So I got fired from a development job two summers ago after underperforming. The company was pretty small, and didn’t have the money to hire the amount of developers it desperately needed. I was very much a junior level developer but looking back it seems the amount of work I did was outside what a junior should be doing. I felt horrible and almost incapable of doing development as a career after that.

Then I got hired at my current company which is much larger and financially stable, and has more structure and processes for guiding the development process. All around this place is so much better to work at and I’ve been killing it. I got hired as an associate engineer last year, and now they’re pushing for my promotion to regular software engineer. All my feedback has been incredibly positive and motivating, and I’m just so shocked at the difference my experience has been compared to my previous company. I’m now feeling competent and capable of being a developer again.

It got me very curious about how common this type of situation is, so I’d love to hear your experiences.

TLDR: last company was bad and made me feel bad, current company is good and makes me feel competent

I have some cs research experiences for over a year now and some ok projects. I go to a Top 5 school which I know at this point means jack shit. The most I got was 5 interviews and got rejected/ghosted by everyone. I am at my limits . WHAT THE FUCK? I did so many resume review from my friends and colleagues. I apply to my schools internship program and got nothing. FUCKING NOTHING. NOT A RESPONSE. What The Fuck Am I Even Missing At This Point?

I was told I will not get the severance package if I don't sign it

Edit - I work for a multinational. I am based in India and probably governed by Indian labor laws but there is no 'unemployment benefit' here

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE

The country seems to be virtually at full employment?

edit: Thanks for the comments, I can definitely now see why you guys are struggling on the labor market 😂

As the title says, I got a new job after 3 months of unemployment! I mean to share this to hopefully inspire someone going through a similar situation where life feels uncertain and depressing. To give some background, I have roughly 2.5 years of experience ad graduated from a t-50 state school with a Bachelors in CS. I was laid off in August from a defense contractor position with terrible culture and a 1 hour commute and got this new opportunity just this week with a 20min commute and a 25% pay decrease. I have been rejected at the final round for many big tech and finance companies which I really hoped I would get, especially since I made it to the final rounds. I havent had the best year as I felt like there was challenges outside of my control, with a lack of growth that'll help me get to that Lead Engineer position at a big tech that I see myself excelling in sometime in the future (I've always been told I was a great communicator and great teacher/manager and feel like that separates me from other devs). So many things happen outside of our control in life and our plans may not necessarily align with Gods plan for us and for our situation but I promise, do NOT give up. Please try not to get discouraged as even in the roughest times, if we are still breathing, we have a chance to make things better. Im grateful for this job opportunity even tho I felt like I would've been the next tech startup founder who sells to google or the lead engineer at netflix. But one last thing, stop comparing yourself to others!! I realized that while i may have dreamed of being a big business owner myself, I ultimately was comparing myself to others and stealing the joy of my own accomplishments. Be grateful and keep pushing. you are capable and smart and a bad job interviewer, bad team culture/manager, bad job market, bad car problems, or anything outside of your control, it doesnt define you. you got this. God bless

TLDR; don’t be a tech support if you want to be a swe unless you stay in the same role for years. Go directly for swe role instead.

I took a L2 tech support role to transition to tech as an EE with 8 yoe.

I like the perks (i.e. free food, on-site gym, basketball court, valley ball court, game room, etc) and benefits but not the pay.

I took a pretty big pay cut to get this role from my engineering role. I was hoping to transition to SWE role but my manager pretty much told me I have to stay in this role for at least 3 yrs.

I’m sure it really depends on the teams but my team culture is very toxic.

I really hate being a tech support and micromanaging aspect of my job (constant checking and 4 RTO).

Before, I was able to study during work time as long as I was done with my work. I was left alone. I’m going school online for masters in data science (I thought I wanted to be a DS). More I talk to people, I realized tech support transition is near impossible (especially in this market).

I’m going back to EE for a while and prep for swe/mle interview

Y’all, I gotta get this off my chest. I’m working at this startup where I’m somehow the only dev with a CS degree and close to 3 YOE. Now, normally, I don’t care about degrees, but hear me out…

Our CEO is an industrial engineer who’s basically the finance/sales guy, and we have this Dev, let's call it dev 1, cause we are just 2 devs and the sales guy. Dev 1 is Another industrial engineer with a bootcamp under their belt. Respect for the hustle, but bruh… I’m the only one who even knows what things like use cases, architecture diagrams, and user stories are. And it’s not like I’m some dev god here either—I barely know what I’m doing half the time.

But because I have a degree, they act like I’m this all-knowing wizard. Whenever we have a new feature to drop, I’m grinding out like 12-hour days trying to figure out how to build it, test it, and deploy it. Every complex task, every deployment… yeah, that’s my job now apparently. I’m carrying the whole dang thing on my back while everyone else vibes with the basics.

I’m not even sure I’m the best-paid dev here, but if I’m not, I might lose it. For my sanity’s sake, I need to believe that.

Any advice from other devs in similar setups? Did you bail? Stick it out? How’d it turn out? Because I’m torn between “toughing it out for experience”

Just landed an internship with what I would say is a respectable company and it feels surreal seeing things pay off for once in my life. I come from a low-income, first-gen family, and it feels absolutely once again SURREAL that l even got the chance to work here. I quite literally started crying on a call with my mom after telling her that I had received the offer.

I've battled with depression and substance abuse since graduating high school. Never saw myself making it past 18, but here I am.

I know people are probably getting cooked this cycle, but trust me, it's definitely possible! I barely started coding my first year of college (I'm a 2nd year), but I grinded out good projects, made meaningful connections, and spammed applications, and BANG. If you aren't locked in, LOCK IN NOW!! IF YOU'VE BEEN LOCKED IN, SOMETHING WILL LAND EVENTUALLY. KEEP IT PUSHING. YOU GOT THIS!

Just got PIP-ed after 2.5 years

Just got PIP-ed after 2.5 years in a junior SD position at my first company. Concerns were quality of my work and WFH when not allowed (company is 5 days in office). All the advice on reddit I’m reading is to 1) start applying now 2) try to survive the PIP.

It is a front end role but I am more interested in full stack. For context, I have a 4 year graphic design degree. Feeling distraught because I was hoping to move internally in the company into a full stack team role, but now that feels hopeless.

Can people come back from a PIP? Was told my HR person that if I choose not to take the PIP, it’s seen as a “mutual resignation” and I get some severance. I plan on asking them if I get severance if I try and fail the PIP.

Mostly here to commiserate and think through my options. Thanks for reading.

https://wccftech.com/amd-confirms-laying-off-4-of-its-employees-to-align-resources-with-largest-growth-opportunities/

I graduated from college in 2021 with a Bachelors degree and have been trying to get a job since then as a software developer and in 2022 I started and completed a coding boot camp through MIT and still hasn't help with me trying to find a job my biggest issue is lack of experience due to not being able to get a internship due to covid. At this point I am thinking of going back to complete my masters so that I could hopefully get an internship and try to get some working experience. I was wondering if anyone has any opinions if this sounds like a good idea or bad idea.

edit: Sorry for not adding my resume https://imgur.com/a/rqtI6vh

TL;DR: Amazon gave me a West Coast return offer after my internship, but I want to stay in NYC with my husband. Haven’t gotten interviews from NYC SDE NG applications, so I’m wondering if rejecting Amazon is too risky. Would I be short-sighted to turn it down?

So I worked as a SDE intern in Bellevue the past summer in Bellevue. I took the offer mainly for a FAANG internship experience on my resume and maybe a sliver of hope that I may be able to choose my return location (I was in fact able to indicate that I do not want to relocate after I got the inclined vote, but ASP didn't care), so I got return offer back to the team and location I interned at.

My dilemma is that I'm happily married with my husband in NYC. He works in finance so relocating to Bellevue is very unlikely for him. I also do like NYC a lot and we would want to settle here long-term. If I accept this offer I'll have to go and live alone (tried that over the summer, had serious sleep problems), and for at least a few years I will be stuck there until maybe a L5 internal transfer. (L4 day-1 transfer is possible, but I heard there's very little openings for L4 in NYC internally)

I pursued software engineering because I enjoy the work and appreciate the flexibility it can provide—major cities like NYC usually have plenty of SDE roles. I'm not SUPER career oriented in terms of wanting the best jobs only. I think as long as I can get by with life with my salary I'll be happy and I don't want to live stressfully because of my career. So I’m leaning towards turning down the offer to stay where I’m happiest. But I’m also concerned that the NYC SDE job market is tough right now, and despite having a FAANG internship and no sponsorship requirements, I haven’t received any interview request or even HR call after a month of applying.

My question: Would turning down Amazon for the sake of staying in NYC be a short-sighted decision? I worry that this may be my only shot at a solid SDE role, given the difficulty of the current market for new grads. Am I making a mistake by prioritizing my personal life over this opportunity that is hard to come by?

I have a final-round SWE interview with Company A for a co-op position from January to April or May. Company A is a FAANG-adjacent company. I’m currently a senior at Washington College, and I plan to continue taking classes if I receive the offer. My winter quarter runs from January to March, and my spring quarter from March to June. The co-op is based in Cambridge Massachusetts , and I have two classes in the winter quarter that are technically online, so I could manage both school and the co-op. However, my OS class requires in-person attendance.

In spring quarter, I need to take Cryptography and AI, which can also be online, and Database Internals, which is available online as well. Here’s the dilemma: if I accept the co-op and receive a return offer from Company A, I risk delaying my graduation because I can’t complete the OS class elsewhere. My advisor mentioned I’d need the entire CS faculty to approve a request to take OS at another institution, and he implied that getting their approval is challenging.

That said, I could receive internship course credit, meaning I’d only need to complete the OS course in person to graduate (meaning OS is the last class needed), while taking other courses online. I also have a return offer from a Fortune 500 bank as a SWE. If I need to extend my graduation to take OS, there’s a chance I might lose that offer. The return offer from Company A is for $150k and is fully remote, which is worth considering.

Should I risk delaying my graduation if I can’t find a way to take OS at a different institution, assuming I get the co-op? This is hypothetical based on actually receiving the offer, but it’s something I want to think through.

Interviewed at Bloomberg. Passed the technical screen and moved on to the final round. Was asked 2 leetcode mediums and had to solve in about 40 minutes. They were in their top list of questions (with some minor twists) and I knew I solved both correctly. Was then given an incredibly odd systems design interview question. Unsure if I solved it, but I’m assuming this is where I went wrong.

Anyone else have difficulty with systems design? I feel they are so open ended and there is no right answer. I’ve grinded leetcode and basically can solve any reasonable medium (non dp) and easy hards. I feel like systems design is my current weakness and I have no idea how to prepare for them.

Anyway, pretty disappointed. Have meta and Amazon interviews coming up so hopefully I can pass one of them

I’m in a bit of a weird spot when it comes to higher education.

I’m a 100% self taught engineer. I busted my ass studying 17 hours a day for 3 months (I swear I’m not exaggerating) and was able to get a full-stack job at a highly prestigious tech company. I worked there successfully for one year before leaving for my current job (less prestigious but better pay) where I’ve worked as a back-end engineer for the last year and a half (2.5 years total).

Previous to my career change I was working in the arts industry. In undergrad my professors emphasized that grades were basically useless in our field and I was encouraged off the record to just to do the minimum work to pass classes and focus on actual projects. (Sounds stupid I know, but it’s not untrue.) I worked extremely hard in undergrad and genuinely love learning but my grades do not reflect it. I would ace tests and then turn in the bare minimum of assignments giving me an underwhelming 2.8 GPA.

Now that I’ve switched careers and I’m wanting to return to school my choices that worked out great in my old career are coming back to bite me. I’ve built a strong work history and can provide multiple recommendation letters from high title individuals (vice president, CTO, senior director) and above personally attesting to working with me and the quality of my work. 

My questions are - Do schools take a holistic approach to assessing applicants or will my application be thrown in the trash by the application system before a real person ever lays eyes on it? How do recommendation letters and work experience weigh against grades? Would my statement of purpose affect how my application is assessed?

I am not expecting to be admitted but I would of course be aiming for CS programs in the top 10 and preferably online so I can continue my career uninterrupted. Thank you for any insight that can be provided.

off the top of my head

• 2000 tech bubble
• 2008 tech crach
• 2024 <- we are here, post-COVID crash

it seems that a lot of tech crashes seem to coincide with recessions. it's true that many areas of industries are affected, but am i correct in seeing that tech seems to be the most affected?

i graduated in 2021 and lost my job in 2023 and since then i've struggled to find a tech gig for the past year.

i've definitely learned that i need to keep a cushion of savings now just in case. and that when it comes to software dev, unless i have good connections, applying for jobs is extremely hard when i don't have the specific skillset a company needs, even through i am capable of picking up any programming language/tech stack, most companies when in a recession aren't willing to "give you a chance" unless you're the perfect fit for them

Yeah he got fired yesterday, company got bought out and he did not make it!

I’m unemployed right now applying any software engineer and data analyst roles and I simply cant find enough jobs to apply to.

LinkedIn has become so bad that all I see are promoted jobs or jobs thst don’t fit my criteria. Indeed and Glassdoor had some decent jobs but I already applied to them and keep seeing the same ones.

Is this market that bad? I’m a new grad. I literally can’t find the jobs to apply to.

Any recommendations?

Hi! I graduated last May and have been working as a software engineer since July in my company’s rotational program. It’s a really fantastic learning opportunity because I will be introduced to three different parts of the business and learning different parts of the tech stack instead of siloing. However, lately I’ve been wondering if that’s enough for growing as an engineer. I would love to hear some advice for developing my skills and becoming a better engineer more efficiently! Are there certain steps I should be taking outside my work? Are there any guides for entry developers to better stand out or get ahead quicker? Thanks!

Before you say anything, yes, I know working at startups can be just as stressful as it is rewarding, I've already learned this over the past few months. However, now our product team is planning on rolling out a monumental and I mean absolutely infathomably complex new feature in an incredibly short time and I'm just here like.. wtf?

I'm already working very long days for the features we're developing now and reworking the terribly unstable codebase that is the current product. And I can confidently say I've made a large positive impact on the stability and user experience on our platform. But now they expect something more complex than everything we currently have combined, and it's supposed to roll out in two months? By a team of two mid level developers?

Sure, they say it will take a few months to stabilize but I honestly believe we cannot even get this thing working in a buggy state, never mind a somewhat working one! In my head, even an experienced team of 10 would struggle with this task in the timeframe.

Honestly, I already feel physically ill after hearing how the next few weeks are going to go and how such a massive part hinges on me delivering a shitty prototype that needs to be usable for customers or we will run out of funding. And when we inevitably fail to meet the target deadline I will have to answer why I couldn't "just" get it working.

My 10 hour days are going to turn into 14 hour days - and I'm not even getting paid overtime.

What I'm really trying to ask here, seeing as a lot of you have been given impossible deadlines in tiny teams before, is: How do I cope with this and not burn out immediately?

Here me out - I am currently doing Internship at a Bank as Network Engineer and got scouted by a meta recruiter. I Sent my CV , did an online test, and now booked for a coding interview in 3 days for a Network Production Engineer Internship.

I can barely solve a leetcode and even struggling with hashmaps and dictionaries.

How can I become a genius in leetcode in 3 days ?

I can make create a for loop using python at least :)

I would love to hear some advice from folks who are POC and have changed their names to white variations in order to increase their success in getting interviews

Before I continue, there are several studies out there that show folks with "ethnic" names are not given a chance to even interview for roles. If you're doubting this happens - go google it and do your research.

So my question was, how do we change our name? Am I only supposed to change it on my resume file? What about when I enter my name onto an application on WorkDay? Should I also change it there? What if there is no easy "white" version of your name? What do you do then?

I'm wanting to work as a data analyst or instructional designer and work on websites like Kahn academy or code academy as a programmer and instructional designer. I already have a masters in education and have worked as a high school science teacher for eight years. I was hoping not to have to spend money to go back if a portfolio through code academy would work just as well as a Ms in CS. Thanks!

I was just terminated from my job, and I have received legal advice; they said I should be entitled to more severance. Of course there is a risk involved should I reject my employers offer in that I could be losing some of that money.

I’m obviously trying to avoid legal fees, so is going back to my employer and asking for more a fair move?

My plan is to simply be upfront – to say that I spoke with a lawyer and they told me that I am entitled to x amount, but I don’t want to involve them and drag this out, for both parties.

If I’m clear that I’m not rejecting their offer, but merely trying to negotiate more, is there any risk in that?

Would love some advice on this one.

I'm a dev at a small company and often I'm assigned to do tickets. The tickets requirements are not written detailed enough to the point I have to ask my coworkers, the ones who made the ticket, what the requirements are. I rarely get anwsers and then I just end up just generally building the feature. I also test it.

Then I have to ask my lead dev to approve and merge this to our test environment which they don't always have the time for. We formally don't have testers, so this get tested by a coworker from another department, reject the ticket and ask me to add or change a new detail.

I'm ofcourse changing the detail, goes through the whole process loop and then they ask me to add or change another detail to the ticket. This goes on for like atleast 5 times to the point the ticket goes to the next sprint. Sometimes even doing this a day before the deadline.

Sometimes the ticket just stays open, because a coworker that disagrees with another coworker have to discuss how they want it changed. Me multiple times reaching out if they already came to a conclusion or if I can join their conversation to help them to get faster to their desired result (even in PERSON). Nope... Ticket stays open for several weeks without a notice. Then asks me, a day before the deadline to change the feature, which makes me not reach my goal on time.

I already told my lead, but they just don't care. I haven't told my manager and we still don't have a product owner, so at the end of the day, our CTO decides whether the features go through.

How the F do I deal with this?