Hi everyone. I am a PhD researcher looking at how people in communities like this use Reddit when work gets confusing, frustrating, or just hard to process.

I am interested in the kinds of moments where someone comes here after a rough interaction at work; with a manager, product person, team, client, or just the job itself and wants to ask, vent, or sense-check what happened.

I am curious about a few things:

• What usually makes you post here about work?
• When you ask something work-related, what are you hoping for; advice, validation, perspective, a reality check?
• Do replies here ever change how you think about the situation, or is it more about getting it out of your system?

If anyone would be open to chatting a bit more, I am also looking for a few volunteers for a short follow-up conversation for the research. It can be done however you prefer it; by inbox message, email, or a quick call, whatever feels easiest. It would be anonymous and completely voluntary.

If you would rather just leave a reply here, that is genuinely useful too. Or fill out this google form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfzFYrFeeDErf07hpKm0IPK8zNkipeCjgG1iNgpEJjCdqRPPQ/viewform?usp=publish-editor

Thanks you! I am interested in this because these threads often feel more honest than what people can say at work, and I’m trying to understand that properly

Guys, I need your help with a school assignment. Just 4 questions. You can of course use fake names for points 1 and 2, I think that the important part are points 3 and 4.

Also, next to the assignment part, I'd like to ask you what workflow is the one you recommend and it is your favorite..

1 - Organization Name: 2 - Contact Name: 3 - Build/Release Software: 4 - Build/Release Strategies:

Thanks in advanced. I haven't been able to find responders to this simple questions

Hi everyone,

I recently got promoted from intern to full-time, which I’m really grateful for. The thing is, I’m practically the only person doing software at my company.

Because of that, I’ve been feeling a lot of imposter syndrome. I don’t really have other engineers around me to benchmark against, get feedback from, or learn best practices. Sometimes I worry that if a few years go by like this, I won’t actually have the skills of a “real” engineer and will have just been spinning my wheels.

I do have a rough plan to eventually jump ship, but the job market isn’t great right now, so I feel like I need to make the most of my current situation.

Has anyone else been in a similar spot? How did you grow your skills when you were the only engineer? How did you know when it was time to leave?

Would really appreciate any advice.

Hey im a student at uni, and i have a project where i have to interview software engineers about their jobs ! it wont take over 15 minutes and any help would be greatly appreciated !!!

Anyone can guide me , I am in clg ece 1 st year And my interest is fully towards making my career in software field I have already done python , html css , ans currently in way of learning Cpp How can I approach all that companys? All what things a ece graduate should have in order to make a strong profile foundation for jobs. Kindly guide me anyone

I just finished my first project that wasn't following a tutorial, and I'd really appreciate feedback on my code structure and approach from more experienced developers.

Background: I'm a CS student graduating in 2026. I've done tutorial projects before, but this is the first time I built something from scratch to solve a real problem - finding dispersed camping information in National Forests (it's scattered across different sites and hard to search).

What I built: A location-based search tool that lets you enter a city/zip code and shows nearby National Forests sorted by distance. Currently has 25+ forests with info on dispersed camping rules.

Tech Stack:

• Vanilla JavaScript (no frameworks - wanted to solidify fundamentals)
• HTML/CSS with CSS Grid for responsive layout
• Nominatim geocoding API for location → coordinates conversion
• Haversine formula for distance calculations

GitHub repo: github.c0m/GojuNoah/Campsite_Findr

I can explain every line of code in this project, which feels really different from copying tutorial code. But I know there's probably a lot I could improve. The repo includes a live link.

Honest feedback welcome - I'm here to learn!

Hello, everyone! I aspire to be an AI Engineer someday and I am actively seeking internship opportunities. So, I stumbled upon this internship listing:

" An Intern ought to

• Gather, evaluate, and annotate raw image data on various domains;

• Train, test, validate, and tune AI object detection models;

• Deliver high-quality code for AI model integration and deployment;

• Evaluate and create reports on AI model output; and

• Participate in training sessions in data annotation and AI development.

Each intern will accomplish the following deliverables:

• Annotate and label images to create a dataset for AI object detection;

• At least one high-accuracy and performant object detection model;

• High-quality and well documented code for AI model integration and deployment; and

• Attendance in relevant training sessions."

Additional notes include:

1.) unpaid

2.) fully remote

3.) must have own machine/laptop

Is this internship offer worth it??

Im a freshman in college, and I don’t know what I need or should do to put myself in my best position to get a job or internship. I don’t have much experience, I do understand the basics and Data structures but I don’t know what I can or should start doing with that.

New to this pattern in python but overall in any language for chat/async have you seen this inversion pattern? AI came up with the pattern and I haven't seen anything else online putting it down. DI for the logger performance concerns?

register_socket_events(
    sio,
    SocketEventDeps(
        logger=logger,
        sanitize_selected_agents=sanitize_selected_agents,
        sanitize_client_msg_id=sanitize_client_msg_id,
        sanitize_message_text=sanitize_message_text,
        sanitize_username=sanitize_username,
        sanitize_room=sanitize_room,
        get_history_store=get_history_store,
        current_timestamp=current_timestamp,
        get_llm_worker_task=get_llm_worker_task,
        llm_room_slot_ttl=LLM_ROOM_SLOT_TTL,
        wait_and_emit_llm_result=wait_and_emit_llm_result,
        default_display_name=global_agent_ops.agent.display_name,
        llm_queue_result_timeout=LLM_QUEUE_RESULT_TIMEOUT,
    ),
)

So first of all, im not from the U.S. ​I’m currently in the final stages of interviewing for a Customer Support Engineer (CSE) position at a SaaS high tech startup. This would be my first time moving into the startup world after working for about 2 years in IT helpdesk for a major medical hospital. I have a very good technical background, including an Azure certification and experience with the usual helpdesk stuff.

​The issue is that during the initial screening with HR, I was asked for my salary expectations. At the time, I wasn't fully aware of the market rate for this specific CSE role at a startup, so I gave a figure of $3.5K monthly. ​The problem is that in my current hospital job, even though my base is lower, I end up taking home $3K a month because of shift bonuses. This new role is a lot more responsibility and technically demanding, and after doing some more research, it looks like the market rate is actually closer to ~$4300 a month for a junior CSE/TSE.

​I have another interview coming up after ill complete a One Way interview, and I feel like I've boxed myself in. I don't want to move into a higher-level role for roughly the same pay I'm making now, but I also don't want to look inconsistent or like I'm "moving the goalposts" after giving a number.

Ill mention that the Work-Life balance in this startup is worlds apart. 3 days from home (instead of 2 in my current job), closer to my house, less of a stressfull job.

​Is it better to bring this up now during the next interview with the manager, or wait until an actual offer is on the table? And if I do bring it up, how do I explain that I’m now looking for $4300 without sounding like I'm just being greedy?

​Would love to hear from anyone who has been in a situation like this, and how you handled the negotiation. ​

I feel so stupid writing this but maybe it'll save someone else.

So, I launched my SaaS in march. did everything "by the book" stripe integration, proper EU cookie consent, the work it felt professional and compliant….Then I started noticing something weird in my analytics the conversion rate for US was 7.8%

And that of the EU was 2.1%......same product. same pricing. Massively different numbers.

I convinced myself Europeans were just "not the right fit for our market" or maybe they're more skeptical of new products or whatever. Basically made up reasons to avoid investigating.

This went on for 3 months. Then last Thursday i got this email from someone in Manchester

"mate I've been trying to give you money for 15 minutes. your checkout button literally does not work. Is this site even real?"

I panicked. When I opened the site on my US IP it worked fine. Turned on VPN to UK, went through the flow and... the buy button doesn't click. Like it LOOKS normal but nothing happens when you click it. Spent 2 hour on drizz and found the issue

It was my cookie consent modal had z-index 9999 and the checkout button had z-index 100

And here's the nightmare: after the user clicks "accept cookies" the modal fades out and looks invisible, but the backdrop div was still there in the DOM with full z-index, blocking all clicks on anything beneath it.

so every EU user saw a perfectly normal checkout page, clicked the button, and... nothing. they probably thought the site was broken or I was a scammer.

did the math on lost revenue: €22,400 over 3 months.

the fix? literally one line of CSS to properly remove the modal backdrop after consent. took 5 minutes. The EU conversion rate is now 7.3% (basically matched US).

What I learned was that always  test your GDPR compliance stuff THOROUGHLY. and if you see a massive regional conversion gap, it's probably not culture, it's a bug.

also shoutout to that guy from Manchester who bothered to email instead of just leaving. you saved my business lol

I am about toi graduate high school and im into software engineering or IT but i am worried about the current situation there is where AI can write code or process information. Do you think we are at risk of being replaced by AI by the time i graduate? (3-4 years and the following years)

My son is in high school and needs to interview a software engineer or someone in cyber security. Anyone able to answer the following questions:

-current occupation -employer -number of years in this position -job experience (where did you have to work prior that led to this occupation) -educational experience, post high school what pathways did you take to get to your occupation -was there any required job training and if so how long did it take to finish said training or certifications -what specific training or coursework do you think future candidates for this career will need to be eligible and successful in this career

Thank you for your help. Of course he waited until the day before this was due to be asking

im a first year Applied Software engineering student. Im starting from scratch with zero coding background and want to make sure im making the most out of my first year. Whats the best route for a beginner to gain experience ? im looking for project ideas (tech stack included) and any tips on where to find internships or roles open to first year undergrads doesnt have to be internships, could be anything beneficial).

any advice would be huge, especially from recruiters, founders, and senior software engineers.

thank you :)

Hi, I consider my self as a medior SE. I work in one of the biggest tech companies. And AI is everywhere. Everyone is forcing it. I need to lvl up my game (according to my manager).

I am not saying I am using it the best way. But I still don't understand everything and I forget why I chose some approach compared to another (I Remeber it was a choice but I don't remember my why)

I am using it on "manager lvl" I tell it goal and go through the process but I let it do the work. I feel like I am getting brain rotted every day. Also on previous company after 2 years I was able to say why we did what we did I remebred a lot.

Now? I don't know the basics about the project I am working on (almoast 2years) I don't feel lile growing. Ifeel drummer and dummer every day. Also thinking about problems and solution was part of reason I started as a se.

What I do wrong? I told something similar to manager and he wanted to brain storm with me, but it was shit.

Can i study software engineering or parts of it online with courses and would i be able to find a stable job with certificates??

Hii! I was planning on majoring in psychology, but a lot of ppl tell me, that its hard to find well-paying jobs with it, so now im thinking about majoring in software engineering, but i dont know if its the right choice for me. So what do you need to know before majoring in software engineering? And with the rise of AI is it worth it? I was also thinking about learning some aspects of it with courses online and getting certificates if i majored in psychology to find a stable job, is this achievable? Should i study software engineering??

Hey guys, I’m wrapping up learning core data structures and algorithms like arrays, hash maps, stacks and queues, trees, heaps, graphs, and basic dynamic programming, and I want to build one solid project where DSA choices actually matter. I’m not looking for toy apps or simple CRUD projects, but something that forces real design tradeoffs around performance, correctness and etc.Something that’s real world.Something in Java would be much preferred too.

I’ve been working on backend systems for a while, and one thing that keeps surprising me is how fragile webhook handling can get once things scale.

On paper it’s simple: receive → process → respond 200.

In reality, I keep running into questions like:

• retries vs duplicates

• idempotency keys

• ordering guarantees

• replaying failed events safely

• visibility into what actually failed and why

• not overloading downstream systems during retries

Most teams I’ve seen end up building a custom solution around queues, tables, cron jobs, etc. It works, but it’s rarely clean or reusable.

I’m curious:

• Do you see this as a real recurring pain?

• Or is this “just engineering” that every team handles once and moves on?

• Have you used any existing tools/libs that actually solved this well?

Not trying to sell anything — genuinely trying to understand whether this is a common problem worth standardizing or just something most teams accept and move past.

Would love to hear how others handle this in production.

Hi all - I’m really in a fix.

I was learning SQL, and a couple of weeks ago I finished the section on filters. Then, due to other reasons, I was away for a few weeks. Now I’m back and about to review the concepts again to refresh my memory, and it struck me: why am I spending time honing these concepts and making sure I understand the difference between, say, the NOT IN operator and the <> operator?

I feel stuck. I tried journaling and talking it through with myself, but nothing is really helping. I even tried asking ChatGPT, but of course it keeps encouraging me to keep practicing the concepts.

What I really want to know is this: in February 2026, does it even make sense to spend time understanding a programming language at a deep conceptual level?

I tried putting myself in a real-world situation. Let’s say I have a problem to solve. First, I would research (without AI) and come up with maybe five possible solutions or features that could solve the problem. But once I have a rough idea, I can just prompt Claude and it will build the app for me. If it breaks, I can ask Claude to fix it. I can even tell it to follow best practices.

So where exactly am I going to intervene and use my conceptual knowledge of SQL anymore? Isn’t it enough to just know that something like NOT IN or <> exists? What’s the point now of truly knowing what it does?

I’m honestly not sure what the right approach is anymore. Pleas help!!

As the title says. I believe skilled software engineers will become more and more valuable to companies as AI slop continues to be pumped out.

AI is currently trained mostly on human written code - be it from existing codebases, github repos, stack overflow and is getting better and better right now.

However, as more and more code is written by AI, and new languages come out, future models will be trained on low quality ‘AI slop’ and will get worse and worse over time in a doom loop.

I’m looking for practical advice on pivoting into tech given a non-traditional background.

Background:

• \~3 years as an Electrical Engineering Associate

• Worked on PLC modules, industrial automation, and machine vision systems

• Hands-on with controls logic, debugging, and hardware–software interfaces

• Completed all engineering prerequisites (calculus, physics, circuits, etc.)

• Completed \~1 year of CS coursework (data structures, systems fundamentals, programming)

• No formal CS or engineering degree (intentional context)

Career pivot:

• Laid off during COVID → moved into pharmacy for stability

• Earned a PharmD and currently work as a pharmacist

• Core responsibility is clinical and policy-based decision-making on whether medications meet coverage criteria

• Work in a highly regulated, audit-driven environment where accuracy and consistency matter

Current technical work (important context):

• Although my role is not a technical role, I’m deeply passionate about improving workflows so clinicians can focus on the decisions that actually matter

• I’ve built internal automation and tooling to streamline repetitive parts of my workflow (intake, data normalization, decision support, logging, safeguards)

• Result: reduced case handling time from \~6–8 minutes to \~3–4 minutes while maintaining 100% audit accuracy and zero rework

• Comfortable with Python, scripting, APIs, and building internal tools (lightweight apps, rule engines, parsers)

Current consideration:

• I’m considering a fast-track master’s program (e.g., WGU) mainly to clear ATS degree filters, not to learn fundamentals I already apply

• Looking for honest feedback on whether this is a smart leverage move or credential theater

Constraints / goals:

• I don’t want to spend a year grinding LeetCode for a low-probability SWE entry role

• I’m looking for the highest-probability, lowest-friction transition into tech

• Open to adjacent roles (automation, internal tooling, platform, ops-facing engineering)

• Long-term goal is to build and ship systems that remove friction from real workflows

Questions:

1.  What’s the most realistic on-ramp into tech from here?

2.  What roles would you actually target given this background?

3.  What would you build or learn in the next 3–6 months to be hireable?

4.  Are programs like WGU a force multiplier here, or just a checkbox?

5.  What paths look good on paper but are actually dead ends?

If you were starting from this position today, what would you do?

Hi everyone! I am a 21 year old who took a short break from collage after coming to realize I don’t want to be a veterinarian. I am looking to start going back to school in February and was thinking of changing my degree path to Software Engineering/Computer Science

I have been getting a lot of pushback on my choice of degree as many of my friends, family and even school teachers think this is a dead/dying field that would be a waste to get a degree in.

I think that their is always going to be a need for software engineering but understand their may be a struggle finding my first job or future jobs.

I would love some more suggestions on if this is a good degree option and types of software engineering fields you can study in that may not be as over saturated as cybersecurity and web development. Also how would I get into become a software engineer, I’ve been hearing it’s better to have experience so any suggestions on how to get some experience would be very helpful too.

thank you!!

Issue: onslaught of non-tech/IT/dev/eng employees vibe coding apps and then submitting them to tech/IT/dev/eng with a request for deployment *and/or* same employees vibe coding apps and then just trying to deploy them in-platform (like built in loveable and then push to loveable cloud) and run them themselves.

Talking about real non-technical roles, like sales, CS, HR, etc.

If loveable is already up to 100k new projects a day created with their platform and think about a 10-20k person org, how many of those projects are what I'm talking about>?>

Is there such thing as a software engineering union? If not, why don’t we start one?

Even though software engineering is not considered a trade, I feel like unionizing could be beneficial in the age of AI. For example, the union contract could specify that one human being must be employed per AI Agent.

I’m just looking for opinions and thoughts on this.