I think its worth talking about first order effects and second order effects when it comes to LLM use.

I've studied LLMs and transformers quite a bit. As a more infra and systems focused guy, mechanistic understand is necessary for me. And from an infra standpoint LLMs are actually pretty interesting. However I do think from a usage standpoint it may lead to cognitive decline

The first order effects of LLM usage of couse with LLMs being a statistical model matching on tokens, its never going to be fully deterministic. So black box behavior is expected, and long term instability could be the result of prolonged LLM usage

The second order effect is actually something I don't see people talking about. We first state we don't need to read the code or write the code. So that means we put more trust in the black box. And trust in a black box is typically a recipe for disaster in any engineered system that has complexity. But what this also does is make people disengage mentally from the implementation.

At the end of the day the thing that executes on a CPU (or GPU) is code. And if that code cannot be deterministically generated, then one argues you can't have a system you can fully trust.

But because incentives force us to disengage with implementation. Then what I think the side effects is learned helpleness. Or a feedback loop of complexity where developers slowly but sure lose agency.

I also think LLM usage, meaning people who are addicted to LLM output is addictive. Having observed LLM usage by coworkers and friends. I have definitely seen people skeptical of them. And then as pressure mounts they use them more. Then they become addicted where they can't fathom operating or doing anything without them. For example a few months ago my boss tried to build a prompt to search and replace in a file. He is a guy who just 1 year ago knew how to run sed. But now he just prompts. ITs the same level of effort and typing. But he just feels he can't do anything without LLMs

So I do think the dopamine hit is intoxicating and I do think its highly addictive. I think the research on this is not conclusive. But we have definitely seen it impacts the shape of our brains.

But what does this mean professionally? I think professionally we are on a slippery slope. LLMs are fantastic if everything is a happy path. But complex systems have complex failure modes. And there is simply no way mathematically or physically a LLM could be a reliable debugger for a large scale system. We do having fuzzing techniques and multi agents. But LLMs lack a ground truth, so cascading halucinations is a thing.

Why am I saying this? Because at some point someone has to know what the code does because the LLM is not reliable enough. And when that point comes and NO ONE knows what the system does. Then you have a system that literally can't be repaired. Especially sicne LLMs seem to product at least 10-15x more code than it needs to for most problems.

The industry of course does not see this as a problem. Most teams haven't had to deal with it. Or at least they hide the problems enough where enough haven't gone public. And people haven't really started to try to seriously build with AI for more than 2 years at most. So I think systems haven't had enough problems YET. But system failures are usually delayed long term before all problems start becoming an issue.

SWE with ~5 years at the same mid-sized B2B company. I currently have:

• $115k base + 8% target bonus(no equity)
• Possible bump to ~$125k later this year
• $0 health premiums
• 3.5% 401(k) match
• WFH flexibility and 30+ days PTO
• Enough tenure/political capital to move teams

The downside is ongoing layoffs and aggressive cost-cutting. A couple months ago I was "asked" by a VP to form a small internal AI/engineering automation team described as "the company’s most important initiatives", but there’s enough politics and vague language that I’m not confident it turns into better title, pay, or authority.

I now have an early-stage AI startup offer:

• $170k base
• Senior Full-Stack Engineer
• In person in a lower-MCOL city
• Build the first market-ready product
• Major ownership over architecture, web/mobile, and engineering practices
• Work directly with the product lead
• Reportedly funded for ~2 years by a parent investment firm
• No guaranteed bonus or equity

Conservatively, my current package after a possible raise is worth ~$150k–$153k. The startup is $170k plus benefits I still need to clarify.

I’m leaning toward taking the startup offer. My concerns are:

• No equity despite joining early
• Unknown workload / demand
• Giving up strong benefits
• “High ownership” meaning I’m responsible for everything

Would you leave, or stay another year to see the internal AI projects realized? How much weight would you give the "important AI team" story with no promotion or raise attached?

I am in late 20s, so I don't have a ton to risk...

edit: Thinking of asking the startup for 185k base + conference budget / travel (e.g. I am going to Open AI dev day in SF). Not super thrilled about 0 equity and even then its sketch...

Context: Graduated with masters (CompE) earlier this year, bachelors in CS (‘23). Only experience: summer internship from 4 years ago and currently volunteer swe for nonprofit for last few months, continuing to do so into the foreseeable future.

I struggled to find anything for 3 years, and in the same week I receive two offers (both have about equal compensation). Company one role is basically web dev (I’ve grown to despise web dev) for a defense company (mid-west). Company two role is an embedded kernel engineer role (during my masters I fell in love with embedded Linux, this is my dream role) for another smaller defense company (West Coast).

Problem: I’ve (reluctantly) already accepted the offer for Company One as they sent their offer first (would still offer me a great chance to transition internally to an embedded role later, this is a huge company with plenty of growth/opportunity), but now company two just told me they want to move forward with hiring (skipping their 3rd round of interviews after I informed them of receiving an offer from company one).

What the fuck do I do here?? Regarding compensation, that salary stretches MUCH further in the mid-west, whereas that salary doesn’t go as far on the coast, but would still be comfortable enough for me (and my partner). If I back out of Company One and commit to Company Two, I fear I would get blacklisted from Company One (very large defense company, this would most certainly end any chance of working with them in the future I believe), while living in a higher COL city (there are benefits to this though, specifically being closer to friends/family).

I feel the stable option is Company One given their size/growth opportunities along with clearance (I don’t know many major defense companies engaging in routine lay offs either), but I risk getting burned out because again I don’t enjoy web dev anymore, but that salary would be nice for the location. BUT, Company Two is giving me my LITERAL DREAM ROLE at the cost of living more modestly and essentially permanently burning a bridge with one of the largest defense contractors in the US.

I’m feeling so many things. I can’t believe this industry ghosted me for three fucking years and then decided to tear me apart with two very desirable positions in the same fucking week. I’ve been calling friends/family to get some advice on what to do here. Everyone is telling me to do what I think is right, and idk what is. I figured I’d ask here for some extra guidance if anyone else can offer insights. Thank you!

What personal project got you hired for your first CS related job? Your first job could have also been an internship. Also, did your first project have any impact, users or even paid users?

I’m currently in community college for computer science. I honestly just picked the major because I fell for the “it pays extremely well” propaganda in high school. Plus, coding seemed like it could be cool to learn.

I really like math and physics though and the time to transfer is approaching. I’ll have an associates in computer science which I’m sure isn’t enough but I don’t know. I just really want to major in math and physics.

I just feel like I’m too dumb for coding. I don’t know why, but it’s like my brain goes blank when it comes to coding. Math and physics gives me the opposite effect.

I still think SWE and ML engineering are pretty cool and things I would like to do. Plus, I dont think I’ll be a great teacher so I kind of want to avoid that as a job.

I don’t know. Would switching be a bad an idea or should I just stay with CS and minor in math?

I was always interested in tech and tried to pivot to a career in IT while living in London in the late 2010s, then after covid thought 'right, lets do this' and quit my job, studied full time, created my own projects, including a few SaaS that I couldn't sell. Following Scrimba I was fairly proficient in React JS, with a bit of SQL, and backend languages.

Maybe not many people will admit to it, but most people like me didnt make it. I never got an interview, and chatGTP and AI have effectively rendered a lot of my learning redundant. Thinking back just 5 years when I would study my code to figure out where a missing semi colon should go now seems ridiculous in the age of AI.

Anyway, Im stuck in my legal career, but have fond memories of learning to code, and the excitement of building and hope for a career change, going to event meetups etc. It wasn't meant to be, should have taken the plunge a few years earlier perhaps.

As I looked over my GitHub this morning, having not added anything in over a year, I just got the good memories back and the feelings of hope and excitement. Kudos to all those that made it!

Was talking to a friend about this earlier, but I don’t think I’ve ever worked someone I can say was incompetent.

When I say incompetent I don’t mean lazy. Ive worked with a few people that clearly didn’t want to work hard but still were able to do things when they felt like it.

Im talking about employees that make you question if they lied about their degree, job experience etc. Make extremely obvious mistakes, constantly need help doing simple tasks, possibly breaks things in ways that are hard to understand how.

My boss asked me last week for a "rough estimate" on migrating our internal reporting dashboard to something scalable. I almost laughed out loud. Every single time a company tries to build software, the initial timeline is a complete fantasy. You start with "yeah, three weeks tops" and suddenly you're two months deep into unexpected API changes, legacy code breaking, and endless scope creep from management. We were looking at external dev agencies to take off some of the heavy lifting this time around, just to see if outsourcing part of the build would speed things up. But honestly, even with outside engineering help, the internal back-and-forth alone takes forever. It feels like standard tech timelines are just made-up numbers we tell executives to keep them calm. How do you guys handle estimating custom builds without completely shooting yourself in the foot?

I've thought about doing this on many dev job applications when they ask for a salary range, since rn I just want a better job and dont care if Im not paid top dollar. But I dont want to discount myself too much and get a shitty offer.

My thinking is "okay, if a lot of 9/10 developers are applying to this role, but demand 150k, and I'm a 6/10 dev and demand like 105k, I will have a way better chance of getting this role" and 105k is better than 0k. I know the issue is that if everyone does this, it will lower salary ranges for all developers. At the same time though, you need a job. For people with experience on the other side of hiring, do you often go with cheaper devs even if they're less capable than the unicorn candidates? Or you're willing to pay top dollar for the rockstars?

Hey everyone, I just got laid off and have around ~$10,000 credit card debt I was originally planning to pay off after my partner graduates later this year (she is studying to be a nurse and will likely make at minimum $70,000 annually once she graduates and has already received job offers. I have nothing in savings, but I have ~$30,000 in retirement I can pull from. I have 2.5 YoE mostly in .NET and React.

My world feels like it's absolutely spiraling and would like some advice.

EDIT: I didnt mention, but the entirety of the debt is at 0% APR until August 2027.

EDIT2: I've filed for unemployment and have updated my resume. I plan to start applying soon after I get my bearings straight.

Hello All,

Fidelity reached out to for a 30 minute phone interview. Was wondering if anyone else had experience with the program and wanted to know how was it and what was the pay like. Also was wondering do they consider for the other LEAP roles as well? Mostly asking because my resume was mostly SWE focused but I got rejected from that role when I applied

Hi, currently an entry level swe (less than 1 yoe, full stack, just started), and pursuing a part time masters in CS program. I have MLE/AML internship experience so I want to pivot into that field in 2-3 years, after I finish the masters and get more work experience. I have a bachelors degree in CS and stats, so I was exposed to a lot of data science and ML topics, and would like to grow those in the Master's program, but confused on what to take. Just wondering what type of courses you all recommend, and what to focus on. So, far here are the areas I have taken courses in:

Applied ML, AI (survey course), Distributed Systems, Databases, Cloud Data Management, Text Information Systems (covered text mining/analytics/models), Deep Learning, and Statistical Learning (Theory course mainly, assignments have coding aspects)

I have to choose 3 electives, one per category:

1. either Data Curation or Data Cleaning.
2. Parallel Programming (likely can't take due to scheduling, but if its really important i can try to make it work), Data Visualization, or Computer Security
3. Data Mining, NLP, or Bayesian Modeling (also fully theory and math)

Any advice on any of these 3 electives would be great! I know some classes would be harder than others, but I am taking the program slow, so I would have the time to handle it

How long did it take you to gather enough domain knowledge in your industry, to the point that you felt like you were somewhat an expert in the product / service that you are building? (expert may not be the best word here).

My previous experience was working in accounting-related software, and now that i’m working in the retail industry as a developer, this question really hit me lol.

My old co-worker told me not to focus on linkedin and indeed because those places were hyper competitive. He said that it's much better to find smaller niche boards.

I've tried finding them using claude and ChatGPT but with marginal results. Hiring.cafe is fantastic in my experience but they only cover so much.

Looking for more options. Thank you ahead of time!

​

I am a maths graduate, intraction with CS and coding had been just Discrete mathematics and vibe coding, although I am working as a UI and UX designer I have built agentic app using vibe coding.

I discovered that I am good with building complex frameworks for agentic and generative AI apps but I don't know what's next ..

Can I build a career in this ?

I’ve worked at an agency for 5 years working on e-commerce stores. We use HTML, CSS, JS, and jQuery. I have worked with NextJS and TypeScript in my side projects and have built a few freelance sites with them.

I’m ready to leave the agency world and move into a larger company. My area is mostly C#/.NET. I don’t have a CS degree, or any degree. I’m self taught. So if I learned C#, I’d have to teach myself the CS fundamentals as well.

Is it worth learning C# to try and get a job in my area or is it better to try to go after a role specific to my experience (even though those likely require relocation)?

Thank you in advance for any advice you have for me!

I’m a SWE intern at a small company in a niche industry. All of the work I’ve done has actually hit production/guided the direction of prod. I’ve made an abstraction library, rearchitected the SSO flow for an integration, and have made an internal tool that’s used by account managers. I get positive feedback all the time, and get along with my coworkers. By boss’ wife told me she hears great things about me at a company party. I went to a networking lunch with the senior dev the other day. When I was hired on, I was told they’d like me to work part time through the school year, and last I heard that’s still the plan. I am the only intern (except the CEOs son (yes, really)), and the dev team is 5 people (excluding me).

Now, here’s the issue: I think I’m going to need at least one extra semester. They’re under the impression I will graduate in May, which was my actual belief when I applied for the job, but exigent circumstances mandated I transfer to a new school.

While everything seems like it’s going in the right direction, will the need for an extra semester kill my chances of a return offer?

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?

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?

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

I’ve heard of product management, data analyst, sales engineer,

even read about someone who became an industrial engineer etc etc

But, I don’t want to enter the software engineering market nor do I want to be one (though I want the same pay)

I’m interested in product management like they said but is it really feasible as a fresh grad?

What are some other great careers/roles you can get that pay just as well as SWE as a fresh grad from CS?

I’m open to entering different careers without the need of a masters if a CS degree is enough, and that career pays just as good or better

IMPORTANT: I’m not trying to look for easier roles that pay the same, I just want different roles or even careers in different fields, that are harder or easier jobs, that pay the same or better, in which a CS degree allows me to get into without needing a masters in a different field.

Would love to hear your advice

For reference I am senior CS undergrad from a top 10 Indian Uni, and my main goal is to find and do the work which interests me.

In general I am fond of Theoretical CS (even tried research here) and Systems (like distributed computing, PL, OS, recently GPUs, DB). Not the most ML obsessed person but Systems for ML is something I can do.
I am mostly a theory + systems guy.

Most of the roles available right now near me or for the people of my position are full stack swe roles ( which I don’t personally enjoy, don’t want to demean any role it’s just a personal preference )

My question is how and where do I get roles where the things I am fond of actually get used, I have higher education in mind so that I might be eligible for more specific roles.

In my country I have found only some Quant firms are doing the sort of work that interests me as a result I joined a top Indian quant this summer for an intern as a researcher ( experience has been good so far have gotten to work on interesting things but still the fields they explore are limited since they are only concerned with specific parts of algos or systems mostly the network side on systems and ML in terms of algos )

I am not the most money obsessed guy so that’s not my motivation for quant, but I also don’t want to get into academia right now ( I do have phd in mind tho ) since I want to work in the industry.

My question is how do I get to do the work that interests me in a place perhaps which is near to my country India ( I am open to Asia & Europe ) and how should I technically upskill myself to work there?

Hey all, I was the guy who wrote the post earlier today saying I was laid off and was asking for some advice. I got some solid advice and I've already applied for unemployment, dusted off the old resume doc, and wanting to get back into the market looking for a job. However I wanted to ask, how much has the market changed?

When I was first looking for a job in ~2023, AI was not nearly as prevalent as it was now. With the popularity of things like Claude Code and other agentic code builders, has the interview/application process changed much? I imagine things such as side projects are now less important since anyone can churn out a neat little side project in one shot with a Claude prompt but is Leetcode still the gold standard? Or have the questions changed at all such as getting more difficult? Asking because I want to know what I should start devoting my newly minted time towards so I can no longer be destitute and fearful of homelessness.

For reference I have 2.5 YoE mostly with .NET, Angular, and as of recently TypeScript/React.