Yeah I'd feel like my work is more important if I worked on Postgres or an Apache project. Basically anything open source. The problem is getting paid.

I would say one partial cure for this is to contribute to open source or if you are using open source in your projects see if you can get your company to allow you to contribute any fixes you have implemented up stream. Although at times rather than asking, I have fixed issues in a cpl of hours after work and pushed these up. But the simple fact is everything, even the most "advanced" projects eventually become obsolete, so I wouldn't worry about it, it is just part of working in tech.

Yeah, that sounds about right - A lot depends on what level you’re at and how “agile” the company you work for is. It’s not wasted per se - Most of the time other engineers build on your work, usually as bugs are found or the feature evolves. But yeah, products (and companies) also will die off.

Code merely solves a given problem at a given time. It’s not meant to last forever. Rejoice in the knowledge and mastery you have gained instead.

Absolutely normal, imo. I was shocked my (MVP level) solution was still the main production software for a giant retailer. Ive also written and thrown away far more code than has been deployed

Ugh, teach me your secret. Been stuck looking for a year and a half out here. Anyone taking tech refugees from the US?

"It's been eight of the most exciting months of my career," Benioff said on a podcast, according to Business Insider. "I was able to rebalance my head count on my support. I've reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000 because I need less heads."

In case you don't speak Silicon Valley executive jargon, Benioff was celebrating the fact that he was able to fire nearly half of his customer support division, thanks to artificial intelligence agents.

Ghoulish

That seems to be US specific. I've been pestered by recruiters since late 2025, almost to the 2022 levels.

"Is it because your customer numbers are down?"

"How dare you! They are up! See this spike here"

"Isn't that when management forced everyone to use AI in their daily job even if they don't have problems that AI. can't solve?"

"Nobody forced anyone. Besides the numbers prove how productive everyone is with AI!"

"Well where are those numbers?"

"I don't have those numbers"

"Oh no, you see, it's not because sales have fallen off a cliff, it's because we've replaced the workers with AI."

"So, your AI is just as busy as the workers you laid off would have been?"

"I don't have numbers on that."

"And, how is customer satisfaction?"

"Overall number of complaints are down."

Thank you so much ❤️

Thank you a lot for your precious advice

I have spent most of my career in consulting and contracting. You get exposure to a bunch of environments and leads and different ways of doing things. It has mostly been a boon to my career and knowledge. I recommend it for anything for whom west coast big tech isn't in their future. It builds a solid foundation of knowledge — though often in the form of object lessons.

That said, they rarely invest in your education, the benefits are garbage, and management is often... uneven. Pay is decent but job security is utter shit.

Remote jobs can be conducive to travel domestically, but most positions I've had barred taking devices overseas. I wouldn't recommend part time work unless you intend to put your career on hold while you finish school.

That said, I never got a 4-year degree so I can't really comment on school. I wouldn't recommend going my route. You need a lot of experience and big names under your belt before anyone will overlook lack of education — consulting is actually a good way to work for big companies that would never hire you based on resume. I was a rock star when I worked at automaker, but they auto-rejected my resume when one contact closed down and I tried to get direct hired. I got back in on another contract easy, though. Same story with home improvement store. But having those on my resume 100% helped me land my current role.

By graduate, I'm assuming undergrad?

I'm in my 40s and I'll try to contextualize my advice.

• College degrees are all but unnecessary at this point. If you are taking college courses paid for by your company, I'd keep going but if you are paying out of pocket, I'd really wonder if it's worth it. If you are only a few credits shy, it might be worth it to continue.
• Money buys happiness. I hate that it does and I hate the state of our late-stage capitalism but you can't do much if you don't have money unless you're willing to significantly lower your standard of living. Maybe you're willing to. I wasn't. That said, you can travel but finding a remote job that allows you to work anywhere can be extremely challenging. I just wrapped up my job search and every interview I got was for a remote job except two. I got an offer for a remote job as well as an on-site job and ended up taking the on-site job because the salary and benefits were much better. I'm not going to tell you what to do because it really depends on your priorities but if I were in your shoes, I'd rather focus on building savings and then spend that savings to travel than try to travel and work at the same time.
• It's hard to answer your question regarding where to take your career. I'd say it's better to expand your skills since you never know what's going to be in demand when you job search next. AI is the hotness right now but most of my interviews have been in the DevOps space.

It doesn't hurt to ask. Before you do, think about how you will handle possible rejection. What is your next step if they say "not yet"? Will you quit on the spot? Will you try to find out why and focus on resolving any shortcomings they highlight? Will you slog on with the rate race and ask again in 6 months?

Besides the title, why do you want the promotion? Is it the increased responsibility? The money? The challenge? To impress your parents? As a reward for your hard work so far?

Lastly, expertise in a niche does not always translate into broader expertise and experience in a field that could make it easier to find new employment or implement a career refresh. The title might not be as helpful as you hope unless you plan on staying in that niche. And of course, locking in a specialization may not mean changing jobs changes much.

These are just things to ponder. There are no wrong answers. If you asked me for the promotion, as your boss, I'd probably ask you these questions before going to bat to get you the title upgrade.

I'd say go for it.

I can't speak for development, because I worked in Cybersecurity as a pentester, so it might be different, but my experience is that the main difference is how much oversight you are getting. I've seen super skilled juniors that didn't need any oversight and seniors whose work I'd describe as mediocre.

If you trust in your work, then it's mostly just a fromality that will get you more money. And even then, I'd say the main difference is that if you don't know something, you have to ask for help (which should be ok and encouraged, if it's not extremely often), instead of having someone watching over you (or in my case of pentesting, doing the project with you). In all cases, if someone, senior or not, wasn't sure about something, needed feedback, help with a bug/script or just to discuss something, just asking others was never a problem.

So, yeah, if you fullfill the requirements your work has, then there's not really a reason not to ask for promotion unless you are really insecure in your work and preffer to have more guidance.

I didn't really rush for promotion because I was more comfortable with the leeway it gives me, and not having that much responsibility, but tbh even if I did ask for it it wouldn't really change much - I was already working mostly independend, reliably and had the required knowledge. It has, however, cost me a lot in sallary over the years, so it probably wasn't worth it.

Only if they volunteered it. Some places give better detail. Usually its ones where I was working with a headhunter. I had one where I got passed three rounds and it was down to me an another guy and they said he got half a point better on a technical evaluation. Many times I get feedback that they have pulled the listing or such. Basically that they are not going to actually fill the role. Those are disturbing as it means a more general trend of not moving forward with projects and hiring and such.

As others have said, the companies don't typically respond. This is understandable, since from the company's standpoint they can only lose. You might argue back, you might even find an angle to try to raise a stink. Even if you take the honest feedback gracefully, the company doesn't gain anything. It's unfortunate, but true.

Gotcha - if you’re looking for some travel then you’re probably looking at working for consultancy’s or for a business/product that does installations on site.

I feel like a remote job will make me stare at a screen even more so I don't want that. If that's the case then I prefer in person

Thank you ulterno. I’m glad to hear you’re doing better too

Thank you superuserdo

Thank you ensignwashout

Thank you prettybunnys

Prefix: American perspective.

When I think of “chill” my mind goes to government roles. But you’re not going to be able to work remote.

I would lean towards cloud infra and maybe looking into some of the certification training materials there. But I admittedly don’t know what that looks like for a new hire these days.

At worst you look at what IT/Cyber-security programs the military offers.

My expectations would be different from yours, but here's what I am doing:

• I left an ok-ish paying in-office job, to WFH for an hourly rate, with a reduction relative to the hourly rate calculated from the previous CTC
  • As a result, the company only paid me for the time they required me and I got quite a low amount per month
  • I haven't gotten sick even once in the past year, when previously I had to take unpaid leaves 2 days or more in a week to prevent my sickness from getting worse

In your case, I might have been willing to take a pay cut in the opposite direction, but never the way you are doing.

When it comes to experience vs certs, while it depends upon your area, trends change and one can't say for sure, which is better.
If you can find a cert that is reputed, that would end up being better. And perhaps you could get the same opportunity after getting those certs, but with an payment increase instead of a reduction.