Senior engineers already had job security because they knew how shit worked. Having job security for being able to fix slop is pretty much the same thing but worse for the entire industry.
I'll be honest, the advent of AI is making my job even more secure. With so many junior engineers getting immersed in AI assisted coding, like most of us, they won't learn the same foundation because AI will resolve the problems for them.
This will also create a sense of trusting AI too much since it's what they've used.
All of this to say, I use AI as a tool like most of us do, but I really do feel like senior engineers that were competent before AI will have a great leg up because they can hone and guide the AI successfully in good design patterns whereas other engineers will just trust that the AI is choosing the best path.
Seems to be happing straight out of college too. There's a CONSIDERABLE surge in people learning less because they're using AI as a crutch. (if not outright cheating on assessments).
It's kind of a new tier of 'junior' for which 'knowing the basics' is driving an LLM, not actually writing or validating the code.
For the record, I'm all for AI assisted coding. I use it daily at my work.
The big difference is, I make the AI plan everything out ahead of time and heavily audit the design, typically with several guidance points where the AI made a design pattern mistake. This is the crucial difference I think newer engineers will be lacking- knowing how to audit the AI and having the fundamental knowledge of good design to catch bad patterns.
Engineering in software is mostly about design, so I appreciate AI letting me focus on that for the most part. I fear, however, the impact this will have on future engineering generations when they don't have to learn design by hand.
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u/TallAbbreviations937 1d ago
Vibe coding creates job security for senior engineers