i am a new grad that started working in a contract-to-hire position at a F500 as a SWE/DE. i am more of an intern in practice as i am encouraged to learn and work on different projects rather than being hired for a specific purpose. however, the project i mainly work on is just agentic AI.

right now my day-to-day is just looking at existing code and developing AI workflows (mostly .md files and scripting). soon the goal is to make the workflow agentic, which feels almost impossible since AI is prone to making so many mistakes and i don’t think it’s at that level yet.

most of the DEs here don’t even really know much about using AI or even how to use an IDE… and half of the time if i have a question i’m told to ask claude. my PRs are basically approved by claude and it feels like i’m not really learning anything because i’m basically use AI to develop AI (i do review).

although i am learning (mostly about DE though), i feel like my programming skills are stagnating and i worry about being in a low-code role. i am also unsure if this will valuable on my resume at all when i have interview again (i want to be an actual SWE) as this is my first industry role. even if i work on other projects, i want to actually develop programs rather than use and integrate existing tools which seems unlikely.

has anyone else been in this position? i’ve been starting interview prep again but feel unsure of how else i can succeed since the job market is terrible and i thought i would be getting more relevant experience on my resume. the only good thing is the pay ($50/hr). i am putting in the work to maybe get the FTE offer (which is intended, but who knows). if converted, i would start at ~$100k+.

I’ve accepted an offer at this company, everything has cleared, and the start date is set, I requested a week ago to talk to my new leader, and I have requested that to the recruiter. I’ve been working with throughout the process, but I find myself without any response from the recruiter, no counter invites, nothing. Should I be worried?

I posted before about being proud of myself for the 2nd round and how great I did. I wasn't expecting anything further since this job is really cool and has a competitive pool. Welp, got the call that I am 1 out of 2, and scheduled to meet with the CEO.

This job really excites me; I did the same type of work but with different industry and data. This one is literally just a different sector, but all the same. I would love to work there. I've never done a CEO round though. What should I do to prepare and possibly edge out the competition? I've already got a full piece suit ready.

Hey everyone, I wanted to share this because the job hunt felt endless for a while, and I would've loved to read something like this a few months ago.
I graduated in May and just landed my first full-time role. Over the past 4 months I applied to somewhere around 150-200 jobs, both data and ML. That turned into only 2 interviews, and both made it to the final rounds.

Interview 1 was a less technically in-depth role. I felt my answers were great, even though I didn't have formal work experience in that area, just some from school. I could still answer the questions. I didn't get it, and my guess is that all my experience leans ML, so I probably looked like a mismatch.

Interview 2 was an actual ML engineer role at a startup. The posting asked for 2-3 years of experience and I had none. My background is also research-heavy and in medical imaging, so while it's still computer vision, the application domain was pretty different from theirs. I applied anyway. My answers weren't perfect, but the conversation felt natural. When I didn't remember or didn't know something, I just said so. I made some jokes and let myself be a person instead of a perfect interview robot.

That second one is the one that worked out.

What I took away from it:
Be yourself and relax. Honestly this mattered more than I expected.
Know your projects inside and out. Be able to defend your model choices and explain how the pieces connect.
Be honest about what you don't know. "I'm not sure" or "I don't remember that detail" is fine.
You don't have to be perfect. Team fit is a real thing, and they're deciding whether they want to work with you, not just whether you can answer every question.
Apply even if you don't meet every requirement. I didn't have the 2-3 years and it still went to the final round.
Your domain doesn't have to match exactly. My experience was research-focused medical imaging, and I still got the offer for a CV role in a completely different industry. Being able to explain your projects and reasoning transferred.
If you're in the middle of the search right now: 150+ applications for 2 interviews is brutal, but it only takes one. Hang in there!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my story in hopes that it gives some encouragement to those who are struggling with the current job market.

Long story short, I was laid off from my software engineering job in March 2025. It was one of the most devastating moments of my life. After months of struggling to find another opportunity, I eventually had to accept a job that paid roughly half of my previous salary.

Since January 2026, I've been working as a software engineer making $76,000 a year, with no additional benefits beyond health insurance.

But today, after almost three months of interviews and nearly nine rounds of interviews, I finally received an offer from a tech company with a total compensation package of $230,000.

I honestly can't describe how relieved and grateful I feel right now.

The past year and a half has been incredibly difficult. I've struggled with depression, constantly questioned my abilities as a software engineer, and felt completely defeated after countless rejections. There were times when I made it through multiple interview rounds, only to receive another rejection email. I spent so many days applying to job after job, preparing for technical interviews, and wondering whether all my effort would ever pay off.

There were definitely moments when I wanted to give up.

I'm not sharing this to brag about the compensation. I'm sharing it because I know there are so many talented people out there who are going through exactly what I went through.

Getting rejected doesn't mean you're not good enough. Sometimes, it just takes longer than you expect to find the right opportunity.

If you're currently unemployed, working a job that pays less than you deserve, or feeling hopeless after another rejection, please don't give up on yourself.

I know how exhausting and mentally draining this process can be. I know how difficult it is to stay motivated when nothing seems to be working out.

But things really can turn around, even when you least expect them to.

Thank you to everyone in this community who has shared their experiences, advice, and encouragement. Reading your stories helped me feel less alone throughout this journey.

I genuinely hope my story gives someone out there a little more motivation to keep going.

Keep grinding. Your next opportunity might be closer than you think.

So I'm a year 2 student who has substantially self studied way ahead my peers (FS app in progress and currently studying HCIA), and I cant help but notice how subpar our facualty environment is. It alongside faculty student orgs do host many useful talents and resources, but they arent static and present for all and can have some frankly egregious paywalls. I'm aware you shouldn't be spoonfed info, but the lack of cohesion in self study may affect some people's progress and halt it, I'm planning on changing it hopefully for the better.

The idea is faculty/student orgs supported extracurricular courses to help give students an applied edge in CS and attaining potent skills. They are to be fixed and face to face with them being recorded to support them more. Possible courses(with bringing your own devices)are as follows.

DSA: Preferably alongside the uni course, its basically PS sessions where any gaps can be closed early on via early exposure and consistent practice. The main resource w such a course would be testbanks and mocks that can sharpen PS for learners.

Networks: Basically being a lighter CCNA that can ease students in applying them so more efficient solutions can be reached. Can contain a sequel courses for topics like security or WLANS

SWE: The only one that has fixed sequels, 1st course is basically providing the skeleton for a FS app and student code their own solutions w expert supervision. Final products are provided and assessed by the teaching board. Sequel courses follow that structure but w more advanced topics.

Interdisciplinary: Certain faculties may have some specializations like Fintech, Edutech, or HIT. Project based courses can be tailored so students can run through realistic SDLCs in different sectors and strengthen their domain literacy.

These are some ideas I have bounced off in my head for such an initiative. I'm aware it may seem abit too fairytale-ish, but I feel its prolly for the best for a CS student. If you have any critiques or possible refinements please do share them.

Passed the interviews at Capital One for a Lead full-stack engineer position. However the only openings are for a data engineering role.

It sounds like the work involves building data pipelines and migrating to a microservices architecture, which implies some data platform and actual engineering work.

Manager mentioned they have higher expectations at this level, so I'll need to quickly ramp-up and learn data engineering on my own. Is it worth the switch to data engineering in this day and age?

I am halfway through my first semester at an Ivy League school for a computer science program.

The beginning was great, learning computer architecture, python, etc. However halfway through the semester we started Java and at this point I’m feeling burnt out between my full-time job at a bank and doing these courses.

But the main thing that’s exhausting me is learning these languages when at work we consistently make programs utilizing AI to build things instantly. As I plan to continue with the masters program I’m worried that what I’m learning won’t be that useful after graduation. I am young 20’s and my job pays for the masters.

I know it’s extremely early in the program but I’m just worried that the material won’t be useful as Claude as reverse engineering full video games into each other and self replicating in computers and doing all this advanced stuff.

I would love to combine my finance background and computer science because I have a passion for both, I just find it difficult to invest the time when AI is so advanced when it has only been around for a handful of years! I suppose my main concern is learning things that aren’t applicable/useful by the time I finish in 2 years.

Any insight/opinions would be great, I am excited to hear from students, earlier career, mid career, or even late career and their opinions.

I am an intern for a nonprofit, really a volunteer intern, but thankfully am at least paid a stipend. I recently accepted another role that is full-time, but would mean I would have to end the internship earlier than the planned 6 months. Due to it being a volunteer role, it wasn’t much of an issue after bringing it up, despite me wanting to continue completing both. The company posted about a role opening up for the company on another team that would be full-time, and I applied as I truly enjoy the company and would love the opportunity to stay. I am wondering if this is against hiring ethics?

So the problem is this, in university most of the stuff we learn about Operating Systems is theoretical. But the reality is that a job is usually far disconnected from those skills. Not completely of course but there is a gap.

I want to improve my practical knowledge about operating systems to become a system administrator.

What skills should I work on? What topics should I read into? I know I can just ask gpt but I need the perspective of real people working in real jobs...

I’ve been working as a firmware engineer at one of the world’s major semiconductor companies and have gained solid experience over the years. Unfortunately, I was in the wrong product line and got laid off along with several other colleagues.

I’ve been looking for a new job, and the process has been extremely difficult. I understand being rejected for positions where I don’t fully meet the requirements. However, I’ve also been rejected for roles where I seem to be an almost perfect match.

I consistently make it to the technical interview stage, and for the positions where I’m a strong match, I feel confident that I’ve answered the technical questions well and demonstrated the skills they’re looking for. Yet, I still receive generic rejection emails saying they’ve decided to move forward with someone whose profile is a better fit or who has stronger technical skills and that I need to improve my skills.

Is the job market really that bad right now? I started my career just after the Lehman Brothers crisis, and even back then, it felt possible to find a job. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. Will this ever get better? When?

So I spent about 4 years at a very small company outside of tech, but managing internal web services with one other developer. I don't have much of a linkedin network because of that, so I decided to start adding random people that requested to connect.

Like every single one of them were US migrants from India. After I added some, more just started flowing in, and I kept accepting because cool, I'll make myself look like I'm well connected, why not?

I didn't really notice a problem until recruiters started pouring in, and I was like fuck yeah, this is it.

But every recruiter asks me if I have a visa, then I tell them I'm an American citizen already & I do not need a visa, they stop replying right then and there.

I'm gonna have to make a new linkedin to reset my algorithm, aren't I? 😭

I'm currently in the process of doing my masters in computer engineering I'm trying to switch from web development and I also want to teach. I found an interest in the integration of hardware and software but I feel like it's not even worth going into now that AI also does firmware. Like I feel like we are going to get to a point in development where we are just pushing AI code that is too much to review and catastrophic events will start to happen.

Or should I stick it out in computer engineering and aim for firmware or embedded roles ? What about robotics is it any safer? I guess safety critical is a whole different beast though

https://catalog.uhcl.edu/preview\\_program.php?catoid=25&poid=7072

Hey everyone!

I'm a 24-year-old software engineer who has just started my career as a fresher.

I don't have any major family responsibilities right now, so I'm planning to gain a few years of experience and then explore opportunities abroad. I'm considering Europe, Australia, Canada, and the USA, but I'm not interested in working in the Gulf.

Are there people here who moved abroad directly through a job offer and work visa, without pursuing a master's degree abroad? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

A few questions:

- Did you apply for jobs directly from India, or did you move through an internal company transfer?

- How many years of experience did you have before moving? Did you take any exams like IELTS or TOEFL?

- How difficult was it to find a company willing to sponsor your work visa?

- How difficult were the initial days? I'm particularly interested in accommodation, living expenses, loneliness, making friends, and settling into a new country.

- Which country would you recommend for the best work-life balance, health, and overall quality of life?

I'm just starting my career and would really appreciate hearing your experiences, challenges, and advice. I'd especially love to hear from people who moved abroad through direct employment rather than studying there first.

Thank you

I interviewed 2 years ago for a position at one of big AI labs. I did pretty terribly at the interviews and was understandably rejected (had a bad few weeks back then). Fast forward now, got a warm internal referral for a role that is a very good fit but was blocked by recruiting as I've been banned from reapplying for a few years or forever? I wasn't told exactly for how long that would be.

This is quite shocking to me, since the referral is from someone that has worked with me in the past, and anyone can have a bad day? For those who might be wondering, I didn't say anything ourageous or out of order during the interviews.

Does anyone have any insights on what could cause such a ban? Seems incredibly extreme and I am trying to not let this affect me too much but it's hard at times.

Thank you.

upcoming L4 interview at big tech research lab - anyone know how to prep properly? not sure how this differs from standard system design -also pretty sure it’s not actual ML but very heavily LLM related

Has anyone who recently interviewed for research engineer / software engineer / research scientist and is able to give some pointers on how to prepare?

Thanks all

Title. Assuming AI eats our jobs, is anyone considering writing a clean-room style implementation of the company’s platform?

Without the customer book it might not be worth it. Any thoughts on how can we migrate the customers too?

It generally feels like AI redundancy is coming for SWEs but the technology is there to also eat the bottom line of companies trying to save money on engineering. Ethics and morals do not only work top-down in an AI world.

Do I need to say more?

I love writing code. I love crafting it, I love making it elegant, efficient, I love testing it. I love building my solutions from scratch. AI is taking this away from me and I know I am being stupid but I don't know how to cope with this.

Is there any place left for me in the industry? Do I need to look for a job in a different domain?

Has anybody made the jump? To what?

Does anyone here print technical documents, like architectures, HLDs, or other designs etc. on paper to understand them better?

I have never tried this myself, but I was wondering whether it would help and whether others do it. I was recently made Staff Engineer, and with AI usage and all in my org, the volume of technical designs I need to understand and review has increased manyfold, rather than the actual code. I am curious whether printing and reading on paper has helped anyone who has adopted this approach?

Old Post where i had 250 reachouts in 2 years and climbed to 270 when I left: https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/s/vEjGYGJFZ6

Now I have 100+ reachouts in 3 months. If this holds, that would be 3-4x the rate that I would be getting at the same level (mid level).

Can anyone else share their stats working at a top company as senior/staff+? Curious to see how K shaped the market is

I’ll make this brief: I’ve been stuck on an issue that is blocking two tickets of mine for more than a week now (had to carry to next sprint). I’ve reached out to him about it more than a week ago about it and he’s been barely helpful or communicative about it.
My blocker isn’t a coding-related issue or anything that copilot can help with, it’s regarding configs and certifications between our company and a third party vendor. So it’s not like I can keep trying new things or look at past examples

I’ve reached out to other seniors and they can’t figure it out, I’ve mentioned it in standups/public chats, went to him in person to ask for help, and even tried to schedule a meeting about it. He has had this issue ever since I joined the team, and I know he’s very busy with other things on his plate but he’s been pushing this off for a week+.

I’ve brought this up to my manager several times and he acknowledges that I’m not the only one to bring this up. But all he says is “I’ll talk to him about it” and “just keep bothering him”. Nothing ever changes in his behavior.

Currently, I’ve asked him today “can we sync up some time to go over this item?” And he’s left me on read.
I’m lost on what else I can do at this point

I’m deciding between two new-grad offers and would appreciate advice, especially from people familiar with AWS CSM roles or who have moved between engineering and customer-facing technical work. I also already have Microsoft on my resume being a previous swe intern there.

Amazon/AWS — L4 Customer Solutions Manager

My understanding is that this role is roughly like being a technical program manager for a large enterprise customer that already uses AWS or wants to adopt it.

I’d work with the customer’s engineering and business teams, AWS solutions architects, and other AWS teams to help plan and deliver cloud initiatives. That could involve coordinating migrations, tracking milestones and dependencies, resolving blockers, and keeping stakeholders aligned.

The first year would be in Seattle through a structured training and mentorship program. Afterward, I could be relocated near an assigned customer. I’m open to that.

Microsoft — Software Engineer

This would be a traditional SWE role: writing code, building and maintaining software, debugging, testing, and developing engineering skills.

What I’m trying to figure out

I honestly don’t know yet whether I’d prefer traditional software engineering or customer-facing technical work. I’m interested in both and trying to understand what experience I’d gain—and which future opportunities each role would prepare me for.

I’m weighing mentorship, career growth, résumé value, future job opportunities, work-life balance, and stability.

My main questions:

1. How much does your first full-time role influence your career direction? Would starting as an AWS CSM make moving into SWE later significantly harder?
2. What career paths do AWS CSMs typically move into, and how transferable is the experience outside AWS?
3. With both companies being well known, how would you weigh the actual role and skills developed against company reputation?
4. If you were undecided between these paths, which would you choose and why?

I’d especially appreciate firsthand perspectives from current or former AWS CSMs, Microsoft engineers, and people who have moved between SWE and customer-facing technical roles.

Context: Laid off two months ago, 4 years of SDET experience and applying to SDET, SWE, product owner/architect roles.

So far any traction with a company has come from recruiters or referrals. Haven't even had an HR call for roles I saw on a job board. Feels like a better use of that time would be to upskill/add to my (currently meager) portfolio.

The only evidence I have to the contrary is my first and only job out of college was a cold apply, albeit that was 2022 and new grad specific. Is my intuition right or should I keep applying to everything I see?

I’m just wondering if anyone else is having this experience recently

With all the AI craze in the workplace, I wanted to return to actually coding. No LLM. No help. To my surprise, I don’t think I lost any of my skills, but I just feel this very intense sense of futility like “what are you even doing? Why are you doing this? You don’t have to”. I’m not sure if it’s internalized extreme productivity mindset or something

I was working on a personal project and I found the idea of it really exciting. It was a CLI tool that would allow you to bootstrap applications with a high degree of customization. I’ll work on it for two hours, then hit a wall. Just this very profound feeling of “who fucking cares? Why are you doing this?”, and I can’t really explain why. I don’t care if people use it, I just think it’s a neat problem to solve

I tried something alternative and went for making a site I always wanted to make for my personal film journal. I’ve had the domain forever. The same thing happens, I start developing, hit absolutely no road blocks, then just get hit with this feeling of “what are you doing? Why are you doing this?”. Again, totally personal project for myself personally and no one else

Years ago, I would have been thrilled to work on something like this. Again, I’m not using AI and I don’t have corporate deadlines, this is just personal projects that I honestly just do while claude is running in the background. I’m afraid I’m completely out of love with tech at this point. I talked to my brother who works in video games, and he mostly laments that there are more bros in the workplace than before, but the work itself has stayed more or less the same

Is this a feeling anyone else is having?

I was one of those people, who was pessimistic about AI replacing humans in workforce. I ran through a thought experiment.

I considerd the worst hypothetical imaginative scenario. Which for this unemployed ass was ASI being achieved and everyone having a solo buisness (no need to hire anyone).

But then I realized. Even if all this comes to fruitation, there will still be some things that remain constant, and can be used to generate income.

First, random. For example, ASI has no way of knowing what you are thinking, assuming you dont have a brain chip implemented. For me, it's the stock market.

Second, consumers, without them, where's the profit.

Third,...

Couldn't think about it. I invite the viewers to contribute to this list. Something simple, in one word, something long lasting.