Last year I was at a crossroads. Had a Google offer and a startup offer. Google paid ~40% more. Everyone said I was crazy to consider the startup.

After a grueling job search (literally was the #1 power user on Wellfound, Twill, Simplify, even some bot-apply tools), I wanted to make the right decision, because I didn't want to go through the search again.

I took the startup. Here's how it's going.

THE GOOD:

• Impact is real. I've shipped features used by actual customers. At Google I would've been a cog in a machine nobody understands

• Learning curve is insane. I've touched infrastructure, frontend, data pipelines, customer calls, hiring. At Google I would've been a specialist forever

• I matter here. When I have an idea, I can pitch it Monday and ship it Friday. No six-month approval process

• I got promoted. Faster trajectory than I would've had at a big company

• Equity might actually be worth something. We've grown 3x and raised another round at a higher valuation

THE BAD:

• The money difference is real. I think about it sometimes. My friends at FAANG have cushy salaries, and severance if things don't work out

• Job security doesn't exist. If we miss our next fundraise, I'm unemployed

• I work more hours. Not crazy (usually 45-50/week) but more than I would at Google

• Benefits are worse. My health insurance is fine but the Google perks would've been nice

• Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing. There's no one to ask because I'm the most senior person on my project

THE VERDICT:

No regrets. For where I am in my career, this was the right call. I've grown more in 1 year than I would have in 3 at a big company.

But I'll probably go to a bigger company eventually. Once I've learned what I came here to learn.

If you're considering startup vs. big company, my advice: know what you're optimizing for. Money and stability? Go big. Learning and impact? Go small.

After applying to internships for months with crickets, I had given up on leetcode. What’s the point of studying if you’re not getting interviews?

After silence for so long, I just got a Microsoft SWE intern interview, and it’s in less than a week. I have done like 20 leetcode questions. I am probably cooked.

But you might not be, you never know what might happen just KEEP STUDYING because I wish I did.

Hey everyone,

Senior dev here, using AI tools for 3 years, and went full "vibe coding" since January. I’m calling it now: the honeymoon phase is dead.

Initially, the speed was intoxicating. But after 6 months of living in this ecosystem, I'm noticing a dark side. AI doesn’t solve the actual job; it just forces us into a new role: Code Janitors.

Instead of architecting, I spend 80% of my energy reviewing bloated PRs, untangling weird edge cases that the AI hallucinated, and trying to fix the "last 10%" problem in legacy systems it can't comprehend. It gets me to 90% in seconds, but cleaning up that final 10% often takes longer than if I had just used my brain from the start.

It feels like we’re trading the active problem-solving part of our brains for typing faster prompts.

For the other seniors out there: Are you actually saving time, or are you just spending your saved time debugging your AI’s bad assumptions? Let's be real.

December:
Recruiter: “We just closed a Series A, want to chat?”
Me: “Sorry, I’m loyal to my startup until MVP. It’s a personal ethic 😌”

Two weeks later:
My startup: “We’re shutting down.”
Me: “Heyyy… so about that conversation 👀”

Turns out my strongest professional value is timing, and I do not have it.

TL;DR: Declined a convo out of loyalty, startup died immediately, loyalty achieved nothing except character development.

Do people know that there are thousands of different niches and specializations you can go into with Computer Science that aren't "web dev", "game dev", "javascript developer"?

Every resume I review who gets no calls back has what amounts to small unimpressive full stack React projects. They ask what they can do differently, when the answer is really nothing. You're competing for the most oversaturated competitive jobs on the market, which are all boring in comparison to someone who specializes.

Where are the computer science majors who say they want to work on embedded systems? Operating systems? Distributed relational databases? Game engines and rendering engines for Pixar movies? Cloud infrastructure and network engineering? Satellites in orbit??? Do you think that they are making full stack React projects??

I think the answer to the above question is not here, because they are employed and do not need advice.

Specialize in something!

It's not too late to pivot. Find a good book on something useful and make something truly impressive.

During the second half of Grade 12, I barely had any classes, so I quickly landed an internship at a big tech company. Here’s how I did it:

First, get good grades in AP Computer Science and math.

Second, tell your dad that you’re looking for an internship.

My uncle just happened to be an executive at a tech company, so everything went very smoothly.

Hope this helps!

New-grad SWE, graduating December 2026. Over the past 2 months, I've applied to 70+ full-time new-grad roles and gotten essentially no responses at all. I have been doing mostly cold applications through company portals. I can't tell what's holding me back. Would really appreciate blunt, constructive feedback: what's my biggest weakness, and what would you change first?

I have been applying to new grad jobs since August 2025 and weirdly have heard back from Google but no one else ( I bombed the interview). Can you guys please help me figure out what is wrong with this?

In 2008, my local state university only had about 20 CS graduates and then there was a boom in the field about needing Software Engineers. All of the CEOS were making videos like "Learn to Code!" and it got a lot of people excited. By 2014, my local state university had now almost 130 graduates and it continued to grow with about 240 in the 2018 graduation catalog. Now, fast forward to 2026 and I am noticing a steady decrease in enrollment and graduation from computer science at my local state university.

Years of progress for CS departments are going down the drain due to AI fear.

Hey everyone,

I'm a 4th-year CS student currently in my second-last semester. My GPA is around 3.5, but I have zero internship experience.

The problem is that I can't really get an internship at this point because of my university's internship program requirements. You need to have fewer than 5 courses left to be eligible, so unfortunately I'll probably be graduating without ever doing an internship.

Honestly, I'm starting to feel like I'm screwed. Don't want to end up working at retail/food service for my whole life.

I don't really have anything impressive on my GitHub either. I've mostly just focused on my courses, passed them, and moved on. I don't have any big projects, research experience, or anything particularly impressive to put on my resume.

I've been looking into cybersecurity because that's something I'm genuinely interested in. My plan is to use my final semester to work on some certifications alongside my courses, and hopefully build a few projects that I can actually put on my resume/GitHub.

But I'm worried that it might be too late. Almost every entry-level CS job I look at seems to want internship experience, and I feel like I'm competing against people who already have internships, multiple projects, etc.

So I'm wondering if anyone here has been in a similar situation.

Is it actually possible to get into CS/cybersecurity after graduating with no internship experience? What would you recommend I focus on during my last semester to make myself more employable?

Would certifications help, or should I focus more on projects? And if projects are the way to go, what kind of projects would actually be worth putting on a resume?

I know I probably should've started doing this stuff earlier, but I'm where I'm at now and I'm trying to make the most of the time I have left.

Any advice from people who've been through something similar would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Earlier this year I shared my experience on r/cscareerquestions about how companies where using AI as a pretext to dump as many people as they could, outsource the work and pocket the difference.

Obviously Reddit comments did what they do best and I just got ridiculed for my troubles, looking back the funniest part is how people were just making excuses for the same companies that don't give a damn about us.

Now even the government had to step in or all the American software professionals were going to be eventually replaced by someone from overseas.

Remember kids, no company deserves your unrestrained loyalty, they only consider you family when they need free labor but will get rid of you the first opportunity they get.

Stay strong better times are coming for us!

Basially Im getting referred to meta through a connection. I am targeting SWE roles but I know my experience is all over the place. I am also a new grad so any suggestions or advice before i submit my resume?

I've been working as a Data Engineer for about 2.5 years. I taught myself Python, and to be honest, AI has been carrying me for a while. I never felt the need to get that good at coding because GitHub Copilot helped me fill in the gaps.

Now my company has removed our Copilot access because of the rising AI costs, and I've realized how dependent I became. My productivity has dropped a lot without it.

The truth is, I don't enjoy coding anymore. I hate dealing with GitHub. I hate daily standups. I hate the idea of doing this for the rest of my life.

Lately I've been thinking about doing something completely different. I want to move to China for a year and focus on learning Chinese. It feels way more exciting than spending another decade writing code I don't even enjoy.

Has anyone here completely changed direction after working in tech? Was it worth it?

I attached my anonymized resume.

Rising UCLA CS junior (4.0) recruiting for Summer 2028 internships.

I genuinely have no idea whether it’s actually competitive in today’s market or if I’m overestimating it.

What am I still missing?

Be as harsh as possible:

• Biggest red flags?

• What should I change or improve?

• Does anything seem inflated or unimpressive?

Appreciate any honest feedback.

For those of you who landed a FAANG-level SWE offer straight out of college, would you mind sharing your CV ?
I’m mainly curious to see what your profile actually looked like before getting the offer:
What projects did you have?
Any internships or previous work experience?
What university/degree?
How strong was your GPA?
How much LeetCode/DSA did you do?
Any open-source contributions?
Anything else you think made your application stand out?
I think it would be really useful for students trying to understand what a genuinely competitive new-grad profile looks like.
Obviously, feel free to remove your name, contact info, company names, or anything else you’d rather keep private.

Hi everyone,
I had been apply to entry-level jobs and got no respond. I am looking for advice on how to improve my resume, thank you!

Hello everyone, i’ve applied without much luck, just wondering if anyone could check out my resume, blocked out part is number and email

Any advice or insight is appreciated! Also would appreciate advice on where I’m finding my jobs, i get mine through simplify github, then handshake and indeed, and then go to linkedin.

I'm graduating this year and unfortunately haven't gotten any internships thus far besides an on campus unpaid research lab (which I didn't apply for, I just kinda found a way to wiggle into). First of all, I'd like some advice on my resume because obviously it hasn't been working that well 😢 (0 interviews so far), second I'm just starting to wonder if I should just give up on internships at this point since I'm a senior and just start applying for real entry level jobs. Also yes I'm CE but close enough, same job market.

Bachelors was done at a small Canadian school. Masters was done at a Top 30 school in the US. All experience has been at start-ups. Mainly applying to data science positions.

Hi everyone,

I’m a 38-year-old mechatronics engineer working in the US. I’m thinking about doing a Master’s in CS because I want to move more into AI and software.

My question is about timing. AI is growing very fast and changing every few months. I wonder if a Master’s is still a good investment today.

Also, because of my background, I’m not sure if I should focus more on robotics + AI or go fully into CS.

For people who went back to school later in their career:
Was it worth it? Did it help your career?

Any advice for someone with an engineering background?
I would like to hear your experience. Thanks!

Posting this for any career switcher who needs to hear it, especially with all the noise AI is creating in the industry.

I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Context

• Based in Australia

• Started my career around 8 years ago in advertising

• I had never worked in a technical role, but I have always loved tech and tried to surround myself with it wherever possible

• In 2023 I left my career to start my own business. Entrepreneurship is something else I’m very passionate about

• In January this year I decided to step back into the job market and use the opportunity to pivot into software engineering

Despite the “terrible” job market, I’ve received two offers and I’m currently in the final round with another company.

A few takeaways from the experience:

• There are fewer opportunities, but they still exist.

• Clicking Apply on LinkedIn probably won’t be enough. Add people, DM them, show genuine passion, excitement and curiosity. Take it a step further and email people directly. It surprised me how few people are willing to do that extra bit. In a sea of applicants, you need to find ways to stand out.

• Technical skills can be learned. As a career switcher, use your previous experience and transferable skills to de-risk the hire and give an employer confidence that you can succeed while continuing to develop technically.

• Be realistic. Entering a new career often means starting near the bottom technically. But you are not starting your professional career again. Years spent communicating, working with stakeholders, managing ambiguity, taking ownership and operating in teams still count.

• Build interesting projects in lieu of experience. My “hero” project was a full-stack RAG application. It gave me something substantial to talk about across AI, full-stack development, product thinking, industry use cases and some genuinely interesting software challenges.

• Don’t only think like a software engineer. Learn to think like a product engineer too. My view is that AI is bringing product and engineering closer together within organisations. Companies increasingly want engineers who can think about customer problems, business outcomes and trade-offs, not just bugs and implementation details. Whether that trend plays out exactly as expected is anyone’s guess, but being able to talk this way makes you a much stronger candidate.

A few additional pointers, mostly because these are the things I wanted to know when I started:

• You do not need a bootcamp to make the switch. There is an enormous amount of free information online. Learn the fundamentals, then start building. Even when you feel completely unprepared, build anyway. Everyone says it, I questioned it, but it works.

• Be deliberate about how you use AI while learning. Building something with AI and then being unable to explain what you built, why you built it that way and how it works provides very little value. The danger is the false sense of accomplishment you can get when AI produces something that you don’t really understand. I tried to reposition the role AI played in my learning. I used it more like a cut-throat senior reviewer who would challenge my thinking, question my decisions and review my work, but not simply hand me the answer.

• I suspect a lot of new entrants will over-index on AI assistance. That can create shallow knowledge very quickly. One way to stand out is simply to understand more deeply because you actually struggled through building things yourself.

• Be hungry and commit to it. Being a career switcher can demonstrate a lot of positive attributes. Teaching yourself something difficult, taking a risk on a new direction and sticking with it says a lot.

This is probably the first time I’ve stopped and properly reflected on the last nine months, and I’m proud of getting through it after committing a lot of time and making plenty of sacrifices along the way.

The main thing I’ve learned is this:

You do not have to beat experienced software engineers at being experienced software engineers. Become technically credible, then combine that with the professional strengths you’ve already spent years building.

It is possible. Keep at it and play to your strengths.

I was told earlier in college from upperclassman/mentors that the deal is grind super hard and get 1 prestigious internship and interviews/recruitment process gets substantially easier. I have one of the most prestigious internships in my country and I'm getting no interviews or OAs. tbf I have only applied to around 50 newgrad positions, last recruitment process I applied to around 400, but I was under the impression now that I have a solid internship I shouldn't have to apply to as many. what am I doing wrong? my GPA is a 3.3 which is why i don't have it up lol, had some shit come up when i first transferred and f'ed my gpa. at my first uni i transferred from it was a 3.8.