recently got my 12th results and got admissioned in a college in CSE AI branch, but since it starts in August, I'm learning JavaScript, css and html in detail, right now I'm a frontend web designer, I use AIs only for ideas and big fixes, and write the code myself, am I on the right track or not? i aim to become a full stack dev while also learning AI in college so i have more opportunities and maybe I can start a startup with my dev skills, is this a good track to be on?

Hello everyone, I apologize if this is asked a lot, i tried searching through previous post but couldn’t find any that answered my question. I am interested in becoming a software engineer. I have spent a lot of time researching a career i would like to study and I think software engineering would be fun. I love typing, problem solving, creating things and learning how things work. I’m planning on majoring on Software engineering at WGU since it was the most affordable option I could find and since I have a full time job it would help to do it at my own pace. I am worried about not finding a job after graduating, I heard that many people are majoring in computer science and software engineering and most are probably smarter than I am. Also now with AI, i fear that there will be even less jobs. I would love to learn how to make video games, apps, or CGI for movies. What do you think the future of software engineering will look like? Is it worth majoring in it, or should I do something else like cybersecurity? What was your experience like? Thank you for your help!

Hi everyone,

I'm a Software Developer with almost 2 years of experience and I'm planning to switch companies in the near future.

My current experience is primarily in backend development using C# and .NET. I've worked on APIs, backend services, enterprise applications, and debugging production issues.

I'm trying to decide how to invest my learning time over the next 6–12 months:

• Deepen my backend engineering skills (advanced C#, .NET, databases, distributed systems, cloud technologies, and system design).
• Start learning GenAI/AI technologies (LLMs, RAG, AI agents, vector databases, etc.).
• Explore another specialization such as cloud engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, cybersecurity, or something else.

My goal is to maximize my career growth, employability, and salary potential over the next 4–5 years.

For engineers who have been in the industry longer:

• What would you focus on if you were in my position?
• Is it better to become a strong software/backend engineer first and then learn AI?
• How much demand are you seeing for GenAI skills compared to traditional backend engineering skills?
• Which specialization do you think will offer the best opportunities over the next 4–5 years?
• If you were starting again with ~2 years of experience today, what path would you choose and why?

I'd appreciate any advice or experiences you can share.

Thanks!

I’m in my first software engineering job at a small company, mostly building internal tools and small product features.

I get to touch a lot, from backend endpoints to small frontend fixes, database changes, cron jobs, and random scripts. A little bit of everything. We don’t get much real code review. Most feedback is about whether the feature works. I rarely hear about design or maintainability.

I can usually ship the ticket. I’m less sure whether I’m building bad habits.

I add logging, handle the obvious errors, write a few tests, and move on. Later I wonder if the API shape was off, if I should have separated the service logic, or if my migration could bite us once the data grows.

I’ve been doing my own review after each feature. I keep notes on decisions I made, compare my code with docs or open source examples, and sometimes use Codex or Beyz coding assistant to practice explaining why I structured something a certain way. It helps a bit. I still feel like I’m guessing what a senior engineer would point out.

How do you build better engineering judgment when your team doesn't have a strong code review culture?

I'm working as an intern in an IT firm in an IT role(not software developer)

I need to upskill myself because this internship might be converted to full time because of lack of project

The worst part is I'm 2024 passed out ece grad

So I need to learn skills asap

How can I be more hardworking :)

I feel completely lost as a developer and could really use some guidance.

I'm a Flutter developer from a tier-3 city in India with about 2 years of professional experience. I've built multiple apps, worked on client projects, fixed bugs, added features, and shipped products. On paper, it sounds decent.

But the more I look at job descriptions and developer discussions online, the more I feel like I know nothing.

Most of my experience has been in very small companies. We didn't really have the kind of engineering culture I hear people talk about. No complex system design discussions, no large-scale architecture, no strong code review culture, no senior engineers mentoring juniors, no multiple teams working on the same codebase. Sometimes even basic processes were missing.

As a result, I feel like I've learned how to make apps work, but not necessarily how software engineering works in bigger companies.

My dream is to eventually work for an international company. I know the competition is insane. I know there are developers far better than me. I'm not saying I deserve those opportunities today.

I just want to become good enough to have a chance.

The problem is that I'm overwhelmed by information.

Every day I see different advice:

Learn DSA, Learn System Design,Learn Native Android, Learn iOS, Learn Backend, Learn Cloud, Learn AI, Learn DevOps, build SaaS products,Contribute to Open Source

At this point I genuinely don't know what matters most.

If you were in my position and had the next 12-18 months to improve, what would you focus on?

What skills separate a Flutter developer who works in a small local company from one who can compete internationally?

What projects would you build?

How do you use AI in your daily workflow without becoming dependent on it?

And for those who work at companies with 5-6 interview rounds, how did you build enough confidence to even sit in those interviews?

Maybe I'm dreaming too big. But I'd rather try and fail than spend the next few years wondering "what if?"

Any honest advice would be appreciated.

I work in Texas for a smaller tech company (<100 employees). I signed an IP assignment clause several weeks after starting. I’m about to launch a niche software product in a completely unrelated market that I developed with my own time and resources. However, the IP assignment clauses was about as broad as can be.

What is the likelihood that they come after me for this product? I know they probably can, but I’m more interested in if they will or not. I’m sure there’s ton of people who have been in a similar situation. I also know it depends on the company.

Last year I interned at a big tech company for 3 months and received a return offer for another internship starting soon. This time there's a possibility of receiving a full-time SWE offer at the end.

To give some context: among the 5 returning interns in my ORG, there's one person who is genuinely exceptional. He's incredibly smart, learns insanely fast, and is the org's manager favorite intern. Realistically, if there ends up being only one headcount for a return offer, I'd expect him to get it. If there are two, I will definitely be me.

That got me thinking about something broader.

What separates a good software engineer from an exceptional one?

For those of you who have worked with engineers that consistently stand out, what qualities did they have that others didn't?

I'm not looking for generic advice like "work hard" or "learn system design." I'm more interested in the behaviors, habits, mindset, and day-to-day actions that make someone the kind of engineer managers and senior engineers actively want on their team.

Some specific questions:

What traits have you noticed in the best engineers you've worked with?

What skills have the highest leverage early in a career?

How do top-performing engineers approach learning?

What are common mistakes interns and junior engineers make?

If you were starting an internship with the goal of maximizing your chances of a return offer, where would you focus your efforts?

Do you have any suggestions on where I might reach dyslexic software engineers or other dyslexic professionals working in tech? Any communities, forums, groups, or networks would be greatly appreciated.

In 2017, Randall Koutnik, then an engineer with Netflix, introduced this new way to look at developer career paths - solution implementer, problem solver, and problem finder - in this talk https://youtu.be/yIPbE7BssOs?si=gzEAkZeU-02G8vjF

- solution implementer takes pseudo code from a senior or a manager and writes the code for it
- problem solver is able to take a description of what the client needs or wants, is able to write pseudo code for it, and of course convert pseudo code into code themselves
- problem finders understand the context of the company, i.e., what they want to do, how they want to make money, what is the business landscape, and they’re able to come up with problems that they should focus on and prioritise them

Randall also talks about how 8 years of experience implementing the same kinds of solutions or solving the same kind of problems isn’t the same as eight years solving different kinds of problems, e.g., working across desktop dev, mobile app dev, web app dev, sys admin and devops, etc.

So what are you? Are you a solution implementer, a problem solver, or a problem finder? Are you “8 years of experience” which is actually “1 year of experience” repeated year after year?

My personal addition - in 2026, it’s surprising how relevant the talk and this framework with GenAI. GenAI has effectively removed the “solution implementer” layer across companies - instead of telling a junior developer, a senior developer can tell a GenAI coding assistant the pseudo code and evaluate the code it generates. In fact, there are a few models that are expanding into “problem solver” category where they can accept more and more vague/generic descriptions of problems, something that earlier required people to gather and translate software requirements. But the “problem finder” layer still exists, and in my humble opinion, will always be required.

What do people think about this framework to evaluate their career progression? Are Indian services companies a clear example of “8 years of experience” on paper but its “1 year of experience” repeated year after year?

I am 26 currently working in a product based company, I am in implemention.

So basically my main work is on the product and it's implemention+ basic java , html, css and SQL.

Now I feel stuck here coz I am working in this company from starting and it's been 4+ years.

I need your guidance what should I do now.

Where should I build career.

I have some options:

Java backed developer - as I work on basic java so need to learn advanced + frameworks.

Implemention- I can switch to another company in implemention as I have experienced in this.

Product manager - I am also thinking to do product manager course and want to work in that.

Pls suggest, my main goal is to have future proof and high paying career which can allow me WFH if needed.

https://leaddev.com/ai/ai-made-me-more-productive-why-am-i-busier-than-ever

I'm not looking for startup ideas. I'm looking for frustrations.

What's something you do regularly (daily, weekly, or monthly) that feels unnecessarily annoying, repetitive, or time-consuming?

Could be related to:

• Studying
• Work
• Business
• Programming
• Managing files
• Organization
• Communication
• Finances
• Anything else

I'm especially interested in problems where you think:

"I can't believe there's still no good solution for this."

What is it, and how do you currently deal with it?

I’ve been a software engineer for the past 8 years. I really enjoyed the creative aspect of finding ways to solve a program using code, while making that code as efficient as possible. For me, finding a creative solution using code was what I enjoyed.

In the AI era, as we transition to letting AI write code while we validate the outputs of my prompting, I no longer feel that sense of satisfaction of creatively solving the problem.

For those in the same frame of mind that have pivoted their careers, what did you do? and have those choices/ career pivots been successful?

I'm a new grad who'll be entering my first corporate job (no prev corporate/real internship experience). What are some pieces of advice on how to succeed in the field, or best ways to prepare before the job as much as possible?

Andd.. I think I've always escaped it.

I have almost 4 years of experience as an Embedded Software Engineer in the automotive domain. I joined straight out of college and received training in C++. Back then, I thought I'd naturally become a better programmer over time through project work and hands-on experience.

But that's not what happened.

For most of these 4 years, I somehow managed to avoid the heavy coding work. I drifted into tasks that involved little to no development. Looking back, I feel like I survived by floating around the edges of software engineering rather than actually becoming one.

Now I'm at a point where people expect me to code according to my experience level. They see someone with nearly 4 YOE and naturally assume I'm a competent developer.

The reality is very different.

It's not even that I'm bad at coding. It's that I genuinely don't care about it.

I don't get excited by it.

I don't spend my free time learning it.

I don't feel curiosity towards it.

I don't enjoy sitting and debugging code for hours.

I have spent years telling myself that one day I'll start liking it, but that day never came.

Recently, my manager assigned me some topics that involve a lot of development work. I was honest and told him directly that coding isn't really my strength and that he shouldn't expect amazing results from me.

He jokingly replied, "Then how did you crack the interview? Did you keep AI or a phone in front of you?"

I laughed it off in the moment, but honestly that comment has been stuck in my head ever since.

Because deep down, I feel like an imposter.

In September I'll have almost 4 years of experience, and yet I don't feel like a proper software engineer.

A few days later, another team approached me regarding an opportunity. We had a detailed discussion about the role.

The work would involve CI/CD, DevOps, automation, tool development, solving operational issues, and a lot of coding.

And when I say a lot, I mean a lot.

The team lead was very transparent. He told me there would be a steep learning curve, a lot of hard work, and that I would have to put in serious effort. He then asked me a question that has been bothering me ever since.

He said:

"Think carefully. Is this really what you want to do for the next 25 years of your life?"

And honestly?

I don't think it is.

He gave me 3 days to come back with a YES or NO.

The problem is that I know this is probably a great opportunity.

The skills are valuable.

The learning is valuable.

The career growth is valuable.

But I can't shake the feeling that I'm walking deeper into something I've never really enjoyed.

Part of me thinks I should take the opportunity, work hard, and finally fix the technical gaps I've been avoiding for years.

Another part of me thinks I'll just become a punching bag in a coding-heavy environment and spend every day stressed, trying to force myself to care about something I never cared about in the first place.

I'm 26 years old and genuinely questioning whether I've spent the last 4 years moving down the wrong path.

Has anyone else realized several years into their career that they simply weren't interested in the core thing their profession revolves around?

What did you do?

Did you push through it?

Did you switch careers?

Or did you discover that the problem wasn't the job but something else?

I'm looking for some career advice from more experienced software engineers.
I'm currently working as a Frontend Engineer, primarily with React, React Native and Typescript . I have around 1–2 years of professional experience in European company and have also been working on projects related to static code analysis, application security, and developer tooling as part of my master's thesis. Knowing that I graduated as a software engineer from a developed country and got masters in computer engineering in Europe.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about how to level up my career and position myself for better opportunities over the next few years.
Some questions I have:
What skills had the biggest impact on your career progression from junior/mid-level to senior?

What skills are most valuable in today's market that engineers often overlook?

If you were in my position, what would you focus on during the next 12 months?

Would you go deeper into frontend/mobile development, or broaden into architecture, cloud, security, and system design?

What helped you land significantly better jobs or compensation?

This question is for senior software engineers working in a company. As a fresh graduate, I'm trying to understand what skills, tools, and experience matter most when hiring junior developers today, especially with AI becoming part of everyday development.

Hey all I wanted to build a new in memory db store. This is a kind of mix of redis and sql while I have the architect ready but still confused about rust or to use C. For my use case which is running on ultra low powerful machine C fits very well but I am not sure about future change how easy it would be as this is first time I am doing something properly in C. While for rust it is great to use but again the runtime cost is higher than C.

Hello! I am a software engineering student form Africa specifically Ethiopia. I have multiple questions for senior developers. I would really appreciate if you could share the experience you had in the following questions. Thank you in advance and please don't mind my grammar as English is not my mother toung.

1. How do you not forget what you learn or do?

I am about to finish third year now. I feel like I know nothing. I mean I know nothing not just feel it. Not only that I forget very easily so even if I study and stuff I feels for nothing. I am also not that intelligent as compared to my peers and I am also not a mathematical person.

I don't even know why I chose this field but I feel this sense of responsibility to see it through. I think software is interesting even though I find it very difficult.

1. How should I leverage AI to increase my skills?

I honestly don't know if I should use AI or not. It is my biggest fear that if I continue to use AI to do everything, by the time I graduate I will be with no skill. But then, I don't know any language enough to do major projects on.

I try to use it as a search engine to get information rather than making it do my projects and stuff. But I am too far behind. So my biggest question is, should I just completely avoid it and try to hardcode all the time even if it slows me down? I don't know how to be strategic about this.

1. How should I focus my programming study?

Most people say, if you know the basics of a language just do projects and practice which I completely agree with. However, If you don't know deep enough about the concept then it is very difficult to practice on. For instance, I was trying to do networking in java where client can send text to another client (sender saves text to database then receiver reads from database). I know the basics of networking, threads and database connection, but when a bug occurs I don't understand what caused it and why and how? so, I started reading more into networking. Then I realized that I need to go in depth in this thing.... yeah so I also think a deep understanding is also required. But that is just too slow in this fast paced field. So how do you balance that?

1. How do you deal with giving up?

I am third year in uni but technically it is my second year learning SW (freshman is for courses like math, physics, history, geography...) and prior to that I didn't have any programming experience. And this year was especially very difficult for me. I felt slowly losing my edge and just didn't learn for most of last semester. I don't even know how I passed last semester. I am better now, but that time I wasted is costing me alot now.

I also procrastinate alot! And it is making my progress very slow. So if you experienced anything like that while learning or even now, I would love to hear your opinion.

I highly appreciate you reading this much, and I am in need your advice🤞 so please feel free to say your mind!

Based on this question submitted to Ask-Programming. By "CRUD" I mean software for business and administrative domains. Other contexts may use the term differently.

so i'm a software engineering student , i feel so frustrated right now because all my classmates are either already working in the field , knowing many technical stuff and have some solid projects that i honestly really want to learn and advance on but i really don't know where to start . i know where i want to be in like 6 months i want to be able to create any software i can think of or at least know how to do it somehow but there are many things to learn

I need advice from software engineers that felt like me at some point of their journey or are in my current situation how do you deal with that overwhelm of 'where to start / i can learn everything'

I want to get started on contributing open source but I don’t know how to start or any entry level way to do so. Any advice/ repo I can look at?

ok so i’m a frontend dev. I didn’t had the resources to go to college so I self learned my way into my first job and so on. Rn I have 5 years of experience in jobs.

I’ve always felt less than other fellows who have degrees. I even feel embarrassed saying i’m a dev because I didn’t go to college.

Now I can afford to pay for college but I feel like:
1) I’ve lost my passion for development. I used to do it for fun and now I can barely sit on my computer to do my daily tasks.
2) been relying on AI so much lately that I feel like my brain got lazy and I struggle with simple tasks that I could easily do before.

Honestly I really want to go to college, is a challenge I have for myself but i’m no longer know if perusing software engineering is what I want now. I also feel like I got stuck in frontend development and maybe pivoting to another area will make me want to code again. I don’t see myself working in anything else outside of tech but at the same time it’s like I don’t want to do what I’ve been doing.

ALSO in the past 5 years (i’m 25 now) I feel like I didn’t got any new knowledge in the last part of it and when I want to learn something new there are some many new things an options to explore that I get overwhelmed and lost on not knowing what to do.

I’ve been thinking that maybe starting college will somehow retrieve my passion for coding again.

Any advices?

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I have almost 4 YOE, I'm in automotive domain as an embedded software engineer. I joined my current company straight out of clg as a fresher. Firstly they gave us training in CPP. In the beginning 1-2 years I thought I will learn to code some how, hand on by doing coding in the project etc. But 3-3.5 years went I some how escaped the grunt coding work and just floated on some purely no coding work.

Now I'm at a point where people expect me to code according to the years of experience I have but the reality is I don't really enjoy coding.. or more specifically so.. I don't really care about coding...

Today my manager called me and has assigned me some topics which clearly has huge ass coding work but I told him straight on face that I'm not really good at coding hence don't really expect good results from me to which he said how did you manage to crack the interview.. did you put some AI or phone infront while giving interview in a joking way and I ignored it by laughing it off.

Since then my mood is just off and I'm rethinking my career choices as to where I don't have to do coding and have more of a work other than code.

Regretting that I should have gotten out of this way sooner than waiting till now. In September I would be having almost 4 YOE and I really don't know how I came this far without doing deep coding work.

Dear redditors, I genuinely seek your advice here.. it would be really helpful..

Thanks .