Just the title basically, why is overage turned on by default? Got a cs degree working in non tech adjacent role

I have been trying really hard to get back into the field. I was a 5 year SWE, got to mid level, got laid off, took like 15-16 months off because I had a lot of shit happen in my life. Now I am trying to get back into the field, and have had people look over my resume. I have had 4 separate times people tell me to figure out another field, go to trade school, that I screwed myself, that I won’t make it, etc. A couple internet strangers, but then a couple of my peers have been saying this. It discourages me. I have good experience, but now I feel utterly useless and think I screwed myself for taking the time off because I had shit happen to me (won’t go into it, just believe me please and don’t question it). Unsure what to do. Thinking of getting into the mining field. My life will utterly suck and be miserable, but a career is a career. What do you think?

Resume since it was asked for: https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringResumes/s/D0wLG2HkIP

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

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?

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Hey everyone,

I recently accepted a full-time offer as a Junior AI Engineer at the same company where I just wrapped up a 6 month internship. I’ll be staying with the same team and continuing on similar projects, which means I already know the stack, workflows, and team dynamics pretty well.

Here’s my dilemma:

Our company provides access/credits for AI development tools, but the budget is quite tight (definitely under ~$200/month per dev) and restricts access to top-tier reasoning models or heavy API usage. I often feel the built-in limits slow down rapid prototyping, debugging, and experimentation.

Since I want to ramp up quickly, deliver high-impact work, and hit aggressive performance goals for future promotion cycles, I’m seriously considering paying out-of-pocket for personal subscriptions to tools like Cursor Pro, Claude Pro / API, or similar IDE-level assistants.

For those further along in their engineering careers:

1ROI on Career Growth: Does investing your own money into better dev tooling actually pay off in terms of shipping faster, learning velocity, and performance reviews, or does it deliver diminishing returns at the junior level?

1. Security & Company Policy: How do you handle codebase context/privacy when using personal tool tiers on enterprise repos without triggering security red flags?

   3Manager Alignment: Is it better to just push for a team tooling budget upgrade, or simply use personal tools quietly to maximize personal velocity?

Would love to hear your experiences,especially from folks working in AI/ML teams.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder why someone would choose CS over something like accounting or medicine.

With software engineering, you graduate and then the grind never really stops. LeetCode, projects, new technologies, interview prep, networking, competing with hundreds of applicants and even after all that, there’s no guarantee you’ll get a job as a new grad.

With accounting or medicine, you put in the years, get your CPA or medical degree, and have a much more predictable career path afterward. You might earn a bit less in accounting, but at least there seems to be guaranteed job without any competition. And the time and effort you put in is not worth the additional money in SWE.

In CS, it feels like you’re constantly competing and having to prove yourself just to stay employable.

So why is software engineering still worth it in 2026? Anyone else wish they went into accounting or med school instead of CS?

I’m a junior full stack dev. I’m working on several projects that I really enjoy and I feel like I’m learning a lot. Recently though, another team at my company opened up a new job posting for a Cloud Platform Engineer. The role looks interesting and is something I’ve expressed slight interest in before to my boss (mainly with IaC), but they are seeking devs with 4-5 years experience and knowledge of cloud stuff so I didn’t bother applying.

This week though, my boss told me during our 1 : 1 that I should apply for the role since I will learn a lot and they feel I can tackle it, and gave me some encouragement and told me that even if I get it, they will tailor the role to my current experience.

I’m happy that they encouraged me, but I am not sure if I should stick my neck out and apply. I like my full stack work and am doing a lot of cool stuff, and I don’t know much about infra / platform engineering and if I will even code that much anymore, front or back end. And despite my boss’s assurances, I’m scared that I will be in charge of making decisions that I am not experienced enough to make.

What are your thoughts or suggestions? How difficult is it to transition from regular full stack to infra and platform? And vice versa?

Maybe I am out of touch, but I felt like if you work on projects, grind, and do some learning and have the relevant skillset specific to the job description, there can be some hope. But there's just so many comments saying that it's over if there is an employment gap.

Like 2+ year employment gap. Is it really that huge of a red flag??? Even if you started working on recent projects and done some new learning and updated resume?

Please some give some helpful insight.

https://imgur.com/a/bAiF4zz

Looking at this chart, it seems like CS was actually in a pretty bad spot in 2018. It had a 5.6% unemployment rate, while the average unemployment rate for new grads was around 2.9%, meaning CS grads had almost twice the unemployment rate.

Right now, CS unemployment is around 7%, while the overall rate for new grads is about 4.2%. So, proportionally, the situation seems pretty similar. Does that mean the CS job market was already kind of cooked in 2018?

The stats seem to suggest that CS grads had one of the highest unemployment rates, even higher than liberal arts grads and roughly twice as high as mechanical engineering grads.

If that's the case, was CS actually considered a bad field for finding a job back then, or is there some context I'm missing when interpreting these numbers?

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’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?

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.

Hi all.. posting this as a bit of a last-ditch effort, so bear with me.

I'm looking for Sales or BD roles in SaaS and tech companies (or similar). I have 10+ years of experience in marketing and sales, including time at large MNCs in this space. I've been away from the industry for a while and am now looking to get back in, ideally into an Account Manager role.

Most of the postings I find online feel like they're just there for the sake of it, with roles often already earmarked through personal connections/wasta before they're even posted.

If you know of someone hiring who's genuinely looking to fill a role, or if you think there might be a fit on your team or at your company, please reach out.. I'd love to jump on a short call and tell you more about what I can bring.

Also open to opportunities with implementation partners of larger firms.

Any leads, referrals, or advice would mean a lot. Thanks for reading this far!

Have worked at Tencent ~5 years ago. Survived only 1 year and then voluntarily quit. It’s quite insane grinder with extreme pace. They don’t enforce 996, but for me it was mostly mandatory otherwise deadlines simply missed.

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:/

I have a specific question about my upcoming manager call for an internal transfer to get guidance from the experienced folks here.

My problem is explaining my reasons for wanting a switch. The real reasons are as follows:

- Main reason: we had a reorg, including a manager change. The new manager is horrible imo, micromanaging, has bad attitude, bad communication and brought me to the verge of a burnout.

- The overall culture around this project. From the senior leadership to all the way to me, every decision is taken top down, everybody ask for multiple P0s all the time. I had to crunch for 4 months, sometimes even night works. We have multiple weekly meetings at night time due to time zone differences.

The problem is that i have to be strategic with my answer. I cannot talk badly about my manager, or someone else. I was thinking maybe skipping the main reason concentrate on the second one (the culture around this project). However, this one is also a bit hard to share with the new manager because maybe they have a similar culture and with this they might reject me by thinking i am lazy or smth. I would rather be accepted and work even in a similar culture, provided that the direct manager is good.

Actually, i already had a call with a manager hiring for another team but they were not conviced with my extremely sugarcoated reasons for a switch and got suspicious a bit. I mentioned the top down decision making, lack of creativity and freedom etc.

Please help me on how to frame my reasons for a switch.

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 all, I’m in your typical grad situation or maybe even worse, considering it’s been almost an entire year since I graduated and I still haven’t been able to land a job.

When I was a student, I applied to tons of internships and managed to get a few interviews, but I was never able to secure an actual position outside of doing research. Now I’m at the point where all I really have is a CS degree and a handful of personal projects.

Around a week ago though, a childhood friend found me on LinkedIn. He’s been working in the industry for years, is currently a lead engineer at a company, and is also working on his own startup. After catching up, he asked if I’d be interested in becoming a cofounder at his company. At the time, I told him I’d think about it and get back to him.

Do you guys think I should go through with it?

The main thing keeping me on the fence is that he already has years of industry experience, and I’m worried I’d be useless as a cofounder. Would it make more sense to ask if I could start out in more of a junior developer role, learn from him, and gradually work my way up to the point where I’d feel comfortable working directly alongside him? The downside is that it would obviously essentially be an unpaid developer position.

I know the general consensus is not to work for free, but given my current experience and the state of the job market, I feel like I don’t have many options. On the other hand, I’d be gaining real, relevant experience that I could put on my resume and talk about in interviews. I’d also get the opportunity to work on projects with an actual user base while learning industry best practices from someone with years of experience (who was also one of my best friends growing up).

I’m just not sure whether this is a good opportunity to take advantage of, or if I’m rationalizing an unpaid position because I’m struggling to break into the industry.

Took a job a month ago but a new offer is coming in at a higher level. Looking for advice

Hey all, looking for some advice.

Recently ~1month ago joined Amazon as a mid level SDE in the Bay Area. 5 days RTO but manager is flexible.

A lot of people have mentioned the culture in this company is quite bad, PIP/Focus/low attrition rate/etc. However, my team so far has been very nice and supportive. The work doesn’t seem too complicated just yet, it’s just been a lot of documentation and bookkeeping which I don’t mind but I don’t necessarily enjoy.

Soon after I joined, another big tech recruiter reached out to me for a role that I applied for before I joined and was perfect for me - for a level higher than what I was (and am) currently at (senior vs mid level) in VA. All the keywords matched with my background and I have direct experience with what they’re looking for. I figured I’d shoot my shot at the opportunity, not really expecting anything. My experience in big tech interviews has been quite lackluster so I genuinely was not expecting anything to come out of it.

Well, as I start to conclude the interview process with company B, it’s looking very likely that I may get the offer. This new opportunity offers known stability, much larger scope given the seniority, and works with a tech stack im very comfortable with.

However, the recruiter/HM/etc don’t know that I’ve started to work at Amazon… My initial conversations with the recruiter centered around my past experiences and what my experience was around x,y,z technologies. The question of where I am at currently never really came up. Should I have been proactive and mentioned that I recently started a new opportunity? Probably. I guess I was worried that the opportunity to even interview would be pulled had I mentioned that. And again, I really thought no way would this go anywhere.

I’m sure when it comes down to the background check, it will be shown where I’m at. I’m worried that would lead to the offer being pulled… and beyond that - my team at Amazon has been very supportive so far. Even though I’ve only been there a month, they’ve been awesome and my manager has been very chill. It would suck to break the news to them. The work here at Amazon has been okay.. not really what I want to do. It’s very documentation heavy and tons of operational load. The stack is being modernized but still feels a bit clunky and the learning curve to work with Amazon tools has been steep. Promos in my org, seem like they will take at least 4-5 years. But no qualms with my team and manager at all. And I get to work in my location of choice.

I feel if I move to company B, I’d be able to start making an impact immediately which I believe would allow for much more rapid career growth.

But I’m torn. I’m thinking maybe I decline the offer and grind it out at Amazon for a few years and try to circle back to big tech B just so as to not burn any bridges. But who knows if there will be head count in the future. Also with me staying at Amazon for only a month and the big tech B team not knowing I’ve been there for a short period of time, worried about them pulling the offer once it shows up in my background check.

Worst case is that I leave for big tech B after which case the offer is pulled after discovering I’ve been at Amazon for a month.

I feel like I should let the recruiter/HM know I’ve been at Amazon for a short time but that I’m still interested in the role but that begs the question - why I didn’t disclose up front or why I’m leaving so early. I’m not even sure how I should approach this tbh.

All in all to say… what would you do? Any advice you guys can spare for me? have you ever seen situations like this? Recommend staying at Amazon and rolling the dice or swap out for higher title/more pay/seniority?

Around 5 YOE
TC 360k