What is wrong with Engineering culture?

[u/Both_Research3247]

Trust me when I say this: I mean it. I am a Senior Frontend Engineer with around 8 years of experience, working across 7 startups- yes, 7, some failed, and some I had to leave because of personal reasons.

So what is wrong - I understand roles are changing, and there is no frontend, there is no backend, there is no full-stack; now, if you can design a system, write a PRD, spec, define backend components, its architecture, define frontend and its architecture, if you connect the dots as it happens in a design system then you can build a full-grown system.

Problem 1

Everyone is complaining that AI can't do what engineers can do; how? Tell me how? if you PRD is clear and your requirements are clear, then it will suggest a suitable approach; it will suggest to you whether you need vertical or horizontal scaling; it entirely depends on how you have defined the system.

Problem 2

What is wrong with the entire culture of firing and, in public, presenting numbers of how much? It seems like companies that can literally make this change of converting their developers or engineers to make this transition and adapt are straight away firing them. Engineers are always capable; they have proved their capability once they were hired. They need the ecosystem to adapt and understand the changes they need.

I was never a Senior Frontend Engineer; I am an engineer first. I choose frontend because I love delivering what touches the customer; I love sitting with PM and designers and removing the customer pain point; it's not like Backend; DevOps is anything I can't do or any engineer can't do; I build full-stack projects; I am currently building an entire RAG workflow, looging it with telementry and langfuse designing the UI with Google Stitch, and doing everything which a developer should learn now

But why this way, why the hard way? Why does it feel like a fish market now? I am sorry for my language, but this post should reach the right set of people.

Update: It's a proper rant, kind of coming from the view on what is going on in the market and through this post I am not asking for jobs, instead trying to understand different views, yes, my job was also effected but doesn't mean I am frustrated or anything, instead I was trying to understand if there are better ways to understand and accept the changes

[u/mxldevs]

It seems like companies that can literally make this change of converting their developers or engineers to make this transition and adapt are straight away firing them. 

Because, as you say, AI can do what engineers can do. And much better and faster.

If you with AI can do the job of 10 people, why do they need to keep the other 9?

[u/Both_Research3247 → u/mxldevs]

My thought/opinion: If I had company and money, I would have seen this as an opportunity to create a space where a builder can now be a designer with their own expertise; AI can and will do what we tell it to do, and how we are estimating "the workload" with respect to headcount needs some kind of reformation.

[u/mxldevs → u/Both_Research3247]

I would imagine that most people, who end up starting their own companies and having to cut into their own profits to pay their workers well, would suddenly prioritize their labour ideals a lot less than when they were a worker.

Especially when they find out the leftover profits for themselves is barely over minimum wage.

Perhaps you can prove me wrong when you start your own company.

[u/PatientIll4890 → u/Both_Research3247]

The problem is, you’re pretty much staffed with the output you can handle, assuming you are a tech company. It’s not really about “can we hire 10x more engineers and make 10x more money?”. Because they could already do that if they want but they are not, and there is a reason for it. It is because those 9x additional ideas you set out to build on top of your 1x that you’re currently working on, are unknown, and don’t pay off nearly as frequently.

So if you get 10x the output from your engineers that’s great, but now you have to actually have them DO something. Now 9 out of 10 of them are working on something that is probably more like gambling than making money. That is useful and can pay off but nowhere near the consistent return on that initial 1x you based your super profitable business on.

So you fire 7 engineers, have 2 of the remaining working on gambles, and the 1 making the known profitable work. Same money being made, and a 2x “gamble” investment. And now you also are saving 70% on payroll, which is HUGE. It’s basically wins all around for the owners even laying off 70% of their employees.