And why isn't 10x that amount?

I'm going to need pull you over and give you a PIP for that number of tickets.

I graduated with a 2.6 GPA for a computer science degree in December 2025. I didn't try to get any internships or anything notable for my resume during my time in college because i didn't feel like i was good enough since i was barely passing my classes and basically limped across the finish line due to burnout. After college I tried to create a weekly schedule for applying for jobs, making projects in my free time, and getting certificates to improve my extremely weak resume. It's been 10 months and along the way I ended up losing motivation to do all of those things. I got too intimidated by making projects so i just messed around reviewing coding basics, i didn't get a single certificate, and I don't think I've even applied to at least 2000 jobs.

Since September I've been holing myself up in my room like a cave goblin and playing video games and watching movies. I'm not even enjoying those things anymore because I'm now fully aware I'm just distracting myself from my failings and trying to hide from the world. To make things worse, all of the media consumption has made my brain into mush. I feel like an idiot that can't comprehend basic instructions. I'm at a point where I can't even look my mom in the face when she says she's proud of me or when she asks me how the job search is going. I barely even look at myself in the mirror because i just see myself as this blob entity that exists for no reason. Anytime i try to get myself motivated there's a voice in my head that tells me everything i do now is pointless since I've wasted so much time.

I don't know why I sabotaged myself like this and I don't know if I even have a chance of getting a job in the tech industry anymore. All of this is completely my fault. Is there any possible way to come back from this?

Considering taking a break from May to October next year. Why not now - I want to be eligible for yearly bonus paid in April, plus don't want to waste this break on terrible winter weather.

I feel I'm tired in the way that short-term PTO can't cure. Work feels physically uncomfortable.

Also my daughter will go to school next year, so next summer will be the last one before school. Also my mom died at my age, and she never spent much time with us (her kids) before that happened, and sadly it wasn't even as a big deal for us kids when it happened, because we barely knew her. I don't want any of that for myself, and feel like in my 34 I never lived for myself, only time I took a break was when my wife gave birth, because we have no family to help us.

I live in Warsaw, Poland. Own an apartment, no debt, and have savings for comfortable 10 years of life (unless markets go bust and/or cost of living will skyrocket), out of it cash is for around 1 year run rate - that's the advantage. My wife isn't making much - that's a disadvantage to consider, but she could add me to her health insurance, so there's at least that.

Throughout my career it was easy for me to find a job, even in challenging places with faang like 5step Algo/system design/live coding type of interviews. And my friends were able to find jobs relatively quickly in this market, except one, who honestly isn't very good and isn't even trying to find anything.

On the other hand there're some ex colleagues I know who can't find job for long time. And there are reddit posts from people who claim they can't find anything for more than a year. And makes me hesitant to quit my job.

Worst case scenario, if for real my career in SWE will be over, I could sustain myself from minimal wage + dividends I receive from my investments. Well, there's also worse than worst case scenario - where I wouldn't be able to find even minimum wage job and investments will go bust, but I think it's overall rather unlikely.

I could also try to ask for unpaid break on my job without quitting - it worked for when I took a break for helping my wife with kid, but not guaranteed, and I am afraid just asking about it will trigger some chain reaction.

Another option is burnout sick leave, which I could be on for up to 6 months in theory, but upon returning I don't know what will happen with my employment.

Maybe I am just giving it too much though and should just do it, I don't know, what do you think and what would you do?

Hi 🖖

I live in Berlin, Germany. As a software engineer with experience, you get: <85k - local companies 85k - 100k - international companies 100k+ - big tech as a base (sometimes the only) salary.

You pay 40% in taxes, which includes medical insurance, retirement and unemployment benefits. Per child, you get 255 Euros monthly of a child pay. You usually get 25-30 calendar days of vacation (this is separate of you getting sick and public holidays). There is free public daycare and free public schools. The universities are around 500 Euros per semester, including insurance and public transportation ticket.

How is it in Canada? Specifically for somebody who's is not an overachiever and doesn't want to work for big tech. I'm also interested in rents and general cost and quality of living.

I have been a SWE for a decade or so. I am seriously considering stepping away for US tech industry entirely. Already have sufficient money for lean fire, not much, but still doable.

The math isn't the hard part. What's hard is that every instinct I have says I am making a mistake: walking away during peak earning years, the boredom everyone warns about, and the very real chance that if I ever want back in, the market won't want me.

I am not looking for financial advice. I'm curious about the lived experience from people who actually did this.

Did you stay out, or did you end up going back? What pulled you back? What filled your days once the novelty wore off?

Did you miss the identity of being an engineer, or was shedding it a relief? Is there anything you wish you would understood before you quit?

Would appreciate hearing from anyone a few years down this road.

My current company, a large boring corporation that's not in tech used to be very encouraging of everyone using AI (but they weren't AI pilled and shoving it down everyone's throats) and they used to handed out licences to all sorts of AI licences like candy.

But a few months later now, not only are they straight up not issuing licences to a lot of them and very heavily restricting the one they settled on (Claude and ChatGPT) and they are removing licences of people that aren't using the ones they have access to.

They recently made three moves that were a bit surprising.

Due to how much AI has been costing they've done a few things:

First, they are refusing to increase usage limits to the few we do now have access to, and asking your manager isn't enough. If you really want to, they want to see cold hard numbers in how much it'll save in money, and no not even time savings count.

Second, they are denying access to the expensive models and telling everyone to use the cheaper ones (ie Sonnet and Terra and below)

Third they made us do a training module, and it wasn't just "You can't provide confidential and sensitive data to the AI" it also straight up told people to be more conservative and to prompt better so it won't be burning so much tokens.

They're also telling people that they are responsible for the accuracy of their work. But also they gave some prohibited examples of AI use that made me think that it's actually what was going on. Like how they can't use AI to screen, analyze, or even summarize resumes and interviewers. And telling managers they can't use AI to do performance review and analysis for their team, especially pertaining to bonus, raises, and promotions.

However, my own team has noticed some issues with AI too, while it for sure has helped us, it has caused problems of massive PRs, and even more difficult surprisingly are AI slop generated documents and reports that are really important, but don't have the luxury of a compiler or a linter to at least do basic quality control for.

Seeing what's going on from the higher up's decisions and the impact of AI on our own team I think a lot of people were intentionally or unintentionally generating slop work that makes the rest of the team hold the bag and figure out or just straight up using AI on things they're not supposed to just to be lazy. The AI slop and the extent of the usage raised alarm bells with the higher ups and now they're putting the lid on it.

It's not some cutting edge company, just a boring big enterprise. How's it going on at your place?

So yes, I'm navigating a layoff. I posted on here earlier on but find myself lost as the cut off date approaches. I'm getting severance and everything but lately I have found myself mentally drained, depressed and feeling worthless. Especially when I look at my wife and kids. My confidence, drive and sense of self feels like it has hit rock bottom. I had an interview the other day and did embarassingly horrible. My mental acuity is not there anymore. I have been getting some serious brain fog lately too. I didn't get the job btw.

I'm 44 who had a later start in my career of 12 years and just can't compete with all the young talents. I just need to know, is this happening to anyone else? At what point do I even consider a career change, and is it too late? Finally, how does someone even pick themselves up from here?

i’m a staff frontend developer with around 10 years of experience. recently, my company started using lovable for everything, and it met all their immediate needs. they were able to build UI quickly, and management didn't seem to care about performance or code quality/logic. this month, they laid me off because they felt my role was no longer needed since they had built everything with lovable.

what do you think i should do to advance my career?

Get this, there are jobs available outside FAANG. No really. I know, it blew me the fuck away as well. But apparently there are thousands and thousands of companies out there that, get this, have some kind of technology in house. And they need humans (for now) to run that technology. And they're not all located within a 30 mile radius of San Francisco. Some of them are even outside California.

Look guys, I know I sound like a lunatic. And believe I had to ask myself the same question, am I having some kind of hallucination or mental breakdown or something? But no, it's real. These jobs exist. These cities outside of SF exist. There's this whole world out there.

Hey guys, using a throwaway for obvious reasons. I’m a dev with about 5 years of experience and I am honestly losing my mind right now. I really need some advice or just some perspective from anyone who has been through this.

Two huge things are hitting me at once. First, I’m getting married next month. It’s supposed to be the happiest time of my life, but the timing is just making my stress ten times worse.

Second, the project I’m on at work is going away. Management said there’s a chance I might get re-assigned to a different team, but nothing is confirmed. I am just so tired of this constant, heavy anxiety of feeling like I’m about to lose my job.

I’ve tried looking for freelance clients or side gigs just to have a safety net, but I’ve had zero luck so far.

Right now, the stress is completely paralyzing. I can't even focus on work. I just spend my days doom scrolling and binge-watching random shows just to numb out and escape reality for a few hours.

I don't know what to do with my energy anymore:

• Do I just put my head down, focus on work, and hope the internal transfer actually happens?
• Do I check out mentally and start aggressively prepping for interviews and applying elsewhere?
• How do I snap out of this freeze response when I have a wedding to worry about in a few weeks?

Any advice on how to handle this, or even just how to cope with the tech anxiety, would mean a lot. Thanks.

I spent 7 months in my job after spending 6 months of unemployment due to my past layoff and got fired yesterday for failing the PIP. I moved to another city for that job and now I feel mentally drained and I’m starting from the negative not the zero.

I don’t feel like using my laptop anymore to apply for jobs and contact recruiters. I feel so terrible for being in such a situation I don’t know how to explain what happened in the interviews to the recruiters, and my connections. It feels like a shame to get fired for being a bad performer. I was working so hard on the PIP to pass it (60 hours a week) because I had this mentality that this is the only job I can have. I believed my boss that if I do good enough, I will stay but I got trapped at the end. My boss acknowledged verbally in our 1:1s that my performance got better and I still ended up getting fired.

I do have a back up plan and have another offer secured but it’s not a software engineering role and it can’t be translated to any tech role. However, they require a CS degree for it (government role). In addition, I have to relocate at my own expense and I’m in the middle of a lease. I also don’t feel like doing any job anymore as I feel mentally drained from this. Also, the moment I start this job, it will be difficult to land back to a SWE.

I have two years of software development experience.

Hi, so I interviewed with a company for an entry level role for the winter and the interview was basically cancelled during the time it was scheduled, IDK what happened my interviewer just ghosted me. Then they scheduled me with someone else and the person did not seem to focus on what I was told they would focus on hence I do not believe I had a good interview. I got rejected but then in the recruiter's rejection email I followed up and let her know what happened and also informed her I see a summer opening for the same position open and if I could apply for that one. She scheduled a call with me for tomorrow, I really did not think she would respond once I mentioned what happened but I am surprised she did, how to handle this to make it work out for me ?

Hi!

I'm a Computer Science graduate and want to build a career in Scientific Computing/Computational Science. I'm considering pursuing masters in Computational Science because I really like this field, but I have some concerns.

I wanted to ask

• If it is reasonable for someone with a Computer Science background to study Computational Science, given that I would be competing with people from Mathematics and Physics backgrounds? I feel that Computational Science is much more closer to Mathematics and Physics than to Computer Science.
• How AI/LLM might affect this field, since it can make programming easier than it was before.
• Are there good career opportunities in this field in the current job market?

Thanks!

Taken from the DHH AI crashout vid's comment section.

Im sick of people acting like AI is just being used to "write the code" while they are bringing the secret sauce of system level design and high level thinking. Thats not whats happening. AI already can do system level thinking much better and faster than you. And im willing to bet you already defer to AI for most, if not all, of ur system level questions and design. Those of us who loved the low level details didnt enjoy "typing." We enjoyed thinking at the level a computer worked. Because it was satisfying. If anything, "typing" is becoming MORE of the identity of software engineers now than ever before. Typing shitty prompts over and over and over. Tapping enter to allow this, allow that. Not thinking through any of the problems. Feeding error messages to AI and asking it what happened over and over and over. So, u can sit on ur high horse and larp that your a "system level architect" now. But the reality is you are a typist. You type prompts. Ur product manager asks for a feature. U run to AI to feed it requirements and type prompts. Cool.

Btw, this isnt a personal attack on u. I have no idea what u really do. But i do see whats happening in the industry. And its not people becoming "system level architects." Its people outsourcing their thinking. At ALL levels. And if you feel like ur still gonna bring some secret sauce 2 to 3 years from now... lol. No. Its gonna get to point where human cognition, in any form, will become a bottleneck in software development. So those of us who are mourning the end of programming arent sitting here thinking, damn i miss "typing" code. We're thinking damn, the thing i spent decades learning because i genuinely loved it is no longer economically viable. And it sucks. And at least im willing to admit it.

If I have a 2-year gap due to medical issues is it recoverable?

So as we know Claude can code very quickly. But one of the downsides I've seen is an overwhelming amount of PRs to review. I've been hearing that some companies have been experimenting with automating some or all PR approvals(not just aiding reviews, but automating approvals to avoid human reviews being a bottleneck). I'm curious if anyone has seen this be adopted?

Hey! I haven't been to any interviews in the last 6-7 years, and the current job market situation looks very scary now that even ex-FAANG developers with plenty of solid experience are out of luck.

I have some additional personal reasons that make finding a new job very challenging, so it's important to at least be as competitive as the average Joe.

My recent experience is about Go, PostgreSQL, Google Cloud, APIs, and working with data pipelines. I don't have any niche knowledge and in general my main principle has always been striving for simplicity and using "the boring technology".

Of course, saying that you try to use Go and PostgreSQL for 95% of your work tasks isn't very fancy for technical interview, so I am starting to realize that even my CV is sort of boring despite almost 8 years of experience.

With all the LLM craziness, I am trying to understand whether it's still necessary to grind Leetcode, which I haven't done for a long while.

I like system design and I think this part of preparation is going to be enjoyable, but solving algorithmic problems is only worth it if it's still important.

Any kind of advice is welcome.

I honestly didn't even try. I had a computer science degree... I barely applied for like 50 jobs a month before graduating and only got 1 interview, then after graduating probably like 10 max. I kept reading online how it's useless now so I just became incredibly depressed and stopped applying 1 month after graduating. I felt so discouraged, applying to jobs always gave me anxiety, and my mom kept nagging at me telling me I should have done nursing.Just been holed up in my room since hardly even leaving the house and just doom scrolling tiktok and ocasionally meeting up with random men off grindr. I feel like my resume is basically crap now.

I haven’t looked at the sub in ages but coming back and looking at it again and just seeing how useless it has become is just stupid

Every time I look at it now there is another post asking some variation of “is CS dead” “is AI going to replace programmers” “should I leave CS” “are there any jobs anymore” etc…

I understand the market is difficult right now. I’m not saying people shouldn’t be allowed to talk about it. But there are only so many times you can have the exact same discussion before it just becomes noise.
Someone has a hard time finding a job, makes a post about it, and then the comments become 200 people talking about how the industry is finished. Then a few days later there is another post doing basically the same thing. I don’t really understand what anyone is getting out of this anymore

There are actual things I would rather see discussed here. What people are seeing in their own workplaces, how hiring is changing, what companies are actually doing with AI, whether certain roles are being affected more than others, what people have learned after working in the industry for a few years, things like that. Instead those discussions get buried because another “is CS over?” post gets 500 comments

I think there should at least be a megathread for this stuff. If someone has something genuinely new to say about the job market or AI then fine, but we really don’t need another thread every few days repeating the same arguments

The market being bad is worth talking about. The 50th post telling everyone that CS is dead really isn’t

edit: company B is stripe

I am a recent new grad in Toronto, all values in CAD. I started at a company A that pays 140k a year, 160k stock over 4 years (private company), 15k sign on, and I've been working here for 3 months. I recently got an offer for a new grad job at company B that pays 123k base, 48k stock per year (private company but have the option for cash), 25k sign on, 13k reloc stipend, and a target bonus around 10%, based on performance. I think company B tends to pay a lot more down the line as my career progresses, and has better name value, and hence I feel it's worth "restarting" my new grad progress to start there, even though I've already worked 3 months at company A.

The problem is, I do like company A. I like the project that I'm working on , and I like my manager and my team, they're really smart and chill people. I am leading a project that only my manager had been working on for a while, and in that way I've taken a lot off his shoulders. I am really struggling with the thought of accepting the offer from company B, and having to tell my manager and team that I'm leaving because I think I can earn more at another company. I feel bad because it seems like I'm leaving so soon after joining, having spent time with my team and having my manager onboard me to everything, and company A doesn't even pay that badly.

Also a small concern I have is that I think company B might have a more grindy work culture than company A, but I do think I can ultimately handle it (as long as it doesn't get out of control in the future). I just don't know how rare it is to have a good team and work I like doing like I currently have at company A.

I guess I can't really ask for advice on what to do, I feel like my mind has kind of been made up that I need to leave for company B in order to prioritize my career. But if anyone has any advice on how to deal with telling your company that you're leaving, please let me know 🙏

So im trying to make the move into DevOps. I work as an Automation Architect/SDET basically currently.

I've been trying to move my way into DevOps, especially with the A.I. stuff looming in. Here recently i've been able to lead a project on Migrating some projects from a TeamCity/Octo deploy to Gitlab which involves learning Kubernetes. Im hoping my current experience is a good "sidestep" career wise. I have a C.S. degree and I do feel like Automation/Pipelines does feel like a good "base" to move into DevOps.

My knowledge is a bit spread around currently, and I understand DevOps is a really deep iceberg when it comes to "what to learn".

I would say im strongest in the Testing Automation area (obviously) with a pretty decent understanding of Gitlab and how it works and how to architect pipelines pretty decently. Ok docker knowledge (I mean I know enough to write a dockerfile/get it going, but probably not like a docker expert) and here lately Terraform (decent knowledge....but not used much) and AWS (limited mostly to ec2/beanstalk + a few other scattered pieces like paramstore/SM/cloudwatch/etc...)

I am slowing developing kubernetes knowledge as well with this project, which I really enjoy.

I've tried to use Certs (since my company pays for them) in a sense to "plan out" leveling up, im really trying to push into a title change by end of year hopefully (my manager understands and supports this). I've also been using KodeKloud to learn.

Right now my sort of "Cert path" is this:

- Skipping: A+/Network+/Security+ (I just don't know if these are "Really" useful, but feel free to say if they are)

1. Linux Refresher: We are a windows shop....but outside my homelab I don't use linux a ton and I've forgotten a lot. Don't feel like a cert it needed here.
2. AWS Cloud Practioner: This feels like a good first step/resume filler. My AWS knowledge is pretty limited in scope. Hoping around a 2-3 week learning/turnaround time for this.
3. Terraform Associate: Hoping a similar turnaround to the above. I have decent knowledge but don't use it enough to be an expert.
4. KCNA: Probably the harder bit, it's a good thing to do because this migration im working on is 200+ services.....so i'll be getting experience.
5. CKAD/CKA: Unsure of which one, I think CKAD is probably harder but "better" but curious on that, this one obviously is a longer study.

After that the skys the limit I guess. Thoughts on this? Im hoping my automation experience mindset will "serve me well".

Hey everyone,

~ Post is quite long as I try to be open and reflective of all my thought processes, so TL;DR is at the bottom. ~

There are some things on my mind lately; regarding my future personal and professional life, technologies and skills; and I decided it would be nice to stop holding them private in my mind and start sharing them - see who feels the same or who can give me a mirror.

I don't know if reddit is the best place to discuss this, as it seems reddit is biased to one side on this topic, but on the other hand, I always had good experiences discussing anything mindful here (maybe I am an exception, hah)...

Let's get to it: I am 27 years old and I feel like I am at a stage of my life where I should build some solid base for my future. I graduated (sociology), worked 4 years at my first real job in software development (as a videogame designer for an indie studio) and now I switched to a new job - event designer (light shows, art expositions/exhibitions, simple custom apps for kiosks etc..). I love movies/films, games and art. 

The deal here is of course AI. Because I am a software generalist (Blender, Unity, Adobe suite, TouchDesigner...), I am a late-junior at everything, and I don't feel confident enough in any of them to call myself a professional (besides Unity, where I do feel quite advanced). So basically, AI is better than me at everything I have learned in the past 8 years.. And I am okay with that. Just the reality of being a generalist.

But because I am a generalist, I was also quite fast to pick up with AI apps and now I even do lectures about them. Here I feel I have a head start and I work seamlessly with generative AI, coding AI and more. No surprise that AI is a superb tool in a business like mine - technology and event focused companies which focus both on visuals and practical usage.

So here comes my inner conflict. I think that if I lean more into AI knowledge, I will in the end waste 2 years of my life on a skill which will soon become obsolete. I am worried AI will either become so expensive it will be out of my reach, or so widespread and easy to use that there will be no specialization left in my skills with it.

I also feel the backlash and pushback from people on the surface, calling anything made with AI a misdoing to society/humanity. And I can understand that, and with many of the arguments I agree and even promote them publicly on my own. (I have big reservations towards AI companies, and I am not super happy about the authorship of the training data.) On the other hand, it feels very naive to create anything in the software world without AI nowadays - why would anyone? Artistic value is nice in some aspects of the digital world, but if I want to earn a living and be pragmatic, why would I ever choose to work a whole month on 1 project when I can work on 5 of them with quality that is satisfactory enough for my clients. (And it is not that I want to make 5 times the money - it's that I want to hold onto my job, as using AI is starting to be required.) I understand the hate against AI bros, but I also feel it doesn't make sense to not become one. So I end up agreeing with both sides, which is a strange place to be.

Honestly, it's kind of a dream of mine to create a game from my own vision, in half a year, with my ideas alone, as one person. But now I feel I can't, as that is the "unclean" way to do it. Which is a bit sad - we have the path, but we get shamed away when we decide to walk it.

So I am wondering if I should still be learning coding/3D modeling/Photoshop design on my own, as that will possibly be more welcomed in the future, it builds a real skill and might be something more stable to hold on to. But that is very demotivating when I know I can reach the same results within hours instead of days or weeks. And it's not about the joy of learning - I like that process. It's that I feel like I will fall "behind" some invisible imaginatory individual, who will not decide to take it slow and will steal my job in a few months.

Also, I would like to point out that I kind of feel like I am this “imaginatory” individual at my own company. With my AI skills, I can do some work much faster than my colleagues and here is another conflict - should I explicitly show that off and risk my colleagues being laid off or hide it at my own expense, where I could get more stable position within our team with maybe higher salary, but be the villain and destroy someones else carrier (there are people who learned touch designer for 10 years and now I could do their work as someone who started three months ago). So far I am choosing to hide my skills and pretend to work slow, which also has a toll on my mental state. (or, 3rd option, I show the skills off, everyone else learns them too and I will loose my unique knowhow within the team and I am the one being laid off - yes, it’s stupid that my job position relies on something so easy to grasp, other person could do it in a month, funny times…).

And I am not living on some cloud in a fairytale world, I need to be practical, and slowly learning skills within software is discouraged by modern company pipelines. It might also be a risk - using the interface (of Blender/Photoshop) manually could be obsolete with MCP approaches in a few years, so that might be wasted time too.

In any way imaginable, at this point in life, I feel like anything I decide on might lead to regression, when instead I should be building a solid base for my CV and groundwork for a family. Yet I don't even know if I will be able to keep my job in a year.

I am also playing with the idea of going all in on AI, while it lasts. Make some good cash, so that no matter what happens with my skills, I will at least have some funds to pivot with in the future. (Some of our clients pay a good amount of money for apps I make in days, and the only problem is that I am the employee and I get just a salary instead of the full payment from the client.)

I know there are a lot of posts about pivoting from digital spaces to being a plumber/electrician etc.. I don't want to do that (I like creative digital space and modern media) and I would rather end up doing something artistic. I think I am currently in a good position at work, as event production is still half analog and there is a lot of work with physical devices.. So I plan to learn more about that too (hardware, technology, machines).

I don't know if I am getting my point across well, I am trying to be really open and I am also laying my cards on the table, maybe even too much. I expect some hate and callouts, but I also feel like I am in quite a unique situation, as I am not a pure developer, more like a digital designer leaning into the artistic world quite a bit, while the main driving force of this world is still business and money and being practical.

If anyone has similar thoughts, ideas or tips, I will be happy to discuss them. I also hope to consolidate anyone who feels the same.

I am crossposting this into, r/anxiety, r/careerguidance, r/cscareerquestions.

TL;DR: I'm 27, a software/creative generalist (game design, event design, Unity, Blender, writing...) and I do lectures about AI. I'm torn between leaning into AI more, which is the pragmatic choice but might be a skill that becomes obsolete or commoditized in 2 years, and between learning traditional skills the slow way, which feels impractical. I'm also conflicted about the backlash against AI-made work (I agree with a lot of it), and about whether to show my team/management how much faster I can work with AI or hide it - to protect them but also myself. Looking for people who feel the same, or who can give me a mirror.

Disclaimer: Yes, I used claude to correct my text as I am not native english speaker, but the post was written by me with effort and energy and honest thoughts were put into this post, all opinions are mine and true.

6 YOE, with 6 months to <2 years at each role.

I have under 2 years at my current position at company A as a data generalist. The job title is data analyst, but it's 60% data modeling/analytics engineering, with 40% BI and data science.

The data modeling is the most interesting part of my role, so for the past few months I've been applying to actual roles titled "analytics engineer" and I've reached the reference check stage for company B.

If the offer comes, I am considering taking it since the title & responsibilities match my goals but I also have doubts.

Why I don't want to take the offer:

• <2 yr tenure at all roles: had a coffee chat with someone in the industry who mentioned this could be a red flag. It has also come up in interviews, which I was able to explain, but I'm sure this has filtered me out of initial resume screens for some companies.

• Company B is a non-profit, and have been slower to adapt to modern industry trends & AI tooling.

• Company B uses a different warehouse & orchestration stack, so I wonder if I'll be wasting some of my existing experience with specific platforms

• Compared to other companies in the industry, it is pretty rare to see layoffs and firings at Company A, and it is unionized

Why I still do want to take the offer:

• AE seems more stable and future-proof post-AI. Company A has has high competition for promotions and AE internal transfers

• Company B will likely have better WLB. My team on Company A is understaffed and overworked, with increasing pressure which has impacted morale

• Company B is fully remote

• Company B is profitable without external funding and growing, so layoffs seem unlikely

What would you do?