LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams
Damn. The market is already so tough for software engineers right now and the supply of engineers is going to increase again. I don&#x27;t see how wages can drop lower than they are now. I think some engineers may have to consider a career in construction, plumbing, retail or other. Software development is just not worth the hassle and strain. Not to mention that it has become laborious, repetitive and inefficient without much autonomy in terms of choice of frameworks, tools, etc... Software development appears to have become a low-status, menial office job. Not to mention that we are now extremely replaceable; not only because of AI (which makes developers more productive) but because of standardized frameworks like React which allow juniors to churn out features fast with limited knowledge of software development; this means that seniors can often be replaced with juniors.<p>Maybe security will be the next big thing? All these juniors churning out code using frameworks but not understanding what&#x27;s really going on under the hood might introduce more security vulnerabilities. Not to mention all the disgruntled, jobless developers who might turn to hacking to make ends meet.<p>I guess people who are really into software development may want to consider moving into consulting, management or teaching. I also noticed a lot of bs jobs opening up dealing with regulations and compliance.<p>I remember when I joined the industry in 2012, being a developer was very special; you would interact directly with the company directors, you could choose all your tools and frameworks or even build your own from scratch. You could also decide to focus on back end or front end as there was no clear separation in responsibilities. I guess that&#x27;s the downside of joining an industry which essentially didn&#x27;t exist 50 years ago; you never know how it&#x27;s going to end up. It&#x27;s not like being a lawyer or doctor which has remained high status and high pay for thousands of years.<p>There&#x27;s a whole social architecture designed around propping up lawyers&#x27; and doctors&#x27; pay by constraining the supply of graduates and imposing artificial requirements. On the other hand, software developers tend to be extremely compliant and willing to work overtime for free, not interested to unionize, you don&#x27;t even need a degree (very low bar to entry), etc... The highly compliant, overworked ones force the rest of us to match them in their degree of compliance and overwork to remain competitive. It&#x27;s really a sad race to the bottom.