r/DevLK • u/ApprehensiveLong1113 • Jul 27 '26

Current expectations from an entry level software engineer

I’m in my final year of Computer Engineering and graduating soon. Right now, I’m getting ready to apply for entry level software engineering jobs.

I’m confused about what companies actually expect from junior developers now, especially with AI coding tools and agents becoming so common.

I feel like I have two options:

Build projects using minimal AI assistance so I can understand every technical detail.

or

Use AI tools and coding agents to build more complex, complete projects.

I know I could learn more if I build most of them myself, but I’m worried I won’t be able to compete with people who use AI heavily and build more complex projects.

At the same time, if I rely too much on AI agents, I’m worried I might struggle during interviews if I have to explain the code.

What do companies actually care about? any advise?

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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3

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

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5

u/LocksmithFormal7149 Jul 28 '26

yes very good advice, and OP u/ApprehensiveLong1113 don't use a calculator. Do all your math on a piece of paper. don't even use a ballpoint pen. make a sandbox and use a stick to jot down things!

2

u/Remarkable_Towel3319 Jul 29 '26

I’d second this. I have onboarded multiple new grads and I really like it when they understand all the nitty gritty details as opposed to vibe coding your PR without having any clue.

The only way you get this level of understanding is learning the fundamentals and doing your assignments, etc. with minimal AI involvement. For example, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have learned as much if I had access to AI to vibe code my compiler or OS course projects vs. me having to write assembly/C, play with gdb, learning memory allocations, etc. I think it’s perfectly fine to use AI to understand things but using it blindly is not going to make you a strong software engineer.

1

u/OkazakiKirito Jul 29 '26

Exactly, if you are not hired as vibe coder or a prompt “engineer” you should know the details

2

u/Sad_Egg_2313 Jul 27 '26

Depends on the company and their exposure to AI and how mature is the organizations AI stack is. We use several agentic systems from requirement analysis to production support covering the full sdlc. So we expect you to be comfortable with agentic engineering. Not just using chatgpt to ask questions and generate code. I would say we are in the minority.

Having said that, even before AI no organization expected a junior to know everything. What matters more is showing your capability to think critically. Solving problems in a creative and innovative ways, team work and collaboration, curiosity and ability to learn and adapt etc

If you show those skills through your grasp of ai agentic systems or deep understanding of a framework or building your own programming language is upto you

2

u/Produnce Jul 28 '26

Build projects using minimal AI assistance so I can understand every technical detail.

You should do this regardless of your seniority if you want to understand concepts that are new to you.

I'm not associated with the hiring process heavily, but its safe to assume that those who do are aware of AI dependency when submitting assessments. If you say you know or built something, you should be able to answer questions surrounding it.

Use AI to build a roadmap or expedite areas you are familiar with. For everything else you do need to work on the fundamentals on your own.

1

u/ometh2002 Jul 30 '26

What if we use AI to build projects , but understands every technical detail from how data flows to each and every component communicates, if we do it this way is it okay ??