0:02 Hello world. I'm a software engineer
0:04 who's been recently laid off from big
0:06 tech with over 25 years of experience in
0:09 the tech industry. So, I've been getting
0:12 a lot of questions and comments from
0:14 young guys in college who are studying
0:17 computer science about how to get into
0:19 the tech industry and whether they
0:21 should continue pursuing computer
0:24 science and tech or not. Now, this takes
0:27 me back to when I was a junior engineer
0:29 fresh out of college. It was a different
0:32 world back then. Back then, just showing
0:36 your sheepkin diploma was enough to get
0:38 your foot in the door in many tech
0:40 companies. I remember I had just
0:42 accepted and joined a consulting
0:44 company. And the very first project that
0:48 they dropped me onto was a CMS site that
0:50 was about to be launched within a month
0:52 for a major telecom client. Being a
0:54 junior developer, I was put onto bug
0:57 fixing duty almost immediately. There
1:00 was just one problem though. I didn't
1:01 know anything about professional
1:04 software development. Yeah, I have a
1:06 computer science degree, but that didn't
1:08 even teach me the basics. Like for
1:11 example, how unit tests work, how
1:13 mocking of data works, how a runtime
1:16 debugger works. I didn't even know like
1:19 the basics of libraries and dependency
1:21 management in the Java language. As
1:24 such, I soon got into the state where
1:27 defects that I fixed would like fail in
1:30 higher environments. The squad that I
1:32 was dropped into was incredibly helpful
1:36 and understanding. Once I remember this
1:39 unsupported major minor version bug, I
1:41 was stuck with this bug for literally
1:44 hours. Basically, this issue happens
1:47 when a version of a library that you
1:50 compiled your code with isn't matching
1:52 the version of the same library in the
1:55 runtime environment of that code. But I
1:57 didn't know that as a junior. So, I just
2:00 kept debugging and debugging. I got to
2:02 the point where I was like trying to
2:05 explode this Java library package and
2:07 looking at the class files inside of
2:10 that package. Now, the build master on
2:13 the squad, let's call him Dimma, Dimma
2:15 was a really friendly and helpful guy
2:18 who had this curious habit of telling
2:20 really pessimistic jokes. Oh, and by the
2:25 way, imagine a build master as a person
2:28 who did the same tasks as what a modern
2:32 CI/CD pipeline would do today. So, Dimma
2:35 came and asked me how I was doing. So I
2:38 told Dimma, "Hey man, I'm exploding this
2:40 library package to figure out this bug."
2:43 And Dimma laughed. He explained to me
2:46 what this bug was and how to fix it. And
2:49 then after that, for the entire duration
2:51 of this project, I became known on the
2:53 squad as the guy who exploded his
2:56 package. I had my first go live launch
2:59 night with that project. I remember
3:01 staying up with the team until the early
3:04 hours of the morning fixing one
3:06 production launch gating defect after
3:08 another. I learned from my first tech
3:11 lead, let's call him Naga, what it means
3:15 to be a production cowboy. So after
3:19 around midnight, we sort of hit a law in
3:21 this go live where it seems like high
3:24 severity defects were all squashed. At
3:26 that point, Dimma, the build master,
3:28 decided to go home. He thought he had
3:31 enough for the day. But right after he
3:34 left, we found just a flurry of launch
3:37 gating defects. And I keenly remember
3:41 Naga furiously modifying config files on
3:44 production servers directly manually to
3:47 get this whole thing to work. Now, Naga
3:50 may not have been the most disciplined
3:53 software engineer, but he was a fine
3:55 tech lead and just a great human being.
3:57 Finally, around 5:00 a.m. in the
3:59 morning, all the production bugs were
4:02 squashed and the site was safely
4:05 launched. And I remember Naga telling me
4:07 that morning, "Hey, the most important
4:11 thing isn't fixing the bugs. The most
4:13 important thing is to learn from them
4:15 and to have fun doing it." It was a
4:18 crazy time being a junior engineer just
4:21 starting out. I had this cocktail of
4:25 emotions, fear, excitement, anxiety,
4:29 hope. I had massive, massive imposttor
4:31 syndrome. But at the same time, I had
4:34 this burning desire to improve, to
4:36 master my craft and make my way in this
4:39 world. Over the years, as my career in
4:42 tech progressed, I always had the
4:44 support and guidance of leaders and
4:47 mentors like Naga. So, as I rose through
4:51 the ranks, I tried to pay it forward. I
4:53 did that by mentoring many junior
4:56 engineers. And at my most recent
4:59 employer, I had the privilege of running
5:02 several summer internship programs. For
5:05 junior software engineers today, the
5:06 broader environment that they're
5:08 launching their careers into could not
5:10 be more different from the one that I
5:12 experienced. First, there are just way
5:15 more engineers on the job market. All of
5:17 this learn to code stuff from the
5:20 government, from big tech leaders, from
5:22 universities, they really produce this
5:24 huge saturation of engineering
5:28 graduates. So these junior engineers now
5:31 face a job market where their college
5:35 degree is worth astronomically less than
5:37 what it was a generation ago. To just
5:41 get a job in tech, junior engineers now
5:42 have to compete with practically
5:45 everybody for the limited pool of
5:47 entrylevel opportunities. They're
5:49 competing against experienced mid-level
5:52 engineers, right? both those that are
5:54 currently employed and trying to keep on
5:56 and hold on to their jobs, but also
5:59 those laidoff engineers who are willing
6:01 to essentially demote themselves and
6:04 work entry-level jobs. They're competing
6:07 against offshore engineers who can work
6:10 for much lower wages. They're competing
6:13 against senior engineers and architects
6:15 who are able to develop with much
6:17 greater productivity given the set of
6:20 generative AI tools available. And in
6:22 big tech, they're even competing against
6:26 data centers filled with GPUs for these
6:28 slivers of corporate budget. And ironically,
6:29 ironically,
6:32 I'm noticing that these new engineering
6:35 grads, their knowledge and capability is
6:38 vastly superior to what I had coming out
6:40 of college. In a summer internship
6:41 program that I ran a couple of years
6:44 ago, there was this one college intern.
6:48 This guy literally architected and
6:51 implemented and deployed a cloudnative
6:54 web application that was useful and used
6:56 by the company. And after the internship
6:58 ended, he still didn't get a position.
7:00 Even though I pushed for him, there just
7:03 weren't enough entry-level positions.
7:06 And even when a junior software engineer
7:09 does get a job, it seems to me that
7:11 today there's less of a support network
7:15 for them. and seemingly every incentive
7:18 to discard them as soon as possible. So,
7:20 it seems to me that the tech industry
7:24 has somehow evolved into this machine
7:28 that is willingly wasting the potential
7:30 of an entire generation of smart and
7:33 talented engineers. This feels kind of
7:36 like an injustice to me. You know, my
7:39 son is STEM inclined. He's a teenager
7:41 and he just recently pushed his first
7:43 PRs for a project that he was
7:46 contributing to. So the question of what
7:48 to do about this has really been on my
7:51 mind these days. As such, I want to
7:54 share some coping strategies to help
7:56 junior engineers get into tech. With my
7:59 experience in the industry, each one of
8:01 these strategies should move the needle
8:03 at least a little bit. So let's get
8:06 started. Be true to yourself. So if
8:08 you're studying computer science in
8:12 college and you have a passion and a
8:14 desire for it or if you just sort of
8:18 like it then keep doing it. But say you
8:21 are not really interested. Say you don't
8:25 like it. Maybe you even despise it. Then
8:28 why are you learning computer science?
8:31 If you're doing it because of parents,
8:33 family expectations,
8:36 because all the bonkers money, Tik Tok
8:39 videos about the lifestyle,
8:42 I would urge you to reconsider. If your
8:45 inner self truly wants to study or
8:47 pursue something else,
8:51 please don't betray that inner voice.
8:53 I've met a lot of people through my
8:55 career that didn't like computer science
8:59 at all but still pursued a career for
9:02 those external reasons and it's a source
9:04 of deep regret. Say you like computer
9:09 science. Next is to build your eminence.
9:11 That means while you're still in school,
9:15 try to showcase your work. And by your
9:17 work, I don't mean like some portfolio
9:19 of websites that you just built yourself
9:22 and you're hosting yourself. What I mean
9:24 is work that is recognized by
9:27 institutions, companies, and
9:30 organizations. Imagine building software
9:33 for your university or for a nonprofit
9:36 organization or contributing meaningful
9:38 software to a free open-source
9:40 framework, joining meetup groups and
9:44 giving lectures, joining hackathons and
9:47 winning those hackathons. These are
9:49 demonstrations of your eminence that
9:52 will matter. You want to maximize the
9:55 value of internships. This is because
9:59 internships, while being not a guarantee
10:02 of a full-time offer, is nevertheless
10:05 astronomically more likely to land you a
10:08 full-time job than just cold applying to
10:11 jobs. You can try to get internships by
10:15 applying to school boards, careerfires,
10:17 through your alumni networks, and
10:20 through professional networks. If you
10:23 didn't land an internship,
10:25 you should try your hardest to apply for
10:29 jobs. And what I mean by trying is make
10:30 sure your resume is professionally
10:33 reviewed and polished. Make sure to
10:36 practice those lead code and hacker rank
10:38 questions and get good at it. Make sure
10:40 to do mock interviews so that you're
10:42 used to that interview environment. To
10:44 maximize your chances of getting a job,
10:47 try to apply to a broad range of
10:50 companies, not just tech companies, but
10:53 also non- tech companies. What you're
10:55 looking for is a technical software
10:58 engineering role, right? That role can
11:01 exist in non- tech companies, and that
11:03 technical job is what's important for
11:06 building your experience. If you're not
11:08 getting any hits for software
11:10 engineering roles, you should consider
11:13 applying to adjacent roles. When I say
11:16 adjacent roles, I mean roles like QA
11:20 engineer, data engineer, sales engineer,
11:23 DevOps engineer and others. And then
11:26 once you get that adjacent role, you can
11:29 then gradually move yourself into the
11:32 software engineering field. Finally, I
11:35 urge you to be flexible about the nature
11:38 of the job itself. Suppose you can't get
11:41 a full-time tech job with a big tech
11:44 company. You should consider other forms
11:47 of work like partnerships,
11:50 gigs, being a solo entrepreneur, and
11:52 starting your own project,
11:55 being willing to say move to a different
11:58 location or even a different country for
12:01 a similar role. So, if you're flexible,
12:04 you get more opportunities.
12:08 Be flexible. Be like water, my friends.
12:10 And that's it for my coping strategies.
12:13 I make no promises, but I believe for
12:16 most of you, if you try these tactics,
12:18 it'll move the needle for you. I hope my
12:20 rant on this subject has been helpful.
12:22 If you have a morbid curiosity to join
12:25 me in this post big tech layoff life
12:27 journey, feel free to subscribe to my
12:29 channel. And by the way guys, I'm
12:31 starting to like making these vlogs. It
12:33 gives me something to do. Seems quite
12:36 meaningful even and it's just nice. So I
12:38 think I'll make more of these videos in
12:40 the future. If you want to support my
12:42 vlog making efforts, please consider
12:45 joining as a member of this channel.
12:47 Anyway, thanks so much for listening.
12:48 Take care and see you guys next time. Bye.
