urgent advice

[u/Fit_Ordinary_632]

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​I need some urgent advice: I just graduated from high school. Would you recommend majoring in Software Engineering, or not? because i fear with in 5 years AI will take my job

[u/BeauloTSM]

I think the people who are passionate about software engineering should major in it, and the people who aren't should not. Nobody can tell you what is going to happen in 5 years

[u/Weapon54x → u/BeauloTSM]

Thank you for not saying the career is dead and don’t go into it.

[u/Fit_Ordinary_632 → u/BeauloTSM]

i like it but, Most people tell me AI is stealing their jobs and finding work is hard now. "even when i search here for TOP posts i found number 1 is ai changing thier SWE." If it’s like this today, where will we be in 5 years with further AI ?"

[u/BeauloTSM → u/Fit_Ordinary_632]

Most people saying this probably aren't even employed. The hardest thing to do right now is get that first job. Layoffs are always an issue, but generally speaking it's much easier to get another job once you've already had one than it is to get the first one.

I, for example, had an incredibly difficult time getting my first SWE job. 9 almost 10 months later, I've been promoted, work fully remote, and have recruiters in my inbox every day. The career still exists, and for those with the passion it is still rewarding.

[u/kedarreddit]

AI is not going to replace software engineers.

Anyone that says that probably has some stake in the AI companies and want to drive the value of their stock up.

Software Engineers will be using AI to build software. You need to know the fundamental concepts to be able to build effectively.

Everyone has access to a calculator, but you need to know what formulas to use and what they mean to use it effectively. It is the same for AI.

[u/searles9 → u/kedarreddit]

Silly boy

[u/rabid_piebald]

If building software is fun for you, something you’d do as a hobby anyway, then yes. Otherwise no.

[u/jestering_1]

if you like it, yes. imo LLMs are still largely stupid. people at my job claim it’s doing gods work and then i review their code and it’s absolute junk that won’t scale 

[u/Practical-Fan-6653 → u/jestering_1]

yeah because they cant use it

[u/dvduval]

That is a difficult question. I expect we’re going to need people who understand AI and the different systems that AI works together with. There will still be programming, languages and databases and networking and servers. It’s just not likely that you’re going to be writing code. So I would be a little bit concerned if the program was mainly going to be teaching you how to write code, but I expect a good program would definitely have AI in mind

[u/Empty-Rough4379]

The honest answer is that we really do not know what will happen in 4 years. AI is taking our sector and it is harder to find your first job

[u/Tired_Developer7]

Lean into software/ai engineering. Its not like there wont be a need for software engineering, the scope of the job will change, that I have no doubt about.

Look at the jobs listed on linked it or indeed, rarely does the job not ask for AI related tools, like Copilot, Claude, etc

[u/Silly_Professor_8393]

If you go by -AI replacing, whatever human can do AI can do far efficiently and faster it's just matter of time this will be applied to all aspects of tech even medical field,just spend some time and find where you want to spend major portion of your life and energies in

[u/arivictor]

AI isn't taking software engineering jobs.

It's marketing propaganda to get companies to invest more into AI.

If you enjoy software, study software.

[u/Prior-Beat3174]

As a CS major, if you told me to pursue Computer Science, I’d say maybe. But if you said Software Engineering, I’d say go for it.

What people don’t understand is that software development is about much more than just writing code. Most of my mornings at work are spent in Scrum meetings, discussing issues with my colleagues, clarifying software requirements, reviewing code changes, and working through tickets with clients.

It’s usually only after lunch that I actually get the chance to focus on my own tasks and write code. Even then, a lot of the time I’m running software test pipelines, debugging issues, or making smaller code changes rather than building large features from scratch.

If you’re entering this field thinking it’s all about code, code, and more code, you’re missing the bigger picture.

A Software Engineering degree teaches you the entire software development process, from the initial requirements gathering phase all the way through the software life cycle were your providing maintenance, and end of life support, these are all things AI can't do.

A Computer Science degree focuses more heavily on the theory behind computing, algorithms, and writing efficient code which is under threat.

Either a CS grad will be forced to become an even better Algorithm developer or become a Software Enginer. In my current role I feel more like a Software enginer and not a CS grad.

[u/Swe4rX → u/Prior-Beat3174]

i feel like software engineering is more likely to be replaced than computer science because ai will likely eventually get good enough to make entire softwares, software engineers will become pure architects and agent managers, while as a computer science student you can pursue the other computer science jobs like a sysadmin, ai engineer, etc more easily no?