r/cscareeradvice

I took hard classes this semester and I screwed up some of my classes (I do claim full responsibility but I believe that outside circumstances prevented me from doing as well as I could). My overall gpa is a 3.7, but I got a B- in DSA and a B+ in machine learning.

I wanted to eventually go into ML research at anth or oai (dream), and have the door open for quant or big tech. I am at a great overall school, but its not known for CS at all (lowk known for grade inflation as well [which is not the case for CS, but could potentially affect the overall reputation and perception of my grades and gpa i think]). What do you think are my chances for these three career paths based on my gpa and classes?

What would you advise me to do going forward?

30F working as a data engineer here and feeling a bit stuck career-wise.

My current job pays very well and the work is relatively comfortable, but most of what I do is analytics/data modeling work. I’m increasingly worried that a lot of this layer of work will become heavily automated over the next 5–10 years with AI tooling.

On top of that, I’m not fully confident in my current company’s long-term trajectory, which is making me think more seriously about skill development and future-proofing my career.

I recently got 2 offers and I’m struggling to decide what to optimize for.

Offer A:

• ~30% pay cut
• technically very strong team
• opportunity to work on large-scale distributed systems/data platform problems
• I’d probably be one of the more junior engineers on the team, which is both exciting and intimidating

Offer B:

• ~20% pay cut
• scope feels less clear
• possibly more operational/firefighting work
• but potentially a lot more autonomy and room to shape things

Option C is staying where I am now. The pay is great, WLB is good, and I worked very hard to get to this compensation level. But I’m worried I’m optimizing too much for short-term comfort and not building skills that will compound long-term.

Curious what others would prioritize here:

• compensation?
• technical growth?
• team quality?
• autonomy?
• long-term defensibility in the AI era?

Especially interested in hearing from people who’ve made similar tradeoffs mid-career.

Laid off last October, and have been applying to any and all kinds of dev jobs since. Most of my experience has been as a full-stack engineer. Only got a handful of recruiter calls back, but nothing past those as I got rejected.

LLM chats recommend a "Professional Summary" of about three-ish lines at the top, would you agree?

https://preview.redd.it/u4bm59xv2c2h1.png?width=612&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf8575d54bd480a45f05c7ca8d0e20ff524b09b5

Thinking about switching into an AI engineering role from backend. Talked to a few people already in it and everyone says they spend most of their time building and maintaining AI evals, not writing prompts or wiring up models. Is that the universal experience or just a few teams?

Tbh I completely lost motivation to learn new CS topics. Before AI I used to enjoy digging into complex things, systems design, low level stuff, algorithms, architecture… now it feels pointless sometimes.

AI can generate code in seconds, and honestly in many cases the code quality is already better than what average or even senior engineers write. Coding itself feels cheaper and cheaper every month.

Now I keep asking myself: what’s even worth learning anymore as a software engineer?

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!

Je suis en pleine recherche d’emploi en ce moment, et honnêtement je commence à me poser des questions.

J’ai refait mon CV plusieurs fois, optimisé LinkedIn, essayé de mieux cibler mes candidatures, etc.

Mais malgré ça, j’ai surtout l’impression de :

• envoyer des candidatures dans le vide
• ne jamais vraiment savoir pourquoi ça ne passe pas
• voir des profils similaires aux miens être recrutés ailleurs sans comprendre la différence

Le plus étrange, c’est que j’ai l’impression que tout le monde fait “les bonnes pratiques” maintenant :

• CV optimisé
• LinkedIn propre
• parfois portfolio
• parfois projets

Du coup je me demande : si tout le monde fait ça, qu’est-ce qui fait vraiment la différence aujourd’hui ?

Est-ce que c’est :

• le réseau ?
• la chance ?
• la visibilité en ligne ?
• autre chose que je ne vois pas ?

Et surtout, côté expérience réelle :

• combien de candidatures avez-vous envoyées avant d’avoir des réponses ?
• qu’est-ce qui a réellement marché pour vous ?
• qu’est-ce qui vous bloque le plus aujourd’hui ?
• si vous pouviez automatiser une partie du process, ce serait laquelle ?

Je pose ça ici parce que j’essaie juste de comprendre si je suis dans une mauvaise stratégie… ou si le système a juste changé et que je ne l’ai pas encore compris.

So am working at Walt Disney as VFX Artist and i know it might be irrelevant but our industry is very over saturated right now with lots of people for same job and near low to career growth. So am currently pursuing cs and thought i could switch to IT. Been doing python thinking doing specialised masters in AI/ML. But read some posts regarding ML jobs and it reads same as vfx. People saying its over saturated for newbies and junuor positions near to no. I dont want to give another more years of my life for something i would regret doing i know every job market right now is down but it is going to be better right?

What is it the software engineers are doing that makes them so valuable. I have done programming but when I see diagrams of pipelines for tools I'm so confused by how convoluted they are , going to AWS, 12 Different servers, optimisting preloading. What is all this from, how can I understand it to also be able to create industry level platforms? I'm so used to local applications that I never understood why cloud apps needed hundreds of people to work on them

Hi I’m a sde in service based company closing on 3 YOE. I’ve been stuck in loop of fear and procrastination since last two years. I didn’t take placement seriously and landed with job that I got with hasty preparation. But the the real issue in I feel I’m not a real developer. When I start preparing I panic knowing how much I need to do and give up. But I don’t want to be trapped here under fear and anxiety. So I’m looking for long term suggestions on switch prep and getting good in software development

Hi everyone,

I am currently learning:
- JavaScript
- React
- Next.js
- Node.js
- Express.js
- MongoDB

I need advice on:
- Getting internships
- Building strong projects
- Resume improvement
- Interview preparation
- DSA vs project focus
- Becoming job-ready

Any advice from experienced developers would help.

Thank you.

I seriously don’t understand this market anymore.

Good resume.
Real projects.
Backend experience.
LeetCode.
Certifications.
Applications everywhere.

Still rejection after rejection.

At this point I want to know:
How are people actually getting high-paying software engineering jobs right now?

Is it referrals?
Networking?
Open source?
Cold DMs?
Luck?

People who recently got hired:
What ACTUALLY worked for you?

Because the “just keep applying” advice clearly isn’t enough anymore.

Ten months ago I was laid off before I could retire — after 34 years at the same firm. I'm in IT. I've never built a startup. I've never done marketing. I didn't know what to do next.

So I did the only thing I know how to do: I started building.

I taught myself AI development and created a career guidance tool — not to sell anything, but because I genuinely believe the job search process is broken for a lot of people, especially those re-entering the workforce without a support system.

Last month, someone who had been unemployed for nearly a year after graduating — stuck, frustrated, losing confidence — tried an early beta version. He got a job.

That one result reminded me why I started.

Here's what building this taught me about job searching:

The skills gap is real, but specific. Most job seekers don't lack ability — they lack visibility into which skill to close next. "Learn Python!" isn't advice.

Confidence collapses faster than skills do. Long unemployment does psychological damage that job boards never address. Small, visible wins matter more than comprehensive solutions.

AI tools can genuinely help — but only if you know how to use them. Most people don't, however, I believe in networking, which still beats applications. Every time. The ratio is brutal but consistent.

If you're navigating a layoff after decades at one company like me, a long job search, or a career change into tech — I'm happy to answer questions. That's exactly who I built this for.

(Built a free career guidance tool to do skill gaps analysis — curious what it's called? DM me. Not posting links per the rules here.)