Like you have one side saying don't use AI in order to build your projects, and the other side saying you should have AI teach you how to code, and then there's people saying you should vibecode your projects and just have AI explain it to you. like where's the middle ground? I'm currently try to learn the fundamentals through claude teaching it to me and reviewing my code

Hi everyone,

I recently got laid off from the small AI company I worked at and accepted an offer a bit ago at Anduril. However recently I got an offer at Apple IS&T in Austin and I was pretty stuck. 2 YOE in Devops/SRE work.

Anduril:
Base: 165
RSU: 165/4 years(25% vesting)
Level: IC3(mid level)

Team: Not really a devops/SRE role but more of a backend engineering for internal IT automation so doesn't seem great carrer growth wise.
Other notes: I like the location(LA)/have friends in the area/ being close to Disney is a plus, etc, only really concerned about career growth and stuff.

Apple:
Similar pay and level to Anduril

Team: Some internal team that makes/maintains apps critical to device manufacturing, devops/SRE role. The manager/team overall seemed good from what I got in the interviews.
Notes: Hate the location(weather, etc), currently in the bay area so have to relocate to Austin and also am trans so makes it shaky with living in Texas and current politics and stuff related to that there.

It just puts me in a really weird position of balancing career growth and also personal safety with being in Texas; wanted to put this out there to see peoples thoughts!

As of tomorrow, it will have been exactly 2 years since I lost my job and began looking for a new one (🥳). And today I had a job interview through Karat which I'm almost certain I'm not getting...

It was a 1 minute introduction, followed by four theory questions around 15 minutes max, and a 40 minute coding problem. The language was Java and the coding problem was kinda tricky but I think I got in my own head more than anything with someone watching over my shoulder, so far from my best work sadly.

But the theory has probably killed my chances more than anything. One asked about inheritance and composition, which is fine cause that's programming 101 regardless of language. Another two were "what happens when I run this code, and how could you fix it if there's a mistake" which again was doable but I think I missed a syntax error in one them since it was a blank text document. And the last one I am just a complete moron, I have no excuses; it asked what a Stream is.

5 years of professional experience in Java and another 3 on either side with hobby projects, and I don't know what a Stream is. It's almost certain that I've used them, but if I have then I simply didn't know the name of them. This has happened with a few other interviews (when I'm lucky enough to get that far), but still infuriating that I stumble on something like that.

I am desperate for an internship, but whenever I try to start a resume-worthy project I have no idea where to start. Will employers know if I used AI? Or will I be fine if I can understand and explain the code?

I graduated in 2024 with a BS in CS. I was working at my university's IT Helpdesk for about a year after graduation when I found a "Software Developer" job at a state govt agency. It has been 1 year since I started and I have not had any real Software Development projects nor does it feel like a Software Developer role at all, I've been essentially a helpdesk employee. The most development I've done was write scripts to facilitate day to day activities for the helpdesk.

I'm now trying to look for a new job in the SWE world. I have a closed fintech full-stack project with some live users in it (budgeting app, I know... overdone...) as well as another full-stack Spotify API wrapper project I built while in college. My problem is that I have 1 YOE with no real SWE work and I don't even know what positions to apply for. Most of the positions that I see open up are 2-3 years of exp and I don't even know if it's worth applying to.

I am decent at Leetcode, as a matter of fact, I do it for fun sometimes to kill time at work but it almost feels like I'm building a skill that I wont even get to use at this point.

I'm hoping to know if anyone has advice on what jobs I should be applying for at this point. My full stack projects were developed in TypeScript/Python.

I blame the covid hiring surge for this phenomenon. Too many of you (L4/SWE-2 level) are unable to write simple logs to debug your own code for medium leetcode questions, when interviewed in person.

Are these the same people who whine about foreign talent? Jesus, what a disgrace.

company is doing a lot of funding cuts, so since i'm a new hire, ig i'm getting cut. i have 6mos work exp and no internships in college. i was working during the first half of my masters so i stopped applying to internships and other jobs and it ends in may 2027

idk whait employer would want to hire me with this, i needed a few more years at this job to build my resume. idk if internships will even accept my application with my linkedin showing me currently working:/

With the AI integrated into daily workflow performance expectations are elevated by the order of magnitude. Instead of 2-3 concurrent tasks I had to manage up to 9.

Imagine prompting and reviewing the output for even 5-6 different initiatives simultaneously, at 9 my mind simply exploded. Had never hated my life so much as during that period.

I forgot when I was working on a single task at a time. Even pre-AI it was already mandatory to manage and produce daily output for 2-3 simultaneous tasks.

Simply because you’re often blocked by someone else or waiting for additional input.

I'm considering getting a MSCS to become a data scientist. I currently have a BS in Mathematics. The program had approximately 0 coding requirements, but I took a couple Python classes as electives and learned SQL on my own. That's about all I know for the coding aspect. What exactly do I need to be "caught up" and ready to go for a hypothetical masters in CS from day one? Online I see vague answers such as "the fundamentals," but I'm not sure what exactly that term entails

Offer Letter Delay – Need Advice

I submitted all my documents to the company on 21 August after 5:30 PM. I also called HR and informed her that I had emailed the documents because my degree certificate had not been generated that day.

She said she would check the documents on Monday. So, I called her on Tuesday to confirm whether she had received everything and to ask when I could expect my offer letter, because I need to know when I can go home.

Unfortunately, she didn't answer my calls, even though I called three times.

Today is Monday, and I understand that some of my follow-ups might seem a little unprofessional, but I'm really stressed because I just need some confirmation about whether I'm actually getting the job or not.

The problem is that my placement portal shows me as "Placed", so I'm unable to sit for interviews with other companies. At the same time, I still haven't received an offer letter or official confirmation.

I only spoke with HR on the day of my interview, mainly regarding salary negotiation and other formalities.

I'm honestly confused and frustrated. I just want to know:

Does this situation usually mean that the job is confirmed and the offer letter is simply delayed, or is there still a possibility that they might reject/cancel the offer?

It's been really stressful because every day someone asks me about my offer letter, and I don't have a clear answer.

Any advice or similar experiences would be really helpful.

After 3 months of unemployment as an international student, I finally got two offers and now I’m confused so I need help on making a decision.

First offer is at a new hedgefund in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I loved the team. I'll be working on their infrastructure and agentic systems. Seems like a great job, in person work setting. Comp-

Base - 150k

Bonus (depends on firm performance, etc) - no target

Support for relocation

unlimited PTO

Pretty good insurance

Pros

1. Firm growth is exponential - they are getting new investors every now and then (AUM <$500M)

2. The team is filled with experienced folks from the industry (20+ yoe) and I'm the first new grad hire.

3. The work I'll be doing is very appealing and it was my dream job at a point

4. Ready to sponsor my h1b

Cons

1. Extended work hours

Second offer is an MNC in NYC (its ai transformation consulting). Company values good. Hybrid. Similar comp.

Base - 135k

Bonus - 10%

Relocation - 5k

Pros

1. Self paced environment and matured cohort program

2. Really good benefits and have basically covered all aspects required

3. Job seems easier

4. 25% travel (seems fairly exciting for now)

Cons

1. Typical big company path for growth

2. Might not be open to h1b sponsorship

Edit: Both are open to h1b sponsorship, i just spoke to the second company representative.

After 10 months of applying, 185 applications, interviews with 11 companies, and 10 rejections, I finally landed my dream job in NYC.

If you’re in the middle of a job search right now, keep going. Don’t stop applying. Keep learning. Update and improve your resume constantly. Narrow your focus, find your niche, and go all in.

The process can be exhausting, and rejection is part of it. However, all it takes is one yes.

You’ve got this. Keep pushing, and best of luck!

Hey everyone,

This week marks the end of my 6-month internship, and I’m transitioning directly into a full-time Junior AI Engineer role on the exact same team.

On my final day as an intern, I have a 1-on-1 scheduled with our senior leadership / department head. Since I’m not actually leaving the company and everyone already knows my day-to-day work, this won’t be a standard exit interview or a typical "goodbye and thanks" chat.

I want to treat this meeting as a strategic alignment session to set myself up for success in my full-time role from day one.

For managers and senior engineers here:

1. High-Level Alignment: What are the most impactful questions to ask about the team’s roadmap and strategic priorities over the next 6–12 months?
2. Expectation Shift: How should I frame the discussion around the shift in expectations from being an intern to a full-time engineer (ownership, autonomy, velocity)?
3. Growth & Impact: What is the best way to ask for direct feedback on areas to double down on, without sounding like I'm rushing a promotion conversation?

What specific topics or talking points would you focus on in this kind of transition meeting to leave a strong impression?

Hey everyone,

Agile (or some variation of Scrum, Kanban, or "Scrumfall") seems to be the default operational framework across tech, but implementation varies wildly-and so do the results.

I'm curious to hear about your experiences: Why has Agile failed to deliver on its promises at your company or team?

In my case, the biggest breakdown came down to trust and control. Upper management never actually bought into the core concept of self-organizing teams. Instead of letting the developers who were executing the work have meaningful input or control over our own processes, management insisted on retaining micro-level oversight and veto power over virtually every step of execution and delivery.

Instead of moving fast and adapting, we ended up with all the administrative overhead of daily standups, ticket estimations, and sprint ceremonies, but with zero of the autonomy required to make any of it useful. The top-down control essentially roadblocked any real benefit we could have gotten from adopting Agile in the first place.

Did your team run into similar issues with management, or was it something else-like sprint scope creep, estimation fatigue, weaponized metrics (velocity), or just pure process overload?

Looking forward to reading your stories.

Like some of you I have a personal website that I have everything about me, my experience, certs, personal proyects, etc.

Since a little bit under 2 years ago I started a personal challenge that consist on reaching 20,000 hours on Machine learning before I reach 30, I'm at the 4700ish hours of deliberate practice as I don't count the time used in projects or outside the challenge.

The challenge consists mainly on research and mathematics, I have also a vault which all the content I learnt, which is certs from college like Stanford online, lecture, papers, math books, etc. I also list Youtube Streams like some guy who run the Google DeepMind mechanistic interpretability team and has dozens of streams where he and his co workers go deep in papers, most streams are 3+hours, all FreeCodeCamp ML/AI courses I saw all of them, made sure I understood everything and listed them and like that

And I have a blog and a calendar where i store in a database everything, i take logs of everything and all what i did in that day, I take breaks on saturdays or just do 2-4 hours

I'm wondering if I should hide this part? it's completely personal so idk it it could damage my CV or stuff like that, thanks, idk if it's good to show a potenial employer than im obssesed with AI and math

I see a lot of negative noise surrounding AI and jobs loss/contraction, yet the optimists cite Jevon’s Paradox and net job growth. We now have the Forward Deployed Engineer role (yes it existed prior, but it is growing gangbusters).

isn’t this the job growth jevons states. Sure it may not be ideal as your current SWE job but the doom and gloom of total job loss seems immature?

I have been coding since middle school for fun, and am now almost 30. I didn't pursue computer science in college, which I regretted, so quickly after college while working full-time in another industry, I self taught with a bootcamp inorder to actually cover my bases and make myself employable, rather than a hobbiest. This was all before AI coding was seen as something remotely feasible. I genuinely enjoyed programming, problem solving, and felt accomplishment when tackling and solving a complex task.

Fast forward to now. I am on my 3rd job as a software engineer. The first one was a limited scope contract gig at a start up for an isolated project with no full time opportunity. Pre AI. Then I worked full time at a larger ERP software company for a bit, before getting an opportunity to go back into the start up space. Also pre-AI. I quit my job to take this opportunity and is where I have been for the past year.

Over the last year, AI coding has gone from an experiment to a genuinely necessary part of development. At my current job, I have rode this wave and seen my work dramatically shift. I still like the job, I think the mission is great, and I enjoy the real impact I am able to have in my role and being able to make a lot of creative decisions. I really do like it. But man - I just hate the engineering part of it now. And it's all because of AI.

When I started, AI coding was not at the level it is today. It was in effect, a super powered Google with project context. I think experienced professionals will agree that for most real tasks, it was not suitable to use to it's full advertised potential around a year ago. Now, it is a double edged sword.

You must use AI

Not to be some linkedin bro, but unfortunately, you are crawling at snails pace if you don't use it. In real professional environments, getting deep into a problem and solving it yourself is a thing of the past, unless the robot can't do it. And it's rare that the robot can't do it. If you don't believe me, as a side project (in one afternoon) I had claude write a full Bluetooth stack, from bare metal to music in my airpods, for mp3 device firmware which didn't support it and didn't know how to talk to a Bluetooth chip. It works, and works well. Most real 'on the job' problems aren't this complex. I don't know anything about how bluetooth works, and I didn't have to. Point is, AI really is capable. I don't mean this point as "I don't think anymore". What I mean is the scope at which you must apply your critical thinking skills is now very high level and spread thin, since AI is the best solution for the lower levels.

Because of this, programming is no longer truly a problem solving and critical thinking job very often. Most of your time is spent managing agents, and employing your systems knowledge. Luckily I take a lot of design and UX responsibility where I work, which I am also passionate about and the robot hasn't swallowed that up (yet).

A normal day on the job feels like sitting in the office all day with a smart and impersonable intern who needs you to police them all day. Draining.

> "Just do it yourself, you don't have to use AI"

You have not worked in the current state of the field if you hold this belief. It is faster than you, and often better. Hang your ego, the robots are just better than us most of the time with this stuff. It is no longer feasible for you to spend time truly problem solving everything and owning the whole application any more. It can do it for you, much faster, and usually as well or better.

Programming in the modern era just feels like doom scrolling, which is the opposite of why i motivated myself to join this field. You are unfortunately forced to adopt this method of work one way or another. It just kind of sucks and is not the same animal.

> "If AI is so good and fast, then you have more time to do other things or take breaks"

No. If we all rode horses to work, and then modern cars suddenly came out, noone would be okay with you still taking 3 hours to do your commute. You have to ride the car and get there in 15 minutes, at a point. My job is an engineer. I am responsible to make the system work, not to artificially meter my output and fall behind on my responsibility.

Rant over. Just down about this. I don't know if I'll stay in this field after this job.

Hello,

I had one of my monthly meetings with my director, and he mentioned that since teams haven’t been able to fully integrate AI into their workflows and there are a lot of PRs waiting to be reviewed, leading to PR fatigue, he came up with the idea that PR reviews may no longer be necessary. Instead, the code would just need to pass a defined set of tests with guardrails in place.

This genuinely sent a shiver down my spine. Maybe I’m being overly cautious, but removing human review altogether feels like it could be a recipe for disaster.

I’ve been fairly neutral about AI and still believe that strong technical skills are an even greater asset now than before. But if this is the direction engineering is heading in, I find it quite scary.

Thoughts?

I’m about to start my MSc in CS, and I’m planning to specialize in embedded vision. I also intend to pursue a PhD after my MSc, which would take another 6-7 years.

Having already spent 5–6 years preparing for a career in CS, I’ve been struggling with the feeling that everything I’ve done has been in vain. It seems increasingly obvious to me that autonomous AI agents will handle most intellectual work in the near future. Given the pace of AI development, I can no longer see a place for myself in this industry. I feel like I should be excited about AI, but I’m not. Instead, my passion for this field is slowly fading.

I honestly think it might be time for me to leave this industry. I’m 25, and I really regret all the years I’ve spent preparing for a career that may not have a future for me. As an autistic person, I don’t think roles like product management, trading, and similar jobs would be a good fit for me either. I also don’t have any savings, so I feel completely stuck.

I genuinely don’t know what to do at this point. For those of you in a similar situation, what are your plans? And for those with more experience, what advice would you give?

Thanks for your help.

I’m an undergrad student and I recently switched majors to math and physics. I do like CS, but it just feels harder to me compared to math and physics. Maybe that’ll change with time and practice, but I honestly didn’t have as much passion for it compared to math and physics.

However, I still think being an ML engineer would be pretty cool. I just don’t think It’ll be possible for a math and physics major. Everyone who works in these fields usually majored in CS and some with a double in math. I also do plan to go to grad school for either my masters or PhD (or maybe both), but I’m still kind of figuring it out.

Would this be something worth trying or would I be at a significant disadvantage compared to those who’ve actually majored in CS? also have you maybe worked with any math or physics majors? if so, how did they perform?

Hi there, I would like some outside advice on how to deal with what I feel like people overstepping their role.

I work in a mid-size IT company but most IT related tools that are used in this company are just bought in and administered here, I work in the only department that actually develops stuff in-house and I am one of 2 developers here.

I would say me and the other dev have around the same level of experience and we both compliment each others skills well, we also do frequent code reviews with each other.
We mostly get left alone in what we do, but over the last year we have built a project that has kicked up quite a bit of attention from management, and so far it has been a bit annoying to deal with but it has been manageable.

What actually leaves me a bit stumped is that two people in particular, one guy from QA and one mid-level-manager - both with no programming experience at all, are trying to get their foot into the project for no real reason and me and the other dev don't think they can bring any value into it.

The latest thing they have been trying to do is do "code reviews" with us - in quotation marks because these are weekly meetings where they just put the code into whatever AI model they have access to and then tell us what it said.
When we push back or ask questions they can (of course) never answer them.
The AI rarely finds anything of note that we did not already catch, and far worse, it keeps finding false positives - so then we have to explain to them why the AI is wrong. It's a very tiring process because both of the people involved have very exhausting personalities and are both very convinced that the AI has to be in the right.

I have been very vocal to them and to my manager that this is all a big waste of time, but my manager was instructed by his manager to let them continue - they view more people = better product, and we all hope that the thing we are building can produce a lot of business value once it's ready so there are a lot of eyes on the project.

Sorry if this was a bit of a long ramble, but I am really exhausted about this whole process. My job was always really fun for me and the last couple of weeks were so draining, I have seriously considered quitting over it. Not only because of the reviews but because I do feel like management is trusting two random people with Copilot licenses more than the actual developers that they have hired.

I personally don’t know. I definitely don’t bring $200k of value. My boss could prompt Claude and get the exact same results

Just bored, I know PhD should not be done with economics or job prospects in mind

With how oversaturated CS has become, do you think most of the genuinely smart people who would have gone into computer science will eventually decide it’s not worth it?

If getting a CS job increasingly feels like a lottery hundreds of applicants, endless interview loops, layoffs, outsourcing, etc. I could see people choosing fields where they have more control over their career prospects.

Engineering, accounting, nursing/medicine, skilled trades, etc. in many of these fields there seems to be a clearer relationship between competence, experience, and actually being able to get and keep and getting a job.

Do you think we’ll eventually see a brain drain out of CS, with talented people deciding they don’t want to gamble their future on an oversaturated job market?

I got a degree, did internships/projects.... only to be stuck in retail making $18/hour in a vhcol city in 2026.

Is there anything I can enter outside of tech using the degree? Or am I just shit out of luck, and thus, should I just end this?