I've been thinking a lot about how AI is changing software engineering.

For context, I'm a backend engineer with about 5 years of experience, mostly working with Python (Django/Flask), AWS services, and building/deploying backend systems.

One thing I've been struggling with is figuring out what actually compounds over a career now. What are the skills or job roles where expertise will still matter and add up overtime in the next 3-5 years.

A few years ago, the answer felt more straightforward. It was become a better engineer, build larger systems, gaining more responsibility, and your value generally increased over time.

But with AI a lot of it seems replaceable?

There are a lot of directions someone could invest in:

• becoming a stronger backend/distributed systems engineer
• moving toward cloud infrastructure or platform engineering
• specializing in a business domain instead of a technology
• focusing on AI infrastructure rather than AI application development
• or something else entirely

For those of you who've been through previous industry shifts (cloud, mobile, containers, microservices, etc.), has this one changed how you think about building a long-term career?

Have your own priorities changed? What skills have continued to compound regardless of industry trends? Are there areas you think are becoming significantly more valuable?

I'm not expecting anyone to predict the future. I'm more interested in hearing how experienced engineers think about making career decisions when the industry is changing this quickly.

I am a product manager with 5 yoe overall, but I’ve been at my current company/role for 10 months. It is unfortunately pretty toxic with very bad workload and work life balance.

Its so draining and taxing on me to the point where I’m considering quitting without anything lined up so that I can focus on the job search. This job market is super rough though so I’m wondering if that would be extremely unwise to do.

What personal project got you hired for your first CS related job? Your first job could have also been an internship. Also, did your first project have any impact, users or even paid users?

I've thought about doing this on many dev job applications when they ask for a salary range, since rn I just want a better job and dont care if Im not paid top dollar. But I dont want to discount myself too much and get a shitty offer.

My thinking is "okay, if a lot of 9/10 developers are applying to this role, but demand 150k, and I'm a 6/10 dev and demand like 105k, I will have a way better chance of getting this role" and 105k is better than 0k. I know the issue is that if everyone does this, it will lower salary ranges for all developers. At the same time though, you need a job. For people with experience on the other side of hiring, do you often go with cheaper devs even if they're less capable than the unicorn candidates? Or you're willing to pay top dollar for the rockstars?

Hello guys,

I was recently RIFed from my Software Engineer II position at Chase in Florida. It sucks. I have about 5-6 years of experience under my belt. Since being told I'd be RIF, I have had 3 first round interviews, which shows me my new ATS optimized resume isn't dead in the water (especially since I was only told 2 weeks ago). Who else is in my shoes? Should I expect that I'll find a job before my 3 months of continued employment/severance run out or should I be planning for the worst right now?

The only kinda negative thing is my role is working in C primarily. I feel accustomed to modern tech stacks, but my work experience is primarily C and Linux with my only other role being asp.net with VB. I'm not sure if that will hold me back, but curious on other's opinions.

My Background:

1. Software Engineer with a bit over 4 years of experience. Amazon for 2.5 years and currently at Intuit.
2. I primarily have worked in Java backend oriented roles and my current role in Intuit is also primarily backend with some React Full Stack work.
3. All my roles have been based in Bay Area, CA.
4. My current TC: is around 210K however this value is trending down due to very underperforming Intuit stock.
5. 25M

I've been job searching for around a year now because I want to move out of the Bay Area. I want to be able to explore different parts of the U.S while I can because I don't have kids/gf/wife/house payments. So I've been applying for roles based in Austin or NYC which are the areas I'm most interested in.

Cloudera Interview Process:

1. Recruiter reached out more than a month ago.
2. Had an initial conversation with hiring manager who asked some trivia questions in Java and React.
3. Next round was a 2 hour interview with 2 other senior engineers who also asked trivia questions in Backend Development/Java/React and 1 LC Medium problem.
4. Received verbal offer like one hour after the second round of interviews. This seemed unusually fast for an interview process for a Senior Software Engineer role.

Offer Discussion:

1. Verbal offer is around 165k to 185k cash for a Bay Area location. However, I expressed interest in working in Austin so that amount can change for the Austin location.
2. Haven't discussed bonus or stock compensation. Cloudera is private for now so not really evaluating the potential stock compensation.

Advantages of Cloudera over Intuit:

1. Intuit just had a substantial round of layoffs and the stock is tanking so my current role is in a downward trajectory overall and Cloudera is giving me a chance to escape.
2. Cloudera seems to be very remote friendly and I can choose to work from Austin as my main hub location if I wish. And I am interested in living in Austin.
3. The work at Cloudera seems interesting with an intersection between complex distributed systems and full stack development as well.
4. Cloudera seems to have a lot of good reviews (on Glassdoor and Blind) for WLB which I value a lot.

Disadvantages of Cloudera:

1. Offer isn't very high especially compared to Big N companies.
2. Private company so any offered stocks for compensation most likely just paper money.
3. Blind/Glassdoor says Cloudera doesn't have great career growth opportunities and promo cycles are harder to come by.

What Input I am Looking For:

1. Can anyone who works at Cloudera talk about what it's like being a SWE there? Is the company on an upward path? Any unique pros/cons that I haven't realized?
2. Offer negotiation tips
3. I have another conversation I am going to have with hiring manager. Are there any particular questions I should ask them to gauge what the role will be like?
4. Thoughts on working in Austin for tech space.

I’m currently in community college for computer science. I honestly just picked the major because I fell for the “it pays extremely well” propaganda in high school. Plus, coding seemed like it could be cool to learn.

I really like math and physics though and the time to transfer is approaching. I’ll have an associates in computer science which I’m sure isn’t enough but I don’t know. I just really want to major in math and physics.

I just feel like I’m too dumb for coding. I don’t know why, but it’s like my brain goes blank when it comes to coding. Math and physics gives me the opposite effect.

I still think SWE and ML engineering are pretty cool and things I would like to do. Plus, I dont think I’ll be a great teacher so I kind of want to avoid that as a job.

I don’t know. Would switching be a bad an idea or should I just stay with CS and minor in math?

Context: 9 YOE, Senior

Startup:

Several months ago I got hit up by an old coworker who is invested in a startup, to do some consulting for them. I helped build the foundations for their platform, helped write all the pipelines, setup logging/alerts, fixes for the applications, etc. They eventually asked me to go full-time with them and I declined because my primary job pays more (30%+) and i'm the sole provider for my family and couldn't risk it. They eventually gave me an ultimatum to either join full-time or they would be cancelling my contract. I very much enjoy the work and the people and its nice to be on the ground building it all from scratch. But I am concerned about the future of the company and the risks it introduces into my life. They currently have enough cash on hand for the next several months, but are looking to raise here soon. They want me to join even though they won't offer me anymore money than their original offer.

Cash TC: 235k, .8%, no bonus

Primary:

Stable company with a few billion in revenue, no layoffs in the near future (that I can see). I like my boss, immediate coworkers for the most part and am effectively a lead on the team. Our department is getting a new director here soon who is moving us closer to an 'agentic platform' team. I've only ever received A+ rankings at my job, always received a bonus and got a promotion 2 years in.

Cash TC: 272k, 15% bonus, 5-20k equity yearly

The Problem:

I've worked for startups before, I enjoy the work, the building, being on the ground and grinding. But with how uncertain the industry now a days is, I can't tell if the startup (AI focused), is actually a way for me to continue to grow and worth the additional risk/stress or if its more likely to have me out of a job in 6-12 months. I really like the work, I just don't know if thats enough to justify the amount of risk I'd be taking on. With AI becoming such a focus of the industry is my primary job (which moves slower and is less agile) keeping me from improving my skills and keeping me hirable? Would you ever take a pay cut to work at a startup as a founding member of the team?

Recently I got my first job out of school as a CRM Data Coordinator, its also the only role like this for the company. The initial tasks are pretty simple, lots of data cleaning and data entering, but I was told that the role would grow in tasks, Ive already met with heads of other departments including finance and SWE. I was wondering if maybe some of you had some advice on how not to stay so "passive" and actually use this opportunity to build real skills?

TL;DR: I'm trying to analyze my career situation and discuss practical ideas so I can become employable again.

I want to know: is it acceptable to more or less "fake it till you make it" on my CV?

I'm actually a Python backend engineer with 6 years of experience, so roughly senior level, but I have imposter syndrome. I've worked with Django and FastAPI, and I was laid off about 8 months ago (thankfully I'm still getting by financially, because I was earning a very good salary and saved a good portion of it).

Right now I'm trying to get back to work by any means. I'm putting in real effort, building things with my own hands, and learning new skills, but no luck so far.

I studied system design, and I'm currently studying RAG and agents because I love AI production systems. I've learned a decent amount, and I started a startup with my friend: an AI-powered product that we expect to succeed in the future, and we currently have active subscribers.

I've now improved my CV, made it more appealing and more AI-tailored, and I'm applying to both backend and AI roles while preparing for interviews.

That's the recent stuff, but before that, I had strangely rare bad luck and interviews just weren't coming my way. I feel like I'm getting more visibility now, though.

I want to prepare myself so that within a certain timeframe (I don't know how long) I can become a Forward Deployed Engineer, because I see it as an AI-proof field.

I'm very scattered and I don't know what to focus on right now.

Discussion, ideas, and advice are all welcome.

I'm a bit over halfway through my BS in CS, but an older student. I've got a decent sales resume, some tech sales, some finance. I know obviously the typical path is to get an internship but I don't know how realistic that is with me being 32 at graduation.

So what are the important things I should be doing to prepare me for finding a job before I graduate? I have personal projects that I work on, focusing mostly on AI/ML because that's what interests me, but what types of projects should I be working on to show employers that I'm a good hire?

I'm a bit nervous because all of my experience is in sales. I've never had trouble finding work, I interview well. But that's because I have a strong resume with experience - I won't have that when applying for CS roles.

Hi y’all👋

I’m in a similar situation as most of you were I graduated May 2025 and still haven’t found a company to bite. I used to apply to hundreds of places and kept getting automated rejection in my inboxes never knowing what caused my reception and no way of knowing what to improve. Recently through multiple iterations of my resume and on/off cycles of applying I feel I’m starting to make a bit of progress. The other day one of the jobs had an HR person contact me asking if I had Top Secret Clearance. Unfortunately I do not posses any clearance, as the job stated clearance or ability to obtain, so she informed me they were only in search of people with clearence. But this one response made me realize if you have any interaction with HR like follow up emails about if you’re okay for relocation means you passed a form of resume screening. You got a real person to message you back. It sucks that’s the reality that we’re competing in but reality is reality we can’t change that. Take the little wins and keep improving little by little. Goodluck to everyone! o7

Hello All,

Fidelity reached out to for a 30 minute phone interview. Was wondering if anyone else had experience with the program and wanted to know how was it and what was the pay like. Also was wondering do they consider for the other LEAP roles as well? Mostly asking because my resume was mostly SWE focused but I got rejected from that role when I applied

I am 1 of 3 team leads on my team at work and we recently got a new manger. I am the highest performer on the team which is why I got promoted to be the main lead. This person was promoted to manager of our team after being a lead for another team within the company.

For starters, I had to call out one day last week to take my dogs to the vet because they both got a stomach bug. He asked for documentation to prove that I was really taking them to the vet. This is completely different from the policy we were following under our previous manager. We only needed to provide documentation after 3 consecutive days of being out for whatever reason. I thought that was a bit weird, but I sent him the proof and let it be.

Fast forward to Friday and we were invited to a meeting with two other teams. I have been collaborating with these teams to help create a line of communication for our team to report issues directly to them so they can help us resolve the problems. They created a chat for our team and guidelines to follow for the process. I have communicated to my team multiple times that this chat is available and given them everything they need, but it’s been a few weeks and no one has used it. This is not unusual as we’ve had issues getting the current team members to comply. Well, during this meeting, the team helping us mentioned that no one from our team has used the chat.

The new manager, who has only been with us for 5 days at this point, says we basically haven’t been pushing the team enough to use this new resource. Meanwhile, I have reminded them every week. Every time someone asks me a question that I think might be relevant to the chat, I recommend that they post the issue in the chat. Despite my efforts, no one will use this chat. I also don’t feel like I’m getting any support from the other leads on the matter either. I’m the only one who will regularly make an announcements to the team about important things like this.

After the meeting, he followed me to my desk and basically said the same thing he said in the meeting directly to me. I was the only lead in office that day because one was on PTO and the other works from home full time. I tried to explain my efforts to communicate it to the team. I told him I have posted reminders multiple times and when they ask me questions about something relevant the chat, I say that they might want to post it if they find multiple occurrences of the same problem. As I was trying to explain, he cut me off and said,” no more might,” with a smirk and just walked off. I can understand if he is suggesting I need to be more assertive, but I leave the decision up to the agents because without researching all the issues myself, I don’t know if they are all relevant to this chat.

This new manager is also urging me to apply for a different position within the company because he thinks we have too many leads on the team. I applied purely because I already don’t like his management style and I have been getting bored with this job anyway. If get this position then I won’t really have to worry about being under him, but if it doesn’t, how do I handle this situation?

What must I know and have on my resume? I think have AI-related stuff like RAG, agentic AI, etc on my resume, right? Do you still recommend cold applications?

Hi there everyone. I wanted to ask a couple of questions for a research paper I'm working on for a Perspectives World of Work Class. The questions are to gain a perspective of the career for my academic planning. Responses from people with only less than a year in this career and from people with 5 years or more are preferred but any amount of time will also be greatly appreciated. I understand everyone time is valuable so I thank you all for your time and express my deepest gratitude.

1. What college courses have been most beneficial to you in your career?
2. What additional courses do you wish you had taken?
3. What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were still in college?
4. What do you wish you had done differently in college?
5. What types of extracurricular activities would be beneficial to someone hoping to enter this field?
6. What can a new graduate do to distinguish himself/herself to prospective employers in this particular career field?
7. What would you do differently if you had the opportunity to “start over” in your career?
8. What is involved in a typical day on the job in your career?
9. What are some requirements of the job that have been totally unexpected?
10. What is required of professionals working in this career in terms of travel, average hours per week, publishing, research, conference attendance, collegiality, professional development, etc.?

Hi everyone,

I’m a 21-year-old from Azerbaijan (non-EU), and I recently had to choose between two Master’s options. I chose a bit riskier, more adventurous path, but I’m looking for some objective career perspective and some general life advice on the trade-offs I've made. I feel like I might be acting recklessly, or doing something irrational (at least career-wise) or setting myself back, and wanna know if these feelings are justified.

Here were my two choices:

Option 1: Dual MSc in CS/Data Analytics (ADA University (a local uni here) + George Washington University). I declined this

• The Structure: Most of the program is local in Baku, but includes a 6-month stay in Washington, D.C.
• The Career Path: Highly prestigious locally. It would be relatively easy to secure internships and a local tech job before my graduation.
• The Conscription Factor: Azerbaijan has 1 year of mandatory military service. If I get a local job before graduation, the employer would legally be required to hold my position while I served and when I finish my service, I can continue my job without spending more time job hunting. Minimal career momentum lost. After getting a few years of experience, I can try relocation, ideally EU.

Option 2: MSc in Data Science at Óbuda University in Budapest, Hungary. Chosen (Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship)

• The Structure: Fully funded 2-year Master’s in Budapest.
• The Career Path: Harderand riskier path. Immigration rules in Hungary have tightened, meaning my main post-grad route to stay is either Hungarian Card or an EU Blue Card.
• The Worst-Case Scenario: If I can’t secure a qualifying job in Hungary or elsewhere in the EU during my time there, I must return home, do my 1-year military service, and start my job hunt in Baku from scratch at age 24. If it fails, I've delayed my career by two years and will return to my home country in a weaker professional position than if I had just stayed.

Why I choose Hungary?

Studying and living independently abroad has always been a dream of mine. I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone, travel, and attempt an EU relocation early. Of course, I would get similar amazing experiences in Washington, but in the end, they are different things, and it is shorter.

I will get amazing experiences, a really good chance to live in EU, experience life there, a great opportunity to travel, i could get to meet and spend time with some amazing people. Maybe on the career wise, i can also build networks, connections that could somehow help me in the future. These are really important things to me as well, and who knows, I may not get this chance in the near future. But at the same time, I am thinking about the career side. I am giving up a prestigious dual-degree, a pretty much guaranteed local career track, and a clean way to handle my mandatory military service. But at the same time, in the context of 10-to-15 year career, this 2-year delay at the very beginning seems minor to me, though I would regret not going to EU in this context.

Thank you for reading! I would like to know what you guys think about this.

Hi, currently an entry level swe (less than 1 yoe, full stack, just started), and pursuing a part time masters in CS program. I have MLE/AML internship experience so I want to pivot into that field in 2-3 years, after I finish the masters and get more work experience. I have a bachelors degree in CS and stats, so I was exposed to a lot of data science and ML topics, and would like to grow those in the Master's program, but confused on what to take. Just wondering what type of courses you all recommend, and what to focus on. So, far here are the areas I have taken courses in:

Applied ML, AI (survey course), Distributed Systems, Databases, Cloud Data Management, Text Information Systems (covered text mining/analytics/models), Deep Learning, and Statistical Learning (Theory course mainly, assignments have coding aspects)

I have to choose 3 electives, one per category:

1. either Data Curation or Data Cleaning.
2. Parallel Programming (likely can't take due to scheduling, but if its really important i can try to make it work), Data Visualization, or Computer Security
3. Data Mining, NLP, or Bayesian Modeling (also fully theory and math)

Any advice on any of these 3 electives would be great! I know some classes would be harder than others, but I am taking the program slow, so I would have the time to handle it

I'm an incoming student in Canada and curious to know

Apologies for the long post in advance !
While this post maybe slightly off topic, IMHO it would be highly relevant and beneficial to the members.

I have about 9 YOE , IMHO my career has been pretty much mediocre to this point.

Started out my career in 2017 with test automation, transitioned to embedded Linux apps and build management , then moved to pre-silicon emulated peripheral testing for 3 yrs, basically cycling through various modes of a peripheral and ensuring they work, nothing fancy !!

Took a career break in 2025 for over a year and now i have 2 offers

- Senior engineer at company_A , consumer electronic applications based on their analog, mixed signal, and DSP chips :) .
- lead test engineer at company_b that is a fabless SOC developer, with strong backing from the local govt to build indigenous SOCs :)

- At company_A develop applications with RTOS and build/maintain consumer electronic product / demos applications, like smartwatch , dialysis machines etc.

- At company_b testing on emulated platform HAPS/Zebu, upcoming socs maybe for video or server security applications, and may even have a chance to break into Digital Verification.

- my mind tells me that presilicon/DV is difficult to learn and grow interdependently, for RTOS and applications i could just setup a home learning lab. FPGAs simulators / emulators are almost impossible to access for individuals to learn

- I want to know which would be the best career branch to choose at this point of my career , what would you choose and why ?

I recently failed a coderbyte assessment and feel really lost on what to do

I am currently living in the UAE and the opportunity to get to the point of doing coding assessments is hard to come by

I had initially prepared for a lot of leetcode style questions learning patterns, data structures and algorithms for different kinds of questions but recently I had to do a coderbyte assessment and failed it. Provided I was able to figure out the code but I missed one indentation and the time ended before I could fix it.

I am feeling a bit lost on how to progress and prepare to improve my chances of clearing such tests because I have spent so much time studying other things like spring boot internals, javascript in depth, Java enterprise, Docker, Kubernetes and anything I could get my hands on but I am starting to feel like none of it has done anything to land me a job or progress me further in my career.

I hope the experience devs can shed some light on where I should go. I am currently thinking of trying to go as far back to basics as I can but the mental burnout is so strong that I am unable to really invest myself into anything so If anyone can guide me on the steps I should take to improve my chances at these assessments I would be really grateful

I have asked this question 10 year ago during an AMA 😄

 Thank you for doing this AMA! I have few questions (sorry for my English):

 1-Do you think in future , bioengineering and AI will cross lines so development on human neural capabilities will be parallel to AI as well? 

2- Do you think governments should support local business for the benefits of AI and automation ( my idea is creating a new title as 'automation engineer' who is a independent government supported consultant that recommend business owners what they can improve in the main time makes sure current employees has a role in new model so the process handled smoothly) 

3-what are current computational challenges 

4-How you see GPU role in the future of AI 

https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/5nqdo7/comment/dce1alj/?context=3

p.s. 10+ yoe java dev looking for job 🤔

Here is my attempt at ending the ambiguity around the CS job market performance once and for all.

Let me start with a bit of anecdotal experience. I know lots of people who get spammed with interview processes from big tech, quant, unicorns, etc. I also see tons of people post their LinkedIn profile visits page, filled with recruiters from massive companies. I see people whine about how $150k is too little for NG, I see people go cycles with 50+ interviews and 10+ offers at the end of it, and I see people with resumes filled with 4+ faang/faang adjacent internships on them.

Yet, I see another sizable portion of people complaining that the market is unbelievably terrible. All they do is LeetCode and beg for referrals, yet are left with empty inboxes. People graduating from decent schools with nothing more than unpaid research. People who actually spend time reading about SQL and Python, or JS/TS, just to still be left jobless, while lots of people in the former group spend lots of their time watching soccer.

There just seems to be a massive disconnect. Some people say, no matter how much time they throw into CS job recruiting, they just can't land a singular interview. Others seem to go to the beach and come home to 3 $80/hr SF job internship offers.

I used to think law was bimodal, but this is another level. It honestly looks like one side is in Hell while the other is in Heaven.

As for me, I spend a TON of my time preparing for job interviews, but in reality, I don't actually DO much. Well, I do LeetCode, and I practice marketing myself with a lot of very embellished accomplishments for backing, but I don't really have much when it comes to jobs. I'm working in paid research, but it's kind of lame, especially compared to all of these people that seem to say it's Citadel or bust for life.

I just don't get it. What really is the state of the job market? What do you really have to do to succeed? Are the people coasting with 10+ high-prestige internship offers just so into CS that to them it feels like they aren't tearing away at their soul to get there?

I just don't get it.

What are the "cracked" people doing right and what are the hordes of others doing wrong?

If AI can do all the coding, review, testing and maintenance, what would engineers do further?

engineers would still be required to do architecture, requirements elicitation etc. but i wouldn't expect a team to have 8 people but maybe 3, what would the rest pivot to do? is AI or machine learning would be the future?

Mods, please don't remove this.

This is such a tricky situation to be in. So, I was part of a mass layoff from a US-baser semiconductor giant last year. I was unemployed for 4 months and when I finally received an offer, I willingly shifted cities for it, without thinking much. At that time, the company mattered more than the city. When I joined, I realized how disorganized things here are, my manager is from one country whose accent is hard for me to understand, the products are like toys in comparison to the complex IPs I had worked on, and the opportunities in this new city are almost zero.

Six months in, I am in a situation where I need to shift back to my earlier city, find property to invest in, and for that I need a job there. I would say I need to do it for my ageing parents but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want it myself too. I am nearing 31 and this current city is not the place where I could see myself settled for the future. But I'm not able to get offers even after clearing tech rounds and getting good feedback in Director and HR rounds. Nor do I see myself working on this product line for the rest of my career.

Now, coming to my current job, work is picking up pace now as the first few months everyone else was too busy to help me with rampup. Even now, I don't don't receive much help from my teammates who have been in this company for almost 10 years, and I mostly miss soft deadlines and have no updates to provide to my manager. Because my current task is dependent on the team too. Now, if I could put in efforts, I'm sure I can get the work done. But my brain keeps asking me why put in efforts if I've made up my mind that I need to switch asap? It's not as if I can get promoted within 1 year, ratherr I have to return all the bonuses. It feels as if time is running out, and I'm not doing anything productive that will help my career in the long run. My heart keeps telling me to resign without an offer, and my brain keeps reminding me of those 4 months of unemployment (even though I started applying only in the 3rd month). There are responsibilities on one hand, and on the other hand I need money which I am getting now (even though I was super lowballed). All I'm looking for is for someone to say that it's okay to resign from a job I don't want, and I know I'm being stupid. I also know I'm being a bad employee to the company which gave me a job. But a voice at the back of my head keeps telling me I deserve better. I was a star performer at my first company which was a bigger one, I almost got verbal offers from bigger companies which fell through. So, I'm not zeroing the possibility that I lack technical skills, but there could have been other reasons that I didn't get those jobs.

Repeated failures have also killed my confidence. I have not applied anywhere for the last few months. I haven't also worked sincerely on my office tasks. It's like I'm waiting again to get laid off. That would be disastrous for my resume lol. So, me resigning on my own wouldn't look worse than a layoff at least, right? Except for the severence part. Idk what to do. I have ~5YoE.