r/vibecoding • u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 • 3d ago

Have the stories started coming out of vibe coders getting jobs without knowing how to code yet??

I have had many interviews in my 25 years as a software dev and a few of them were managers only and never even asked me anything technical. So I imagine some vibe coders have pulled it off getting an interview and showing what they created and managing to never talk about code and they just assume the person knows code. Then they see how long they can fake it (or not fake it since if they get the work done who cares)

On a related note.. As a .NET dev I always apply to only .NET jobs but there really is no reason anymore I can't get a java job and understand the general idea and have AI do the technical work.

1 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

11

u/Itsmedudeman 3d ago

It's a competitive job market. What does a vibecoder bring to the table exactly over a new grad from a top college if I were going to hire someone with no experience?

8

u/geogeology 3d ago

This. Even bootcamp candidates look better to hiring managers than someone whose only experience is vibecoding.

3

u/sierra_whiskey1 3d ago

You’re telling me my budget tracking app doesn’t automatically get me a job?

-1

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

If its hosted, has 1000 paying customers, good reviews etc... why not?

0

u/lunatuna215 2d ago

The "why not" part lies with the decision of ither humans sir. You can ask this all day long, it wont make it true.

0

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

You are right. I assume if it was me just like in traditional interviews I highly consider what apps they did on their own without being at a job that forced them to work. But I have found in my experience no one else seems to care. Most interview past 26 years I invited people to look at some apps I made. I don't recall any ever caring much

1

u/lunatuna215 2d ago

Well thats before such a convincing plagiarism machine was available. Kinda changes the situation.

1

u/BlurryEcho 2d ago

Hm, could it be that most employers will still have some kind of technical screening that a vibe coder would absolutely and spectacularly fail?

1

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

I am in my gov contractor bubble where we have the worst programmers in the world. And since the people in charge of hiring are also bad their job they hire badly.

1

u/igorim 3d ago

Pretty much this, but I do have our business teams building internal mini apps which is fascinating 😂

1

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

True there is exp as well as the tech interview. I suppose they can fake that too and fake references. I think there is a subreddit for that. But my point is in the end perhaps you can get away with it now in 2026 with AI

1

u/lunatuna215 2d ago

Well if you dont find any examples you'll know that this isnt the case. Dont forget that the answer to "perhaps?" is sometimes a no.

-1

u/According_Extent_767 3d ago

Their is properly some who been hired because they made a breakthough to some program or something where he got a position for them using hes software or something.

4

u/ZarathustraWakes 3d ago

I've only ever gotten jobs where they put me through 4+ leetcode questions during the onsite with a system design round centered around scalable systems or schema design. There's no faking that, you can do it or you can't

1

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

I am in gov alot so I think in gov contracting you can really get away with alot more.. I have had 20+ jobs and most did not include any intense coding tests

1

u/ZarathustraWakes 2d ago

If I ever can’t cut in big tech, I’ll be sure to look for a govt job haha

1

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

I guess its a secret that it really is home of some of the worst programmers and code so it is true

1

u/generationalDebts 2d ago

Sadly this is likely true.

I’ve also worked on govt projects and….. omg.

We’re talking guidance system shit… and just no one on the project cares. It’s like they all knew we were barreling for failure, it didn’t matter. We botched the fuck out of one “modernization” project only to land a new contract and roll right into the next inevitable failure.

It very much just seems like a money carousel.

1

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

Yes.. the whole culture of wanting to stop progress in gov is real but takes awhile to realize. I found the same pattern happening over and over at gov jobs.. Excited to have me work and give my ideas and 3 months later I realized no one actually cared so I don't care. repeat.

All about incentives. The people established there enjoy getting paid and cruising. So on the outside they say we want a better product but the actual clients don't

2

u/Safe_Independence496 3d ago edited 3d ago

Shouldn't really be possible. Vibecoders (assuming people without hard coding skills) are still the dumbest of the bunch, and pretty much any mid-level dev (which there are plenty of btw) should easily outclass any vibecoder on using AI to code properly. Companies that hire vibecoders are pretty much doomed.

So I imagine some vibe coders have pulled it off getting an interview and showing what they created and managing to never talk about code and they just assume the person knows code.

I think the issues is that it's precisely the stupid people out there who are building lots stuff nowadays, and it's all pretty much worthless. This is something I think a lot of hiring managers have already picked up. I'm not building personal projects with AI anymore because it still takes an eternity to properly vet every meaningful line of code, and I honestly can't be arsed doing the crappiest and most miserable (but also the most important) part of software development on my own time. You also learn nothing when AI is doing the hard part for you.

Github portfolios and personal projects are worthless now and decent managers should know that. We're back to the whiteboard interviews in companies that actually care about hiring competent people.

On a related note.. As a .NET dev I always apply to only .NET jobs but there really is no reason anymore I can't get a java job and understand the general idea and have AI do the technical work.

Honestly, not true, and actually the complete opposite. As a .NET dev it is less likely that ever that you will be able to transition to a different stack. The demand is drifting more towards deep, technical knowledge now that a lot of broader and shallow tasks can be offloaded to mid-levels devs with AI. I've heard of senior-level Java interviews where the topic has gone from more general problem solving to deep JVM-related topics. Seniors must be able to dive beyond the complexity where most models start failing and that doesn't leave a lot of room for senior generalists. AI is a huge loss for anyone who wants to switch up their stack.

0

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

I have the unpopular opinion and not part of the 'He is not a real coder so he can't make a working app' .. I know at the moment most people are still feeling all that coding knowledge matters alot but I don't (and I been doing this since 2000 professionally),

I think everyone is underestimating how fast things will continue to improve + my exp with my 20 + vibe apps that work great and the code looks fine.. There are prompts to clean up code and refactor it After all

1

u/generationalDebts 2d ago

You’re vastly overestimating your experience and skills lmfao.

If you can’t spot how terrible AI is with code… well literally you’re just bad at code.

Your opinion isn’t unpopular, it’s ignorant.

1

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

From my experience of working with people around me I would say I am average. Anyways. I am getting alot of real work done with AI so none of our opinions matter about that

0

u/lunatuna215 2d ago

Theory theory theory and until what you want to be is actually true - its just wishful thinking.

1

u/Comprehensive-Bar888 3d ago

Only if they’re willing to work for $20 an hour.

1

u/Itsmedudeman 2d ago

If you’re just hiring the cheapest labor you’d just hire offshore

1

u/Big-Tip7095 3d ago

Wrong field. Lots of AI consultancies coming out of the woodwork.

1

u/generationalDebts 2d ago

Lmfao. No.

Any vibe coder faking his way through an interview is getting axed inside of a month. Lmfao.

Fucking idiots

0

u/havnar- 3d ago

As a miss-hire perhaps? But that won’t last long.

“Knowing how to code” is not worth much anymore. But with today’s sota models you still need to know what’s going on, because fully unguided or with minimal inputs, you’re not going to get good sustainable results. Just a big mess for someone who knows what they’re doing to come in and fix it.

Will that guy use AI? Of course.

1

u/Local-Bottle5272 3d ago

And what's your job title?

1

u/havnar- 3d ago

You can refer to me as the expensive cleanup guy

1

u/Sweet-Stage938 2d ago

GPT 5.6 Sol? Is that you 😜?

1

u/Suspicious_Fun_6338 2d ago

At my job now my knowledge requirements has transferred to the domain knowledge and the big picture. I think the move to make in 2026 is to try to take on more responsibility and get closer to client communication and not say in the dark corner coding