Are Software Engineers Getting Squeezed?

Hi folks, Diago here from the CineDF and uh today I wanted to share with you an article that was quite viral on uh LinkedIn. Let's go to the software engineering squeeze. Becoming a software engineer was a life hack, the best profession on it deserved a wake-up call. Let's let's go deeper. Imagine you have a oneful year, no obligations. You study every waking minute, what profession can you do reasonably well after that and get paid the most.

There's no question about it, a software engineer. In the last 10 to 15 years it became the new lawyer was the traitor. I do partially agree with it. There were a lot of people getting into software engineering. I don't believe software engineering attracted people that wanted to make a lot of money unless they had, you know, an analytical brain. And the author tries to mention this, it was the best job on the market, every semi-analytical person took their shot.

For sure, but I believe, for example, sales it's a lot more lucrative and it was a lot more lucrative without having to go to a Fang interview, right? And the same in Europe. And if you are studying every waking hour, you could still go and become a doctor and a lawyer if you. A lot of people don't like coding. A lot of people still choose to become doctors and any kind of engineers. Okay, so not everybody became a software engineer.

And as software started to eat the world, the demand continues to increase. And engineers were the first highest in every startup and it was common to need hundreds of them if you really wanted to scale up, yes and no. Uh, remember Instagram, I think, uh, when it got acquired, it had what, like 10 engineers? Not not 100%. Companies hired whoever they could get through the loop. Yes, they did that. But, um, it's because they they they were obsessed with growth and because low interest rates allowed it.

Okay, not because they really needed these people and they were hoarding talent. But if we are honest, our job just isn't that hard. I beg to disagree. Software engineering, it's a very tough job. You know, my education, it's aerospace engineering, I majored in, um, rocket science, rocket propulsion back in Madrid. And trust me, uh, when I switch to software engineering and I was coding every day, uh, I feel like, and I still feel that software engineering was a lot harder than aerospace itself.

The reason being a lot of engine positions, most of them, I would say, not only software engineering, but after five, six years in the sector, uh, it becomes moving you know, the the whole job becomes moving paperwork from one spot to another. Specifically because, you know, in Europe we don't have a SpaceX. I mean, maybe if you work for a company like SpaceX and Tesla, maybe you do some design, but living those companies aside, a lot of engineering jobs are not that hight, okay?

And I believe software is one of the highest because you have to spend a lot of time into actually um staying up to date. And the other thing is, you know, mechanical engineers, aerospace engineers, you need an aerospace degree to get hired by a company like Boeing or Airbus, right? There is a mot, there is a barrier of entry. Nothing software, so you compete with everyone that's intelligent and everyone that it's willing to code, right? Which is why I believe the software engineering profession, it's a lot more competitive.

There are many advantages when you have such a profession, and I will talk about that later. The result of all of it was a fat middle layer of mediocre engineers who are now getting squeezed. I I beg to disagree and uh there's another study from uh this uh Stanford uh department that's studying software engineering productivity and they claim that one in 10 uh software engineers, it's a ghost. They they don't do much because they looked at, you know, commits and they looked at code and they code they you know, they're not doing any commits, what are they doing? They're probably, you know, wasting company money.

Uh and I I I don't, you know, it's hard for me to even agree with that, but in my experience, working in corporate, working in startups, in any kind of profession from marketing to HR, to sales, there's always one in 10 people who's not doing much. And the bigger the company, the more of these people you have. It's just when companies get big, if the culture and the management, it's not in place, okay, um companies tend to to to have these people who are not doing much. They're very political and they can be in any department, okay?

Now, the other thing it's, do we have a fat middle layer of mediocre engineers? And I doubt it. I think they are mediocre by today's market, but by yesterday's market, they were pretty capable. What's actually happening in reality? I think it's more of a demand and supply issue where interest rates went down, companies lay off a lot of people, they stop hiring and people are not getting hired because they are not enough openings for everybody.

Whether they're mediocre or not doesn't really matter. Because they could be great if there's no job for them, well, nothing will happen. The media Jobs drama, so it's like a software engineer lost his 150k job to AI, which is false. We have another video about this on the channel. AI is not even able to replace 10, 10 to 15% of what a developer does. Maximum, when we're talking about boiler plate project, I think the productivity increase was about 30%.

When we're talking about Greenfield, Greenfield projects, pardon. So we are far away from this, okay? This is the media. Got rejected from 800 jobs. Yeah, I mean you can get rejected from 2,000 jobs. You know, it depends on what how are you applying? What are you exactly doing? And now Droid she is and lives in a trailer. Unfortunately, especially in the US, but also in Europe, uh this is the story of many people.

I believe in this case, it's hugely a skill issue. It is a skill issue. Now, this doesn't mean they are mediocre. It means, you know, there's there is a gap between what the market demands and where they are at. Uh still, it's not uh just clickbait, things are really tough. Mm, yeah, they are tough, but, you know, I I mean if you hang out on on Reddit and YouTube, those places are very biased, right?

You find people that they go there to complain. People that are getting jobs, they don't make too many Reddit posts about it. They just go and get their money and they're happy. Uh everyone feels the current times are the toughest in years. I agree, uh but I've been, you know, I graduated uh 2015. But when I started my degree, it was about 2008, 2009, uh those times were very tough. People thought the world it's over and we will never get a job.

Engineers got used to those cushy jobs and became the most spoiled professional out there. We were from nice coffee, we were home, solving testing problems and get paid uh in the top 10% of our country to do it. Which has this is not bad, okay? It's tough job and it's okay to get paid when there is top 10, top 20, top 30. That's up to the market to decide, but software engineering can be a very tough job.

You have unclear requirements, you have people pushing you all the time. You have people maybe calling you sometimes on the weekend, if you work in a startup, it's living hell, right? And some software engineers become very spoiled, and I can agree, you know, back in the days, we were all a bit spoiled. But I can tell you there are many people in society that are way more spoiled. Like, for example, if you live in any European country, government employees.

I grew up in in Spain, and then I moved to Germany, and I can tell you these people, they work on Minitext and they church you know, why? We are not anybody that works in the private sector. Outside of maybe big tech where people again, they can get away with doing little, we are not spoiled. Software engineers are not spoiled. We are working on an industry where, as we are seeing it right now, if you don't put the time, if you don't, you know, constantly improve your skills, you are being shown the door very fast.

This is not true for people working in any kind of government job, for example. Okay, and yet many engineers complain, don't talk to me after working hours. Well, you shouldn't, right? I have a contact, why should you talk to me after working hours? Like I don't want to work on legacy code. I mean, who who does, right? But I'm sure a lot of developers are a lot more flexible with these demands and the requirements aren't clear enough, I can't work like this.

I think this is a very legit concern. I worked in many teams, sometimes you get like some half assed requirements uh and uh you are supposed to figure out the rest. And I don't believe in the professional environment, this is the way, you know, business stakeholders and product management stakeholders and developers should work together. Uh to an experiment, try to uh suggest a fresh graduate who can't find a job on LinkedIn or Reddit to work for minimal pay to get some experience.

You will get roasted. I I I don't think so. I mean, of course, if they live in, you know, New York City or San Francisco, they can't probably afford to um, you know, work for minimal pay because they will have to live on the street. Okay, but many graduates and I'll see most graduates are actually willing to to do that. Uh in other careers, it's super common. Yeah, but, you know, we don't want that to become, you know, we want people to get paid, at least something, right?

If they are bringing value. Uh you grind in your first years with minimal pay, you earn your way up and you don't start with 100k and an easy job. I I beg to disagree, I think different careers have different dynamics. You know, in careers like sales, you can hit the 100k very, very fast. If you are working in sales, any kind of sales, car sales, real estate sales. I've got friends who were working up in Canada as truck drivers and uh plumbing construction industry, they were cleaning 120k easily.

Okay, it's not a lot of money. I'm a bit annoyed with all this whining on LinkedIn. Uh I'm not, I think a lot of the whining it's legit. I think people are out of jobs, I think they have to pay mortgages. And I think people are are worried. And the squeeze go goes both directions. It's not just one of the hardest times, it's also one of the most exciting, well, depends who you are. I'm hugely optimistic about the software engineering career.

All those companies started by Vibe Codi saying, are you? Many will succeed, many will succeed, I beg to disagree, and will need great engineers to scale up. Yeah, of course, maybe. Uh some engineers understand this and they use the chance to skill up. Uh to succeed you probably need all the skills of an engineer, some of a PM and even a bit of a design taste. I think this is a very dangerous statement.

A lot of people because uh they're being told, hey, I can do your job, you need to diversify your skill set and then they they try to learn everything. Uh and this is a recipe for actually not being good at a lot of things and and burning out. Uh I do agree it's not about shipping code anymore, it's never been about shipping code, it's about delivering value. And to deliver value, you need ideally uh a good understanding of how software works, software industry, what is value?

Right, you need to work close with your PM and there should be a PM. You shouldn't have to figure out alone. And you ideally need uh full stack skills. This is what we've been teaching developers front end, work back end, it doesn't matter, uh JavaScript devs at the senior dev for the last five years. Okay, nothing new. But if you work as a code monkey, okay, getting detailed tickets and just shipping them, uh you've done this to yourself. I I man, I I don't know thing a point.

Um, you know, code monkey, sorry, there are some developers out there who are not doing much. I agree. But most people and I like to believe that most developers, a lot of them are kind of trying to do their best, especially in these times. Uh you won't be needed pretty soon. I I doubt it. I think if you're good at getting very complex tickets, detailed tickets and and shipping them, uh you know, the company will uh the company will not uh throw you out.

Unless the project get canceled, which you cannot really control. I believe that there's too many mediocre engineers, but not also not enough great ones. I kind of that's a statement coming out of out of nothing maybe. I work with a lot of engineers at all different levels. Some have mediocre skills, yes. And it's always 50/50, you know, you can say you're mediocre. Or I can tell you, whenever I see a, you know, quote, mediocre engineer, it's usually two things.

One, maybe they weren't very proactive in improving their skills and I don't blame them. Some people have kids, they get a job, they get comfortable. I've been there for years. I was very comfy, you know. I I just didn't have the ambition. I don't know, I thought, that. And the other thing is companies don't offer a lot of, you know, a lot of mentorship. There's no clear path for most developers. That's why we we build a senior devs bug and I, right?

So, when you see someone uh mediocre, I'll say he's 50% dumb, sure, you know, take responsibility. It's your responsibility, but it's also 50% the environment they're in. And if you want to level up, you have to change both. Uh if you really want to be a software engineer, uh and you're out of a job, are you actually trying hard enough? I I think it's tough. I think people that are, you know, living on the streets, like those extreme cases we see on Reddit.

I we're trying hard enough. I think they're not trying smart enough, but that's a different for a different video. Uh what are you doing aside from sending CVs and doing interviews? I mean, that's exactly what you should you should be doing, but I would say you need to do this in the smartest way possible. Uh it's never been easier to ship new ideas. Are you playing with the latest AI tools? Are you solving real problems around you?

Or are you waiting for someone to hand you a backlog again? It's not shameful uh to switch. Software engineering used to be for everyone. Now I believe it's for the ones who really want it, like any field. You can say this about any freaking field, okay? Final words, I don't think this post will be very popular, but I feel the need to share my honest thoughts. I'm not saying that I know great engineers without a job or that the people deserved uh to be laid off.

Yeah, but it kind of feels like that. Maybe the tone. My point is that there is no place for coasting in software engineering anymore, uh but there is and will be a lot of place for ambitious engineers even fresh graduates. Again, I I think there's some good ideas here. I mean, it's kind of a chicken the about. I understand what Anton is trying to do. I just feel like given the sensitivity of the situation and given also the fact that software engineers as a collective are getting attacked.

They're getting attacked from the tech CEOs who are, you know, they want to sell their AI tools and Microsoft CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at Meta, uh Open AI, you know, they're all saying, hey, we don't need you. And I think it's very tough psychologically to be a software engineer these days because uh we are creating a very toxic environment where, you know, you can basically scream at software engineers, you can tell them whatever and nobody will hit back.

You know, you can just say, oh, we will replace you, you are not needed. And I think it's very tough going to work trying to do your best and just being told, hey, we are, you know, one year away. We are months away from making you obsolete. any risk of developers not being here in five years, I would be the first one to be worried because we provide training and mentorship to software engineers, specifically to JavaScript engineers, right?

Which is one of the languages that AI can speak the best if if we can say so, right? So, number one, I believe software engineers have a bright future and I believe nobody deserves uh going to work or or being in a profession and being constantly told, hey, you're not needed, hey, you're too expensive, hey, you're too entitled, hey, you're too spoiled. What I would say it's, you know, if I'm too spoiled, if I'm too entitled, if I'm asking for too much, then go hire someone else.

And it is in these moments that you need to uh trust yourself, you need to focus on your skills, and of course, focus on getting better, but not out of shame, not out of fear. Which is why I believe even the if this uh it feels to me like the cal is very well intended. I doubt I bet Anton had only uh positive intentions. I think it comes at a point in time where uh we really need the opposite. We need developers to answer, we need um people to hold tech CEOs in line and they need to be a lot more careful with the kind of statements they make because there are real people behind these numbers. This is not just software engineers, we're going to replace you.

Those are people paying their mortgage, those are people, you know, paying their rent, making a living out of this. that AI, it's not what they claim to be. Uh I think we deserve a bit more respect and some encouragement words. With that being said, folks, keep up the good work. We at the senior dev and I are here to support you and help you, and if you want our personal mentorship and you want us to personally mentor you and help you define a clear path for you to get to senior and make it in this market, then click the link below and watch how we can help you.

And if you're good with that, book a call with me, I'd love to get to know you and see if this can for you as well, and I'll see you in the next one.