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

101 points MongooseStudios | 2 comments | 27 Jun 25 02:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.469s | 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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paranoidroid ◴[27 Jun 25 04:38 UTC] No.44393746[source]▶
I'm still trying to get my foot in the door. Ever since I started building 'raw' pages for people who had either "business ideas" or ran a 100 person sales team, no one has known or respected the difficulty of what goes into what we build or how it is actually a better solution than whatever they were asking for originally. Maybe once I actually break into the industry i will finally find a manager who understands what the solution is and how we get there in six months and equates that to a proper working solution instead of a internal-politics motivated project to get and edge over some other dept.
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1. MongooseStudios ◴[27 Jun 25 04:44 UTC] No.44393764[source]▶
I feel that right in my soul. The other side of the coin is they are currently destroying the talent pipeline by keeping smart motivated people out of roles where they could learn fast and grow. The myopic strategy(or lack thereof) is astonishing to me.
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2. csomar ◴[27 Jun 25 12:58 UTC] No.44396457[source]▶
You are delusional. I remember when I was starting (over 10 years ago), I worked with a guy who had a PhD in physics. We were doing WordPress stuff and I was getting paid higher than him (to add insult to injury I was based in a cheap third-world country and he was UK based). Since I've interacted with him a bit, I got to discover that he was very smart, mathematically inclined and did actually write correct English.

There is still no demand for physics. There is a world where we are heading for another bull market in tech but there is a also a world where this slump remains here forever. My guess is on the latter. The talent in the global south has considerably caught up in the last 15-20 years in terms of skills, language and numbers.