Career Advice in 2025
40 comments
·March 15, 2025Zee2
zeckalpha
He's describing the current market, not speaking about how the market should be.
__loam
Think about what you're asking when you tell these people to interrogate the assumption that LLM based AIs are going to be the dominant technology going forward. Hundreds of billions, the growth of the technology industry, the entire US stock market, and the global economy has been wagered on this technology. Imagine the turmoil when those in power realize the reality of what they're betting the farm on.
makeitdouble
> Hundreds of billions
Yes
> the growth of the technology industry
That's an overblown claim. AI companies failing won't mean technology doesn't advance nor that companies betting against/independently from AI would recind.
> the entire US stock market
Probably yes
> the global economy
Probably no
shmerl
It wouldn't be the first bubble. That doesn't make the above point about questioning it incorrect.
coffeefirst
Yeah... unfortunately that might be where we are.
I have no analogy for this except the railroads of the Gilded Age. Did railroads become a pretty big deal? Yeah. They were also a giant vortex that slurped up endless investment, far more than the real demand could possibly justify. And it ends, well, we know how it ends.
bayarearefugee
The next time I am angrily typing to claude 3.7 in all caps because he overengineered a bunch of code I didn't even ask him to write in the first place, I'll be sure to let him know his continued failures are risking the entire world economy.
__loam
You can be as snarky as you want but the reality is we're years deep into a market cycle that has seen a tremendous amount of capex with very little visible return.
How much more productive do you think claude makes you as compared to Google or Stack Overflow? 15%? 50%? 200? Do you think that's enough to satisfy the market or are we all trading on unrealistic expectations? Do you think shareholders are going to like it that they're losing billions a quarter so Anthropic can run a service that helps you write web dev projects marginally faster? Do you even understand the amount of value that's tied up in these questions having a good answer right now?
tibbar
Some more free advice, in no particular order:
* Try to get at least one job offer every year, even if you don't accept it.
* Look at the requirements for your dream job and figure out what you need to learn to qualify.
* Pick one skill and get very good at it. Spend an hour a day on it for a year.
* Steer away from skills like web development that are clearly getting eaten by LLMs.
* Look for work in major U.S. tech hubs like the Bay Area. Pay is better and network effects are strong, so your next job will be easier to get.
breput
> Look for work in major U.S. tech hubs like the Bay Area. Pay is better and network effects are strong, so your next job will be easier to get.
Jobs and the network effects happen all across the country. As you get older and maybe don't want the grind, or have a family, or just want a better work/life balance, this will become apparent.
Basically, always have at least two people who will support you for your next job.
tibbar
There are plenty of tech hubs besides the Bay Area, that's for sure. But I can tell you that when I moved from a small company in a small economy to a moderately-well known startup in the Bay, the rate at which recruiters contacted me jumped from maybe a few times a year to multiple times per week. And after a few years, many of my coworkers started their own companies and invited me to join them.
By contrast, I have very talented friends who did not make the jump to work at a tech hub, and they don't have the same kind of network or opportunities.
With that said, I very much agree with you about wanting work life balance, making sure there are people who will support you in your next job, etc. However, I think that this is much easier to optimize for when you do have an established career and an extensive network already.
breput
I didn't mean to nullify your experience.
You've undeniably right about how there have been spheres of influence where people and capital come together. Every area of the United States has some kind of forced name of "Silicon *" for a reason.
I just don't think this will be true in the future. Move where you want to, maybe have to work harder to break through, but that was also true in the Valley.
DeathArrow
>Steer away from skills like web development that are clearly getting eaten by LLMs.
What do you mean by web development?
Would backend qualify? Would microservices qualify?
A complex application is much more than coding.
tibbar
I'm mostly thinking of frontend dev work, but also some types of light backend work that you might see in a CRUD app. And listen, I've done that work, I've done a lot of it, and I saw that it's mostly a career dead-end, becoming more and more automated/copiloted away. It's not a career moat to be a mid-level React developer. By contrast, some things I think are worth pivoting into include infrastructure, databases, data engineering, stats, etc, and I've spent the last few years pivoting into those areas.
An interesting counter-point is that if you have great product and design skills, this is a great time to learn frontend development, because it's more accessible than ever and can supercharge your existing skills. But the days of being a pure frontend coder are probably fading.
kristiandupont
>infrastructure, databases, data engineering, stats
Why would those areas be less exposed to the "LLM threat"?
krishnakanna18
> infrastructure, databases, data engineering
I work as a backend dev, without an opportunity to work on these at my current company. How do I learn and showcase these skills effectively. Thanks!
nextts
A good signal is you get pissed off with LLMs because they hinder your job. Even if you tried in earnest to use them.
luxuryballs
this and why not use LLMs and become an even more productive web developer
noisy_boy
I see the evolution, atleast until things get drastic, to be where the interviewer will allow LLM use and observe how fast you can deliver the objective while dealing with hallucinations etc.
scarface_74
Amazingly enough, I and millions of other developers have managed to find jobs outside of the Bay Area.
Personally, I’ve been finding jobs quite easily 10x since 1996 - the last 2 in 2023 and last year.
> Look at the requirements for your dream job and figure out what you need to learn to qualify.
Those jobs in the Bay Area mostly require you to “grind leetCode” and system design. They really don’t require you to know the latest frameworks, databases, Kubernetes, etc
yolovoe
> They really don’t require you to know the latest frameworks, databases, Kubernetes, etc
The latest "framework, databases" are constantly changing. Being good at leetcode and system design is a better signal (ofcourse, not perfect) than knowing specific tools.
Being good at system design implies you are aware of tradeoffs across various systems, and that coupled with willingness to grind means you can at pick up new tools and probably deliver on projects. I have used 13 languages and an equally absurd amount of tools across 4 orgs in my 5 YOE at FAANG. It's constant learning, or you're out basically. Doesn't make sense to quiz on anything specific. The interview process is quite fair actually.
margalabargala
System design yes, leetcode no.
Leetcode is only a useful problem to ask if the candidate has not encountered that problem before and has not practiced leetcode. Otherwise it is exactly as good a signal as knowing some arbitrary framework or database.
tibbar
Hey, as I said in another thread, I did not start out working in the Bay, and ended up here somewhat by accident. It shocked me how much easier it was to find good jobs here, and I'll stand by that. With that said, of course I say this with no judgment to anyone not in the Bay or other tech hubs, it's friendly advice from personal experience.
> Those jobs in the Bay Area mostly require you to “grind leetCode” and system design. They really don’t require you to know the latest frameworks, databases, Kubernetes, etc
Hmm, it sounds like you have a negative opinion of Bay Area jobs in general. I'm asking people to first figure out what work sounds interesting to them, and then learn the relevant skills. If you have the skills, the Bay Area probably has the right job, too. Of course these jobs also exist elsewhere, I'm not sure why I'm triggering this reaction...
scarface_74
I’ve worked for BigTech. If you look at how to pass any of the interview processes, it’s basically all about generic coding interviews.
That’s it, those are the only “skills” you have to have to get into the BigTech - pass coding and system design interviews.
And there are thousands of developers looking for jobs - even those who are coming out of well known tech companies.
rakejake
"decision-makers can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent" - Very correct. Whether or not AI actually comes for your job, the fact that enough people at the top think so is enough to cause trouble.
faizshah
Same is true for remote work. All the engineers know the return to work policies are dumb but all the decision makers have decided we’re all wrong.
jes5199
then why don’t they co-locate teams when they get RTO’d? I keep hearing about people who have to go sit in a mandatory hot desk but are still stuck on Zoom all day. Seems like the worst of both worlds
klodolph
It’s ordinary corporate dysfunction. The mandates come top-down. People in management don’t think too hard about exceptions. The people making decisions are far-removed from the consequences of their decisions.
__loam
Based on their own gut.
from-nibly
This is the problem. Right now we're not in the, I need AI to work or get out stage. We're in the AI might completely upend reality stage.
It's just people telling stories to find bigger fools. Like the ads claiming they sell an AI employee that never needs sleep and never talks back.
Those ads are the same thing as those ads shoved in the lawn near the mcdonnalds drive through that look like they were drawn with sharpie, but are really mass printed. "Real estate investor looking for pupil, trade my money" kind of stuff.
They are purposefully looking for suckers that would overlook the sketchyness. They don't want normal people applying, that reduces the pitches effectiveness.
Only desperate people who will fall for anything.
nextts
We are still doing scrum-like stuff after all. And they are dragging people back to the office. Decision makers have billions at their disposal to be inefficient with.
adamtaylor_13
I started my own business last year that has happened to go quite well. As I’ve watched the software industry over the last year, all I can think is… “damn, what lucky timing.”
leetrout
I keep looking for what you claim to be doing. I feel like reality continues to smack me in the face with “no one cares about quality”. I have tried big enterprises. I have tried 8 startups in 18 years. I watch the leaders / founders make the same mistakes over and over.
Anyway - your profile resonates with me. Would love to grab a virtual coffee if you are up for it.
iancmceachern
I've been doubling down on mine as well rather than pursue a more traditional career path and I feel the same way.
null
The statement
>The current market doesn’t value those skills particularly highly, but instead prioritizes a different set of skills: working in the details, pushing pace, and navigating the technology transition to foundational models / LLMs.
depends on the assumption that technology must "transition" to "foundational models / LLMs". The author doesn't seem to interrogate this assumption. In fact, most of the career malaise I've seen in my work is based on the assumption that, for one reason or another, technologists "must transition" to this new world of LLMs. I wish people would start by interrogating this bizarre backwards assumption (ie., - damn the end product! Damn the users! It must contain AI!) before framing career discussions around it.
However,
>decision-makers can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent
is unfortunately painfully true.