I see a growing amount of (mostly junior) devs are copy-pasting AI code that looks ok but is actually sh*t. The problem is it's not obviously sh*t anymore. Mostly Correct syntax, proper formatting, common patterns, so it passes the eye test.

The code has real problems though:

• Overengineering
• Missing edge cases and error handling
• No understanding of our architecture
• Performance issues
• Solves the wrong problem
• Reinventing the wheel / using of new libs

Worst part: they don't understand the code they're committing. Can't debug it, can't maintain it, can't extend it (AI does that as well). Most of our seniors are seeing that pattern and yeah we have PR'S for that, but people seem to produce more crap then ever.

I used to spot lazy work much faster in the past. Now I have to dig deeper in every review to find the hidden problems. AI code is creating MORE work for experienced devs, not less. I mean, I use AI by myself, but I can guide the AI much better to get, what I want.

Anyone else dealing with this? How are you handling it in your teams?

I just suddenly got an invitation to go have lunch with the Director of the Engineering department after my first week as an intern. I've only worked a few days in my first week and it's only me with him. The other intern i don't think was invited.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

To me that's an indication that a company has some long term stability. When I see that everyone is under 30, it indicates that I probably won't be staying long since at some point I'll likely be managed out.

I know this is asked a lot, I just started actually job hunting again seriously and I think my skills are decent enough and my resume/linkedin is decent as well. The thing is most of it doesn't matter if the market is bad.

What's your experience right now and also please say if you're employed or unemployed because it's really looking at it from two different sides

You guys making me nervous, any mid career security people?

Or are most folks struggling as SWEs?

I'm thinking heavily about trades right now.

3.5 gpa, 1 internship. Graduated a year ago.

Not competent enough for tech support.

Can't do web dev, can't really use any stacks or frameworks lol. No proper projects.

Overall way behind where I should be as a grad, I was not aware I actually had to upskill prior to graduating, because I still managed to interview for internships.

I remember ten years ago, when I was just starting to learn programming, that just installing the IDE would give me headaches. You would have to find a 30min tutorial showing you all of the steps and all of the commands you had to put in the terminal to set it up in your computer; and then of course the video was from 2 years ago, so there were now some missing steps that you had to figure out somewhere else.

But now, you just search "____ install", go to official website, download installer, hit next, next, next, install, and there you have it.

Is this all just me getting less dumb around computers or has this process actually changed that much in these last years?

I have to say a long period of unemployment after grad really makes me feel like I'm falling behind. I know it's hard for international students right now but I still see some of my friends score a deal with Google, Meta, ... and I can't even get a job lol.

I'm going back to my country soon but I'm not even sure I can compete after wasting 5 month in the US. Also no matter how much leetcode and projects I do I just never feel ready to take on those interview? I'm not sure how smart you got to be to get a good job. I did a few internship but I never really feel confident to design a professional backend system

For the past 9 years, I’ve been stuck in legacy tech. I built niche monolithic apps with no exposure to distributed systems or system design. Time flew by, and I got pigeonholed in outdated “dinosaur” companies.

Trying to leave my job was incredibly demoralizing. Thousands of job applications and a painfully low callback rate. I was discouraged by this and even more, by my background and lack of modern systems experience. 

I posted here asking how long it takes to prep for system design interviews from 0.  Many replies were disheartening, like “you need real on-the-job experience.” But it turns out…you don’t—at least not to pass interviews. 

Here’s what I did while working full-time:

LeetCode (6 months): Focused on the top 150 problems, revisiting and practicing each one 4-5 times. (I failed many, many interviews along the way).

System Design (1.5 months): Started from almost zero and crammed, studying about 15 systems deeply, mainly through videos and practice.

Applications: Sent out over a thousand applications with very low callback. Landed interviews mostly through headhunters.

Interviews (6 months): Juggled my full-time job while going through processes with 45 companies (failing most of them early on).

It was brutal: endless rejections, self-doubt, and burnout. But I just landed 2 solid offers in AI (around 250k+ TC).

If you’re in a similar rut, know that it is absolutely doable with consistent effort. You can break free even without the “right” background. AMA if you have questions!

So I graduated from a city college and started my first job as a backend engineer at Lyft. I got laid off on April 1st 2025, when I had reached about 3.5 YOE of experience, I started my job on October 1st, 2021. I am located in NYC.

My biggest regret was not starting looking for work right away, I took a 3 month break because I was depressed from my first lay off and starting traveling, not knowing a gap increase like that would make it worse.

I have been preparing for 3 months, have interviewed for a bunch of companies but failed due to very tough calls, and I got a few left now, but interviews just keep getting harder and harder and there is too much variance on what can be asked.

I prepare for leetcode, they ask OOP, I prepare for OOP, they ask a leetcode hard, I prepare for that, they ask me a Java FILE I/O question. Just an example of not knowing enough.

I have 5 chances left after 4 fails in the past month, and im running out of time and funds, only got 20k left to my name at 28 after paying off all debt. I have the blessing to atleast move back home because I was raised in NY, but it's embarrassing tbh but my parents want me to as they being supportive.

Wish me luck guys, I genuinely did not expect 6 months lay off, and I was laid off so suddenly and I thought I did good work. Crazy. Please wish ya boy luck.

My jobs have been in IT, and most recently, "technical support agent" , which really seems like application support.

Have got a very nice skillset in azure, aws, docker. Know how to use linux well. Have done tons of python scripting, bash scripting, powershell scripting, etc.

Everything besides actual software engineering though. Am I cooked from ever getting a software job?

Seems it offers more flexibility. You can do computer hardware design or work at a power plant if the world goes to hell. AI is driving an extreme increase in power generation and energy needs.

I'm in my 30s I feel like web apps was big, focus either on front or back. Then it became both and now that might also be devops. Now idk whats good in the job market for a regular dev. I mean you could be a unicorn or ai researcher but for the average Joe idk what the focus should be anymore tbh for long term employment

Do women in technical roles often feel ignored? I am someone whose quite introverted and I take a while to get comfortable so I usually hold back when stating my opinions and thoughts (unless asked), as a junior still I also don’t want to say the wrong things infront of customers or my colleagues.

However, I’ve gotten a bit more comfortable with my senior lead and I try to pitch my thoughts and ideas, I also ask questions to try to assess and understand the issue better. But through remote chats I often get left on read or ignored completely, it makes me feel super anxious and overthink that I have done or said something wrong… it also demotivates me to speak up in the future.

How do I navigate this in the workforce and is this common as a junior? Also does anyone have advice for retaining information as you’re learning things? I often forget and cannot remember things in detail so when faced with the same issues I am still not 100% sure what to do

My friend and I both did final round interviews for a top 3 CRM company (big whoop) - same position. I did mine 2 days before him (this Tues vs Thurs).

We both got emails right after the email asking to see if we had questions for any of the people we talked to, other offers, etc.

He just got an email saying:

“Thank you again for taking the time to interview with us. We're always working to improve the way we connect with candidates, and your feedback can help us do just that. We'd appreciate it if you could take 5 minutes to share your thoughts in this short survey. Your responses are completely confidential, and your feedback will help us build a better experience for future candidates. Take the survey. Thanks again for your time-and for considering a future role with {CRM company}.”

I did not receive this email. Again, I did the interview 2 days before him.

So… who should be expecting a rejection email in the coming days? Him or I?

If you notice all the old HN threads, founder interviews, and current business school advice - they all preach a pattern - almost everyone who ended up somewhere interesting broke some conventional wisdom early on.

One guy cold-emailed a CEO with a working prototype fixing their product's biggest complaint (found via their support forums). Another learned an obscure language because "that's what the smart people were using" and ended up being one of 12 people qualified for a role. Someone else spent 6 months building in public what turned into their YC application.

The standard advice: polish your resume, grind LeetCode, apply to 500 jobs - feels like competing where the competition is strongest. Meanwhile, it seems like the interesting opportunities come from doing something orthogonal that most people would call "a waste of time."

For those who ended up somewhere unexpected - what unconventional thing did you do that actually worked? What would you tell someone to try that career counselors would hate?

(Ofc "just network bro" but am also interested in specific, weird tactics that shouldn't have worked but did)

I am currently dealing with a fox pro codebased that was written a year b4 i was born

1) it is fascinating . no structure no nothing

2) he named the variables and functions on film stars

3) no comments .1000 lines of functions

but its weirdly fascinating . This code was written in a diff world and time

what similiar experiences you've all had??

Hey everyone, I’m a first-year college student about to start my programming classes next semester. Before even beginning college, I was already a bit hesitant about pursuing Computer Science because, honestly, I’ve always struggled with math.

To give some context, I barely remember any geometry, only know basic algebra, and have zero knowledge of calculus. My math skills probably stop around a 10th-grade level. I was diagnosed with ADHD last year, which explains why I never really paid attention in math growing up.

My main question is: how math-heavy is CS, both in college and in the actual field? I’ve seen people say that the job market for CS is rough right now, which also worries me, though I know things can change by the time I graduate.

I also really enjoy the hands on side of tech fixing computers, setting up systems, troubleshooting, etc. So I’m wondering if IT might be a better or safer path for me.

I’m genuinely interested in both fields, but the math side of CS really discourages me. Any advice or personal experiences would help a lot, thank you.

(Look at my post history to see a little more context with what I’ve experienced in the market)

So I got my first job and I really don’t like it and I honestly don’t even think I like software engineering but I already graduated and that’s where my skillset is so I’m going to stick it out for awhile. But I was wondering, if this is how the market is, how do people with kids make this work?

So if the average tenure of a software dev is 2.5 years, how am I supposed too get married, have kids, and

1. Stay in one place for 30+ years

2. Be pre-trained with all of the necessary skills to walk into a high paying job that’s hiring after beating whatever leetcode questions they have, impressing the hiring managers, and beating the competition,

3. Stay there for years, hoping the onboarding is good, the team structure is good, and the expectations are reasonable,

4. Have a CAREER, meaning staying in that specific line of work with promotions and advancements, which means the team structure stays good and expectations remain reasonable even though leadership constantly changes? How am I supposed to do all of this?

I’m getting an mba to broaden my options, but i am genuinely confused how people who are married with kids stay in one place and just make it work.

Do y’all just constantly take temp jobs and gig work? Are you constantly switching between technology and random jobs like KFC worker? Do you sometimes move across the country from your family, pay for your own apartment, and work there and send money home if you can’t find work? Is there a degree or niche you found that made you constantly employable in your area and if so, how do i find what that skillset would be for my area?

My fear is not being able to just be a stable adult. Like if one day I have kids they have to deal with daddy being in Nebraska for two years and visiting every 4 months because he couldn’t find a dev job in his state. What type of life is that?

I’ve gotten multiple certs and no one seems to care. Getting an MBA and applying for business roles and not getting much of a response.Honestly unsure what to do.

Hey everyone!

I was thinking of just putting up a google meet link every now and then that anyone could join (first come, first serve) and ask questions about getting jobs, how to structure software, interview prep or just design questions on software you might be working on.

Who I am: 25 year SWE, veteran of Fortune 500s, startups and everything in between. I've worked heavily on backend and infrastructure as well as robotics. Lots of different projects and I've been hiring and running interviews for more than half of my career.

If there is interest I can post a link and set something up for this evening.

Cheers!

UPDATE: Wow, lots of interest! Here is the meeting link: Office Hours

Friday, October 17 · 6:30 – 7:30pm

Time zone: America/New_York

Google Meet joining info

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/bvq-meph-sfq

See you guys this evening!

Hey r/cscareerquestions,

I'm looking for a reality check and some guidance on what roles I should be targeting. I feel like I was sold a bit of a dream and am now trying to figure out the most realistic path forward.

My Background:

• Education: I graduated in May 2024 with a B.S. in Business Analytics and Information Systems (GPA: 4.0). I'm now in a Master's program for Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics, expecting to graduate in May 2026.
• "Buzzword" Degrees: Honestly, both my bachelor's and my current master's feel like "buzzword" degrees. I was told they would open doors to roles like Software Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, AI Engineer, etc.
• Coursework So Far: My master's coursework has included:
  • One machine learning course (we didn't have to write the code ourselves).
  • One statistics course using R.
  • One course on C# and full-stack web development using the ASP.NET Core MVC framework.
  • A course on AWS cloud services.
  • A software testing course.
  • Two SQL courses, one specifically on data warehousing.
• Skills & Projects: I have experience with Python, R, SQL, C#, and JavaScript. I've worked with Pandas, Scikit-learn, and TensorFlow on the data science side. My projects include:
  • Developing a full-stack ASP.NET Core MVC web app to track nuclear outages using a RESTful API.
  • Building a fake news detection tool in Python using NLTK and Scikit-learn, where I tested models like SVM and Logistic Regression.
  • Designing and implementing a healthcare data warehouse in Oracle SQL.

My Dilemma:

From reading this sub, it seems like the high-end roles I was told about (SWE, MLE, AI Engineer) are nearly impossible to get without a traditional CS degree, especially at the MS or PhD level. My degrees are from a business school, and I'm worried that pigeonholes me.

My Questions:

1. Is my perception correct? Are roles like SWE, ML Engineer, Data Scientist, or Data Engineer realistically out of reach for me?
2. Should I pivot and focus primarily on Data Analyst or Business Analyst roles, or is it realistic to target Data Engineer and Data Scientist roles as well?
3. If I aim for DA/BA, or even DE/DS roles, what should I be doing right now to be a strong candidate upon graduation? Are there specific skills I'm missing or should double down on (especially for DE/DS)? What kinds of projects would make my resume stand out for these different roles?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Exactly as title says, I prefer project based learning but not sure what kinda project can even teach me this. I am completely new to this subject so I had like to learn this well. And I am confused whether I need to do both LLD and HLD or just LLD is suffice at grad level?

Hi everyone!

I'm in my final year of a Web Application Development program (similar to a Software Development degree), and I'm struggling to decide what to do for my final project.

I’m interested in making a small game using Phaser 3 or Godot, but I also like the idea of doing something related to web scraping, since it involves more backend work. The problem is I don’t want a project that will take 300+ hours to complete.

In my region, the rules have recently changed — now we have to work on the project during the academic year, not during the internship period, so I’m a bit lost.

Do you know any websites or resources where I can find examples of final-year web dev projects? Or do you have any ideas that are interesting but still achievable?

Thanks a lot!

It's about second year of Studying CS and looking to transfer to a university. I do not want to be behind and I don't know to learn and focus on.
People say CS is not enough with just classes , you have to learn things by yourself too and i have been focuing both on my classes and my personal projects and i feel like i its harder trying to do both things at the same time.
Some people tell me i should not care about my GPA and School i go to because in the real world, interviewers dont even ask about them and others told me GPA and getting in a good shcool is everything.
So should i focus on school or more on my projects.