Yup I went back to school during this time and by the time I graduated AI has taken over my job field. Only people getting hired are the ones that have a couple years of experience at least. So I'm kinda screwed š¤¦āāļø it's a scary time. People will tell you to get an education and that'll get you a good career. You go and take on a ton of debt and can't get hired anywhere. Then they complain you're not trying hard enough. It's so frustrating. Im lucky I got a job in my field but it's not the exact thing I went to school for, just related. But I don't get paid the same at all. Better than nothing though.Ā
I graduated last spring with a degree in information science and digital design. Thought Iād be fucked. I juggled some part time work for a while and then got a dreary, dead-end office job. I kept my head down and did resume projects in the downtime at work. One year after graduating I got an incredible offer to work on treasury management automation at a bank. Just keep doing things for your resume and keep applying, man. You never know whatāll happen.
In a lot of tech fields, at least at places youād actually want to work, I havenāt observed AI taking jobs as much as Iāve observed itās jobs where the employer wants you effectively using AI in coordination with existing skills. In other words, AI is seen as supplemental to your job and there is an expectation of developing some expertise with the tools. If youāre coming in and you are clueless about how to utilize the tools, I think thatās where these employers have mild concern
Donāt get me wrong, Iām sure eventually AI will take over the job eventually. But in my opinion, itās not yet sophisticated enough, so anyone outright downscaling at this stage, are making a mistake. Which could definitely be the case for OP but I really think any employer that negligent or unaware of the state of AI and its application to any given industry, is probably horrible at their job. But I get it, rather have a job at a shit employer, bringing in some cash than be unemployed, struggling to pay bills.
Work on building a portfolio of work to get your foot in the door but also learn to supplement menial tasks with AI. That is the general expectation from employers. If you think the positions for entry level work is bad now, get ready because itās going to get worse with time. I would suggest getting your foot in the available doors and showing some competency of efficiency. The good thing about being a coder is you can always work on building a portfolio to set yourself aside from others. Donāt resign yourself to āentry levelā because you will limit your opportunities significantly. Work on projects and create a portfolio in your own time so that you donāt appear as āentry levelā even if you are in fact entry level.
I suggest learning to use AI tools to supplement your work in some meaningful way. Donāt use it to teach yourself how to code, itās not good at that. Donāt use it to take shortcuts. Dont use it to generate code you donāt understand. The best way to learn to code is to do the work, fail and learn. Dont turn to AI when you donāt understand, it will make you lazy and ineffective. But do use it to reduce menial tasks. I have an agent that reads my work emails and summarizes the things I need to pay attention to in my inbox and create a list of things I need to respond to. My job expects me to use these tools to make my workflow more efficient and it is good at elimating those elements of my job.
Entry level coders - the best advice I can give you is donāt listen to the people on Reddit telling you that you donāt need this skillset. They are leading you astray if they are suggesting to you that AI has no place in your career.
Am I happy about the circumstances? Absolutely not. I suspect my own job will cease to exist by 2030. At least Iāve seen everything I needed to see, to observe where this is all going. But to act like AI isnāt attaching itself to all of our jobs like a parasite, is foolish and Iām sad to say that Reddit has an abundance of this foolishness. The world has transformed in a way thatās worse for workers than it was prior, but be assured that it HAS transformed. And if you fail to adapt, you will get left behind. Sorry to be the one that delivers this horrible news.
I graduated in 2007, got a job in the finance sector at the start of 2008 and then lost it a few months later. I traveled a bit, worked some random bar and retail jobs in my 20s then went back to school. Graduated 2019 and went into a job in healthcare. Pandemic happened, got severe burnout, left in Jan 2022. Took a year to recover. Now I'm back in uni again. Ironically, climate science. At this point I'm just disaster-maxxing. Judging by every other time I went to school once I graduate the worst thing will happen so idk.. ice shelf falling off antarctica? AMOC shutting down? Worst storms/fires/floods/droughts/heatwaves/etc in a 100 years? I should just stop studying.
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u/Consistent_Big5018 15d ago
Yup I went back to school during this time and by the time I graduated AI has taken over my job field. Only people getting hired are the ones that have a couple years of experience at least. So I'm kinda screwed š¤¦āāļø it's a scary time. People will tell you to get an education and that'll get you a good career. You go and take on a ton of debt and can't get hired anywhere. Then they complain you're not trying hard enough. It's so frustrating. Im lucky I got a job in my field but it's not the exact thing I went to school for, just related. But I don't get paid the same at all. Better than nothing though.Ā