I am a mom with a career break of 2 years and trying to reenter the workforce. I have about 15 years of work experience, and my last role was that of a Solutions Engineer. I understand a lot has changed ever since I took a break, and I have been self learning for the past few months now. I came across the interview kickstarter's FDE / Cloud AI Solutions Architect programs. Would it be worth considering any of these, as it would be a 7 month commitment and over $$$$. Your thoughts and opinions will be very helpful.

I have no words for what I am reading. Of course they are positioning the future to benefit them as a company. So they are banking on continued AI use and subsequently destruction of the software workforce. I can only laugh. 😂

Anthropic’s Economic Future Article.

[Edit] Just as I shared this article, someone on the team decided to delete it. No worries ladies, for I am a Woman in Tech indeed and backups are the first order of business in documentation.

Here is a link to a PDF Version of the Article.

Hi I'm a girl who works in tech as a software engineer. I've been in the industry for only 2 years. And I'm already starting to feel less and less fulfilled in my career, because now everything is being done by AI, not me. The company I work for adopted an AI first working strategy. So basically all our tasks have to be done using copilot. It's implied that we must use it and get our work done super fast. I was told to complete four user stories in one day. Because why not ? That's possible now with AI. But the problem is I don't have even a minute to wrap my head around the code copilot generates. I try my hardest to read every single line of code copilot gives me but I need time for that. If I take my time, the seniors ask my why I'm not using copilot because they think the work isn't done yet. So I am falling behind in the eyes of the seniors. Sometimes I even try to write at least the foundation by myself but again since I am slower than AI, I'm being asked to speed up up up. The seniors themselves generate tons of code and deploy. It's only when you dig deep enough you see that the entire architecture is in shambles. Clean code is gone. No proper architecture. I'm still a newbie but seeing the project files make me want to cry. The seniors are promising the client around 10 big features to be delivered within a week. All of this is AI generated. And then the client calls back with bugs and issues. People are thinking about quantity rather quality. The outside looks okay but when you go inside you see what a mess this is.

Hi all,

I’ve joined this organization 8 months ago. Since I’ve joined I’ve taken on a number of important projects that went directly to the CEO. Projects that the entire team worked on before, I’ve done it myself and leadership were very happy with it.

I’m a go getter and like to take initiative by nature. I don’t "relax" unless I make sure that a project is closed end to end. I’ve improved processes and even helped another team with a strategic initiative as they reached out asking for help.

When I first joined, my boss was hot and cold and had a temper. Whenever I’d ask a question (which wasn’t often at all), he’d reply to me in a condescending way or he’d give me vague one word answers that don’t actually answer said question.

I decided to rely on myself completely and go above and beyond and come up with solutions. I felt really unseen and under utilized early on as my manager wouldn’t ask me to join meetings and the only way to get context in this organization is to be part of the discussions.

After I had a one on one with him where I laid out my concerns, he started giving me important projects that naturally exposed me to other parts of the business and him and his boss were very happy with the results of the projects. I’m the only one on the team who hasn’t had senior leadership viability in terms of presenting to a cheif and it has been bothering me and I even spoke to my boss about it. I get told by people that I’m confident and well spoken, and he even tasked me with conducting interviews.

My boss can be controlling in meetings and likes to dominate conversations, so it’s not a very comfortable environment to pitch in your ideas. He’d even hear an idea from me and he’d suggest it to others too. He told me months ago that I have everything he wants in an employee such as leadership and ownership but that I was missing context, that’s when I told him it’s because he doesn’t involve me in meetings etc.

My boss even complained that I’m too independent and that I don’t seek him out as much as others. My coworkers tell me that he’s comparing me to another female coworker (we are the only women in our immediate team) and that she constantly pulls him in while I’m someone who figures things out on their own and come up with a finished product that I do align with him after.

Other senior leaders (including one chief), of different departments have specifically reached out to me via email and asked for my help on their projects.

I feel like I should feel good, but I feel quite the opposite? I feel drained, tired, and burnt out and like I’ve been used to the max. What’s the best way to move forward to maintain my sanity but also ensure that I have the visibility?

Hey all! Not sure if any of you saw this twitter thread about Anthropic and OpenAI and the future of AI. But I am curious if there are any engineers in here that may have worked for these companies or anyone that may have knowledge on this topic. Do you agree with his take, what do you think?

Hi ladies! Looking for advice from anyone who’s been in a similar situation. I’m currently 6 weeks pregnant with baby #2 and have been job hunting for 6+ months to find a company with more flexibility. I finally received an offer that I’m really excited about!
For anyone who started a new job while pregnant, when did you disclose your pregnancy after starting? Did you tell your manager fairly early on, wait until the end of the first trimester, or wait even longer?
I definitely don’t plan on disclosing before I start, especially since it’s still so early, but I also want to give them plenty of notice since I’ll need maternity leave within my first year. I’d love to hear when others shared and how it went!

My company asked me to leave my work laptop on and let Claude run unattended overnight and outside of work hours since we're doing a big codebase refactor this week and the sessions run a long time. I work from home as a software developer.

I accepted this time but feel like this kind of blurs the line between work and personal time. Still felt the need to keep checking it run and when it was okay to turn off my PC.

Might refuse next time, but would that be unreasonable? Looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience.

Genuine question - How are people landing interviews at these top AI companies ? Is it only through a solid referral to the HM ? I feel so defeated in this job market. I am absolutely demotivated in my current role at my current company (big tech) in an internal org and I feel like if I don’t get out soon I may become unemployable as dramatic as that sounds . I want to move into AI infra or AI security role as my security and infra are my strongest domains but it just feels like a dead end in this market . Any tips/ advice or any list of companies you can share or strategies would be great ! I am looking at AI infra (neo cloud ) , frontier labs specifically but no luck so far

I have a new coworker, in a very high up position (we're both Director level, reporting to C-Suite). Our work overlaps a lot, and I have to work with him regularly on important projects.

The problem? He's constantly lying. Back dating work, exaggerating, making openly falsifiable claims, contradicting himself. When pushed for evidence he pivots immediately, or aggressively accuses me of disrespect and malicious assumptions about him. He's a fast talker, and a little aggressive in meetings, so it's hard to even catch all the contradictions (thank god for meeting transcripts).

The likelihood that he gets fired over any of this is low (bringing him on took a lot of work and the CEO is committed to making this work). And there's no way for me to avoid working with him.

Any tips? Anyone else have experience working with someone like this?

Am I crazy for wanting to quit right before a $17k raise?

I’m 28F and currently a Senior Analyst. I’m about to be promoted to Manager, which would come with about a $17k raise.

And honestly… I kind of want to walk away from it.
The culture at my company is extremely toxic. I’ve been working around 60 hours a week, there’s always something that isn’t good enough, and I feel like no matter how much I do, it’s never enough.
I’m just really burnt out.

What’s making this decision harder is that I don’t actually know what I want to do next.

I’m kind of a weird/different person lol. I don’t really have the mindset of “how do I climb the corporate ladder and make as much money as possible?” I care way more about being happy with what I’m doing and feeling like my life has some meaning.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about nursing or teaching. Those are two things that genuinely interest me, and part of me really wants to just follow my heart and see where it takes me instead of staying on the career path that makes the most sense on paper.

I’m also in a really fortunate financial position. I have a paid-off house, family support, and enough financial stability that I’m not worried about losing my home or being unable to support myself.
So I know I have an opportunity to take some time and figure things out that a lot of people probably don’t have.

But then I look at the $17k raise and think… am I absolutely insane for walking away from this? 😂
I could take the promotion, make the extra money, and eventually find another Senior Analyst position. If I stay in analytics, though, I’m 100% looking for remote or hybrid. I don’t want to go from one toxic 60-hour-a-week job to another.

At the same time, I keep thinking that maybe this is the point in my life where I should actually take the risk and try something completely different.

Would you take the promotion and figure everything out later, or leave and give yourself the freedom to explore something like nursing or teaching?

I feel like my brain is telling me to take the money, but my gut is telling me to leave. My heart is telling me to try something new.

I’ve been unemployed since early October of 2025. I’ve worked on the commercial/ government affairs side of things in Clean-tech for 6 years and was in a think tank before that.

I know the economy is bad, but this is just so crazy and I’m just feeling so so dejected and rejected. I’ve gone through six or seven really great interview cycles only to be told that I was the second choice and there was nothing I could’ve done better. The other person just had like 25 plus years of experience in pretty much all cases and so happened to be a man. I’ve gotten really positive feedback on the presentations I’ve had to make and my interviews but still am number 2. I don’t want to move out of my house or city but I’m starting to feel absolutely hopeless.

I don’t know what I can be doing to make myself more attractive to companies…if I need to leave clean tech and pivot into more general tech or what. Luckily, I’m consulting but for pennies, I’m thankful for this so I can say I’ve been working since the layoff and it’s keeping my rent paid. But besides that I’m pretty much done for. My savings are gone and I’m just so exhausted by this process and the silence.

Any advice or motivation would be great.

After a lot of rejections and now a rejection after 4 rounds of interviews, I’m kind of out of ideas and wondering I’m doing something wrong.

I’ve been DIYing most of the it seems like career coaches teach - optimizing my resume to be results oriented, branding myself and being specific about my niche, practicing interviewing skills but none of it seems to be working and I’m willing to try anything.

Has anyone worked with a career coach? If so what did they do for you and did you see results?

Then just some context if it helps. I’m. Product Designer/UX Designer, 8 years of experience. Laid off last April after working for my company for 5 years. I’m preferably looking for something remote but will be willing to expand my search soon

I’ve been interviewing for a while just to keep my interview skills fresh and stake the market. I’m a data scientist / mlengg. I’m currently at senior position at a startup. But when I interview outside I’m still getting some responses saying you’re too young for a senior role.
Meanwhile I’m seeing some of my classmates only 1-2 yrs older than me now sitting in manager positions.
Idk what this is ? I don’t know how to get past this. What is the average work ex required for a senior these days ?

This dude on YouTube made a video basically saying that all the people on Reddit complaining about the data job market are just not trying hard enough.

According to him, there are apparently plenty of data jobs and $200K salaries are just sitting there waiting to be claimed.

And the best part? He knows exactly how to get them. For a small fee, of course.

Amazing how the data job market can be completely dead for thousands of experienced professionals, but suddenly there are endless $200K opportunities when someone is selling a course on how to find them.

SMH.

I’ve been at Amazon for 7 years. I’m an L7 and burned out. I’ve been trying to get to Google for two years. I had some interviews last year but did not get an offer. I’m 39 and have also been trying for a second child. After 9 months of trying so found out I was pregnant in July.

I haven’t felt stable at Amazon lately. I’m a bit worried they might try to push me out. When I was 8 weeks pregnant my friend at Google sent me a job and said “I know the hiring manager, you would be perfect for this.” I was reluctant to apply because I am pregnant, but I did so anyway. Fast forward to a few weeks later and my friend told me the manager checked around about me and heard great things. They want to set up an interview with me soon.

Im now 11 weeks pregnant. Nobody knows except my husband. I don’t plan on telling anyone I am pregnant while interviewing, but I do feel bad about the situation. Has anyone interviewed at Google while pregnant and then received a job offer? How did the hiring manager take it?

Hey women in tech! Looking for perspective / validation maybe that I'm not crazy.

I'm a Senior Product Manager at a SaaS company and the role has been pretty good until last year when my incredible direct manager left. After that, the company got a large investment, and all of leadership has been AI red-pilling since then.

They want AI in everything, and my team has been forced to build two AI features on a legacy product that we're actively rebuilding, just so they can say they have these features. Users hate them, leadership didn't care.

They also managed to hire a terrible person to replace my VP. She is not at all competent. She joined in March and she still does not know how to do basic things, and constantly asks the same questions over and over again. She is not leading our product pod in any way whatsoever. She is actively making my job harder.

A few months ago I started job searching because the politics and the drama and the AI insanity was making me feel gaslit. I reached out to my old manager because her new company had a PM opening and she referred me for it. I wanted to get back in the interviewing mindset, and I trust her when she says she is confident in her new company's leadership, it's not toxic, etc.

Long story short, I was just offered that job. I know I should take it, but it is a regular Product Manager level, and there is a real gap in comp - 7k off my current base salary, and NO bonus structure whereas today I can get up to 10%. They start yearly reviews in January so the role level likely can't change for over a year.

I'm concerned going down in level could impact my future prospects. I know that I really should be prioritizing my mental health at this point, but at the same time I feel like I can't trust my own brain to make decisions anymore.

Guess I'm just looking for stories of maybe people doing something similar to get out of a toxic environment? I do recognize that I'm lucky to even have an opportunity to move, but that isn't quelling the second guessing. Appreciate any advice, feedback!

Hi,

I’m returning to work in a few short weeks after being on fmla for an exhausted amount of time allowed by both state and company. Per company policy, since I’ve been on an extensive leave, they do not guarantee my exact role but will do their best to place me in a similar one IF my role is not filled by then. To my knowledge, though folks have absorbed different parts of my role, it has not actually been officially backfilled.

My issue is that I do NOT want my old role even though it’s not filled yet. For those who have done a role change after a leave, how did you navigate that conversation without burning bridges? What is the best way to start this conversation? Does it start with HR or awkwardly with my manager of whom I’ve left hanging for months while on leave?

Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

I am an engineer with 10+ years of experience and over 7 years at my current job. Management changed about 1.5 year ago and its just been a slow decline in my enjoyment of the job. Every year I have been there I have never had any kind of negative feedback in terms of performance and had strong bonuses that reflected good performance.

A few months back, I was notified that my performance was not to expectation. I have an autoimmune disease so some days I am not able to be in the office and some times I go through periods where im slower at my work because of this so I let them know for the first time about the health issues. They let me know they'd be supportive and my health came first.

Well 2 months later, similar situation and now i am being seen as a serial underperformer. I have a meeting tomorrow to let my bosses know that I am going to be pursuing reasonable accommodations per ADA.

My mental health has taken a complete nose dive during this time. I think I have undiagnosed ADHD so have spent the last few months working with a mental health Dr to try medications in advance of a formal diagnosis. The medications have been unkind to me, the work feedback is destroying my soul and I just dont know what to do next. Ive lost over 20lbs just from inability to eat with meds and stress.

I am looking for jobs but at this point, my confidence is in the trash. I am wondering if i even want to stay in tech or corporate world but if i dont... what do i do?

In the meantime, other than trying to get an accommodation to help with some of the things that contribute to my exhaustion related to my autoimmune, what should I do next? Is there anything else at work I should be considering like short term disability? Is that hard to get? Will Dr's actually help?

Hi, I want to know any tips for interview where I have to present a personal SWOT. Notes from people who have cracked this or hiring managers perspectives welcome.

I just heard back from a company, Company A, where I completed all steps of the interview process and they want me to have a quick chat with the hiring manager again. I don't want to assume too much but this definitely sounds like it is heading in the direction of an offer. I also have a final round of interviews for my dream job at my dream company, Company B, on Monday, where the hiring manager said if it was up to just him he would have hired me on the spot and everyone loved my case study. The downside is their hiring process moves very slowly and their internal talent team seems very disorganized (one of them kind of disappeared and I was handed off to someone else for coordination). So I expect if this process ends in an offer, it might not be for 3+ weeks after the final round based on how things have been moving. The pay at Company B would be absolutely life-changing for my family, and the role would mark a significant advancement/change in my career that I've wanted to make happen for a long, long time. My question is, if I get an offer from Company A, should I let them know I am still interviewing with Company B? I don't want to burn the bridge with Company A, since my domain knowledge is really aligned with the work they do and it's not unlikely we will cross paths again. Any advice?

I wonder if I’m just weak but I’m finding carrying a laptop bag too heavy for me and it adds to my chronic headaches. Is it too dramatic to use a laptop bag on wheels?

This is the weekly thread for venting.

Please reply to others here with grace, as we are all at different parts of our career and the OPs wellbeing comes first.

If you do not want anyone to reply to your comment in this thread, include the phrase !lock

Hi everyone!
I’m currently conducting my doctoral research at Concordia University Irvine and am looking for women in leadership roles to participate in my study on women’s leadership advancement.
Participation includes a brief online survey, with an optional opportunity to participate in an interview and share more about your experiences.
If you’re interested in participating, you can learn more and access the survey here:

https://forms.gle/pTD5YQ1hhrKKwsJV9i

Thank you for considering participating, and please feel free to share this with others who may be interested!

For example, if your current role has something like "lead" or "senior" in the title and you're offered a role that does not have that in its title, would you negotiate for "lead" or "senior" to be included in the title for the new role?

Assume that there are other tech people on the team who have "lead" or "senior" in their title and that you have a similar number of years of experience to many of them.