GET GOOD OR GET OUT
I spent an evening going through the top posts on Reddit’s r/CSCareerQuestions this month. The whining is off the charts. Here’s what I found and why most of these posters are setting themselves up to fail.
“Whatever Happened to Learning on the Job?”
The post that kicked things off: someone complaining that entry-level jobs now require experience in CI/CD, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, and a dozen other tools. Their argument? These are “just tools” that can be learned in “a few days to weeks.”
Then learn them in a few days to weeks.
You just told on yourself. If it’s that easy, do it before the interview. The era of knowing Java and solving FizzBuzz to get hired is over. AI is reshaping how we work. Engineers are now responsible for their infrastructure, not just their code. We already saw this happen with testing. When’s the last time you worked with a dedicated QA team? SDETs are a dying breed.
if keeping up with the pace of this field feels like too much, maybe do something else. No shame in that. But you can’t expect top 1% salaries without putting in top 1% effort. The 70k-80k “show up and coast” jobs are disappearing. If you came to play hardball, there’s still a ton of money to be made. If you came for a handout, keep walking.
“I Stopped Using LLMs and I’m So Much Happier”
Someone proudly announcing they uninstalled Cursor and GitHub Copilot, and now they’re “solving problems with my brain” and feeling “happier at work.”
This person is on the chopping block.
Let’s break down why this mindset is career suicide. First, the thesis is flawed: “I felt so much happier at work.” Since when is work supposed to make you happy? Some days it does. Most days you should aim for contentment, satisfaction, meaning. Happiness is a sugar rush. Contentment is protein. You build muscles with protein.
Second, refusing to use AI tools in 2024 is like refusing to use JetBrains when IDEs became standard. You’re going to get passed over for people who leverage these tools to move faster. That’s how engineering works: we automate the hard shit, then we move on to harder problems.
“I Joined Microsoft as a New Grad and I’m Miserable”
This one I actually have empathy for. New grad in Prague, six months in, exceeding expectations on reviews, but breaking down crying once a week. The work is boring infrastructure stuff. The office is full of remote workers from unrelated teams. Nobody talks.
The real issue isn’t Microsoft. It’s the mismatch between what this person wants (building, creating, shipping fast) and what big corp offers (stability, benefits, predictable hours).
Want stability, good benefits, predictable work-life balance? Stay at Microsoft. The work will be boring. Accept it. Get your meaning outside of work: join a sports league, get more involved in your church, start dating, pick up a hobby that’s social.
Want to build and move fast? Get to a startup under 200-300 people. You’ll have a blast. You’ll have no personal time. The stress will be different but you’ll bond with your team and actually see the impact of your work.
Around 300-500 employees is the awkward phase where you get tension between “move fast” people and “we need processes” people. Choose your adventure accordingly.
But stop indexing on “happiness.” You’re an adult. Contentment, satisfaction, meaning, competition, legacy: these are things that compound over time. Happiness is fleeting.
“Qualcomm India Surpassed USA in Employee Count”
No shit. This is happening at every mega company. I was at a large bank about a year ago and was told (not asked) that I’d be relocating my team to India.
Here’s the reality though: product decisions and business decisions will continue to be made in the US. A 12.5-hour time difference creates extreme degradation in communication quality and product velocity. If these offshore engineers were truly the best, they’d already be in the Bay.
Qualcomm fucked around. They’re about to find out.
“The Interview Process is Too Hard Now”
Someone graduated four years ago when companies were “throwing offers at people” for solving a single LeetCode medium. Now they’re shocked that every company, even the “horrible pay” ones, expects FAANG-level grinding.
Welcome to post-ZIRP reality.
2021 was the anomaly. Zero interest rates, COVID over-hiring, every company with a pulse scaling like crazy. If you had a pulse, you could get a job at Meta. That was not normal. The correction was inevitable.
The answer hasn’t changed, get good. Practice your LeetCode. Get better at what you do.
The One Person Who Gets It
In a sea of complainers, one post stood out. Someone with a BS, MS, and two years of ML engineering experience is unemployed with 1.5 months of savings left. Their plan? Get a janitor job at a local school for the evening shift. Mornings for job applications and coding practice. Afternoons for ML projects.
This person will succeed.
No chip on their shoulder about work being “beneath them.” No dramatizing. Just a clear-eyed assessment: the market is tough, I need to make ends meet, and I’ll keep grinding until I’m back in the game.
That’s the mindset that wins in any field. The whiners on r/cscareerquestions will still be complaining in a year. This person will have a job.
If you’re an ML engineer willing to pivot to web, hit me up. I know people hiring.
The Bottom Line
Stop spending time on Reddit. It’s where unhappy people who’ve often never worked in tech professionally go to commiserate. Not who you want advice from if you’re trying to build a career.
The market is harder now. The bar is higher. AI tools are mandatory tools in your toolbox. LeetCode grinding is table stakes. That is the fucking game. Play it or don’t, but quit complaining about the rules.
Nobody is stopping you from coding in your free time however you want, with or without whatever tools you want, and whenever you want.
There’s still a spot for everyone who really wants to be in software engineering. It remains the most meritocratic field I’ve ever worked in. But it was never a foregone conclusion, and the COVID hiring boom was the exception, not the rule.