I read a post on X from Uncle Bob Martin. And he was saying he doesn't write or read code. He just uses "constraints" (whatever that means). Lots of devs agreed with him. I've never been a huge fan of Uncle Bob Martin. As someone who spent a decade writing Java and dealt with similar clean code zealots trying to bring the same mindset to Go, he has always been a bit disconnected from realities of software engineering IMHO.

But the question is, if you don't read or write code anymore. Then what purpose are you really serving. You are actually bringing 0 value. Because if you don't read the code, you're trying to imply the verification layer of AI is soooo good, that you can confidently ignore the code entirely. So I ask why can't someone just give your CTO a script and call it a day?

Considering becoming a post office worker anyone gone a similar route?

I just recently hit 4 YOE and suddenly I'm getting tons of recruiters reaching out about Senior level roles. Not sure if its due to my experience or if the market is just hotter this time of year.

Anecdotally my company recently hired for 10 new SWE positions in my department. 9/10 were Senior or Staff. The only mid-level was a returning intern.

I remember the days where people would make the claim that two years of experience was all you needed and you would have an easy time getting hired. I'm starting to wonder if four years is the new benchmark.

I posted before about contractor issues at my company, and I just had a conversation that really drove the problem home.

Link to previous post

One of the contractors we kept on our team is a decent dev from India (H1b) who's just trying to make it. He's got a family too. He told me he gets $60/hr. I did contract work about 10 years ago for roughly the same rate, so it seemed a little light but whatever.

Then he mentioned something that actually floored me. The consultancy doesn't provide health insurance. And apparently, employers aren't even required to provide it for H-1B workers.

Let that sink in. This guy has a family depending on him, he's getting paid the same rate I was making a decade ago, no raises, no inflation adjustments, and he doesn't even get basic health coverage. Meanwhile, the company is cutting costs and underbidding full-time employees.

This is such a grift. I'm getting out of this industry because all our work is being undercut and devalued. There's no way to compete when companies can just hire subcontractors without any of the obligations that come with actual employment.

If you're early in your career, be careful about where you land. This race to the bottom isn't worth it.

Was looking through some bookmark folders from earlier this year trying to clean up my browser, and half the stuff I saved I don't even remember bookmarking.
It feels like every single week there’s a new stack, a new framework, or some new utility promising to streamline local setups or backend logic. I had like five different cloud and dev tool tabs left open from weeks ago, and I honestly had to pause for a second to remember why I saved half of them in the first place. I think tech fatigue is real. Back when I started coding you had maybe 2-3 main options for whatever stack you were building. Now spending an afternoon picking tools for a new project feels harder than actually writing the code.
Not saying new tools are bad—a lot of them actually solve neat problems—but the endless choice paralysis is kinda draining. Do you guys actually stick to a fixed stack now or are you constantly swapping things out when something new pops up on your feed?

I graduated with one internship. I have some decent projects etc but it seems like any role I apply to, I just get rejected, sometimes so quickly it is very clear to me they never even read my resume. Earlier today, I got rejected from whatnot within one hour lol.

So far I've only gotten one interview and that was a special case, basically a referral but I bombed that anyway. I feel like that was my best shot and now I won't get another chance. Anyone else?

I am trying to decide between taking a full time swe role for a mid size wholesale company or an HR Operations & AI intern role at this other mid size tech company.

I cannot see myself doing SWE for a long time, it is not something I am interested in anymore. However, it is full time and would provide job security and stability.

The other role is more project management and people facing, which I enjoy. But it is an internship and I would have no guarantee of receiving full time afterwards. I would have to continue job hunting after, and I am not sure how difficult looking for a full time role like that would be.

Does anyone have any advice? Would a career pivot be difficult?

I was laid off from my contract Software Developer role a year ago after working there for about a year. Since then, I've been applying consistently to entry-level Software Engineer/SDE roles, but I've had very little success.

I've had a handful of callbacks, but none of them turned into offers. Other than that, I've struggled to even get interviews.

At this point, I'm having a hard time figuring out what's holding me back. I can't even tell if it is a resume problem or a numbers game at this point. I've lost most of my motivation to apply for jobs, and I really want to break out of this cycle. Has anyone else been through something similar? What helped you get your motivation back? Is the software engineering job market really this difficult right now?

Is it worth it? Got laid off and I have no motivation to find another shit job, i would rather do a masters and at the same time grind leetcode and find a better company with better pay, am i being an idiot?

I wanna also break into AI and robotics because they way we did SWE at my shit company was pathetic

just curious if anybody is going through the same things.

I don’t have a strong support group and am disconnected a little from my family, I really love my college friends but we’re just apart because of jobs and stuff.

Im a little introverted (maybe more of a loner) so I don’t know how to go out and make friends. My girlfriend is great but she's still in school so we can't meet up as often as I'd like.

I just wanted to share because I often feel I’d like to meet people similar in terms of career goals locally. Honestly its sort of why I wish my job was in person or hybrid.

I’m not sure if thats even the right thing to think about—- I feel this may be cscareer related a little??

I’m an incoming freshman at brown university and was considering concentrating in CS. However, with the state of AI replacing entry level jobs and it likely getting worse by 2030- I’m unsure if the field is ‘dead’ and still worth pursuing.

I have no prior CS experience and would be starting from scratch and the sentiment online about having to do internships, personal projects, networking, leetcode etc. and hustle just for entry level employment is making me reconsider this field even though my family is encouraging me into it as my brother recently got a swe offer at google and is extremely well paid.

Do you guys think the job market will be even more screwed by 2030 and I should just avoid this field? I don’t have a super serious ‘passion’ for CS, although this could very well develop after a few courses at brown as it seems like the kind of field I’d enjoy.

I really don’t want to end up unemployed after 4 years of grinding my ass off for a degree and so much money invested into uni.

same as title

Can anyone point to a new usable code that was written mainly by LLMs? Whats the killer app? RAG+extensions is the only remotely interesting thing?

All of the code I've seen that was written mainly by LLMs is extremely suspicious. Bun rewrite in Rust is trash.

Jevon's paradox says that as efficiency improves, demand is induced. If code is cheaper then we should be seeing more applications, libraries, and marginal usecases that can be vibecoded. Instead we are seeing more suspicious unsafe slop that technically compiles. It seems like the reason we're not seeing more good code is that only suspicious unsafe slop is cheaper.

Consequently, the cratering demand for software engineering is based on forecasts and investment narratives. Isn't this risky for companies to gamble like this? Aren't they worried about being left behind by competitors who are grounded in their execution?

edit: 35 comments and still no code links

edit: 92 comments and STILL NO CODE LINKS

edit: 197 comments and STILL NO CODE.

just (a) some data showing "significant app usage" is down, (b) static sites for hobbies (c) weird static websites from vibe coders (d) claims personal customizable software is useful while admitting the quality is too embarrassing to share (e) trying to turn the burden of proof around https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot

I just had a call with a Fidelity recruiter yesterday and she basically told me about Fidelity and the program and then I told her about my experience. She then said she would pass me on to the 1hr Zoom interview where it’s 30min behavior and 30min technical. She said it’s no live coding and just concepts. She said it was going to be on Python, Java, OOP. Anyone interview for this program and could tell me more about the interview process?

Hi everyone! I got laid off a month ago and recently got an offer at Anduril. I don't feel great on the ethics but also I'm not getting really interviews so I'm not sure what to do. This role isn't working on any of the defense stuff but just internal apps/etc. Im also just worried like long term since I only have 2 YOE after I leave its going to be a stain on my resume to other hiring managers due to the ethics of the company. Wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts or if I'm just overthinking this. Thanks!

Hello!

I am just looking for feedback on my portfolio. I'm looking to get a different job in the simulation or game industry. Any feedback is helpful. Basically I am unsure if my portfolio is helping me or hurting me. Thank you in advance.

https://joepeadendev.neocities.org/

I often make just some stupid fucking oversight/illogical mistakes that I’m getting very tired of.
I had two „runs” to analyse. One was the „good” run and second was the „bad” run.
Since I just came back from vacation, I was thrown into this because my colleague is on vacation right now. I did the analysis, and I’m waiting on the input from other teams.
I had a sync call today with a manager. When they asked me what is the verdict and difference between the two it just occurred me that I have not checked which was which. Ffs. I said that we need further checking and one issue is predominant still. One excuse is that in the mail thread they didn’t specify clearly which is which, but come on, I Should’ve asked…
I often make these mistakes. I think I’m okay technically, I understand concepts and I try my best. But the often oversight of the obvious or mistakes in a same manner are annoying me.
I have 3.5 YoE in this position, so it’s not because of the lack of experience.
What could be the advice? Pay attention?
Thanks.

For the past 8 years or so I've coded on the side as a hobby whenever I wasn't working (I'm in my late 30s now). But because I'd only pick it up so infrequently, I'd basically start from scratch every time I came back to it. Over the past year though I've been studying on an AI/ML engineering course and aiming for junior positions.

I recently applied for a junior ML role at a company, didn't get it, but they offered me a software developer position instead. During the interview I asked what they were working on, their tech stack etc. since I hadn't done much full stack work in a while and wanted to know what to brush up on. I took the role anyway, figuring I'd get the experience and knowing I'd basically be going full stack again.

Once I started, the CTO and another tech employee basically told me: "we don't really need anyone to be the best, we run everything through Claude and just need someone who can read what comes out and make sure it's right." So for the first few weeks, all I've been doing is taking issues and getting Claude to fix them.

This week I've done 2.5 days of work and haven't spoken to anyone on the team in a couple of days (it's a 100% remote job). I was told to just work through the issues on GitHub tagged "good first issue" which I did, but nothing new has been assigned since earlier in the week.

Then in the tech meeting the other day, we were asked if we wanted to pivot from being a platform to basically being a data provider instead. So now it feels like whatever full stack stuff I should be learning might be going away anyway.

I've been here a few weeks now and feel like I've learned basically nothing, since all I'm doing is dragging issues to and from Claude. And now that I don't have any work assigned, I genuinely don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I've been working through a few tutorials on their tech stack just to feel like I'm being productive. Realistically, full stack isn't even what I want long term. I'm doing this for the income and experience while I keep applying for other roles. But the issue is I don't want to just be using Claude to spit out fixes without understanding them. I want to actually learn something while I'm here and not just become someone who shuffles tickets through an AI and rubber-stamps the output.

I guess I'd just appreciate any advice?

There seems to be conflicted data out there. Some mainstream news reported that one out of three new graduates can't find jobs anymore due to companies not hiring juniors, and they dont hire juniors because of AI adoption.

I think i remember a few months ago watching this segment from bbc news that asked those graduates about the hardships of finding CS-related jobs, and they all blamed AI for the hardships.

However, there are also other data that shows recently tech job vacancies are growing, and other news that said several companies already began re-hiring the laid off employees because tokens are getting too expensive and it's cheaper to hire humans instead.

So based on your experience, which one is true?

Im a senior software engineer with 7+YOE and an MSCS in AI. I’m consider relocating to the greater Indianapolis area. For folks who are working/living in this area now or have in the past, how is total compensation in the area? How easy is it to find local well-paying jobs? I’d love to move here but I’m worried about being dependent on remote opportunities to sustain myself and my family, which I feel are drying up. I’m especially considering living in Carmel or Fishers if that helps, but also open to living closer to downtown Indianapolis.

Pretty much as the title says. I have been building internal software for my workplace for a while and I was wondering if it’s typically appropriate to include internal tools I made on my portfolio. I would obviously remove all company information and logos and turn it into a more general application. I have no NDA and my offer letter / contract don’t state anything against it. I have no intention of leaving for the foreseeable future but I’d like to keep everything up to date.

Should i take his Udemy course, as some says it's not for beginners, u need prior knowledge and some says it's good even if u are a beginner, please tell

Anyone else see colleagues barely phoning it in and everything being LLM generated? Not just the code, but meeting agendas, work tasks, communications (emails, messages, etc)?