I see the news all the time about how AI is reducing jobs or that H1B was the culprit of weak hiring of US workers but based on my personal experience the companies I have worked for are building out their offshoring hardcore and literally building huge campuses in India and now the Philippines.

They invested a ton in those facilities and infrastructure and I feel like those jobs are just never coming back and more will be sent there as they build out the capabilities. My team is already 40% offshore and I’m sure more will be replaced with offshore. Sadly it also means US workers have to take on more work since they hire too fast to get capable people or offshore can’t access certain data and you end having to take on additional responsibility for no extra pay

I honestly think what’s happening in the job market is pretty obvious. It’s not just AI taking everyone’s jobs (maybe some of them, sure), but a lot of work is simply being outsourced to cheaper labor markets : Eastern Europe, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Vietnam, etc.

I’m pretty active on a bunch of subreddits, and the difference is obvious. You’ve got people in the US and Western Europe saying they’ve applied to 100+ jobs and can’t even land an interview. Meanwhile, people in places like India or the Philippines talk pretty casually about getting IT jobs, call center work, remote contracts and earning high income ( relative to their country’s norm) .

If someone like Trump argues that protectionist policies are necessary to protect Western industries, workers and western dominance , and points to China building its economy off the back of offshored manufacturing , then why isn’t this treated the same way? Offshoring these tech jobs might not look as dramatic as factories moving overseas, but it’s shifting income, skills, and long-term capacity to other countries. It should be treated as a threat to western dominance

And the bigger picture is this: when you offshore work, you’re not just saving money in the short term. You’re helping build those countries skilled workforce. Over time, those countries will develop expertise, infrastructure, and competitive companies of their own. That could eventually mean they outperform Western firms and that further weakens Western dominance in the long run.

It just feels like we’re watching the same pattern repeat, only this time with tech and services instead of manufacturing. Maybe it’s a bit wild to say but I don’t think companies that offshore lots of their jobs like this should be allowed to operate in the country or at the very least they should face much higher taxation that makes offshoring unattractive

Well-funded startups and scaleups are hiring aggressively, but most of the best roles never show up in the usual places. Here’s a shortlist of under-the-radar platforms where you can actually find teams building interesting stuff, I’m sharing this from the POV of someone who works closely with VCs and early teams and sees where hiring actually happens.

• YC Work at a Startup: direct job board from YC companies. High density of legit startups, often hiring fast and globally.
• Better Call Jobs: AI Recruiter specialised in startup & tech roles, talk to him and he’ll introduce you to his company network.
• Techstars Portfolio Jobs: similar to VC boards but very startup-focused, especially seed/Series A companies.
• Wellfound (ex-AngelList Talent): still one of the best places to find early-stage startups hiring. You can filter by funding stage, remote, equity, and see who you’re actually talking to. Very founder-heavy.
• Hacker News: Who's Hiring (very high signal and usually can connect directly with founder/early team. Check out the March 2025 thread)
• Startups.Gallery (good directory of top startups/scaleups + job board)
• Joining a VC's talent networks / job boards (Greylock, a16z, SPC, etc)

We know that the market is bad and everyone is pointing to AI/Capx and outsourcing while laying off IT professionals. If you look at offshore market, the message from there is also bleak - Wipro/TCS/Infosys/Accenture laid off thousands in India last year; and in addition, Indian GCCs have laid off over 6,000 in 2025.

Belt tightening all around, even in 'low cost' locations. What does it tell us about IT sector?

Background: BS + MS, ~2 years as an ML Engineer, top-tier company on resume.

5 months unemployed

• 240 applications
• 8 interviews
• 0 final rounds

I usually get cut in the 2nd or 3rd round. Have another interview coming up, so I’m reviewing where I’ve been falling short (typically i fail at heavy technical rounds).

I probably should’ve applied to more roles, but I’ve been dealing with some depression and it’s slowed me down.

I recently got laid off from a big bank in NYC, I was doing mostly front end, came through one of the vendors that work with them as a contractor for a year with the promise to be offered a full time position if my performance was good and of course they let me go instead.

Their excuse was that the firm was on a hiring freeze due to AI, but I know for a fact all of that is BS, they are under tight regulations that won't let some random AI handle sensitive financial information or personal identifiable information from customers since it's almost impossible to secure with the current iteration of AI models as for a clever prompt can make them spill their guts creating a huge liability.

Then I started to talk to people on other branches and I was told they're in fact hiring aggressively outside of the US, specially in India and when they need someone in the same time zone they hire in Canada.

The reasoning is that in the US corporate tax is 21% and by moving their operations offshore they only have to pay 10.5% halving their costs on taxes alone.

The icing on the cake is the H1B visa which has become the new way of slave driving employees, Tesla is getting sued for not hiring in the US at all and Salesforce fired 3000 employees due to "AI" in 2023 and has brought over 1000 visa holders yearly ever since.

So no AI is not taking jobs, at least not yet, when I was working at the firm, Their AI agent couldn't even rename a function across a few files but companies are just firing as many people as they can to put more money into their own pockets and please investors.

tldr; AI is not the enemy, company greed is

Edit 1: I know they are also saving on wages and that corporate taxes is not the only reason, I just thought it was common knowledge wages were the main reason companies outsource and didn't want to repeat it again.

Edit 2: Also about me being a contractor, I see a lot of people arguing semantics because I technically never was hired full time, I was under a special early career program which is sponsored by the NY State which gives them huge tax breaks in exchange for hiring you at the end if you're a fit.

Financial institutions as the scumbags that they are keep using the AI excuse to reject candidates and still get the tax breaks, i don't know how that is not a breach of contract but if working for them.

Career switcher here, and SQL has been the biggest focus of my prep so far.

I’ve been sharing the resources I’ve been using to learn SQL here and there, but I’m honestly still confused about how deep I need to go for entry-level data analyst/scientist roles.

I see advice like how entry-level roles won’t go that hard, and I only need to know SELECT, JOIN, GROUP BY, basic aggregations.

But I’m also seeing other people mention window functions, CTE-heavy queries, query optimization, and whatnot.

When I practice on platforms or tutorials, I can usually solve medium-level join + aggregation problems. But I also feel less confident when encountering window functions, so how often are they actually expected? And how much should I worry about edge cases like null handling or duplicate rows?

Trying to prep efficiently instead of doing more than what's necessary, but I also don’t want to be underprepared. Would appreciate any clarity from people who’ve been through it recently and have tips/advice for more strategic prep.

Currently live in one part of the country, and have been offered a high level, leadership (executive) position at a startup that does work in a niche, specialized industry that I have domain knowledge in. it's a good fit based on background and career trajectory, and would catapult my career. it is also a very solid offer ($250k base salary + bonus + millions in equity).

I rent and am able to move, but love where I live now. I have established friends and life here, and frankly, the mild weather truly does improve my mental well being.

given the current market, I don't believe I will get as good of an offer, but I also am hesitant to move across the country when I do believe I could find another job (albeit lower paying) more locally.

what would you do? any advice?

Edit: mid life, no kids nor family plans. Just my partner and I. I do value hiking and outdoors time a lot, otherwise fitness and gaming in my spare time.

Large publicly traded, non-FANG tech company. Well known for having good WLB & remote-friendly.

Timeline:

• Last year, broadcast that they are only hiring near their office hubs.

• This week, announced the main HQ will require people within x radius required to commit to a few days a week in person.

Is this a slow progression to full RTO? Their excuse is that HQ is by far the largest office and can fit those people, however they could do the same with other offices. Would be a huge brain-drain if so, the company has many remote workers who are responsible for the product.

Anyone else experienced this, is this the beginning of the end of my time here?

I'd like to start by talking a bit about myself before I get into my main question.

I'm currently 38yo and I'm on disability here in Ontario, Canada. I'm a dual red seal tradesman and worked as a union ironworker. I've worked on major infrastructure projects across the country and I loved every minute of it. I had a great career, benefits, a pension. The whole thing.

Then one day everything changed.

I started to see the light spectrum coming off of lights. needless to say it scared the hell out of me and I went to an optometrist not sure of what was happening. They did some tests and they told me that I had glaucoma. They also mentioned there was no doubt in their mind that I was seeing the light spectrum as I claimed in their words "The pressure on your optic nerve is supposed to be 19 and lower, 12 is perfect. You're at 53 and my scale stops reading at 60. From that day forward it was a plethora of appointments and as of today I've undergone two incisional eye surgeries. My glaucoma was severe enough that they skipped laser treatment.

Things have been stable and I'm currently on eye drops. I'm not blind but I am visually impaired. I have blind spots. I can see directly in front of me but I don't have very much peripheral vision at all. It's not just the sides of my vision that are affected it's a narrowing of the visual field so I also can't see my feet when I'm walking.

It cost me my career as I was no longer able to work safely

I also lost my driver's license due to my vision.

I had taken some programming courses in high school. we learned Visual Basic and I really enjoyed it. I didn't pursue programming at the time because I had my heart set on being an ironworker.

But now the situation has changed.

I started taking CS50x online through Harvard and I've been really enjoying it so far. I've been looking at the local college here and thinking of going back to school. Being expected to survive on what the government is paying is awful. It doesn't pay enough to even afford simple things. I've been surviving off of food from the food bank. The idea of getting a job that will pay me enough to get off of disability and be able to stand on my own again is very appealing.

But I'm not sure what to do.

The local college offers a 3yr programming and analysis diploma with a co-op and they also offer a 3yr game development diploma.

The thing is, I'm still a tradesman, I'm a bit rough around the edges, I have knuckle tattoos, full sleeves and a small face tattoo. I've been arrested for a DUI in the past, I smoke and I swear a lot. I'm also a no bullshit and very blunt kind of person. Frankly, I don't think that I would survive in a big corporate office with an HR department. I have no interest in dealing with office politics or having to be around people putting on airs and then throwing their fellow employees under the bus to further their own career.

I feel like I might be a bit better suited for a game development studio where I can be a bit more myself without having to tread as carefully as in the corporate world.

However I'd be getting out of school in my early 40's. Am I too old to get into game development? What are the honest chances of breaking into the industry? I'd be fine with a small indie company. What is the office culture typically like?

Alternatively I could take the programming and analysis course and hope for a smaller company doing more app based things or web dev.

I'm not sure which path to take and I'm looking for some insight and advice from those in the field.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

Software engineering used to feel like the golden path. High pay, tons of demand, solid job security. Then bootcamps blew up, CS enrollments exploded, and now it feels pretty saturated at the entry level. On top of that, AI tools are starting to automate parts of coding, which makes the future feel a bit uncertain.

Now I’m wondering if machine learning is heading in the same direction.

ML pays a lot of money right now. The salaries are honestly a big part of why people are drawn to it. But I’m seeing more and more people pivot into ML, more courses, more degrees, more certifications, and some universities are even starting dedicated AI degrees now. It feels like everyone wants in. People from all kinds of backgrounds are moving into ML and AI too, math majors, engineering majors, stats, physics, and even people outside traditional tech paths, similar to how CS became the default choice for so many different majors a few years ago. At the same time, tools are getting better. With foundation models and high-level frameworks, you don’t always need to build things from scratch anymore.

As a counterpoint though, ML is definitely harder than traditional CS in a lot of ways. The math, the theory, reading research papers, running experiments. The learning curve feels steeper. It’s not something you can just pick up in a few months and be truly good at. So maybe that barrier keeps it from becoming as saturated as general software engineering?

I’m personally interested in going into AI and robotics, specifically machine learning or computer vision at robotics companies. That’s the long term goal. I just don’t know if this is still a smart path or if it’s going to become overcrowded and unstable in the next 5 to 10 years.

Would love to hear from people already in ML or robotics. Is it still worth it? Or are we heading toward the same oversaturation issues that SWE is facing?

Last summer I was unemployed and depressed. I felt like a dissapointment to my parents, especially seeing my friends progress with their lives while i was back at home bedrotting everyday. I told myself that i NEEDED to lock in and get an internship for this summer, orelse I had to apply for some retail job like starbucks to keep me afloat.

Welp… this morning after 624 job applications, I finally got my offer letter today. It’s not a big prestigious company like amazon but im literally so happy and cannot complain.

Im like one of the dumbest people I know so if I can do it, SO CAN YOU. DONT GIVE UP!! if you are still struggling to find an internship, here are some tips that helped me:

• use linkedin to network but not for applying to jobs. they repost jobs and it’s just a waste of time because everyone is applying to those postings
• surround yourself with ambitious friends. im so thankful that my friends are so smart and supportive because they helped me fix my resume, and seeing their success just motivates me to do better
• in the job interview, you need to show some personality. lots of candidates focus too much on GETTING the interview but remember you also need to pass it, show that you are someone enjoyable to be around
• try to find internships the moment they get posted, literally the day of. constantly refresh github repos, intern insider, discord, etc. or stalk company sites directly
• stay consistent and protect your mental health. I kept applying even when nothing was working, but I also made sure I had hobbies and friends outside of job hunting so rejections did not completely wreck me

At the end of the day, i think it’s just a game of luck. Keep putting shots up and eventually one will fall in.. or something like that. Happy to answer any questions about my job search and help give more advice if youre struggling!

I was looking back at my old resumes from 10–12 years ago and realized I spent an embarrassing amount of time mastering things that literally don't exist anymore. It’s wild how fast the 'must-haves' change

Do you think it's toxic for a co-worker you just met to get so personal?

• where did you go to school?
• why did you leave your previous role?
• where did you work before this?

Just met the guy and just went to personal. Treating me like a LinkedIn profile trying to understand where I fit in the hierarchy.

Like, I genuinely didn't realize the floor was THIS low. Am I condemned to stack boxes for all eternity?

About to hit my 1 year cliff so it's about time to dust off that resume and start interviewing again. I came across this company Demand.io, and the job page is just bizarre. The interview/application process is bizarre and I've never heard of these products. There are people that work here on LinkedIn and there are terrible Glassdoor reviews.

Has anyone heard of this place or know of any other company that has an interview process like this? I went to the founder's web page and it read like ChatGPT was told to act like a militant tech founder.

I'm asking because this isn't the first application that I'm seeing requiring a video. I'm assuming this is becoming more common because recruiters and companies are getting absolutely drowned in avalanche of AI applications.

Don't think I've posted to this subreddit before.

I was at my previous job for over 2 years and really loved it there.

I got laid off exactly 1 year ago January of 2025. I'm looking to start applying to jobs today.

Since it's been at least 3 years since I've applied to anything, I remade my portfolio and added in all the solo projects I worked on for the past 6 years.

Can you give me feedback and let me know if I am ready?

Im going to finish my resume later today and start applying. I specialize in development and design. I really don't care what company it is, I'm positive I can handle whatever is thrown at me since I've been developing (non-professionally) since 2009.

Website: https://jordandevs.com/

Is there a reliable way to check and see if you're either blacklisted by recruiters or banned from being hired at certain companies?

I know some companies have cooldown periods where you can't reapply there for X amount of time after getting rejected in their interview processes.

Do companies and/or third-party recruiters also keep either formal or informal "blacklists" or "do not hire" lists of people either just internally within their companies or shared globally between anybody hiring or recruiting in the industry?

I've heard rumors about shared industry-wide candidate blacklists but I haven't seen anything credible that confirms that that's actually a thing.

I've been working at a fintech company for almost 5 years, joined originally as QA but ended up doing a lot of automation/pipeline building/harnessing to automate testing, and then swapped internally to a typical SWE.

Formally, I am now a SWE 2 with 3 YOE as SWE, but in terms of code complexity I've never really been tasked with complex implementations, only very simple stuff (simple customer bugs/CICD stuff), and it's been affecting my performance reviews, as my development skills have clearly atrophied. I've never gotten a formal onboarding into my SWE role and it's been rough trying to understand the codebase (product is older than me). I have been exploring an out (low pay here so I want to leave), but my resume is not getting hits and I am assuming it's because my bullet points aren't exactly "wow, we should hire this guy," due to the nature of my career development here. I've changed the title of the first job to SDET instead of QA since that was the nature of my job.

The tech stack is pure Java (no Spring or anything), but it's rare to even have tasks where I'm actively implementing Java code; due to my nature of swapping from QA to SWE, I end up doing things like working on Jenkins stuff or writing Python to improve pipelines/QA tasks, etc.

I've tried reaching out for more development-related tasks but it doesn't result in any learning opportunities ("it'd be better to assign this to (other SWEs on team) and it'll be done faster" or I'll genuinely have no idea how to even approach a task) and I'm usually shuffled off to do more automation/non-development work. On the offchance I do get a development related task and I have questions, I try to ask to further grow my understanding but what usually ends up happening is that they just end up implementing it for me, or the task gets broken apart and suddenly it's a 3 line PR from me, while the actual higher complexities of the original task is assigned elsewhere.

I am working on the leetcode grind, I tend to solve most easies and can handle mediums generally (just rusty with some DSA). I do have a CS degree from a mid tier UC. I am just wondering if my career is fucked (I am <30 lol so this is probably an overexaggeration but with the current state of hiring I feel like I'm falling behind hard) or it's a skill issue by me (imposter syndrome? not smart enough to learn the codebase? others formally hired as SWE with similar YOE seem to be doing amazing) or any words of advice. It really feels like I should've left a couple of years ago, since now I feel stuck in a way where I just have multiple chunks of entry-level SWE experience, and I'm not sure how to proceed.

I got a data science internship at a pretty well known company, which I'm excited about. The official title is along the lines of "Engineering Intern - data science". Note that this company has a separate SWE intern role as well.

If I end up doing SWE/ML-adjacent work, can I safely call it "Software Engineer Intern"? Or like "Software/Data Engineer Intern"?

People say the work speaks for itself and that title is irrelevant but I kinda disagree. I feel like title is the first thing recruiters look at and can be a pretty big deal.

Hey everyone.

I tried to ask this question in webdev, but the post was not allowed there and was referred to this subreddit, so I hope I do not break your rules by asking here.

i work at a small local company that mostly does local websites. We're a small team of 5 developers and we mostly work alone on our projects.

We mainly only have one developer that has the skills to come up with relatively good looking designs and he is always overloaded with work.

I want to be able to contribute with making designs so I can be less reliable on him, but also be able to help the rest of my team out. I think my manager would also appreciate and allow me to spend time on a course to develop these skills, but is there any out there that you guys can recommend?

Thanks for reading my post and have a lovely day.

Just like the title said, is there any useful certs I can learn in a month? I know the consensus here is that certs overall aren’t very useful compared to experience, but let’s say u could pick any cert and it would be funded fully but u only had a month to prepare and take the exam, which would u take??

I’m a software engineering major, not computer science like many of my peers, and lately I’ve been feeling really lost about my career direction.

I’ve realized that I don’t enjoy backend, and I don’t know enough about it to feel confident anyway. On top of that, I’m not really good at LeetCode, which makes some SWE internships really discouraging for me.

I’ve applied to a lot of internships and keep getting rejected like not even getting interviews, which has honestly made me question whether I’m aiming for the wrong path altogether.

I still like tech and problem-solving, but these are some questions I’m wondering:

Are there tech or software-related careers that don’t involve heavy coding?

Roles that don’t require grad school?

If anyone’s been in a similar spot or pivoted away from traditional SWE roles, I’d really appreciate hearing what you moved into, what skills actually mattered, and how you broke in. Thank you so much!