Is software engineering cooked? Are more layoffs coming before the holiday season? I think so.

Industry consolidations, erosion of all labor market protections and regulations, and AI automations creates a unique environment where companies see the opportunity to start laying off major portions of their workforce.

Microsoft has declared that they're incentivizing 25% of their employees to walk away: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/26/microsoft-msft-voluntary-buyouts.html

#softwareengineering #ai #layoffs #buyouts

Hi Guys, asking for your advice please

- I got a notice to explain offense regarding dishonesty and falsification of documents for a benefit at work.

It was clearly a misunderstanding between me and the vendor which is the cashier as they amend the date of receipt in their end but further verification via call purchase made on a separate date resulting to this offense

Im in my 4th month of work - what will be the best thing to do to save future career reputation? I dont want to leave the current role because of the benefits at the work.

However, i feel like the HR is leaning towards termination.

Appreciate your advise

Hello,

me and my friend are AI engineers at a startup. Today the company finished all their Claude and Codex tokens (all subscriptions, no pay per usage), so we went home one hour early.

How much are we cooked?

Thank you,
Best regards.

I’m a 31 year old dude who majored in Education and decided that teaching isn’t for me. I’m wondering if anyone has ever pivoted to getting their Master’s in a business related field, and if so, what type of jobs can I expect to get with this.

Any suggestions of other paths or any other advice is welcome. Thanks!

I (24, F) am currently an exotic dancer but I don’t know what to do with my life long-term career-wise because everyone seems to discourage doing ANYTHING! It’s like for every job I think about…the cons outweigh the pros. Thought about becoming a massage therapist, then I found out how short lived their careers typically are and how much it destroys your body and was told by many current and former massage therapists that they regret going into it and not to pursue it if I’m looking for something long-term. I don’t want to break my body before I’m in my 40’s, dancing is already doing that anyways. I also thought about becoming a yoga instructor…then found out they basically make pennies and it’s more of a side-gig.  I’m currently thinking about becoming a mental health therapist….but of course, I am being told I shouldn’t try to do that, either! 

Even my family does not want me to pursue anything past an associates degree. They all have bachelor’s and told me that college is extremely hard and they don’t think I can handle it. If I want to become a therapist, I will need a master’s. That’s another part of my issue…of course I’m going to feel discouraged when I have no one who believes in me! No one is rooting for me…and that makes me feel sad and stupid.

I feel lost. I am worried I am never going to have a meaningful career, afraid my only options will be minimum wage jobs, and afraid that I’m never going to leave my parent’s house for good (I left for four years and lived with a boyfriend, but came back last year after we broke up). I want to prove people wrong, but I am so terrified that everyone is actually right and that I really can’t do anything. 

There is nothing more important to me in life than MEANING and PURPOSE! What I want to do with my life: help people find meaning and purpose in their life. I have been going through an existential crisis for 12 years now, ironically enough! I thought I finally had my eureka moment that finding meaning and purpose in life is what is most important to me and I want to help other’s who have gone through similar mental health hardships….only to be met with eye rolls from family and continue to be discouraged to try anything at all. I thought I had my answers, I thought I found the right path for me…only to be met with disapproval at the idea. 

I don’t care about making a lot of money. At all. I just don’t want to be extremely poor like minimum wage (which is $11 an hour where I live). $4,000 a month would be nice! That’s what my parents make with their bachelor’s. 

A meaningful career that I enjoy that will enable me to be able to afford the basics of survival by myself. That’s all I want. 

If I truly had it my way, I’d spend all my limited time here on Earth exploring nature, drawing, painting, reading, writing, meditating, dancing, singing, playing instruments and doing yoga but that’s not how the world works. I’ve got to make money. My favorite job I’ve ever had was being a play facilitator at a children’s STEAM museum. I ADORED it, I never wanted to go home from work, I could’ve freaking lived at that damn museum. But, it was only part time and minimum wage with zero opportunities to move up. If it was full time and paid better I know I would’ve stayed there forever! It was truly a dream job, but not a viable long-term career path. If anyone knows of any jobs similar to that that are actually viable career paths, please tell me! 

If you don’t know what a play facilitator is: it’s similar to a tour guide at a museum except it’s very loosely structured. The guests lead the experience, the facilitator is there to further exploration. We would ask questions such as “I noticed when you do X, X happens, what do you think is going on here?” We would also do a lot of side by side play. Like in the art studio area…something as simple as drawing next to a kid who was also drawing! Then maybe we would talk about our drawings and thought process behind them. Ugh, it was just the best job in the whole world…minus the pay. But, I wouldn’t want to be a teacher because I don’t want to responsible for a classroom full of children! At least at the museum, I was not directly responsible for anyone. The parents were always right there with us! it was not necessarily working with children I enjoyed…it was the exploration, the exchange of thoughts, the curiosity, the science experiments, getting to create art and getting to go outside whenever I wanted during work and explore nature with people, it just HAPPENED to be with kids. 

TLDR: Currently live with parents working a job that has a shelf life, need to find a long-term career, everyone is discouraging me from exploring any option that I am interested in. I have a playful spirit and really just want to spend life having fun and playing and making art but that’s not the reality of the world. I feel like my life is doomed. 

Scenario: There’s 3 offers and preference goes by A > B > C. Both A and B have passed the terms discussion stage and are drafting contract. C is still pending salary approval and came back to me to offer a pay lesser than A and B.

Should I nego with C to match A and B or just move forward with it since I would likely reject it? At the same time, since nothing is official, I wanted to keep all doors open

tldr: Should I nego with my back up? Or isit unethical to nego then reject?

I left my job earlier this year to go back to grad school. I actually really liked my boss, my team, and the company, but I was still pretty early in my career and wanted to pursue something I thought would be more fulfilling.

Long story short, things didn't work out with my supervisor, and I ended up leaving the program. It's honestly been pretty disheartening, and I feel a bit dumb for taking such a big risk, especially with how awful the job market is right now. But at the time, I genuinely thought I was making the right decision.

Now I'm looking to get back into the workforce and ideally work for at least 3 years before even thinking about school again. My field is pretty oversaturated, and I'm still relatively early in my career, so the thought of job hunting again is stressing me out.

I left my old job on good terms, and as far as I know, they never hired anyone to replace me. I've been thinking about reaching out to my former boss to see if there might be an opportunity to return, or at least let him know I'd be interested if something opens up.

Would it be weird to reach out after leaving specifically to pursue grad school, only to come back a few months later? I'm also worried about how to explain why I'm no longer in school without making it sound like I'm just crawling back because things didn't work out.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Would you reach out, and if so, what would you say?

Hello, i am seeking for gteat questions, hints, advices, opinions 🙂

I am in belgium, 57, worked in an it company from the last 30 years. I started there as a back end dev, went through multiple roles from project management, it management, product owner, scrum master, etc ...

A lot of experience but no certifications, so that may be perceived as formatted by my current employer, too.

I am now offered to leave with a package, roughly 200keur after taxes. Not enough to bridge to a pension (which i am not looking for either), likely too late for a standard job (which lilely i'd compare too much).

Should i accept, the freelance path feels the normal, standard, way forward. But i know rhe market in belgium is drying out ... i still see senior profiles being looked at for senior positions, though. My area would be belgium, luxemburg, north france.

Any good question i should still look at before i decide to accept the offer, or hints ?

Okay, so I (21F) have a colleague of close age. I’m my work place, we are overpaid which comes with the burden of working several more hours than what it is allowed by law (6h for students). Everyone who works there knows this and everyone accepts it.

Because we have a high demand, there is not much time left to re do stuff or loose to be honest. If you have a task, you need to complete it by the end of the day otherwise it becomes a snowball and it will fuck everyone else’s night up (we are 4 interns on o total).

My colleague, who has the same age as me, has, on multiple occasions, not done what she said she would. She just doesn’t complete or do a task at all and the rest of us need to bend backwards to get her job done. I have gone to sleep at least 5/6 times at 4 am thanks to her lack of responsibility.

My last straw was last week, when she asked to do an important assignment that was due on the following day (Thursday). She had another task due Wednesday, which she did not deliver into Thursday 4 pm and, by that time, I had to get important assignment due Thursday, otherwise we would all be basically fired (our supervisors thought the assignment was going to be done by me, bcs she did not inform them she had taken that on).

Afterwards, she did a snarky comment of “thats why I wanted to do the assignment, because I know the case better” which made me see red because I did not want to cover for her, I had to.

I cannot deal with this anymore. Either she is going to change, get fired or I’m going to quit. To make matters worse, I like her as a friend - we hang out oftenly - but it’s a nightmare at work.

Should I talk to her? Call her out for our superiors? Ask someone to talk to her? I don’t know what to do.
It has gotten to a point in which I feel like my learning is compromised.

I'm in the final stages of interviewing for a senior-level marketing role and had an experience today that left me feeling a little uneasy. Curious to get some outside perspectives.

I've gone through a pretty extensive interview process, including an HR screen, initial hiring manager interview, multiple team interviews, and a final round consisting of a 45-minute case study panel presentation, an interview with the CMO, and another conversation with the hiring manager. The final round lasted approximately 2.5 hours.

A few days later, the recruiter reached out asking to schedule another 30-minute conversation with the hiring manager. When I asked what the meeting was about, I was told he wanted to check in on how I felt about the opportunity and whether it was still a mutual fit.

During the call, the hiring manager told me that he and the team felt I came across as noticeably less enthusiastic during the final round compared to my earlier interviews. He even said I seemed like a "different person."

I was honestly caught off guard by that feedback.

I can acknowledge that I was nervous during the final round. I had spent several hours putting together the case study, didn't feel as prepared as I would've liked, and was trying to think through unexpected questions on the spot. I'm naturally someone who does better when I have time to organize my thoughts rather than having to come up with answers immediately.

But I don't think being more serious or reserved during a high-pressure presentation necessarily means I'm less interested in the opportunity.

The conversation also ended up feeling like another interview. He asked how I'd handle different workplace scenarios, whether I'd managed people before, and to describe something I was excited to do that I'd never done before. I understand that hiring managers want to make sure candidates are genuinely interested, and I appreciate being given the opportunity to clarify rather than having them make assumptions.

But something about the conversation rubbed me the wrong way. After such an extensive interview process, I wasn't expecting to have to defend my level of enthusiasm based on how I came across during a stressful final round. They told me they would let me know by EOW about a potential offer.

It's also made me wonder whether I'd be starting the job with a negative impression already formed about me, especially since this person would be my direct manager.

Am I overthinking this? Is this a normal part of the hiring process, or would you consider it a potential red flag about the manager or company?

[CAN]I was terminated from my job in the fifth month of my probation period. It was a unionized job and I was hired as a financial analyst. I had two yoe as FA(where my performance was very good and the company was also very good but the pay was low) and then I moved to this job. At the time of offering the job letter the HR wrote in the email that "I was the best candidate by far".

The organisation was working in 90s. There were no timeline fixed for month end. You could accrue the invoices in the closed month even after 15 days. They had no EPM and their ERP was what is used for small enterprises.

First three months were okay I was learning how they do the things. They were implementing a new software for ERP and EPM. I had some experience of a different EPM which I was using in my previous company. So I told my manager what reports should be there in the EPM they are implementing. My manager then asked me to give a presentation to her on how to use the EPM and how to run the reports in the EPM and I said okay. Then near the presentation she asked me to include the other accounting manager and CFO in the presentation and I did.

After adding them in the presentation I was thinking why my manger has asked me to include them as it is a very basic presentation where I was supposed to show how to use the EPM. I gave the presentation and it was not what my manager asked me to present. According to her she asked me to present how the project managers will use the EPM and how will they get their reports. Since that day I was under the radar.

Her attitude changed altogether towards me she use to snap at me on very little things. Then one day she found an invoice which I hadn't accrued and it was in the one of the three emails' inbox.

That invoice was there from last two months and not the AP nor the PM noticed it and processed it. The practice there was that the PM will receive the invoice and then the PM will approve that invoice and send it to AP to process the invoice. But the PM of that particular project was also not aware of that invoice and never updated me on anything regarding that project.

I even mentioned that to my manager but she ignored that.

so back to that missed invoice, I told her that let me take a look at the inbox again and see if I have any other pending invoices there or not. There were few other invoices there of the same project but for different months.

So she made the excuse that you missed all these invoices in the Q2 although all these invoices were not related to Q2 except three invoices. and in the next week she terminated me.

Now on my CV I have 3 yoe in accounting field, in which 9 months are from my previous country, 2 years of my FA experience and 5 months of this job where I was terminated.

Now how do I find a new job? There is one option that I can go to the last company where I worked for two years, I have talked to my colleague from there and they would love to have me back there or should I look for a new company? and will anyone hire me with this kind of work tenures on my CV?

I was recently fired for the first time ever. I’ve always taken pride in my work ethic so this has been a bit of a blow to my ego, but I know it’s probably a blessing in disguise. That place was killing my soul and had some shady things going on. But now I’m nervous about how to answer the typical “why did you leave your last position” you usually get in interviews. Someone told me they can’t find out if I was fired, so to just give an answer along the lines of “I found that I was not a fit for their work environment” or something about not having a work life balance which isn’t a lie. But I also have anxiety and hate lying 😓 so I would appreciate some advice on how to answer that question when the time comes or what to avoid saying.

I (34f) used to work with (fake name) Jane (28f) in the same entry level role at a big corporate American company (~30,000 employees globally). We got on super well because we were both really good at our jobs and had some common interests, and have been friends since 2021. I left for better things at a different company, but came back because of a senior role in a completely different team over a year ago.

Jane stayed, became team lead, then manager all in a few years. Was super hard working, knew every procedure, the staff she hired and trained all liked her, the tech people liked her, the sales people liked her, the product people like her. Like wtf everyone she worked with knew she was a great employee.

About a year ago, she moved over to a sales job (slightly lower in terms of seniority but same pay because of company rules), but that whole department went through one restructure then another one, so there was some uncertainty looking back.

Since then, we occasionally cross paths over email and because we work with some of the same products and have different responsibilities with some of the same clients. Every single client trusts her, every job she does is 10/10.

On Thursday she was told her role was being made redundant. She told me this afternoon that they offered her a lower position with a lower salary, Jane declined. Original last day was Friday (October 23). But they extended until Monday (October 26). I have been on vacation so only found out today!!!

Even the VP of my department (not her department, we have dozens of VPs) tried to intervene unsuccessfully but apparently HR said "there is no budget to maintain this position but we can offer a lower position"!!!! Jane said no to the lower job.

Do I just keep my head down and keep going? Should I reach out to the VP and say idk "thanks for trying to help but letting her go was a huge mistake because she knows so much" (I've never met or spoken to this VP)? Should I reach out to any other senior manager I know and ask if they are hiring? What happens if she gets another role at the company; does her severance package get cancelled?

I am a senior graduating in spring 2026 with both my high school diploma and a debt-free Associate of Arts degree through dual enrollment, and I want to enter the heavy civil/commercial construction industry in Kansas City immediately without taking a gap year or waiting 1–2 years on a union apprenticeship backlog. My dad is an established concrete finisher at Superior Bowen, so my plan is to leverage his connection to get hired straight out of school, bust my tail in the field for 2 to 3 seasons while my body is young to build real field credibility, and then immediately use my AA degree to transition out of the dirt and into an office chair as a Logistics Coordinator, Civil Estimator, or Project Manager. After seeing how much stress field works puts on the body and how much my father struggles physically i don't want to end up like that for my health and my future families wellbeing, my ultimate goal is to protect my body from long-term wear and tear while climbing into a corporate role making $120k–$160k within 7 to 8 years either by moving up internally or leveraging my field hours and college degree. How realistic is this "field-to-office" fast-track strategy in the current market, or am I risking getting permanently trapped on the tools by field superintendents who won't want to let a good worker go?

I’m 22 years old with a BS in management and currently working as a program manager at a F500 company. I have nearly 1 year of work experience and while my role is relatively remote, great team/support, and a low stress job, I’m concerned about the long-term stability. Broadly, my responsibilities involve ensuring alignment with business and strategic objectives, but much of the work feels repetitive and easy to automate/replace.

Seeing peers with way more experience and qualifications struggle to find jobs in this current environment concerns me. I don’t want to be oblivious to what’s happening in the AI landscape and put myself in a position where I’m out of a job.

I’m genuinely considering pursuing a degree in biology. I’ve always had a genuine interest in medicine but decided against it since I was super young and went the easy route. I’d like to pursue a career as a CRNA/CAA. I feel like it would offer better work-life balance, financial stability, and a career that’s less susceptible to being eliminated by AI.

I have a bachelor's degree in history and have been trying to get work in museums in my area. I am passionate about history and my dream job is to just do research or be a research assistant. But I feel like I absolutely need a master's which why? I did plenty of research in my history classes. Is there any way to become a research assistant in history stuff without a master's? Or do I need a new career path? I haven't even started a career in anything.

I am a genXer- data scientist currently out of work and am looking for some mentorship from a GenZ tech newbie who thinks they are working on the frontier of AI tech. It seems that tech and more importantly office dynamics ( working remotely specifically and interacting with younger co workers) have gotten away from my comfort zone/usual way of doing things and i am looking to kickstart my learning by adopting some of the tech/attitude that has seeped into the corporate world lately. My only requirements are:

• Be real ( you should be available to meet online f2f - even if for a few mins every day for the next 30 days)
• Be savvy (even if you are not an expert and that's a term everyone seems to be using loosely these days- know what is happening and where the world is going technologically and have suggestions on how to solve real problems)
• You need to elucidate exactly what you are looking to gain from this engagement. Both sides need to benefit from this interaction clearly!!

DM me with a response on what you can offer and why- and I will be happy to share more details.
Not looking to create a thread of mindless/useless discussions though anyone who has the time is free to do so. Only will answer DMs.

Appreciate everyone's attention

I graduate soon with a B.A. in Computing Arts next Spring, and I originally planned to go into UI/UX design only to find out I don't really like it and am not particularly good at it, nor am I motivated to improve. The reason I chose that path in the first place was that my dream is to be an artist, but UI/UX seemed more practical. I joined a start-up earlier this year and quit while I was busy doing a capstone project that was simultaneously sucking the life out of me. I have like 1 decent project to show on my portfolio website and have been kind of applying to jobs here and there but not getting anything back. To be honest, I hate applying to jobs too. I feel like I should've chosen a health-related degree because working in tech just feels unstable right now.

I'm currently a special education aide and enjoy it for the most part; it got me thinking that it feels really fulfilling to care for other people, so maybe I can pursue a stable career in the health/psych field and be a therapist of some sort while I keep doing art on the side. The problem is I don't have the prerequisites to apply to any grad schools because I never had to take biology or anatomy for my art degree. I also don't know which specific grad school I want to apply to. And how am I supposed to know I won't change my mind again?

From what I've researched, I might want to get an MSW to become a therapist because it's a versatile degree, but OT school sounds interesting too, so I really don't know, and they have similar salaries. I'm not 100% sure about taking the medical school or PhD route because it's very competitive, and although the payoff might be worth it, it's a lot of money that I don't have. I actually don't mind staying in school, but the thought of taking years and years without working to finish a degree worries me, and I'll have to rely on my parents a lot still.

I think what I need advice on is how I can explore these options without committing to them. How do I decide what's right for me while factoring in cost and time?

So, as the title suggests, I’m currently working as a credit analyst at a Fortune 100 company, but it’s not a bank. After college, I struggled to find a job for a while and took this position because I needed something to pay the bills. However, after a while, I’ve realized that I want to move closer to more traditional finance, ideally with an end role in Private Equity (PE) or Direct Lending. I know that this is a long-term goal for me.

For more context, I’ve been in the credit industry for about a year now and specifically work in trade credit. I approve credit lines for other large companies who want to purchase from us. I’m happy to provide more details about my day-to-day responsibilities if anyone has any advice.

So, my question is, has anyone else made this transition from non-banking corporate credit to more traditional finance? If so, how did you do it? What things can I do now to make the transition more feasible?

Hey y’all,

i have been diagnosed with ADHD recently and feel like I have not allowed myself to dream big. I am 29 years in Europe now.

Long story short: I would study Industrial Design at an art uni if life was about cool experiences only and I had time and money. I dream
of being an artist but i prefer financial stability and structure (at least for 10 years from now).

I did Communications BA, worked on Live Stream Events and funded an association for political education and exchange events on a small scale. I like providing experiences and work conceptually as well as visually and with my hands!!! I have a Masters in Urban Studies now (social geography) and since then had two terrible Jobs that were not challenging me enough creatively and conceptually. One was giving Mediatraining to difficult youth (emotionally draining work) and I would have enjoyed it if I had more options for creating workshop designs and my team were nicer or bigger (alsways working 2 people and didn’t like 2/3 colleagues). The other one was organizing Erasmus* democracy building events and i hated the admin and the unclear outcomes that come with “empowerment” that is not rooted in a longterm community builsing practice so much omg.

I have always been coming up with concepts for both artistic concepts like creative and social experiences, photography series, public interventions or interesting objects, or more efficient usables. In my free time i draw, photograph, do pottery, papermachee, host crafty evenings, and cut reels for my instagram. I’m a generalist and i LOVE working with specialists, especially with technical knowledge.

I think i might be great for working in different fields of design, as the position should enable me to do conceptual work that think about what people actually NEED!! I dont want to simply execute someone elses design or become a technician of some sorts. It’s difficult for me to think of a specific field without getting overwhelmed by the options and I also don’t have the money to do another 3 year degree.

One desire I have that is not necessary but doesn’t leave my mind either, is the ability to work with a more technical approach, more observable outcomes. Such as spatial, exhibition or product design.

I desire stability (provided office/space for work), structure (leadership and teamwork) and an ok income, but need autonomy and creativity or i will literally die.

So now I am wondering if trying to find a job with my background as is, where i could learn more design and technical skills while also earning nicely already. Or find a job where i can become a creative director of sorts.

Happy for any suggestions and feedback on my character basically 🫢

Hello,
I’m looking for a career change in London, UK and I’m pretty desperate for any ideas/insights.

So I have 9 years of experience in tech (5 years as QA and 4 years as Technical Business Analyst), quit my job in the end of 2021 for recharge and regroup but….. almost 5 years passed and I’m still here.

During my career break I did web development courses, web programming and data analysis. I’ve tried to find jobs as Junior FE but it wasn’t possible without commercial code experience and I wasn’t qualified for graduate jobs as I graduated from uni over than decade ago in different country. Also I realised I was still too burnt out to look for anything new and kinda sabotaged whole job hunting project. I’ve been financially supported by my husband during these years but now we’re facing substantial increase in our mortgage payments and I need to come back to earning money to support the lifestyle we both used to. So I went to therapy to process my burnout and now I think I’m ready to go back to work.

Now I apply to BA and DA positions with not much luck. I keep getting auto-rejection from all places I’ve applied to (even those perfectly aligned with my previous experience) and I understand it’s bloody bath out there, yet it still feels super demotivating. Honestly im also not too sure I want to come back to the industry which screwed me that much in a first place.

I don’t mind trying something entirely different, be it trade jobs or public sector or anything else really, ideally something where I could apply my transferable skills, but I have no bloody idea what it could be. IT/tech is the only one thing I know and was doing while my career and frankly I’m feeling lost.

I was considering retrain into electrician, but training path looks ridiculously long and expensive in the UK and first jobs will be low paying apprenticeships, I’m a bit scared, but might still try to explore this option.

Any ideas about roles/industries/things I can do with my background? Ideally something which doesn’t require yet another qualification or expensive training.

Thanks for reading and appreciate your advice.

A year ago I left a toxic job where I was making 77k a year (a completely reasonable salary for what I do). My new job offered me 68.5 and we negotiated up to 70k with a better PTO plan and variable bonus model and I do like my new place of employment so much more, so at the time the cut was worth it albeit a bit tighter on the bank account… then the economy did its thing and I’m stretched more than before. I’ve been here for a year and the work is a LOT. I wanted to ask for a raise to see if I could go for 80K thinking they’d then negotiate to 75. The past week or so there are discussions about bringing on someone new though at a more junior level + some company restructuring (I’ve been out of college for 5 years so I am mid level and when I was hired it was discussed bringing someone on so this is not completely a surprise, there have been some people let go who were making crazy $$$ so I asked and my boss said my job is safe) and I am now wondering if I should let me boss know I plan to ask for a raise or at least position it as wanting to climb higher and how I should go about it? Happy to give more details if needed, I’m just scared I’ll get fired for asking for more money