u/EitherAd5892

I just feel behind in my career compared to my peers. I’m in mid 20s and making less than my first job out of college. I was laid off from my first job due to performance and threw a wrench in my self confidence in my capability in continuing as swe. after being unemployed for 8 months I found a job due to a connection working for a startup. the pay is low and making less than what I use to make at first job but I’ve been at this role for almost 1.5 years now. I look at my peers and they are advancing through their careers with promotions and high salary raises meanwhile I feel like I’ve set back due the layoff but I’m slowly working myself up. I’ve learned a lot and done more impactful work at current startup which helped me regain my self confidence as a swe. although when I check on LinkedIn and seeing my peers I use to go to school with getting promotions and advancing through their careers I feel behind due to being stuck working at a small shop with low pay. I hope others reading this also find some resemblance you are not alone feeling this way.

I work at a small non tech company as a solo engineer. it’s been a great learning experience owning entire software process and development. the problem I deal with is the lack of scalability and code review process that bigger orgs typically do. how do I implement this at a smaller shop with fewer than 100k users?

for those who work in swe how are you seeing this role changing this year and what are the expectations employers have now given the rise of ai tools? I remember being a good coder was a high commodity but now I see the value of being a swe has changed from using AI and being 10x more productive in being employable. I just want to know what skills are employers expecting now to stay relevant and competent as a swe ?

my last job I was let go as a new grad left me unemployed for 8 months. It took me a long time to find another job because I wasn’t prepping effectively for passing interviews despite getting couple interviews. This left a trauma in me staying stuck at one job with the lack of self confidence in securing another role. I eventually found a job but the pay is abysmal compared what i use to make but i got lucky since I knew the founder so I got hired without needing to do technical interview prep. The pay is severely underpaid but I know i want a better job but the fear I have with the failing job interviews kind of left a scar in lacking the self confidence in knowing I can secure another role. I’ve been getting back on grinding lc and being consistent but that fear just never leaves me. I often compare myself with other folks being able to secure a role after a layoff no problem in adjacent field than me with little to no interview prep like we have it. I wonder if anybody who went through a layoff felt this way?

I work for a small non tech company where I’m solo engineer and I built a lot of of their software and get a lot of project ownership in doing AI projects. I am very underpaid for my role but the experience I am getting now is invaluable and thinking of seeing where I can get better offers. The projects I worked on is confidential so I can’t showcase it on GitHub. I’m targeting product engineer roles so how do I showcase my work other than a resume that I did at my company to hiring managers?

I work for a non tech startup as a solo engineer at the entire company owning the entire software infrastructure. the non technical boss asks me to do an “emergency training” with this contractor to train him on what to do via a production outage. I want to be co operative and not refuse to do it and i asked the boss if it was meant as a replacement to train this other person and he said it’s not a replacement but rather a business backup in case I’m not available for production incidents. the non technical boss isn’t an engineer so he doesn’t know what procedures needing to be trained but the contractor is requesting I train him and set up the codebase locally and show him how. now I’m a bit concerned and have a strong feeling this might be disguised as a knowledge transfer without compensating me. Has anyone encountered a situation like this and how do you go about navigating this professionally but also protecting your IP?

Outside of traditional swe roles, for those that transitioned from swe to forward deployed/solutions engineer type roles how do you prepare for these type of interviews?

I have been getting consistent recruiter outreach for swe roles on LinkedIn and i get recruiter 1 on 1 calls. I’m still employed and trying to get a new job. when I talk to recruiters they tell me my background is interesting and will forward my resume to hiring manager but I never hear back from them. I’m not sure if I’m failing the recruiter calls or just the hiring manager round. a lot of these calls are just tell me about yourself and learning more of my background but for some reason I think I do well but not making past the recruiter calls to have an interview. What is the issue here?

I work at a small non tech startup where Im a solo engineer. I want to leave desperately because the work relationship i have with boss is very toxic in how I am treated as a technical folk. I am underpaid than everyone else and made to come in person 4x a week and all my colleagues work remote. So the dynamic is its only me and the boss in the office and I’m being made to come to office because it appears he does not trust me to work from home and constantly monitors and pressures me with deadlines and I put insane hours to meet them and Just for the deadlines to be delayed Or “boss changes his mind and scope creeps”. I’ve been doing big ticket projects that has been bringing revenue to the company so it’s frustrating to be treated with lack of respect and appreciation. It’s incredibly frustrating and times when I pushback I get my opinions shut down. I got this job out of desperation due to a long 8 month layoff and I just wanted to get anything to get my foot back in the door. I’ve been here for 6 months and it has gotten worse for my mental health. I’ve never delt with anything like this and don’t know how to professionally approach a conversation to bring this up. I like the work I do and I can’t afford to just quit And I rather have a conversation to have this be a more healthy work dynamic as I job search rather than quit with nothing on the table. Has anyone delt with this kind of work dynamic and how do you deal with it?

I’m the only engineer at the non tech company building entire products that drives revenue and customer acquisition. I like the work I do but working at non tech is quite frustrating dealing with non technical folks. I want to target more startups with high pay with equity. i want to avoid heavy leetcode type interviews and what are startups interviews typically like who are early stage

Hi All! I am new to backpacking and I'm trying to learn and find people to do it with. For experienced backpackers on here, how did you get started to learn backpacking and are there communities you use to find people to go with?

I am new to backpacking but interested in getting started. For those that are experienced backpackers, how did you first get started? Is there any advice on where to find communities to learn backpacking and for people to go with?

I was hired as a technical coordinator for a small company and my job responsibilities don’t even match what I currently do. I’ve been doing full stack development 100% as a solo engineer building their entire tech product myself and I asked the founder to give me a title change to full stack developer but he refuses. I’m also being heavily underpaid. I only have 2 yoe and whenever I apply to jobs I’m concerned putting a title that doesn’t match my official job title might ding me. it’s also difficult to talk to recruiters for them taking me seriously when I apply for full stack roles they see technical coordinator they think it’s a joke. I feel very sabotaged by the boss in refusing to give me an accurate job title. has anyone encountered this before and what do you do

i had a buddy who quit his job that was a non swe technical role and landed a job in 5 months. he didn’t even have to grind leetcode and it’s a sales engineer/gtm type role and getting paid more than a swe salary. I’m thinking to myself why grind leetcode when you get the same salary with way less effort for non swe roles

I work at a startup. I have never encountered this before but the ceo is non tech and I’m a solo engineer. I was promised a small raise and a bonus if I complete the project solo without getting help. if the ceo has to hire another contractor to help me out my bonus would get cut by 66%. It’s a massive project and I’ve shipped the project that is now generating revenue. My bonus was shorted and I had put overtime to meet insane deadlines. ive put in so much effort and I feel like I am being punished for getting help. I fucking hate working for a non tech person. I have no other job lined up and I had no choice because this is my job I could get right after being laid off for a year. I feel angry. I had put overtime while the boss goes and travel and I get shorted. Has anyone delt with this before and how did you handle it