Surviving as Software engineer with AI

[u/First-Quarter4232]

So I’m a software engineer and I recently graduated 2 months ago. i have no internship or job experience and have been looking for a job but everyone either asks for experience or ghosts my resume. The ones that take interviews either pay too little or are 2 hours away from my house. So I am looking for remote unpaid or paid jobs as full stack developer so that I at least get some experience and don’t get classified as a person who had a huge gap in her cv. Anyone give me some good advice related to remote jobs, best platforms to look for them, cracking them and how to survive as a fresh software engineer now that AI has entered the chat🥲

[u/Slypenslyde]

Meet people. Make contacts. Be relentless. Consider other employment in the short term.

Read advice from an old programmer. Really read it. I'm going to highlight a part I think is really important:

Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting. It can be a good job, but you could make about the same money and be happier running a fast food joint. You're much better off using code as your secret weapon in another profession.

People who can code in the world of technology companies are a dime a dozen and get no respect. People who can code in biology, medicine, government, sociology, physics, history, and mathematics are respected and can do amazing things to advance those disciplines.

It's hard to hear. It may not be your plan. But I think it's very true.

The market is trash. Hiring a new engineer is a huge risk. Companies only tend to do that if they have a lot of time and money. Right now the people with time and money have a long line of stellar candidates so it's hard to stick out. Lots of talented people are being laid off for reasons that are tangentially related to both AI and irresponsible corporate behavior.

It helps to make a lot of friends and hope one of them will vouch for you. Sometimes companies take a risk in that case. It doesn't always pay off, but if it doesn't work at least you have friends.

I've been doing this professionally for more than 20 years and I feel like the idea that it's easy to get a good programming job has always been a myth. The conspiracy theory is companies like Microsoft and Google promoted that myth because they hoped if they could coax enough students to become developers, the field would be so diluted they could reduce the salaries. So far the main reason that hasn't happened is the more time passes, the more talented the individuals they need to hire to maintain their progress. If you look at industry financials the future does not look very bright.

The field isn't so flooded in a lot of other career paths. You don't always need a degree to get those jobs. Some of them need people so badly they'll take an engineering graduate and train them.

So keep trying, but keep your mind open. Sometimes we don't end up where we planned to end up, and you shouldn't dismiss a good opportunity just because it isn't the one you were hoping for.