Why software engineering is no longer a dream job

0:00 Remember when working as a software engineer felt like striking gold? Free meals, extravagant offsites, crazy stock grants, a $2,000 vacation stipen. This is just a small portion of the perks offered by some of the biggest tech companies. In a few short years, a software engineer went from being the rock stars of the job market to being seen as next on the chopping block about to be replaced by artificial intelligence or cheaper overseas labor. Despite record profits, the layoffs continue to this day. Block based in Oakland laying off 240 remote California employees. Meta will begin layoffs this week. 5% of its global workforce. The tech giant has announced it will cut nearly 3% of its workforce. How did this happen? And where do we go from

0:45 here? Whether it was the lavish perks or the useful optimism, tech companies just felt different from other soulless mega corporations. After the 2008 financial crisis basically turned bankers and finance guys into villains, tech was took the place of where you could actually earn a great salary while making a positive impact. Like many of you, I also watched the movie The Social Network and was inspired by the idea that a couple of dropouts who could code created a billion dollar startup without anyone's permission. A billion dollar valuation. Back then, it seemed like there was a never-ending demand for engineers, and everyone and their grandma was told to just learn to code. Don't just play on your phone, program it. The education system decided to sell

1:31 shovels during this gold rush. And from 20 2015 to 2022, CompsAI graduates doubled. Coding boot camps started popping up in every major city. And the number of coding boot camp grads went from 18K in 2016 to 60K in 2023. For a really long time, we as software engineers enjoyed the power that we had in the job market. An ex meta employee captures what some of us started to feel at that time. You felt untouchable. And maybe it's because of this pampering and talk of being a family that I started to subconsciously believe that I was more than just an employee. I thought that the fun, laid-back environment and wellness benefits meant that they cared about us as people and not just hit counts on a spreadsheet. I really

2:18 internalized the company's grandiose mission statements and the idea that I was part of something that would change the world. I wasn't just building a messaging app. I was changing the way the world communicates. When you see your other youthful co-workers as friends and you guys are part of this team working towards this amazing mission, you don't question working longer hours for lower pay. And as I'll learn later, this becomes a recipe for exploitation. The 2021 post-pandemic period marked the start of the latest tech jobs bubble, and it wasn't like anything I've ever seen before. What I've noticed is that tech companies are some of the strongest examples of herd mentality. When Google does something like hire a ton of people, other tech

3:03 companies tend to follow suit, driving the demand further. It's like this reinforcing cycle where behavior is contagious. Like tech tech executives will make decisions based on nothing more than the fact that Google's doing it and you know Google must know what they're doing so we should do it too. And the hiring frenzy became so intense that Meta hired a bunch of people to do absolutely nothing because they wanted to hoard the talent for themselves. It's like when there's a ton of hype surrounding a certain product that you don't even necessarily want, but you buy anyways because you see everyone else doing it. There wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason for these decisions and it was only a matter of time before employees would have to pay for mistakes that they didn't make. I was teaching at a coding boot camp during this time and I

3:49 personally witnessed nearly every student in the co cohort land a job right before or right after graduating from a 12-week boot camp. Everyone was saying learn to code because at that time it was genuinely good advice. People were literally doubling their salaries after a 3-month boot camp. And you don't get that kind of ROI anywhere else. myself and everyone I knew in my network were getting recruiter calls and emails on a daily basis and everyone was leaving their current role for a massive salary bump. But little did we know that this bubble was about to burst. 2023 was the worst year for Silicon Valley since the dotcom crash with over 260,000 jobs disappearing seemingly overnight. As pandemic era restrictions

4:36 started to lift and people rushed to go outside again, tech execs suddenly realized that they had massively overhired. Pelaton's stock dropped faster than most people ditched their New Year's resolutions. Amazon hired at really elevated levels during the pandemic era, and they're still learning that they're having to unwind that level of hiring because the economy they find themselves in now has changed. Because of the high interest rates, companies and investors were no longer interested in putting money into moonshot ideas. They wanted a return on investment and they wanted it fast. In the division I worked for, we stopped working on experimental projects that cost money in the short term but had the potential to grow into something big in the future. We went back to maintaining the legacy systems, which was boring, but at least

5:23 it was a safe revenue generator. And because the cost of borrowing was so high, investors wanted a short-term, surefire return on their investment. And what's one of the fastest ways to do that? Mass layoffs. They started in 2023, and as we all know, they're still happening today. Each layoff made it easier for the next company to do layoffs because, hey, everyone else was doing it. And like I mentioned before, there is that herd mentality that comes into play. And while it sucks for the affected employees, Wall Street continues to reward them for doing this. In 2023, Meta stock price shot up 194%, making them the fifth largest tech company at the same time that they laid off 21,000

6:09 people. It's 2025 and the vibe has completely shifted. Gone are the days of extravagant off-site retreats, free laundry, and flexible work from home arrangements. They're instead replaced by the threat of ongoing layoffs, return to work mandates, and mounting responsibilities. Among the tech giants, Apple, Meta, Tik Tok, and Google have mandated a 3-day return to work policy. And Amazon has even required their employees to return to the office full-time. Netflix and Google are even cutting back on free company swag, which kind of surprised me because I didn't even realize people wanted those things. But I guess if you're in Silicon Valley, you have got to fit in somehow. Meta also cut 5% of its staff earlier this

6:55 year and publicly called it a performance-based layoff in a move that displayed a shocking lack of empathy. Not to mention, a lot of the people that they let go apparently received glowing performance reviews. Meta not only took away people's jobs, but also destroyed their ability to find another one just so that they could put the blame on someone else. Google, who you know understandably is feeling the heat of the competition from generative AI, is also putting pressure on their employees to get back into the office. Sergey Brin, its founder, even mentioned that a 60-hour week is the sweet spot for productivity in an internal memo. On top of all of this, AI is also being shoved down our throats from executives who assume they know how to do your job better than you do. Shopify's CEO, for

7:40 example, recently released an internal memo saying that employees are now required to use AI as part of their jobs and their AI use will even be a factor in their performance reviews. AI tools are incredible, and I've advocated for their use in countless times in prior videos. But I think that making this a job requirement to me feels like overreach. It signals that you don't trust your employees to use their own judgment and discern when it's appropriate to use AI and when it's not. A blanket requirement like this is very big brother to me. But I'm curious what you guys think. So, let me know in the comments down below. If you're being asked to learn AI skills for your current role or you're a beginner who's just curious about what neural networks are, you should take a look at Brilliant. I've personally gone through

8:26 their course on how LLMs work and introduction to neural networks when I wanted to learn AI fundamentals. At first, I was intimidated by these seemingly complex topics, but Brilliant made them easy to understand and approachable even for beginners. And if you're not looking to learn AI right now, no problem. They have a comprehensive catalog of courses that will help you build a solid foundation in math and programming from computer science fundamentals to introduction to probability. Brilliant offers interactive bite-siz lessons that you can squeeze in during your commute or while you're on your lunch break. Best of all, you're not just passively watching videos, but you're actively solving problems and building real understanding. To try everything Brilliant has to offer for free for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/catherinee or scan the QR code on screen or you can click on the

9:13 link in the description. You'll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription. Thank you so much, Brilliant, for sponsoring this video. Only a few short years ago, tech companies were one of the first ones to launch these flashy diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. These companies proudly announced donations to fight racism and wrote lengthy newsletters on how they're going to address injustice, taking advantage of the positive PR that they were generating. But recently, companies including Walmart, Meta, and Google have all quietly rolled back these programs, caving into the fear of the current administration. Whether or not these DEI programs were effective or necessary are beyond the scope of this video, but for me at least, it's sobering to so clearly

9:58 see that these programs were driven by profit and nothing else. Companies not only didn't really care in the first place, but they actively chose to financially and reputationally benefit from virtue signaling during these tragedies and injustices. So what is the future for software engineers? Is it still a dream job with a certain aura or has it lost its prestige and is now just another white collar job? I think a lot of us, myself included, have nostalgia for the glory days of 2021. The tech industry seeing huge success despite the pandemic. So the tech field, also known as STEM, is booming right now and it might be just what you're looking to pivot into. There's a hiring pandemic that is the

10:44 opposite of what we just lived through in 2020. There is a lot of power that comes from knowing if your boss screws you over, you can just walk down the street and get a new gig that pays more than what you're currently making. Now, we're all getting whiplash from this shift in power. But you got to remember that layoffs, deadlines, and working in the office aren't exactly unique to software shares. In fact, they're the norm at every other job. And on top of that, we're generally paid more as well. I've worked in the service industry where your bathroom breaks were timed to the minute and you couldn't take any time off during the holidays. And to be honest, the downsides of working in tech doesn't really compare. Okay, I realize I just compared apples to oranges. But my point is that I think even with all the perks taken away, we still have it

11:32 pretty good as software engineers. For example, as much as everyone hates leak code, I just can't think of another industry where you can just spend 2 to 3 months studying for free by yourself and have a straight path to essentially doubling your salary. So, I guess while a lot of us resent how fast things have changed in a couple short years, I think it's important to recognize that the recent downsides like the layoffs and the stricter deadlines have been the normal for most other white collar jobs. That being said, I think we're all sobering up to the reality that we are simply headcount on a balance sheet. At one point, maybe some of us were deluded by our own self-importance into believing that we were part of a family and that mission statements were more than empty platitudes. Company

12:18 executives will call you family and in town halls talk about how well the company is doing, but at the same week lay off 20% of the staff. I'm not blaming the individual companies or especially their executives as I know that they're simply operating in a capitalistic society. But in the same vein, we as employees cannot be blinded by this false idea of camaraderie or be compelled to be loyal to a for-profit entity. Even if they pamper you with wellness days or free massages, at the end of the day, they will put their profits ahead of your wellness. And in this economy, you kind of have to do the same. At the end of the day, it's up to you to set firm boundaries with work and realize what's important because no one else is watching out for you. Thank you

13:04 so much for watching. If you like this video, don't forget to like and subscribe and go check out the one I did recently on the biggest myths in the software industry. I'll see you over there. Bye-bye. [Music]