I just finished a PhD in stats, and before that, studied computer science. I had planned to go back to industry to do software engineering or be a data scientist afterwards.

However, it seems that in the meantime, vibe coding has taken over the software industry and swallowed most data scientist roles. Few open positions, and the ones that do exist are just pushing a button instead of thinking and solving problems. Is this a correct assessment? Should I try to get back in or just find a new career? I am not too keen on staying in academia either.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

At the very least, it's a very different job than what you remember. It's more of a manager role now, without the paycheck.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 6 hours ago (1 child)

    Note this is far from a universal experience in this industry. Even if vibe coding worked as well in my problem domain as others, my manager would still be unable to deliver a vaguely decent solution.

    Recently I was asked to review a vibe coded application from a random guy who convinced management he was onto something. But neither he nor anyone he knew could even identify the correct person to review the solution he vibed up. So they went to me and I recognized that I had nothing to do with the problem and forwarded them to the folks that would.

    Ultimately, it was a rather visually impressive demo that didn't do anything vaguely right under the presentation. This is the sort of disconnect between management and what they manage, they have a whole culture of not even understanding the depth of their problem domains.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 6 hours ago

    I mean, yeah, I agree with that. Requirements engineering continues to be a big part of the job and an actual team lead does not have the mental capacity for that.

    I meant "manager" more as in:

    • You're supposed to take responsibility for something you only delegated.
    • As a result, you spend most of your time checking the output of others/LLMs and trying to put in guardrails to push them towards the right goal and making them more productive.

    I guess, everyone's a lead dev, without the paycheck, is probably more precise.

  • source
  • parent