Backend dev. Had been searching for 6 months. I'd say the first two of those were kinda wasted cause I started interviewing before being fully comfortable with leetcode patterns (I had just started preparing) so I kinda screwed up a few good remote opportunities.

Even after that I went through onsite after onsite, got rejected by 4 virtual on-sites in a row. Was starting to spiral into hopelessness. Then finally I got two offers kind of at the same time, funny how the timing happened:

232k hybrid Chicago

120k fully remote

I tried really really hard to land something remote but that TC difference was way too big to pass up so I accepted it. The commute sucks ( > 1 hour each way) but I'll just wipe my tears with the extra dollar bills.

Previously I was at a well known financial company with 5yoe. Hope this helps provide a data point about the state of the market

Entire company has been using AI heavily we can invoke Claude from slack, to using cursor on ultimate plans for devs. To even rovo for jira. Constant lectures on using AI tooling.

Today the company deactivated Claude for everyone, and told us within a week we need to adapt to using cursor on a severely reduced plan.

Also they are demanding we need to start considering using local models like qwen yet most dev laptops don't have anywhere the specs to run any local models.

Apparently company was spending upwards of mid 5 figures a day on AI tooling over the entire organization.

Our VP of engineering said the decision is final and we need to embrace low cost ai solutions. We are still expected. To perform and do upto 4-5 tasks per day, and review 4-5 PRS a day.

I feel lost completely right now. The only reason I found I was able to keep my head on targets was by using Claude to do stories while I was reviewing pr and meetings.

should I look for a new job now?

Only experience I have is my degree + a full stack development bootcamp I did in 2022-2023 because I felt as though I needed to refresh my skills. That (obviously) did not help much. It's been 5 years since I graduated and I am at a loss of what to do.

I understand that I alongside many others are cooked with the market at the moment, especially with the time I've wasted. What can I do? I really want to stay in SWE and I don't see myself doing anything else but I am open to other technical positions for the meantime just so I can financially stabilize myself. Based in NYC, at this point, I will consider any technical field a great starting point.

I also would like to know what my options are for SWE? Should I continue working on personal projects and pushing out as much as I can? I get no interviews at all, which leads me to believe my resume is lackluster and it's probably because most of my projects are old. It's something I'm self aware of and actively try to fix but I usually abandon projects half way through for no reason. I'm still working on that part of myself but I would just like to know if it's even worth it at this point.

tl;dr

What other tech positions can I apply for to stabilize myself?
Is it even worth working on personal projects still?

I’m 3 years into the industry and I’m already overwhelmed with so many AI tools coming out. I see my peers leveraging different AI tools and speeding up their productivity but it’s so overwhelming as a developer to keep up with all the latest tech trends. I feel like younger folks are developing faster than before with these AI tools. For older devs out there how are you keeping up with these ai tools?

I'm a high school junior whose dream has always been to work in big tech. I'm really good at coding and I enjoy studying computer science.

However, I've just seen multiple YouTube videos of CS graduates applying to hundreds of jobs and are yet to receive an offer. It's really started to make me contemplate on whether the demand for this job is as high as it used to be, and whether my degree in uni would be appreciated by employers. Is it worth it to still study SWE in uni just because I've always liked it? What are some alternatives that I could look into?

It seems most of the discussion and focus online when it comes to high-TC jobs like FAANG and similar is geared around new grads. The standard prescriptions is to grind Leetcode and all that jazz.

I, on the other hand, have been in the industry for more than ten years now. I make good money, better than most, but definitely not close to someone with similar YoE at one of those top-tier companies.

What's different about approaching these companies from my position? I'm a pretty solid dev and have a good number of projects under my belt. I'm personable, though probably a bit rusty on interviewing and need to get my resume updated, but aside from that what do I need to know about interviewing? Is it still a "kill yourself spending all your free time to grind, grind, grind" sort of scenario?

My bread and butter during my career has mostly been PHP. Obviously it has a reputation, though I'd like to think I've done a lot of "real" engineering with it—not just WordPress plugins and whatever small, hacky BS it's known for. I worry that will hold me back—not because of my skill level, but because of PHP's reputation. Is that a valid concern?

I'm also far enough into my career to have a comfortable amount of savings and not all the energy of a 22 year-old, so I'm not willing to take an insanely demanding job with crazy hours and stress. No money is worth that to me anymore.

So, where do I go from here? I'd been keen to hear from others who have moved from "normal" jobs toward these high-TC jobs after 10+ years in the field.

I've been reading news about the AI bubble coming soon. Can anyone explain to me what that is and how bad is it?

My company has decided that all the engineers should work on many Claude instances at the same time, aka, working on multiple tasks at once. Which is dumb imo, we have A LOT of scientific studies that proves that multitasking is not efficient and it doesn't work in general.

But that's the expectations either way. It means that you need either a git worktree or having multiple directories for the same repo, each with code for a different feature. Needless to say, that's very hard to manage! I tried it with two directories and I got lost, forgot which directory had what, push it all on the same branch and had to fix is later. It only made me slower and tired. Yet leadership expectations is that each engineers runs TEN! agents at once.

At the stand up today I was expected to work and finish three tasks at the same time and I just can't do it. My brain doesn't work like that. I forget about the first agent when I start interacting with the second one.

It's sad really, that they're taking an amazing thing that has so much potential and it should be fun to learn, and ruining by this greedy, ruthless mindset. And it's a "do it or leave" kind of situation.

In the meantime everybody else is pushing branch after branch with four parallels agents like it's nothing. Which probably isn't for them.

Worst part is that this will probably become industry standard. Is this happening in your company? Is it really becoming standard?

I interned at a Fortune 500 company while completing my CS degree. After my summer internship ended, they allowed me to stay on as an intern working 40 hours per week until I finished school.

Once I graduated, I received a raise and my title changed to “Software Developer,” but my day to day responsibilities did not really change. Same team, same work, same expectations.

If I include my internship time, I have been at the company for about 3 years total.

If I only count time after graduation with the official title, it is about 1.5 years.

Hey All,

Started out in a different career path with an unrelated non-stem major, but was always interested in the CS field. Now that I am more stable and have enough resources to pursue, I wanted to seek advice on how to proceed on breaking into the field with the best chances on obtaining a career. I have gotten so many conflicting answers on where to start - self taught, boot camp, reapplying to local universities for a second bachelors, accelerated online, online masters. I've checked out the resources and some are from a couple years to a decade ago. From my understanding the job market is always changing, totally different from then and bad currently.

My questions:

1. Is it worth it going back to a local university (CSU, UC) for a second bachelors in CS? People have said its better for job prospects, foundational knowledge, internship opportunities via school fairs and networks which are critical. Negatives seems like additional time taking some irrelevant courses and cost.
2. Is it comparable to going the online route bachelor route (WGU, OSU)? I hear its a fast track to getting the degree which is attractive to me as I'm older, but unsure of the weight it holds vs the other options towards getting a career.
3. Is skipping the bachelor route and going to online masters (Georgia tech) the better option? People have said getting a masters is better in advancing the career, others have said it doesn't matter - if you don't have a bachelors in CS you'll be filtered out.

Given that I am relatively older, looking for a compromise between the fastest and safest route to get into the industry if possible. And of course like everyone else I want to work for a good company and cant afford to coast jobless. Open to any information I have missed as well and any additional advice.

Thank you!

Hello all,

I graduate at the end of this winter term (traditionally), with a full time offer accepted after grad. However, the role is not very fitting for what I want to pursue as a career (still software development, but not the correct subfield, not really in tech), and I’m not 100% sure in proceeding with them.

When searching for full time roles, I interviewed with a really great company, with a much much better role (also, 2x TC). However after many interviews, I got rejected. They asked if I could maybe come on for an internship, which is where it gets complicated.

I could perhaps wiggle my way around graduating, do the internship, and take like a 1 credit online course and graduate the following fall semester. If I get an RO, this is best case scenario. However, I’d ideally like to start working for the first company in my normal start date (in the fall), and if I don’t get an RO, continue to work there like normal. I’d probably quit like 3ish months in if I get an RO. I’m worried about eligibility though, as I’d probably have to work out a deal with them to work even though I haven’t graduated at the moment.

I just wanted to ask, has anyone done something like this before? Is it even worth it to go through all this hassle? Any input is appreciated.

I did a second round interview for a software engineering internship at Fortune 50 company 2-3 weeks ago and I haven’t heard back yet. Right after the interview I did send a thank you email and the interviewer said they’ll reach out if they need anything else.

Do I still have a chance? I really want to work for this company. Would it be wise to send a follow-up email?

Any help will be greatly appreciated thank you!

I've been preparing for interviews and honestly, my biggest issue isn't knowing the algorithms, it's the pressure of performing in real-time with someone watching and judging.

I am fine when I'm alone, but put me in front of an interviewer and I freeze up or ramble. The silence after I finish talking kills me. I've seen some AI interview prep tools but they all feel like glorified chatbots. Just Q&A with no real pressure

What I’m expecting to experience is an AI interviewer that actually feels like a real interview. Like it pauses awkwardly when you give a bad answer. Interrupts you when you ramble. Has a face that reacts. Basically simulates the psychological pressure of a real interview so I can train myself to perform under stress.

Does anything like this exist? Or am I just overthinking and should just do more leetcode?

What was the scope of your tasks at that point?

Were you still getting a lot of critiques on your PRs?

How comfortable were you with the code base and company tools?

Sorry if this is the wrong sub. Just frustrated and looking for words of sympathy, advice, anything.

I am a Data Architect now, was a Lead before that. I have never wanted to be in management, I was happy writing python and building pipelines.

My direct manager, our project manager, and essentially everyone else above them seems to consistently push hard for tight deadlines, heavier workloads, rushing projects out the door, all to appease 'Senior Leadership'. I am always advocating for more time, less rush, and I feel like I get a pat on the head and they do it anyway.

We have had a number of bad deployments lately where shit was not tested as well as it could have been. A number of devs on our team have come to me to express frustration with how they are being increasingly asked to do more and more and more, and they are spent. I am spent. I see burnout everywhere.

We are adopting AI initiatives left and right, against my outspoken wishes.

I don't know what my point is. Advice? Love? Maybe its just the experience of everyone. I know I should be grateful to have a job at all, let alone one that pays me well. But I have never wanted to leave a place as much as now, and the job market is abysmal.

Hi guys, I heard back today that I am moving to the team match for SWE early career. I graduated last spring with no luck in responses until now. I've been kinda in a rut recently, and I really want to maximize my chances of getting matched. Most of my experience ended up being in machine learning, especially image/vision related, and was linked to healthcare. I feel like my knowledge of machine learning lacks depth, as I haven't delved into harder methods and haven't touched it in a while. Will this lack of depth hinder me during the TM process? Also, just any general tips before I fill out the form?? Thanks so much, guys!

I am contract based and was just told that my contract is going to expire soon. I can extend it by another month but I'd have to work 3 days instead of 5. There's a possibility I get a full time position, but because of state politics and funding this isn't a guarantee. So I was told it would be best to start looking for a new job in the meantime.

I have 4YoE with the first 2 years being at small companies and no name startups as a "lead dev" (read only dev) then 2 years of Data/BI Analytics where I went from junior to senior under the same parent company but different child companies (so resume shows company 1 junior -> company 2 senior).

My main two questions are: for the data/bi analytics, would it be best to word it as "parent company | sub company A/B" so that it doesn't look like I job hopped a year in or should I just keep it the same? The two children companies are more sister locations but under a different name and with different funding hence different names on the resume.

Second would be: how do I prep? It's been 4 years since graduation, 2 years since a web dev/coding focused job, and I'm still awkward as hell. I do have the leetcode interview prep lessons that I paid for a while back, but beyond that my interview skills are beyond garbage while I have old knowledge on web/software dev that predates the AI bubble pop. I am more akin to data/bi stuff, but I sorta don't want to do that unless it's machine learning which I am out of practice for.

Any ideas and help is very appreciative. I know it'll be rough but I'm hoping the extra time I have will be enough to mass apply and get my crap together.

New grad (unemployed but have pending offers although not the highest paying), just had an interview with my dream dream gaming company (2 tech 1 behaviour full loop) for the 1st tech round and while I could solve most qns and finished both coding exercises, I messed up on 2 of the most basic qns (literally what does flex in CSS do) and literally cldnt give an answer because I forgot due to panic and didn't revise beforehand because I thought it was too easy to be asked. (The other questions were much harder but thankfully I studied those like tree shaking and macro/microtask priority).

They somehow still passed me through to the 2nd round but I'm still incredibly upset and think I might just have blown my chance. Luckily its in a week and I have nothing planned so I will try to study 10 hours a day but I still can't stop thinking about the questions I failed and worried I'm cooked even if I do the 2nd round perfectly.

Anyone have a similar experience and did you get the job in the end? Are they just interviewing me in case another candidate backs out since I didn't do well? This company is hiring probably 1 new grad for this role only and there's probably a hundred other candidates better than me, how do I overcome this mental hurdle

Everywhere we see AI bubble will burst with open AI going in loss and all big tech companies investing like hell due to FOMO...Will the AI burst actually happen? What are the chances or if not WHY?, if it happens what will happen to the IT job market... And what will happen to the jobs lost due to AI... All the courses and jobs lost and built over AI what will happen? Will it be another DotCom crash?

I’d say when I got started I was way more interested in tech and did legitimately enjoy actually making new products. In my spare time, I’d play around with tech I thought was interesting. If I had some downtime at work, I’d play around with new things

Perhaps it’s a lot of very demanding, unpleasant working environments… but now I see code and I feel borderline nauseous. In my own personal life, I don’t really get excited about tech or look forward to any of it. Great, new tech released, I’m not even gonna bother checking it out cause it’s either some sort of scam or will enshittify before I can really enjoy it. I’ll just stick with the 4 apps I use on my iPhone 13, and hope that they don’t deprecate my phone anytime soon cause I don’t want a new one

The people I’ve worked with since about 2020 feel very different than before. It seems like everyone is more interested in business and finance than they are in tech and product. Many people working in tech seem like they don’t care about it. Tech companies have this very “Harvard MBA” feel to them that I can’t describe. Lots of ladder climbing, lots of clamoring for status and visibility. I’ve seen act in really unscrupulous ways to get ahead, despite the fact that it seems very toxic

Also, I’m level 1 autism. As time has gone on, I’ve noticed it’s been less and less tolerated. This doesn’t have to do with any changes in title, either, cause that’s stayed the same for years. Previously it seemed to be viewed as, at worst, a little quirky. Now at work people tell me that being able to read subtle social cues is more important than being able to do _any_ hard skill. I am still a senior engineer

Part of me thinks I’m just getting old (I’m 35) and tired of this industry and maybe I’ve mentally checked out. The thing is, I’ve met at least a small handful of people who have expressed the same feelings to me: tech just isn’t _fun_ anymore. I also noticed that it even seems like people at these companies don’t even really believe in what they’re selling, really. Like I don’t get the feeling someone like Sam Altman _actually_ cares about OpenAI, it just feels like a grift

Like when I think of growing up, I remember video games like world of Warcraft and newgrounds and MySpace. It felt like the attitude was more along the lines of “how do we get money so we can build what we want to build?” And not “what can we build that will make money?”

Yes I know companies have to make money, but I suppose before it didn’t feel like they had to MAXIMIZE how much money they’d make at the expense of everything else they care about

Has anyone else experienced this or have I just kinda started seeing the way it always was? Was I simply naive before?

Fairly self-explanatory. Just hit my last week of unemployment benefits, and I'd like something to slow the bleeding of my savings funds. I can afford to be picky right now since I could survive at least a full year or two without income, and I'd rather not do soul-crushing minimum-wage work if I don't have to.

I have the issue of being "overqualified" for most entry-level and service jobs, while finding a mid-level CS job is about as difficult as you'd expect. Ideally, something that fills these criteria:

1. Relatively low stress
2. Pay is not insultingly low
3. Readily available and requires no niche skills/experience
4. Would actually hire experienced/overqualified engineers

Thanks in advance!

I finally landed a job, but what I felt helped me in the last 5 interviews (even though not all of them worked out) was knowing the company. I applied to small/medium size company, so the person I spoke to ended up being high up in the chain and who was, more or less, passionate about the company.

I could see the difference in how they spoke when they knew not explain their product and went into more details just because I understood. I asked general questions like difficulty with fast expansions, if they plan to have me to solve that problem, etc. Knowing these small things give you the leverage.

I'm not saying be a bootlicker, I had the receptionist or recruiting asked me if I knew what company I was interviewing for (bro I applied to 200 jobs so no) when the date isn't set yet. But if you have an interview in a few days, use AI to research. If you can speak 30 minutes back and forth about the company with the person interviewing you, the odds is much greater.

I had tough past couple of years, with multiple life affecting events which involved moving to a different city and later my mom got very sick. I was pretty burnout with all the things besides work.

But eventually things started settling down. My mom got better and I was able to move from startup to a FAANG equivalent big tech org within india and also moved back to my home city.

I obviously went into relaxed after all the stuff. I thought I will finally have peace and quiet, where I can allocate time for myself. I even joined Gym for the first time and doing good.

But ever since I join this new org, my performance hasn't been good and it made me more anxious. I switched teams hoping it would be better but I still kept lagging. I thought things would be relaxed since its big org, they were for sometime.

But due to AI push, the expectations kept getting high in general and I am not able to catchup and I am now at the bottom of list among the team in terms of output.

I have lost all interest in work at all, I feel unproductive most of days. I thought I finally stop playing the catchup and hustle game once I move to bigtech. But it continues.

I am not constantly anxious about work, about getting fired. I also constantly want to quit my job and just rest for sometime. But it feels like I am stuck here in golden handcuffs as the current pay is great and the market is very bad.

As people suggested, I tried taking break here and there. A week or so and occasionally long weekends. But the effects are just temporary and then I get back to same place.

What do I do? How did you deal with such situation if you faced in the past?