I’m about to finish my CS degree this May and I’m already sick of the tech industry. I’m at a loss. I know the job market could get better soon, but there’s no guarantee that it will, and things are looking bad for us with less experience. There are multiple things that are demotivating me and making me feel hopeless, it’s not just the constant news about layoffs.
– Based on what I’ve read here, in news articles, in company portals, on TeamBlind and on Reddit, outsourcing seems popular again. Seniors who comment online are quick to scoff at this, claiming that companies doing this are shooting themselves in the foot, and that they’ll regret it just like last time. But here’s the thing – even if the seniors are right, I need a job when I graduate. I’ll need to pay my student loans. I need to pay the rent. I can’t just wait a few years for things to hopefully get better.
– AI appears to be a real threat specifically for juniors. This idea used to be met with ridicule, but it seems obvious now. GPT-4 and Gemini Pro are already impressive, but just imagine the improvements in a year or two. Sure, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll kill programming, it’s possible that this is just the next step after high level programming languages, but it still represents a threat to entry level developers like me.
– Perhaps this is less important now (I’d take any job at this point), but I’ve gradually lost interest in the only domain I have any real-world experience in, full-stack web development. I have been strongly considering switching to game development, despite the industry’s reputation, but now I don’t know if I can handle an even more cutthroat, competitive job market.
– Freelance work is an option I guess, but for someone like me it seems impossible. I only have a year of dev experience (including internship). I don’t have a network. My sales skills are terrible.
– I am absolutely sick of the job search grind. I went through it in 2021-22 when things were “better”, I don’t want to deal with it again now that even experienced devs are struggling.
What are my alternatives? What other career can I pivot to once I get my CS degree? So far, I’ve thought about translating (I’m bilingual)
P.S. Please don’t tell me to stop worrying and “doomscrolling”. I already tried that a while ago and it didn’t help, the uncertainty is still there, my interest in webdev is still dead and the job market is still bad.
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39577198
Points: 43
# Comments: 31