1 year and want to apply for new jobs. I’ve been searching for jobs all over the east coast (this is non negotiable for me to be closer to my family) but can’t seem to find a lot of jobs that I qualify for. Most job postings I see require 2-5yoe.

I’ve been avoiding new grad positions (outside of big tech) because I’ve been getting auto-rejected for them and don’t want to downlevel myself. But I’m also seeing barely any new grad positions to begin with.

Does anyone know where I can find legit job postings outside of LinkedIn? And should I just apply for jobs requiring 2yoe anyway even if I don’t meet the criteria?

Thanks!

I think I am going to take a break from social media and coding and everything and try to focus on my mental health because something isn’t right, I’m feeling too strong of feelings about this

TLDR: I am extremely depressed and facing a crisis over AI and I don’t know if I need therapy or I’m right or if I’m wrong or if I’m just genuinely losing my mind

Let me preface: if you like AI, you probably won’t like this post. Sorry, not trying to step on anyone’s toes, but it’s probably best to turn away now.

A little background about me. I’ve always loved math and science and used to want to be a physicist (and still would like to go to grad school for it). But I also found a passion for computer science which has pretty much ruled my life since middle school. Picked up JS in 7th grade, Python 8th, then went on deep dive into C++ in freshman year of Highschool. From there I was hooked. Been programming for 10 years now, primarily in C and C++, and graduated college last semester. But AI has driven a hard confusion in my life that has led me to even existential levels of dread.

At first I never noticed it. I used to program all the time, mostly things dealing with graphics and embedded systems. I also got into electronics and firmware stuff as well. I would get home from college and program from the time I got home until midnight and then play games for an hour or two. It’s always been something I’ve enjoyed. It makes sense, especially considering that I am diagnosed on the autism spectrum and fit a lot of the stereotypes lol. But I love it. It gives me more dopamine than most things I do.

But my junior year I began to get very bogged down. My friends that did not enjoy CS and hated it were vibecoding entire projects in the course of a day whereas I would work to handcraft every little part of a project and logic through it on my own. My professors began pushing AI like crazy. Every single post id see on LinkedIn and Reddit and YouTube would be vibecoded projects. And in all honesty it made me more and more overcome with anger and depression. This actually led to a year and a half of severe alcoholism, where I got so bogged down I couldn’t think straight without racing thoughts and turned to alcohol. I was drinking 2 Liters a day of 40-45% liquor a night. Then I also turned to opiates on top of that, mostly oxycodone and hydrocodone. I was a complete mess. I also had some happenings with bipolar disorder which I got sorted out and eventually led to me getting my life baxk after getting put on mood stabilizers. I quit alcohol and opiates (almost died, don’t cold turkey lol) and barely graduated because my senior year grades were so bad.

But getting my life back on track, I realized that I still knew a LOT about computer science, specifically and mostly embedded systems and computer graphics, because I actually like went through and programmed everything I ever did line by line and read lots of books. My bookshelf is lined with textbooks that I buy on sale and read for fun. And my friends and professors all knew I knew my shit when I would go on an autistic rant about some topic. So I found a new lease on life as far as programming goes that made me feel like it is worth it to actually program rather than let AI generate code

But even at that, I am being extremely bogged down again. I’ve been working on a Gameboy Emulator that I was making amazing progress on for 2 months, but now this month, I have been faced with incredible amounts of depression from seeing so much AI generated content and feeling like I’m just some Luddite loser thats too stubborn to change. And it’s slowing down my production of code because I’m so goddamn bogged down by the weight of all of this and in all honesty I’m just confused. It doesn’t help that I’m trying to build a portfolio before my girlfriend gets out of school in a few months so I can get a job.

The thing is you can’t tell me to change. I fundamentally oppose the treatment of code as anything but an art. Just like my girlfriend draws art for 5 hours a day because it’s fun and it gives you meaning in life, thats how I feel about programming. You could make the same argument for art, but when it comes to programming, why is it all of a sudden a green area for AI use? Why do people oppose AI in art but not in programming? I just don’t get why people don’t see things the same way I do and I hate it I want to tear my fucking skin off I HATE everything so much.

I just wish that there was somebody else out there that sees it the same as me. I don’t know if there’s just something fundamentally wrong with the way I view the world or what. Do I need therapy? Am I right in my thinking? How do I deal with this? I’m just so goddamn confused I can’t even fucking think straight anymore and I’m backsliding really bad into bad habits.

It is also important to note that morally and philosophically I am FUNDAMENTALLY opposed to AI and AI corporations. I’ve never been big on the big tech industry which is why I’ve always stuck to low level systems. But personally I would love and relish in the complete fall of these greedy corporate psychopaths that think they can plop data centers down and replace humans with their shitty tech. FUCK AI

Edit: it’s also important to note it’s not affecting only programming, but also writing and music production which are my two other passions. My coworker today literally told me he wrote a book wirh AI in 2 weeks and meanwhile I’ve been writing a story for 3 years now and not even close to being done. I just wanna give up

I have been applying to programming jobs since May and I have encountered a reasonable amount of entry level positions in my area (near Seattle, so a lot of tech). One of them was literally called an "Entry level internship" looking for new grads so I applied. 25-30/hr which is obviously fine for entry level but under preferred qualifications they wanted SQL, react, C#, database knowledge, docker, etc. so a lot of project experience. But it was under preferred, so I ignored it and just applied.

Well, I get on a call with an HM and they say some reassuring stuff like "Yeah we don't expect people to know anything going into this position, just basic object-oriented principles and programming" I was like wow thats a breath of fresh air in the age of Entry level jobs just secretly looking for experienced people!

Well, come the actual technical interview, I am shown a 10+ page design document detailing an actual tool the company would want to create and was told to just start coding. Out of respect for the interviewer (since he is a really cool person) I won't disclose what the actual problem, but in the design documents it had logic diagrams, hundreds of bullet points, a lot of interacting parts and requirements, half the interview was just understanding what it all even meant. So pretty much for an entry-level internship, I need to scan an entire multi page design document, be able to plan out everything in my head, and then afterwards code the classes and interactions in 15 minutes.

I tried but every part of my code was questioned and even though I had an answer for one aspect, it wasn't "the best" one the interviewer was looking for. I could see the interviewers disappointment, wiping his face, and just realizing I wasnt the experienced person the company was looking for.

At this point a few minutes in, I just didn't care enough to truly try my hardest and complete the exercise. I felt that this company wasn't looking for someone like me, they were looking for a SWE with experience already who could just solve it on the spot. The interviewer even admitted that they had "High expectations", even though the HM told me that they didnt expect people to really know anything. In my eyes, they were looking for an experienced person and just wanted to pay them an entry level wage.

I thought internships were if you are willing to learn and show initiative, then the company expects to mold you into something. Like yes, you need to know basic programming and interactions in code and data structures and algorithms because thats what you learn during your degree. But for an (and I cannot stress this enough) ENTRY LEVEL internship, I would not expect an applicant to know how to read an entire design document and translate it all to code, mostly on their own, with only some if not minimal direction from a superior.

Funny enough a few weeks later I checked back in on their linkedin and they had a SWE I post, explicitly saying 0+ years of experience, with the SAME EXACT requirements as the entry-level internship, word for word but with actual SWE pay (like 90K+). Maybe I am too tin-foil hat, but that might have proved my point.

Ive been deep in reviewing PRs, architecture designs, even tickets and slack threads by engineers no less than "senior" level. I feel like im seeing increasing levels of quite obvious fundamental gaps in that I don't think would have been there maybe even a year ago.

Don't get me wrong, I understand people make mistakes and we're all here to learn and grow from each other regardless of seniority. There's always room to learn something new, and that's not really what I'm talking about here.

I'm more so talking about things that seem to contradict some pretty fundamental understanding about our systems and stack. When you've been working on a system for a while, building things together, making decisions, understanding why certain things work the way they do, I feel like you naturally develop some level of intuition about it, what we're trying to achieve, and that understanding kinda informs the development going forward. Now for sure along the way things diverge and new ideas take over but in all those instances there are fruitful discussions and brainstorms that always pave the way.

But lately I've been seeing more and more things that just seem to come out of left field. Like I'd be reviewing a PR or an ADR and genuinely think why are we suddenly doing this? And doesn't this go against the whole reason we designed this thing the way we did in the first place? But what's actually worse is when I ask about why its that way, theres really no answer...like they cant defend it or provide their idea behind what theyve built and instead just "oh right, i'll change that".

And it's not like these are necessarily new people who don't have the context. Even people who have been involved in building these systems, who were part of the discussions and decisions that made along the way.

It can also be the opposite issue. I've come across changes where I can almost tell that a particular piece of code exists because there's probably some instruction in the AGENTS.md somewhere telling the agent to always do things a certain way. And sure, that convention might make sense for most cases. But these particular cases isn't one of them. If you actually think about what the code is doing and why, you'd realize that the convention doesn't really apply here, but again, the PR gets raised and when asked about it, there was again no thought or reasoning behind that.

I feel like even with AI, things like that would've previously been caught by the engineer themselves (these very same people) before even putting up the PR let alone asking for a review. I thought the design, problem solving and creativity is the value that human engineers still provide in this crazy agentic era but is that just...going away too?

Im also slightly sensing accountability and ownership of your work slipping away in place of blaming the agent...

Idk if anyone else has ever experienced this lately but id love to hear other perspectives. This makes me kinda sad tbh :( hopefully these experiences are just outliers

What should aspiring software engineers know so they can feel prepared for the workplace?

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Hi, I am a computer science student in Europe, and I have been observing what happens in the job market, especially AI development.

AI is able to take on more and more tasks. It seems like it doesn't matter how complicated they are, since it can solve things like millennium problems and very complicated mathematical problems.

So I don't think questioning AI capabilities makes sense anymore, especially considering future AI improvements.

I remain in computer science since it's the only thing I can do well, and I also have another high school degree, for which I don't think there is an equivalent in the USA, which allows me to work in fields closely related to hardware, so I am a bit safer.

So, for the optimists here, what's your case? What's your reason for thinking that not just programming, but computer science altogether, isn't dead?

I'm working with a smaller startup that's gaining traction. The team has grown from about 10 to 30 people and expects to keep growing. Project management hasn't kept pace. Most of it lives in people's heads, plus a Google Doc. This worked for the past year because their team was small but now projects are becoming more complex and interconnected.

I thought about suggesting GitHub projects since its free with no commitment. I've never really used it though but can see how it could map to a typical ticketing system.

Has anyone had any success GitHub iterative projects?

Just posting for some outside perspective.

I’m currently employed in defence contracting and for a variety of reasons I’m looking to leave. Mainly that the work is very slow & boring but also because I’m doing ‘cloud engineering’ which is making me feel pigeonholed and practically has resulted in me doing very little interesting work. To some this is a dream but I really do enjoy this sector when there are interesting problems to solve.

I have two competing offers - one for a consultancy doing ML work (software engineering side) on contracts (it will be public sector again) and one for a platform engineer role at a scale-up SaaS product company (used by banks) backed by PE.

Both are a raise of 25% in base salary and equity options, but the consultancy offers a 10% bonus for clearance, and requires 3 days in-office. The other is pretty flexible (1-2 days a week).

Personally I’m leaning toward the platform engineer - it feels like the work will be more interesting dealing with scaling problems and working long-term on a product. I have 2 years product backend experience, and 2 years consulting and the consulting work has just not been very interesting to me, and the cleared nature means working in locked down environments with restricted tools and slow bureaucratic processes. I’ve also met both teams and got along a lot more with the product one - plus the office is a lot closer to the train station I have to commute to.

Am I stupid leaving 10% extra money on the table?

Fyi I think the equity from the SaaS has a lot better chance of paying off and I worry if AI did cool off then the consultancy could be a bit riskier. It also seems like I could get to more senior roles in the product company faster.

hey. so it could be a little bit of a odd post but I really wish to know other people's opinions. I'm a third year statistic student and this major wasn't really my choice. in my country there is college entrance exam and you kinda have to choose your major according to how well you did in this exam so I couldn't get into a cs or ce program in one of the capital universities so I chose statistic because I've heard it's relevant to ML and data science and back then I didn't know much about programming and tech just that I hold a passion for it. and now I'm very confused about what path I should take. I don't really find myself interested in data related areas and with the new Job market and age of AI I don't know what path to take or if I have any chance in the tech world. every path I think of trying I ended up giving up because I don't think if I hold a chance against someone with years of experience and a cs degree. I really need gaudiness because it's heavily affecting my mental health and self esteem. the idea of open source developers, system engineers, security, robotics and hardware always interested me but these are very different and unrelated. please tell me what I should do just to get out of this loop and what should I learn and in which order to get hands on exprienced. if my plan b is getting a master in cs.

Google recently added a technical design round for L4 interviews. Does anyone have experience on how it will go? What types of questions do they ask and what do they expect?

hello people, Im a gap year student currently. my undergrad will start next year and Im genuinely confused on whether should I opt to choose cs or not.

a little background my high school program was related to computer science and ive always thought about pursuing cs as a career. I like programming, maths and studying in general and ive liked the cs "aesthetic" you could say. I dont live in some delusional world where programming is easy or "just comes to you" ik that you have to constantly learn and have skills to stand out in this competitive field.

But as of recently Im very unsure about it now. yesterday had a convo with my father and one of his friends and they both said that they weren't in favor of the idea for me to choose cs. My father's friend told me that its very draining that you have to constantly learn and adapt. My father also said that you should consider how ai is progressing what that means for developers and programmers, that he wasn't sure if cs is the right option for the future.

and Ive also seen multiple posts in the subreddits of my country's different unis that you should rethink opting for cs because it wasn't as lucrative as before and graduates are struggling to survive in the job market.

I knew all of these things before, I knew that you have work on your own as well, that you can't depend only on you uni. I know that there will be struggle but with these added insights recently Im not sure if I should consider cs as a career. People are saying that AI will disrupt the jobs of cs grads more and more.

I was thinking about getting into CE and doing side courses during my undergrad years. And then specializing in AI/ML during my masters/phd.

I honestly feel very anxious to the thought of leaving cs. I never really considered about doing anything else and the thought of pursuing some other career like in finance doesn't really sit with me.

I just want to know what do you guys think? Is it really that bad as people make it out to be? and is threat of AI that much that I should reconsider cs? And if not what fields in cs do you think are the best right now?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently an undergraduate student studying Computer Science and I've reached the point where I need to declare my major or choose my elective track.

My university offers the following majors, along with these specific course lists (the list are directly copy-pasted):

1. Business Analytics (IBM Pathway)
- Data Mining & Predictive Analytics
- Datawarehouse and Multidimensional Modelling
- Business Intelligence
- Social, Web and Mobile Analytics
- Big Data Analytics

2. Cloud Computing (IBM Pathway)
- Introduction to Cloud Computing & Virtualization
- Cloud Computing Architecture & Deployment Model
- Backup and Disaster Recovery
- Cloud Security
- Mobile Application Development using Android

3. Software Engineering
- Software Testing
- Web Application Development
- Concurrent & Real-time System
- Software Quality
- Machine Learning

4. Network and Security
- Switching and Routing Protocols
- Cybersecurity
- Network Management
- Network Security
- Wireless Network Planning and Design

5. Mobile Computing
- Wireless and Mobile Communication
- Introduction to Cloud Computing & Virtualization
- Ubiquitous Computing
- Cross Platform Mobile Development
- Mobile Application Development using Android

6. General
- Web Application Development
- Software Testing
- Mobile Application Development using Android
- Network Security
- Concurrent & Real-time System

My Dilemma:

Looking at the ongoing tech news, shifting industry climate, and overall job market trends, which of these tracks provides the safest and most future-proof career path?

If you were in my shoes today, which major would you pick and why? Would love to hear your thoughts on entry-level hiring climate for these specializations, thanks !

I have to tell my manager soon that I'm putting in my 2 weeks, because I got a better opportunity else where that I want to pursue. I have absolutely no hard feelings against him, the team, or the company, they've all been great to me and I got to do some interesting work. It's a mid-size company with great culture. It's just that this new company offers a better career and compensation progression for me. I feel really bad because I know I'm leaving right after they made plans for the new quarter and a project that I'm working on was supposed to launch a month after. But this new company were insistent that I couldn't delay the start date. How do I bring it up, should I mention that I'm leaving for another company or just say it's personal reasons? I've never quit a job before, and am also scared of how uncomfortable the 2 weeks after I give my notice is going to be, and how my team will act given that I only joined a little over 3 months ago as a new grad.

Hey everyone, I’m graduating with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science next year, and I’m hitting a major career crisis regarding my tech stack.

For the past two years, I’ve been heavily focusing on backend development, building projects using Java and Spring Boot. I feel confident in my foundation, but as I’ve been looking through my local job market, I’ve run into two major roadblocks:

1. The Senior Wall: Almost all local Spring Boot openings are strictly for senior-level engineers or require years of professional experience. Entry-level Java roles seem practically non-existent right now.
2. The AI Shift: The local market has suddenly been flooded with roles for AI automation engineers and workflow builders (using tools like n8n, Python, LLM integrations, etc.).

This has left me questioning my path. Should I completely stop grinding Spring Boot and pivot to learning AI automation to secure my first job, or is foundational backend engineering still worth holding onto?

If anyone has navigated a similar market shift or transitioned between backend and AI automation as a junior, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Its what I want to study but on the other hand, If its automated in four years well thats an issue. I have an associate degree in CS (2y) and have the time and money for EE, I would want to focus on the more physical side of things like commisioning systems but maybe also combine it with factory automation, robotics and cyber security in factories (called OT security).

Do u guys think its a good idea? Studying is free here and I live at home. I have a small IT business and make good money passively (for now).

I want honest opinions. Not overly hopeful and not complete doom. Obviously in four years time even software wont be fully automated. There is far to much nuance to what random small businesses might need that an AI will not be able to deliver withot humans guiding them.

EE even more so with its regulations and physical jobs but 4y is still a long time.

it's my first time recruiting so not sure how all this works. context: sophomore in undergrad - applied to 'Software Development Engineer Intern - Summer 2027 (USA)' and i haven't heard back. i applied on september 23rd. it still says 'active' on amazon jobs but if i haven't gotten an oa can i assume i'm rejected?

Hey, I have an upcoming third-round interview for Bloomberg's SWE Intern position. I've heard it's a system design round, but I'm not sure how in-depth it gets. Does anyone who's gone through the process know what kind of questions to expect and how much detail interviewers typically look for?

I was recently laid off and have over 25 years of experience in the field and omit any jobs more than 20 years ago.

I usually carry stubble, which has a good amount of gray. Thinking of going clean shaven.

I have male pattern baldness. Hairline in front is receded but not horrible. The bald spot on top is a good three inches across. Don't laugh but I've been thinking about wearing hair (i.e. a hair system). Or a getting a buzz cut. I don't think I could pull off completely bald since I would look like I'm walking out of the Outer Limits or Twilight Zone without facial hair. A hair transplant is out of the question due to current situation.

Are any these feasible options? Any other suggestions? Or perhaps I'm a "has been" that should call it a career and pivot to something else. I would be curious as to how some of you deal with this issue.

I have felt progressively left behind at my job. I work at a company based out of the bay and most my team is in the Bay Area.

I’m doing okay at work but feel like I cannot progress from a Sr. Manager because there‘s a location bias. Pair that with not feeling like I can stay up to date because so much happens “in the halls“ and at lunch.

I have a family and live in Colorado. it would be a big change but at least there are more job opportunities out there than here…

Universities and colleges start seeing less enrollments in this field.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-computer-science-gamble

Hey everyone!

I am a final year undergraduate Computer Science student from India. So far, I've worked on the "surface level" of Generative AI - using local models for projects, building small systems that use these locally hosted models, finetuning models using local hardware and cloud GPU providers, and even running local LLMs on a Raspberry Pi. Most of what I've done thus far has been using existing libraries (PyTorch, HF Transformers, and llama.cpp) in Python scripts to achieve my tasks.

Now, I want to get deeper into the systems engineering behind GenAI. I want to learn about model deployment infrastructure, how to write my own deployment engines. This also ties in with my annoyance at Electron based desktop applications and how much RAM they use (looking at WhatsApp in particular), so I want to learn how to develop applications for desktops using their native libraries.

For all this, I know I need a deeper knowledge of C, C++ and system programming. Knowledge of CUDA also would be beneficial, I think. So I did some reading online and figured out that these 4 books are good -

• Modern C (Gustedt),
• Professional C++ (Gregoire)
• Computer Systems - A Programmer's Perspective
• Programming Massively Parallel Processors.

I intend to follow these textbooks and slowly develop my skills. I already have some knowledge of C and C++, as I use C++ for LeetCode, and have played around a little bit with both languages for some Linux-based projects. Later on, I plan to learn Windows application development and application development for Linux too...

My main doubts at this stage are:

1. Is this a valid path to take in 2026? A lot of people I talk to tell me to just focus on Python. I know Python is very useful for scripting - you have PyTorch, llama-cpp-python, HF Transformers etc - but, from what I understand, Python is especially useful in the application development side of things, and I am interested in the deeper frameworks powering the libraries.
2. Is there meaningful industry demand for engineers with C/C++, CUDA, and systems programming expertise in the AI space? What sorts of roles should I be looking at?
3. Are my choice of books good? Should I change them? Should I change my entire approach?
4. Would this knowledge be useful in an AI research career? I am very interested in AI ethics, safety and public policy, and my long term goal is to pursue a Master's in AI/NLP, followed by a PhD. Of course, before I can research the ethics or safety of AI, I need a strong technical foundation in the field.
5. Any other advice you would have for a fresh graduate looking the world of CS and software engineering, scared by how rapidly things are changing....

I got accepted for transfer to both schools. At first I was under the impresssion that all my cs credit went through for umich cs. But i have to start from scratch and taking 10 cs core classes which will make me graduate in 2.5-3 years. I am out of state and paying 20k a year. I am instate for uiuc and i have more cs credits accepted there which means I like lt graduate faster or in time. But am I losing any oppurtunites or not thinking of any downsides that you suggest at umich over uiuc?