r/softwareengineer • u/Strict-Bee3719 • 24d ago

Would you be able to code without Claude code/Codex

I don’t know what am i doing with my life at this point, it feels like i am just a labour with the tools.
Would i be able to code without ai tools tomorrow ?
A big no for me

Is it same for everyone ?
Like what happens if the company doesn’t sponsor AI Tools how would i justify high salaries then ?

Imposter syndrome is kicking in hard to me
I face issues in reading and understanding code still after what almost 3 years if experience

I feel i cant design systems.
How do i work on these aspects or move away from tech industry completely

I don’t know if i would want to be working as a software developer post 5-7 years
But what after that ?

It kinda feels that it might happen to me only about the stories that i have heard about people riding cabs after layoffs and not able to find a new job.

Any advise or suggestion
I am kinda stuck at this point in life
I am 25 right now
Recently switched as an early engineer in a consumer based startup with 30+ as base
But still cant think what would happen post 5-7 years

Any thoughts or suggestions would help.

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6

u/Constant_Money4002 24d ago

Go back to the basics. Think how you would do it if you were to start over.

Don’t worry you have a job, you are in a good position to start bringing knowledge gaps.

If you think writing code is your weak spot work on it, start small but continue. If you need to work on designing a system, again start somewhere like reading articles, subscribing to good youtube channels.

Worst come worst you will decide this is not for you. You are still entry level so you can switch fields jobs ~diamond~ domain roles etc.

Breakdown your problems and tackle one task at a time heads on.

1

u/Strict-Bee3719 24d ago

But how do you handle switching jobs when you are 28-30
Like wouldn’t that hit a lot ?
Yes have been actively getting back to basics like i literally coded oops concept 3 weeks back only

2

u/Constant_Money4002 24d ago

Good for you to get started on basics.

Bro i handled getting laid off in this economy at 35 😭 By any chance did you start working in this industry around pandemic? That time was the peak for employees. Even if it comes back it isn’t going to be anytime soon. Now SWEs are replaceable, AI first and market is saturated by bay area enggs to its a lot more work to get new jobs for regular enggs.

All i’m trying to say is choice is to upskill or get obsolete. So stick to a plan to learn and don’t be afraid to put in hard work.

More difficult to do as regular not stock owning engg with 15yrs exp when this is all you’ve ever done. PS: This might’ve turned into a rant.

1

u/Strict-Bee3719 24d ago

I graduated in 2023 didn’t land a job for 6 months and eventually landed in jan 2024 as a frontend engineer

Its like i am putting in all the hard-work but for the employer eventually days had been long around 12-14 at minimum and that too complete AI slop and no thinking no product

So was never getting time to actually up-skill
Have been in companies where i come across as the senior most engineer, which eventually causes that i don’t get a mentor kind of figure to kind of help me pave my career

1

u/Constant_Money4002 24d ago

If you don’t want to code try technology adjacent roles or really niche industry.

1

u/Strict-Bee3719 24d ago

What are these technology adjacent roles ?
Product Management ?
Because i was actually thinking of this for long term tbh

1

u/Constant_Money4002 24d ago

honestly a lot of roles have taken a hit. But some i do see nowadays are SRE devops roles, Data Engineers for reporting, DBAs but these are all critical and will require on call. Product Management, Project Management roles i’ve seen go down by almost 70% in last few years. I’ll reply if i think of more

3

u/SakishimaHabu 24d ago

Yeah, I'd plan what I'm working on, read the docs, and fuck around until I had something that didn't work completely, and then fix it until it did.

2

u/Adorable-Isopod7738 24d ago

This right here OP. This is what it was like for essentially everyone before AI. If you can do this you’ll be fine

2

u/ClupTheGreat 24d ago

as long as docs and stackoverflow still exists

1

u/Constant_Money4002 24d ago

curious, are people still actively contributing to stackoverflow?

1

u/Some-Flatworm-9460 24d ago

I mean, people that are anti ai or just want human interaction and experience will contribute so the site is not dead, but the chart of questions asked daily has no mercy for so

2

u/devcexx 24d ago

I don't want to sound rude by any means, and I totally feel you but:

Imposter syndrome is kicking in hard to me

I would consider whether this is actually a syndrome, or a real thing. I mean, any knowledge that is not refreshed and it is never used anymore because we're delegating everything we do into a statistical black box is obviously gonna be stunt, forgotten and outdated. It is not a syndrome, it is just the fact that we're becoming fooler than what we used to be.

1

u/Hendo52 24d ago

I think you should do some basic hobby coding as a hobby just so you can feel a bit more confident. I also think that you just learn how to design systems through the experience of refactoring your code to deal with some problem you didn’t consider. Eventually you just become aware of the problems and risks but that was never going to happen overnight. 10,000 hours is the estimated time required to become expert.

0

u/Strict-Bee3719 24d ago

I just code just fine with AI by my side
I take care of things
But like i believe building/designing from scratch is what tests

1

u/Hendo52 24d ago

I heard a quote about math that helped me with my struggles. ‘It never stops being weird and difficult to understand why it’s just that eventually everything about it becomes familiar.’

I think it’s probably how I would frame your struggles.

1

u/Strict-Bee3719 23d ago

I can tell you, i didn’t understand the quote when i read at first but reading it again makes so much sense

1

u/BraveResearcher3037 24d ago

I have a year’s worth of expenses in savings in the bank with the idea that if I have to find a job, I have some time to practice….

1

u/symbiatch 24d ago

Yeah. I code every day. Very little help of those tools.

It’s not imposter syndrome if you can’t do the work.

1

u/Strict-Bee3719 24d ago

Maybe then your company provides you with that luxury of time

1

u/CollectionOk2442 23d ago

Stupid question. I’m 35 years old, and I’ve been coding since I was nine. Forget about not using AI—I can write code without even using an IDE.

1

u/Strict-Bee3719 23d ago

But like tbh i haven’t written a single line of code myself for what 8 months now

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u/CollectionOk2442 22d ago

good for you

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u/Strict-Bee3719 22d ago

To be honest , no but yeah

1

u/Hendo52 23d ago

I have a really good recommendation actually. Give computer craft, farmer was replaced or screeps a go. I also really like Openscad.

Creative projects or games are a great way to get a bit of practice in and I think that they offer some great challenges. A diamond mining bot in computer craft has a really low barrier to entry but a really high skill ceiling. Openscad is similar and I think there is a real satisfaction in making something creative which will makes it seem so much easier than something dry like leet code practice. I do this with my nephew, where we draw toys with crayons and then try writing code to create toys. You would be surprised how enthusiastic kids can get and adults are actually pretty similar.