[ancientperson]

The industry was flooded with "talent" 2018-2022. LLM dependence has lowered the bar for professional excellence while thinning the ranks of talented newcomers by discouraging them. I think I'll be able to work through retirement age without having to settle for eastern European rates. In 2021 that seemed less likely.

[JustExAWS]

LLMs don’t help at all with engineering and knowing what problems should be solved. Knowing how to deal with XYProblems, dealing with “the business”, go to market strategies, etc. They help with coding.

If (the royal) your claim to fame is “I codez real gud”, you would be screwed post 2022 with or without LLMs.

On that same note, at 51 years old, if my only means of staying competitive and employable is that I can reverse a b tree on the whiteboard, I’ve done something horribly wrong with my life.

[ancientperson2]

Luckily you're not me. Reality check, anything that keeps you employable in a well playing job past 50 is a win.

[JustExAWS]

That’s just the issue. When I was in my early 40s, I saw the way the wind was blowing and that “full stack development”,Mobile development and even “cloud” compensation was rapidly plateauing in tier 2 cities (where most developers work) and I definitely didn’t want to be standing in front of 20 somethings competing with other 20 something’s trying to prove myself through coding interviews.

Yes I code as part of my day job depending on the way the wind is blowing. But I get hired because I can talk to CxOs, directors and people with budget decisions on zoom or hop on a plane. Even my interview at AWS was all system design and behavioral.

If I ever responded to recruiters or people I know through my network at GCP, that’s the way I would get a job there.

But I would rather get a daily anal probe with a cactus than ever work for BigTech again and I’m damn sure not going back into an office.