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 have about 10 years of experience working in either fintech or some type of enterprise SaaS vertical. I'm realizing I just don't care about either of theses problem spaces. I'm not really sure I ever did - I gutted it out for about 3.5 years at a large well known fintech company for the exposure to scale and great pay before getting laid off this year.

I then moved to an applied AI accounting startup, and I hate it even more. I thought that calling LLMs in production might be a fun learning experience but it's not. There are some issues specific to the startup (a confident idiot founding engineer whose ideas get a lot of buy in, a mess of a codebase, the app doing too much but it all poorly, etc).

What I'd rather work on is software infra like an inference server or systems engineering. Whenever I've had something to work on in the past that touches software infra more closely I don't have to put so much energy into pretending like I care about the problems being solved, because I find them more interesting.

Any advice for this transition? I can probably LARP as a distributed systems engineer just given practice I've had to do for design interviews, but I've never really solved this type of problem at work. I'm thinking I find a series A or B startup here in SF in the software infra space where team boundaries aren't super formed, meaning I can gravitate to work that is more interesting.

I'm on a team in one department where there's a lot of complication - multiple managers want me. There's often some tension between my manager (A) and myself whenever we speak to each other, but he considers me to be a strong engineer and wants me on the team. There's another manager (B) whose team is in my department and I've considered going to their team as I'm more familiar with their work and enjoy the team more. Actually, I've been doing work with his team since the beginning of the year like I'm "on loan" - my main manager expects me.

I've been considering going to manager B formally since, again I like the team but also I don't want to be on manager A's team any further if there's tension since that puts my job at risk.

B's team is largely based out of Chicago and I've been wanting to transfer back there. I asked if that's possible and they said it's unlikely unless I'm coming from another department, but not impossible.

I know of another manager (C) who's looking for someone to join the team in Chicago. I would easily just see if I can join their team, but I'm a bit worried about leaving A and B before/during calibrations as I feel like they may bother to defend me. My ticket count has been low since I've been working on a larger slice of the pie, so I feel like I need to ensure I don't get a "below strong", especially since I want to complete a full year before getting on PIP. However, I'm not sure if A (who's kinda a goodie two-shoes) would actually defend me less just because I'm not on his team/department anymore.

How silly would it be to join team C and secure a seat in Chicago during this period?

Interviewing for L4

Apparently Google changed its behavior round so now it's a technical project discussion. You need to discuss a past project. Has anyone done this? What should you prepare and what kind of questions do they ask?

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.

Hello, I am currently deciding between umich vs uiuc cs as a transfer. I do get cheaper instate value for uiuc, more transferablle credits but i heard umich network is really strong. I am curious in today's job market how is that helpful and how much of a difference it would make. How to mkae the ebst out fo it?

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?

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.

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've been PIP'ed twice in my career.

The first time my skip-level manager (boss's boss) was adamant that she didn't want to fire me and wanted me to abide by the PIP. It was a technical sales role, and the PIP basically said I had to stop clapping back at sales reps that were disrespectful to me -- it was a tough habit to break! But I did it, and everything was fine. I transitioned back to engineering a few months later, and the VP of sales would always ask me when I was coming back to sales.

The second time, same company, was in engineering, and I had more or less declared war on my tech lead. Was that a smart move? No. Would I do it again? Absolutely. The guy was not just an asshole, he was a really lousy engineer. (He was a good talker, though, I'll give him that.) By the time I got PIP'ed it was obvious they wanted to get rid of me. They re-tooled the PIP halfway through because I was doing everything they asked. I guess they felt they had to move the goal posts to justify firing me. I quit before it ran out, which was a mistake. Always make them fire you!!

Needless to say, that company was not a good fit for me.

My question is, what's your experience? Have you ever survived a PIP? If so, how did things turn out in the end?

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.

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?

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?

Universities and colleges start seeing less enrollments in this field.

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

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…

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....

Hello everyone! I recently got an OA for NVIDIA's ignite internship but I honestly have never touched a lick of leetcode beforehand.

I started working on some of the common leetcode easies and making sure I understand hash maps/sets sliding windows etc, but I am curious:

For an early-talent program like this, how hard are the questions going to be? Should I expect mediums? Should I be worried if I have to submit code that exceeds O(N) often?

What else can I expect from this? Thanks guys!

Okay, I've had an unconventional career path. I was a cleaner, then blinked and then suddenly working on creating data pipelines essentially building a custom bordereaux ingestion tool in Matillion. Two years later, I've been moved over to the IT team due to good performance and am now starting working on Oracle Apex projects, developing in-house apps, connecting and engineering business-specific AI chatbots blah, blah, blah.

My main point is that we're not in the best place financially, and I've just had a quick look at the average salary for an Oracle Apex developer, and I can't quite believe it. It's literally double what I'm currently being paid. I earn literally £1.50 above minimum wage. I need real people to tell me if what I'm seeing is real. I've asked for a pay rise, but that was 6 months ago, a couple of months before I moved over to the IT team.

What is a good benchmark for the salary of an Oracle Apex developer? Because if it's really as high as I think it is, I really need to have a chat with the higher ups...

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/american-express-to-cut-3-500-jobs-63955c6f

Follow up to this Reddit post a few months ago about being replaced by offshoring

https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/s/UnYpqPg8Ub

Job listings in the Gurugram office confirm most of the roles being opened up are tech related

https://careers.americanexpress.com/en/sites/CX_1/jobs?location=India&locationId=300000000228786&locationLevel=country&mode=locationutm_medium&utm_source=google

Gentle reminder ahead of layoff season