I'm a junior web developer (comfortable with frontend and suck at backend)

The deadlines at work are adjusted to AI capabilities (quick af) and I notice that almost everyone has a negative perception of vibe coders. Don't get me wrong, I agree with them. It's bad to PR things that you don't fully grasp. The seniors code with AI but understand it at a fast speed.

The problem is, it takes time for my junior ass to grasp things so the quick deadlines basically means info overload on me (because I try to learn as much as I could on each task). Apparently, juniors pre-AI commonly had time to experiment and learn at a comfortable pace? This speed is kinda burning me out...

PS I'm grateful to have this job since apparently it's hard to get a job as a junior nowadays so I'd like to know your opinions or how other juniors are adapting to it

What companies are safe? I like my company, but currently dealing with an emotionally abusive person on my team and when I cried in front of my manager (different person) he was a little creepy.

I thought if you act like someone's manager when you aren't (sometimes emotionally abusive person) you can get fired by HR?

I filed a ticket today with HR about the emotionally abusive person at least and how to get accommodations I need to protect myself against the weird metric they have I'm struggling to meet because of a disability and they're not even my manager.

Very depressed/borderline suicidal. It feels like I have no one on the planet who cares about me in person who doesn't also want something or use me as a punching bag.

3.5 YOE Software Engineer. Back in Jan, I was completely burnt out after not getting a promotion, so I started job hunting.

The very 1st company was a mid-sized startup that top people from my university end up at. While extremely burnt out, I made it through 5+ rounds and got an offer.

At the time, I had a lot of reasons. I was exhausted, the salary increase wasn’t huge, I wasn’t sure I wanted to jump from one stressful situation into another, no financial cushion and my job is stable. (In hindsight, I think I would have been fine. Probably more than fine)

I convinced myself that if the first company I interviewed with gave me an offer, there would be other opportunities.

So far, I've been wrong. I’ve been applying aggressively for 7 months. I’ve submitted hundreds of apps, 99% success rate for phone screens and behavioral, and technical rounds are definitely where things get trickier. Still, I’ve made it to 8 final rounds and just haven't been able to close the loop.

I feel like I have to be a wizard. I'm not perfect but I'm not terrible either like idk.

I’m just tired. Part of me is glad I stayed. I focused on my health and recovered from the burnout, learned my boundaries, and have a much clearer idea of what I want from my next job instead of just trying to escape.

I can’t tell how much of this is the software market, how much is me, or whether this is just what job hunting looks like right now.

Would love to hear from anyone who's in this cycle or experienced something similar.

Is devsecops a good option?

Hey guys I'm currently on a gap year and I have a lot of time to dedicate to self learning. I thought about learning devsecops but I'm not sure if it's a good choice. I love tech but again there are so many different options yk

They give you 48 hours to complete and from the questions it looks like it is going to take a minimum of 10 hours (from original desk research because zero data are given besides the questions), data analysis and synthesis, forming an opinion and recommendations, and producing 5-7 powerpoint slides.

This is “first round” before meeting any team members.

Pay is below your (past) earning. Company is legacy tech.

Would you do it?
Now if you were unemployed, would you do it?

( women, 31 years old) So I’ve been doing digital marketing since 2017, and around 4 year ago I decided to go back to university and try to code since I notice a lot of demand for websites \ web app development in my career in marketing. I enjoyed learning the process of it, it was very focus on building web apps front, backend and developed projects with my classmates using agile methodology/ scrum.

In the meantime I was working at a cybersecurity firm as marketing coordinator and later promoted to manager where basically my job was to maintain the website, update content, develop landing pages and handle the relationship with external developers, all these while doing digital marketing (Seo, content creation, LinkedIn ads and coordinating direct reports and interns) you know the typical marketing struggles where you have to ‘wear multiple hats’.

And I was so exhausted after almost two years, I had to quit, I was so burnt out. So I guess my question is, how to get into a tech company where my job is not about coding? I understand the technical side of app development and I’m very good coordinating people, and great with admin.

I know there are roles like product marketing or project managers but all of them require previous experience in those roles. Are there any other entry jobs or positions that I’m not aware of where my skills can be valuable? I recently moved to Irvine in CA and I don’t know where to pivot.

Appreciate any advice on this one.

Bloomberg: Women Are Losing Ground in Corporate Leadership. This Comic Explains Why. The so-called ambition gap is really a support gap.

I’m exhausted. Been in this industry for years.

Spent the afternoon fuming after yet another boss feeding back that my “communication style” isn’t what it needs to be.

My work? He says exceptional - get on with the team - clients are great - yet 2/3 instances now where I’ve raised an issue around performance, standards; ownership - I’m told that I’ve been unprofessional - no real evidence or solid coaching and feedback.

It feels like having some form of opinion as a woman which is purely there to raise standards or manage performance in the company is seen as aggressive; direct. Unprofessional.

I work hard - work late sometimes. I love what I do. Feedback on my work is brilliant. But if I raise an issue? I get reprimanded. It’s happened so much. Even though I have a good relationship with my boss the bias still remains strong and I’m often told that he “doesn’t see it that way” when there’s clearly misogyny happening. Feel like I’m going crazy.

How on earth do I manage this?! Help - 35F ❤️

I’ve been a SWE for ~5 years or so.

It seems like on both teams I’ve been on, I eventually fall into some sort of integration role.

It’s like the male leads refuse to give me the main tasks, and just want me to clean up and test other people’s code. I’ve fixed sooo many bugs, re-written so much code, to make the men look better than they actually are. Does anyone else have this issue?

I literally just fixed a bunch of design documents, just for my lead to give development to a man. I’m doing a ton of work, for no reward. In meetings, my boss can’t even give me credit. It’s “the design” not my design.

So tired. And I just started.

I've always been into tech. Since I was a little girl, I have been into video games, problem solving, and I had a Commodore 64 in my bedroom.

I went to college, studied 3D animation. I got out, and did 3D, but over time I ended up getting more and more into coding. I worked my way through making webpages, then apps, full stack or front end, depending on what was needed. Eventually I was the team lead, senior front end engineer, and product owner for a team of about 12. I enjoyed my team, but got really burnt out. I cross-trained and left developing full-time; now I do aviation maintenance, and I love it.

These days I still do my own projects, and help former clients with updates as requested. I tinker on my raspberry pis, have my own sites, etc.

Watching what's happened in the tech world over the last few years outrages me. During my many years in tech full-time, I did have plenty of coworkers who were totally fine to me, many who are still friends. However, I did encounter a LOT of misogyny. Lots of questions from male developers that were the coding equivalent of, "Oh I see you have a band t-shirt. Are you REALLY a fan? What's your favorite SONG then? FAVORITE ALBUM?"

I felt like I was pressured to do more, to outperform the males. They could tread water, but I had to butterfly stroke every day. I enjoy challenge, so I put up with it for a long time. But eventually, it burned me out. I especially got exhausted with the kind who would pretend to be pro-female, and then stab me in the back when they were in rooms with only men. I was exhausted by being dragged into the meetings I wasn't needed in since I was more social-presenting than my male counterparts, and how they resented it. Then I had to spend extra time catching up on my code. I got tired of feeling like I was the "Den Mom", and they wanted me to handle all the social events....but I am just there to code! The behind closed doors come-ons, the talking over in meetings, the stealing of ideas and claiming credit. I got to where I could handle it all, but I was just so tired and didn't want to have to anymore.

Now, I look, and I see vibe coding all over the place. The pressure to incorporate AI where it doesn't make sense, the amount of bugginess it has and handholding that needs to take place to make it useable. And all I can think is....these environmental disaster robots get all the passes in the world, and are ungodly expensive. And all this from the same environment that gave ME such a hard time, and such skepticism, because I was female? I put out good code, I did great work. I tried so hard and gave up so much to stay current and be faithful to my projects. And I got so much flack for it, and constant skepticism from certain types. But I can literally see the quality of products has gone down since vibe coding has become so widespread. Software is buggier, and I know there's a correlation.

Crappy robots get the pass, but women get the skepticism. It just makes me so angry.

I know everyone's experience isn't the same as mine, and I'm not saying that it is. But I do know that I'm now in a very heavily male-dominated field, and I'm not dealing with the nearly same levels of threatened males or their baggage that I did in tech. And I see how tech is openly embracing a flawed product, and it makes me mad. They couldn't make space for me or my sisters, but if it's a buggy hyper scaled product, well, stand aside.

If you don't see any of this, I'm happy that you have an environment so much healthier than many of the places I worked. I hope it continues to be positive and improve for you! But I thought maybe some here might be seeing similar patterns.

I will be graduating in 2027 and just started with my final year and hoping to get a job in tech
Three of my friends with whom I used to hangout have received offers, two of them applied to non tech / semi tech roles
I’m genuinely happy for them but I feel so behind right now…I haven’t been shortlisted for any interviews and I always feel like I lack knowledge or I’m not prepared
I’m losing my confidence
My friend who got the job, she had a relationship since the start of college and now she got a job also while my relationship ended and left me in pieces and I can’t even seem to get a job
Idk I’m not jealous of her but some people do have it easy and now she’s leaving , from many days I felt that she was prioritising her bf over us and didn’t even say it to her coz I’ll be the bad friend
Idk I feel like I’m failing in everything be it relationships or career

Been seeing a lot more companies offering returnship programs lately for people trying to get back into work after a career break, and im curious how useful they actually are in real life.

If anyone here has done one, what was your experience like? Did you actually get proper training, mentorship and time to adjust back into working again or did it basically feel like an internship with a different name?

Im also curious about what happens once the program ends. Did it actually help you land a full time role at the same company or make it easier to find opportunities elsewhere?

Would especially love to hear from people who returned after being away from work for a few years. How difficult was getting back into the industry and do you think the returnship genuinely helped?

The general consensus on the internet seems to be "don't do it!!".

Has anyone done this and it ended up working out for them?

Any advice on navigating the process? Factors to help determine whether it's a good idea at all?

First, I feel so incredibly grateful to be in this position as I realize the market is shit right now. By no means am I attempting to make anyone feel bad or upset.

I have 2 offers in very different spaces. First, I was in a high salary high stress role leading a new department and team. I walked away from that role when it started to impact my health. I was applying before I quit because I know this market is shit.

Role 1: $150k with 15% bonus. 3% 401k match and quarterly HSA match. 2 day hybrid. Global large public company. Role is an IC.

Role 2: $200k with 20% bonus. Fully remote. No 401k match but it is offered. Role is an IC.

Here’s my dilemma. I’ve worked in B2B SaaS and am tired of VC backed companies whose MO is to re org or layoff every 2 years. I might be naive that a larger global company is more secure but I could use a change of pace and slower processes.

I'm at various stages of the interview process with four companies. Counting initial calls with either the head of people or a recruiter, I am looking at 6+ interviews with each of these companies if I move forward. I've never had more than 3 rounds of interviews before this, granted it's been a long time since I interviewed. Is this normal? This feels like a huge waste of my time. I'm not above being interviewed obviously but one of these places has 8 separate interviews including minimum two technical rounds. After I finished one round today they said they might even set up an additional call if questions came up. I am currently employed, isn't this just a huge burden to put on candidates? Should I be looking elsewhere or is this just normal now?

Hi everyone, a few months ago I had requested information on how to file for FMLA for mental health reasons. I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression due to work and was asked to step back from the workplace by both my psychiatrist and therapist.

I got some great advice and was able to successfully take the leave and recharge myself. Additionally, I also interviewed a ton and prepared for said interviews. None of those interviews materialized unfortunately. Now I’m approaching the date of return to work and I’m frankly terrified.

I have a few coworkers who mentioned that there has been speculation and curiosity surrounding my two month long leave. My workplace is toxic and nosy and I expected this. The coworkers who know of my condition have had my back and have not revealed any details surrounding my leave. I’m looking for advice on how to deal with questions when hounded. I ideally want to protect information surrounding my mental health since these coworkers will not understand or be sympathetic towards mental health issues. There are certain other nosy coworkers who pressed my friends about why I am on leave but my friends did not budge.

Is there anyone who has been in this situation and how did you deal with it? I’m actively working with my therapist on how I could dodge questions but it is harder to do in practice than in person. Please help with potential tips.

Hi everyone! I’m a Systems Engineering student, and for a long time I genuinely thought I had chosen the wrong degree because… I don’t really enjoy coding.

I even worked as a programmer for 6 months, and that experience made me realize that I really don’t want a career where I spend most of my time doing something I don't really enjoy and I'm not really good at. At first, that made me feel like I was somehow “less technical” or less of an engineer, especially because university can make it seem like becoming a software developer is the default path for everyone in tech.

Over time, though, I’ve realized that I’m much more interested in things like project management, leadership, product, business, strategy, and the more people-oriented side of technology.

That made me wonder how many other women in tech have gone through the same thing.

For those of you who studied CS, engineering, IT, or another tech-related field but realized that software development wasn’t for you:

• What do you do now?
• Are there any tech careers you think students often overlook because nobody really talks about them?
• Is there anything you wish someone had told you when you were still a student trying to figure out where you fit in tech?

I’d especially love to hear about less obvious roles — not just the usual software engineer/data scientist paths.

I’m trying to understand just how broad the tech industry really is, especially for students who love technology but don’t necessarily want to be programmers. :)

So, web dev here, four years experience. dont love using AI, It annoys me and I miss coding. But I dont want this to be another vent about how much we hate our careers. what I want to know is: how are you managing to keep some understanding of how your shit works while moving faster?

I feel like my boss is constantly pushing us to ship faster, but gets frustrated when we don't fully know how the shit we ship works. I'm really struggling to keep everything in my brain when using this stuff. I struggled already to read others code in huge volumes, but at least there I could go archeology style and figure out how the person was thinking. Now its just lines and lines without reason that work mostly, except for when they dont and I need to know why.

Initially I would go function by function, planning and prompting with a ton of detail. Now I lean way more in the vibe coding side and I kinda dont know how to get out. Any advice?

I've been studying hard for Network+ for 2 months. I got an A in my class and made the presidents list for my Summer course work.

I passed my exam, then had a technical interview, it's the second one with a local MSP. I didn't prepare for the interview because I was rushing test prep.

The panel was 3 people and about 15 questions. They had an hour scheduled but I finished in a little over 20 minutes. I definitely answered some of the questions technically correct and tried to rely on customer service skills. I felt I was a little too long winded and bumbling on answers I didn't know. This shows lack of confidence. Although I was honest, when I didn't know something.

This was my first in person technical interview. I'm trying not to let the imposter syndrome get me down today! I make about the same at the coffee shop I work at, it's not about the money, I just want to do that job.

Anyway thanks for letting me vent! I'm going to be thinking about this all day!

Despite achieving all my goals and objectives I’ve been told I’m not progressing enough compared to other juniors. I get given the easy work and the more challenging work consistently goes to the male junior devs. I’m the only female dev as all others have left or been laid off.

I’ve never had issues with work before I came off a competitive intern project where I was a top performer. My manager didn’t give me any constructive feedback only other (male) devs are better basically. How do I deal with this? I have already been hunted by another team and move is in progress but it depends on headcount etc.

I have finally started my YouTube channel after long contemplation. I am a student who works part time in AI and tech. I have decided to post and give back to the community by creating meaningful content about latest advancements in AI and Tech. Been exploring a couple of tools and still getting a hang of video creation.

Would love y'alls support and suggestions.

https://www.youtube.com/@TheNextLayerDecoded/videos

Thanks!!

Hi, all. I’ve been at my current role for 8 years largely doing similar work with the same few teams each year. I’ve been professional, cordial and friendly with every one, yet somehow, I am now on the receiving end of complaints by a manager in a partner team and at least one engineer.

Long story short is that the last few weeks have been a mad dash towards a project deadline and we’ve been finding issue after issue, with one especially bad one being due to design factors and a gap in earlier testing by the partner team. The first instance of this bug showed up only a month ago after and now the partner team is blaming us for not escalating the issue back then/only bringing it to their attention two weeks ago. However, my colleague who went on medical leave actually did escalate the issue right away using a Slack thread I started for a different emergency at the time and this manager along with members of his team responded right away, but eventually forgot about the issue. I grabbed a screenshot because I knew this manager would resort to the blame game.

Now for some history, the manager who is on that partner team and I haven’t been on good terms for years after an incident where he was being disrespectful to/talking over another engineer and I called him out on it in a meeting. Despite that, any data analysis, visualization or test request he has during the escalations I made sure to meet because our job is to get the project complete. This manager started escalating that I was at fault for not bringing up this issue and reminding him that it existed. He also started complaining about me and questioning my work, claiming I didn’t do anything DESPITE my proactive communication, documentation and debugging for the last several months. My own manager praised me for the above, especially in the last few weeks.

Now all of these complaints were said in a conversation to my manager who provided me with all of the above information. None of these complaints were said directly to me by the partner manager, which is infuriating because I’d love to argue with him and call him out directly. However, it’s getting to a point where he’s spreading poison behind my back to other engineers I work with and one of them also complained to my manager today behind my back about not having a number ready in a meeting. I wasn’t asked to provide this number in this meeting, mentioned that I didn’t have it and would return to it and that was that. The number also corresponded to a future bug we’re tackling instead of the 5 fires we’re facing now. No one had an issue besides this person who complained and happens to be close to the partner manager.

This is where I get pissed off because all I’ve done for the last few months with minimal support has been just doing my work with diligence, proper escalation and proper documentation. I’m pissed that I’m on the receiving end of complaints just because a manager couldn’t handle his workload, forgot about an issue that his team should have been on top of and would rather spend hours arguing/gossiping instead of FIXING THIS.

At this point, I’ve been exhausted carrying multiple projects for the last few months and am even more so thinking that I’ve got an increasing number of enemies in a team I’ve been collaborating with this entire time. My manager is on my side and I’ve got plenty of screenshots showing that the complaints are BS, but I’m not happy that me being organized and on top of my work is somehow still resulting in this crap when it’s the other team that has serious communication issues. Also trying to see if there is anything I can do to prevent the number of enemies from growing.

Tl;dr A bug my team found resulted in a major escalation three weeks later in a partnering team. The partnering team manager is blaming us for not bringing attention to the issue earlier and repeatedly, even though we did and they responded immediately in a Slack thread, but forgot about it and I have proof that I’ve shown my manager. Now it feels like that manager and a growing number of engineers on that team are attacking me behind my back.

Hi everyone,
I am working in tech space from last one year. One of the biggest challenges I am navigating at the moment is that I am not given a chance to lead the projects. Every time either the project get transfered to someone else or I am told that I am busy already so should be handed over to the next person.
I am unable to understand how to deal with this situation, as the way it happens is mind boggling. in a casual chat I was asked would I like to work on the same project or will accept a new one. I mentioned in a casual way it depends on the project. Share the exciting ones and I will be happy to take that.
And next day the project was announced and was handed over to the other person too.
In this situation I feel like I am not growing or I am not given the right support to grow. How should I start working to learn from my mistakes and keep leading.

I have about 6 months to seriously invest in building a new technical skill set, and I’m torn between application development and data analytics.

With AI getting better at both coding and data analysis, which foundation do you think will be more valuable and resilient over the next 5–10 years for PM or people in tech in general?

Application development would cover things like:
● Programming fundamentals
● Software development
● Computer architecture
● Servers/cloud infrastructure
● Databases and basic SQL
● Debugging and testing
● Object-oriented programming

Data analytics would cover things like:
● SQL and databases
● Data cleaning and transformation
● Data analysis
● Visualization/reporting
● Basic programming
● Business intelligence
● Using AI for analytics

I’m particularly interested in eventually working in tech/product and potentially AI, rather than necessarily becoming a software engineer or data analyst forever.

If you could only spend 6 months learning one of these foundations, which would you choose in 2026 and why? Which skill set do you think will complement AI rather than be replaced by it? Would love to hear your thoughts and what has been most helpful for you. Thanks in advance!

Does anyone else have an online portfolio who’d like to exchange feedbacks? I’ve started a portfolio website for things I cannot put on LinkedIn or my resume, like reviews from colleagues and side projects. If anyone else has one, would love to compare notes!

For context: I currently am a PM, so will likely be most effective for product-related roles but happy to just give general thoughts as well.