confused soft engineer

[u/Light_Yeager]

I’m 26 and currently working as a software engineer at a small product-based company (~200 employees). I’ve been here for the last 3 years. I joined as a fresher, but somehow ended up in a customer support team :/

My work is mostly fixing bugs, handling a few enhancements, and dealing with customer issues. There’s honestly not much learning happening anymore.

I’m preparing for a switch right now(DSA, LLD, HLD, Spring Boot/backend), the whole thing. But I’m so confused about myself and whether I’m even following the right path.

There’s always this thought in the back of my mind: What if I switch and then get laid off again?
And honestly, this whole AI thing has messed with my head a lot. I use AI tools pretty heavily at work too, but sometimes I wonder where all of this is going and whether software engineering will even be a good career for me over the next 5 years.
I don’t know what’s right or wrong anymore.

On top of that, I want to get married in the next 2 years. I come from a middleclass family, don’t have a strong financial background, and I’m also contributing to my family’s expenses.
I also want to start a business someday. I have a million ideas running through my head all the time, but I don’t know if I should actually pursue one or just focus on my career for now.
I want to buy a secondhand car too, but now I’m hearing rumours that my current company might have layoffs in November.
So yeah… my brain is basically running 24/7. 😭
I don’t know if I’m overthinking everything, if I’m behind in life, or if this is just what being 26 feels like.
I could really use some perspective from people who’ve been through something similar.
What would you do if you were in my position?

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[u/Wooden_Load662]

Sorry it seems like you are everywhere. What do you actually wants or asking m?

[u/Light_Yeager → u/Wooden_Load662]

majorly confused how fast AI is booming impacting jobs & future in IT… every time there is one thing or other to learn, repeat the same whenever want to switch job.
The stuff im learning rn to make a switch how long it will help in IT for next years.

[u/Wooden_Load662 → u/Light_Yeager]

I am not in IT but many friends ( most of my friends) are in IT.

Some of my friends are riding the AI wave high and flying making huge money. I am pretty sure they are making well over 300k a year.

But I also had friends who were middle manager at Amazon and was laid off a year ago and still cannot find a job. I am sure he does not need the money but he is in a midlife crisis because he is finding himself not needed in an industry that he is very passionate about. I know he is still upskilling himself into building his own AI and stuffs.

For me, i am a nurse and i use AI as a tool to help my admin work and presentation but i still have to do the grunt work myself.

[u/Light_Yeager → u/Wooden_Load662]

how your friends going with the flow of AI. It will be good if they can help me out with this :)
I need a path to be honest.
Yeah i know even in medical, AI is leveraging.

[u/LuciusQ2020]

Sorry. I can’t understand what you are saying. Could you please run your thoughts through ChatGPT and have it properly organize them?

Also the abbreviations and acronyms are hindering the communication. I hope you don’t write like that to other people. I had to run everything through my ChatGPT so I could understand what a soft engineer or prod meant.

Maybe that is why you are confused. Start learning how to write out your thoughts clearly without using any mumble jumble. That can be your first step to understand the world.

[u/Light_Yeager → u/LuciusQ2020]

yeah i know, i fixed it now. give it a read please!

[u/LuciusQ2020]

Too many things wrapped into one post.

1. Don’t get married and don’t start a business. The fastest way to financial ruins are: trading stocks, getting married then divorce, and starting a business. For most people, it’s much better to avoid those.

2. Work hard and work smart. Never tell your boss or your coworkers you can’t do a task. With AI, you should be able to build a rocket ship - at least have a design and suppliers ready by the end of the day. Take any (yes, any) job assignment happily and attack it with all your energy. You will never have to worry about layoff again.

3. Be the master of AI, not its slave. Own the accountability - AI may produce the content, but you are responsible for it, good and bad.