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Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

102 points MongooseStudios | 1 comments | 27 Jun 25 02:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.22s | source

I'm a self taught dev that worked my butt off and endured years of "we promote internally" lies at multiple companies to finally get paid to write code.

I've been job hunting since I was laid off last November, and I'm just over it. Everyone is unicorn hunting for X years in Y framework and if you don't have exactly that you need not apply. Meanwhile FAANG, Microsoft, and Intel keep handing out pink slips.

I still love coding, I've spent most of my non "job applications and existential dread" time since layoff building projects. But the thought of working for another company run by braindead execs that want to shove AI into everything, or sitting through another round of Becky from HR (whose most technical skill is sometimes using excel) asking me "so why do you want to work here" fills me with revulsion.

I've taken to telling people with absurdly high meeting count hiring processes and one way video screenings that I'm not interested. I find myself excited about the prospect of doing almost anything other than sitting through another planning week at some company that swears up and down they are "doing Agile."

I'm furious at how companies have decided to kick us to the curb, outsource our jobs to the cheapest country they can find, or whatever AI company has the tastiest complimentary crayons this week. I'm furious at the RTO nonsense everyone is increasingly pushing, because their managers are so awful at their jobs they can't figure out how to replace interrupting us in person with interrupting us via a slack message. I'm furious, and tired at the same time.

Anyone else?

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tonestonestones ◴[27 Jun 25 03:43 UTC] No.44393517[source]▶
In some way, software development is going the way hardware development went years ago. The engineers built tools and modules that put most of them out of work. Who designs amps or discrete circuits these days? Once you design a piece of hardware that works well, it can be re-used ad-infinitum, and most hardware today is really firmware running on microcontrollers. So it is a natural evolution that software is becoming automated. Unfortunate, but also an opportunity to do more interesting things. It is the managers that need to be replaced unless they can see further than the tecchies, and I have known some that do, usually they are ex-tecchies.
replies(1): >>44393617 #
1. all2 ◴[27 Jun 25 04:06 UTC] No.44393617[source]▶
> The engineers built tools and modules that put most of them out of work.

Yes, but no. I'm in hardware. I deal with hardware engineers. This part of the industry is alive and well. You might not see it, but it's there.

> Once you design a piece of hardware that works well, it can be re-used ad-infinitum, and most hardware today is really firmware running on microcontrollers.

Yes to the first part, it's just like code. Write once, then run it perpetually. Except that isn't really the case. There are still jobs for maintaining COBOL systems. Likewise, legacy hardware needs to be replaced, improved, or repaired. Old companies die, new ones swoop in and capture market share. My employer is the only manufacturer I know of for a legacy system component. They have a captive market because no one else wants to take the two weeks in CAD, and phone time with the contract manufacturers. This kind of thing is everywhere.

> So it is a natural evolution that software is becoming automated.

Again, yes, but no. We automate things as a matter of course. We are engineers. This doesn't mean fewer jobs, it means a shifting job market. IE loom operator vs hand weaver.