5 ms·
Orrrrrr... it could be a complex combination of outsourcing, an over-reliance on degrees, LLMs, a lack of "apprenticeship" mentoring, etc etc etc. I was very f
by chaps 2mo ago
Orrrrrr... it could be a complex combination of outsourcing, an over-reliance on degrees, LLMs, a lack of "apprenticeship" mentoring, etc etc etc.
I was very fortunate to get a job in a NOC a little bit after high school where I learned things one'd expect to learn in an entry level job. The team I worked on was all about mentorship, learning, and building people to the next level.
Haven't seen that attitude elsewhere in my entire career except in the non-profit world where I reside these days. It blows me away that people are surprised that these industries have failed to build entry level positions.
- mattkrause 2mo agoI'd also throw in hiring practice. Whatever we're doing (across the board) to find candidates seems....less ideal.
- johnnyanmac 2mo agogiven the statistics in ghost jobs, you can argue what we're doing is "nothing".
- davidw 2mo ago> outsourcing, an over-reliance on degrees, LLMs, a lack of "apprenticeship" mentoring, Which of those things changed (along with higher interest rates) in the past few years though? All the other variables did not change. They were present 5 years ago and present 10 years ago too. To me that's indicative that those factors are not the cause of a soft market for software engineers in 2026.
- chaps 2mo agoAre you seriously suggesting that ten years of a systemic failure to mentor the new generation hasn't had an impact on the culture of mentorship?
- davidw 2mo agoAre you saying that precise thing changed 10 years ago and hasn't always kind of been with us? I am talking about the weak market for software engineers right now and what caused it.
- chaps 2mo agoErm, no. I'm saying that the entire industry failure to cultivate a wide spirit of mentorship is biting everyone's ass.
- davidw 2mo agoI mean that could also be true, but it is not - IMO - the cause of the fairly sudden weak market for software engineers.
- chaps 2mo agoIMO it is and I've been saying it for more than ten years that it would catch up with the industry. And it is now. The LLM shit is just a mask over the larger problem. The front fell off because the base was never built to support a shakeup of the industry. There's so little support, now and for as long as I can remember, for people to fail gracefully in the field. It's just up up up. And now that programmers are finding their jobs to be a little more precarious, maybe folk will start supporting mentorship as a practice. This isn't just a "market" problem. It's a problem of people not teaching others skills that help them thrive inside AND outside of work.