r/cscareerquestions • u/Jetnjet • 1d ago
I used to love my job, now I hate it.
I used to love this job, it’s my first professional tech job, and I would consistently work overtime and really believed in the vision of the product we were making.
Fast forward about 1.5 years and it’s just miserable now. The other devs are 99.9% vibe coders, sometimes putting more effort into making it easier to make the AI do the work than themselves doing it.
Working on this codebase is miserable it’s just AI junk I can’t even be bothered to try anymore. I’ve fully committed myself to lazily letting Claude code do it all for me and I really don’t even care anymore. I even stated this to my boss and he did not object, he clearly values speed over anything else.
I used to be so happy seeing a team’s message and talking to everyone but at this point it’s genuinely depressing and for whatever reason stressful if that’s not an overstatement, I feel like I’m just putting on a fake face.
Because of all this I feel my feelings are heavily impacting my work negatively and my boss is picking this up. I’m not as close anymore and my quality of work has dropped. Nothing that would be a cause for concern but definitely something that’s noticeable.
*the question*
It’s not the worst feeling to just float through my job and collect the paycheck each week but I can’t see the growth or mentorship I need I am quite literally a the beginning.
I want to get out and get a new job which I’m expecting to pay more but adding onto this I have a few issues.
1) I have basically no reasonable personal projects, I have recently started one at a decent scale but I would say it’s still in its starting stages.
2) in this market how do I know I can even find anything
3) my company is a start up and I am on a 2 year contract. We are very close to some very big deadlines so if I leave at this stage while I previously had a good relationship with my boss I’m worried all this will cause is a poor reference and a fractured connection.
Essentially what to do. I know a lot of what I said is essentially a rant for the context but if there’s a good route to take let me know.
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u/skyper_mark 1d ago
Literally no one gives a shit about personal projects. I have never, not once, looked at a candidate's personal github. This is a meme people tell to recent graduates, but no one actually cares if you have experience because everyone gets you're not gonna be building some shitty personal project if you were working full time.
Same for referrals, just ask a coworker to refer you, it doesn't have to come from your CEO.
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u/Jetnjet 1d ago
Should I just start applying for other jobs then and ask a coworker to refer me if needed?
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u/skyper_mark 1d ago
You're thinking of reference letter. A referral is something else.
Anyway, highly likely they won't even check that.
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u/marsman57 Staff Software Engineer 1d ago
I would only look at GitHub if someone was a contributor on a real meaningful project in the open source community, and I would probably only look because I would want to see a few PRs to confirm they weren't bullshitting about it lol
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u/NumberPuzzleheaded90 14h ago
That’s not true, that’s just your personal experience and personal preference. I got my j2 as a lead engineer entirely from my personal project/indy platform I run solo bc it solved a similar problem that j2’s product was having + had overlapping technology… tho I am many years off from new grad and j2 is a start up. But first dev job, pre covid, they asked for a link to my github, what they did with it idk, but point is , what you’re saying simply isn’t globally true.
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u/AdInteresting4036 19h ago
Well your experience doesn't mean that is 100% absolute truth for everyone
When I applied for my first ever software job they said they liked my linked GitHub projects
When I switched to another job after that (5 years give or take) in the tech interview they asked if I do any projects on my freetime and then we took a look at some of my projects and ended up talking about my coding practices in these projects instead of doing the forced bullshit excercises
So in my experience.. Yes.. they are more than helpful when you are just starting out
But hey, must be like you say then and nobody cares about them!
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u/skyper_mark 18h ago
THIS DUDE REALLY OUT HERE THINKING THE AVERAGE SENIOR AND HM HAVE TIME TO GO THROUGH SOME COLLEGE KID PROJECTS 😭😭😭😂😂😂👆👆👆
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u/AdInteresting4036 18h ago
Why wouldn't they if they are looking for entry level jobs and especially if its brought up already in the interview? And it has happened twice to me so unless I am the 0,0001% its safe to say it will and has happened to other people
Is it guaranteed? No. But INCASE they do take a look.. why wouldn't you be prepared?
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u/Winston_Wolfgang 1d ago
You're unlikely to get another job with your YOE unless you have a really good internal referral, like someone you used to work with who can vouch for you to a hiring manager, especially a job that pays more than you make now. It could technically be a bit easier for you as startup experience is generally valued more, but it's still likely not gonna help without a referral.
More importantly, if everyone at your company is using Claude to do 100% of their work, why exactly are YOU still being singled out as the lowest performer? Are you saying you can't even reach the minimal bar your coworkers have set?
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u/throwawaysc57 1d ago
I think 1.5 YOE is fine to apply to other jobs tbh I switched jobs after 18 months and most of my friends starting looking for their second job at the 1.5-2 year mark
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u/Illustrious-Pound266 1d ago
>More importantly, if everyone at your company is using Claude to do 100% of their work, why exactly are YOU still being singled out as the lowest performer?
Probably doesn't know how to use Claude Code effectively. There's a little bit of learning curve on Claude and I find that there's definitely a skill issue for some not knowing how to use AI effectively.
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u/Jetnjet 1d ago
Perhaps I explained wrong, work wise I was fine Im not against using ai but I used Claude code as my “assistant” or just save me time doing something repetitive. But when it came to actually coding and designing the solution it all came from me as the main source.
I would work to a good speed and have good work.
What I was referring to was I recently just can’t be bothered to essentially “try”. I just use Claude code to spit out whatever it does I don’t care how good it is or even sometimes the speed (as I used to put in extra effort in the past to get things done). And that might be something picked up.
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u/Winston_Wolfgang 1d ago
Ok so maybe you're exactly where you deserve to be?
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u/Jetnjet 1d ago
What do you recommend I do to advance?
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u/Winston_Wolfgang 1d ago
I don't think it's possible anymore. It used to be companies would promote us so that we wouldn't go to another company that would offer us more money, but that doesn't happen anymore so there's no reason for them to promote us
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u/ErZicky 1d ago
Edit: this turned into a small rant. Skip to the lasts paragraphs for my advice OP
I don't think the majority of devs really enjoy to code 100% through Claude.
But the upper suits don't care so they push you to do it.
For some developers turning to full AI and accepting it was easier.
For others like you and me it's Harder, for me because I like coding, it was something enjoyable in between meetings, presentations and whatnot. The moment where I could put to use all the skill I've learned in my life and translate my idea into code. And now is, not so slowly, going away.
There are skills to be learned into using Claude and similar agents. It just feel...idk, soulless? Like I don't get the satisfaction of solving problems anymore. The feeling of banging my head against a problem and conquering it at the end. I'm sure we are gonna find a satisfaction in this profession again eventually, it's just hard transitioning to a new identity as developers and it'll take time.
Anyway As for you, I would start looking to chance company if you feel like that environment isn't for you anymore. Don't expect to be a quick thing. It could easily take a year or more, as sometimes you could struggle to find jobs to apply for days or selection processes can last a month or two.
If you like it don't stop coding by hand, it's still knowledge worth keeping alive.
Things will get better eventually I hope.
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u/Jetnjet 1d ago
Genuinely could not have said it better.
Now I’m no where near the best coder but I would certainly not sacrifice myself to purely relying on ai, as you say soulless is just the perfect word.
At the same time I’m certainly not anti-AI by any means. It’s a tool and a damn good one, but the current slop should never fully replace human coding as some engineers seem to be doing these days.
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u/marsman57 Staff Software Engineer 1d ago
I think this is definitely something that affects different levels differently. As a junior, I probably would have felt this way. At my current level, I know how to solve the problems. Being able to shave a couple hours of tedious debugging down into telling Claude to do it for me is great.
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u/lhorie 1d ago
Growth is your own responsibility, don’t expect others to be handholding you.
Most of my skillset growth came from stuff I did on the side, be it doing projects, hacking on stuff I found interesting or downright reading SDK source code to get a better understanding on DS&A low level stuff
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u/JordanUK4 23h ago
It's ironic all the gatekeepers preach "don't get into this job for money, you won't succeed without passion" yet all the passionate people now hate their jobs due to AI and want to quit their job / quit the industry...
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u/Desperate_Cook_7338 1d ago
I was told by a senior developer in industry to learn Claude to get an entry level software job. I'm quitting. This is nonsense.
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u/Squidalopod 1d ago edited 19h ago
he clearly values speed over anything else.
Welcome to the software industry 🫤. Most leaders are addicted to speed. Unfortunately, the market often still rewards fast-and-shitty over slow-but-good.
You're right to be concerned about burning a bridge. It's worth completing your contract especially since you're presumably young.
Consider moving to a sector like healthcare or finance where certain regulations end up forcing things to sometimes go slower than faster.
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u/Kaze_Senshi Job for looking 22h ago
You can't be sure when you are going to find a job in this market. Try to stay employed while you study and apply.
Maybe try to say in advance (1~3 months) that you are going to leave the job would be enough to not burn any bridges. Other companies also like employees that have consideration about the company that they are leaving because it could be them in the future.
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u/Significant_Soup2558 19h ago
The contract timing is worth taking seriously. Leaving right before a major deadline damages a relationship that sounds like it was genuinely good before the last few months, and early career references matter more than people realize. The cleaner move is finishing the contract or at minimum timing your exit after the critical deadlines pass. Having a direct conversation with your boss about wanting to transition once things stabilize is uncomfortable but usually lands better than disappearing at the worst possible moment.
Start searching now anyway, quietly, just to understand what the market looks like for your profile. A service like Applyre can run that search in the background without it becoming another thing demanding your attention on top of the job itself.
Real production experience, even on a messy AI-generated codebase, counts more than you think at your stage. Keep the personal project moving and consider some open source contributions while it grows.
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u/Jetnjet 18h ago
I considered talking to my boss about leaving but I feel like there might be more negative than positive.
If he knows I want to leave I feel like he’d be more inclined to get rid of me faster hence no more job for me especially in this market potentially so he can hire someone else sooner instead.
If I do tell him as you say it will most likely be after this next deadline passes.
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u/Fabulous_Ninja119 8h ago
I feel like there's only 1 life I'll ever get to live. IF possible, I'd rather spend that time really doing something I enjoy. If there's people depending on you and you have a growing family, then stay with the job no matter what.
But, I don't think it's the worst thing to spend some serious time figuring out what else is out there that might give you a challenge. I'm doing a couple entrepreneurial things now that do give me quite a bit of fulfillment as well as fear since AI might also impact what I'm doing now. But, I make 70% of what I used to now. I have a lot of time to do personal projects, everything is up to me and while it can be stressful I can honestly say I have a sense of fulfillment at the end of the day and I sleep well.
The thing that I hate is when I'm not challenged and that goes on day after day. I don't feel like I'm actually putting my potential to use, I just slowly slip into a mild depression. We all got limited time here, may as well do something that gives you a bit of pride / happiness etc.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 1d ago
Most tech jobs are like this these days. So you need to consider what you do want to do. It might be something very different.
Getting the most out of Claude is a skill too, so if you want to learn something, learn that.
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u/AffectionateEstate84 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hello Op
Se with 6+ years exp here. Here is my advice
1) Put personal feelings and work aside. You can be passionate about what u do but uds that work is ultimately a business separate ur feelings when doing the job
2) Start applying, put aside time to study dsa/sys design and behaviour. I suggest getting hello interview. And this is something you should constantly doing whether you happy or not. Always network
3) personally left my first job in similar shoe as you after a year no regrets.