Is there a Shortage of Software Engineers?

Software engineer labor shortage and the factors that may go into that. The total number of software developer jobs is expected to rise by a quarter million by 2030, so why does getting a job seem so difficult?

[@CW91]

It's just like nobody wants to plant and grow trees, but they are looking to harvest the fruits.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

lol well said

[@rejectionistmanifesto8836]

​@@StephenSamuelsenThey complain of a shortage but only of those making cheap salary for such a technical job like in the 50,000-100,000. Even in 3rd world countries now you can make 35-60k depending on experience and their cost of living is a fraction of the West.

[@tonnytrumpet734]

@@rejectionistmanifesto8836 I am from Czech Republic working for Red Hat, just got promoted to Medior Software Quality Engineer I have 30.8k$ a year brutto, which is like 24k$ nett in here. So 2k$ a month while my basic necessities are 1200$ (No phone bills included, no going out, nothing, just rent, energies and food, so even if I try my hardest I cant save more then like 500 dollars a month). Not sure how it is exactly in US but I dont feel like living good tbh and also dont consider Czech Republic 3rd world country. I think you still get it good in US but maybe biased and uninformed.

[@KiceDz]

​@@rejectionistmanifesto8836 "Third world" countryman here (non EU European). The inflation since 2020 is extremely steep. The salary expectations for Seniors (as me) is from 40-60k gross (25-35k net). The monthly expenses are around 1500 (bill+food+rent) per person - basically half my salary without vacations/ eating outside/ going out / car payments. I'm getting closer and closer to be having children. Buying property (apartment or a house) is still out of sight. Even with 3500 net salary it will be hard to do so. For a single man in my late 20s it's okay. But planning for the future, 6 figures is a must. I've lived in Germany, salary was a little bit higher, around 80k, the expenses ate the savings away. Basically wherever you are, you're stuck with 10k-20k savings per year. Currently i'm working for Australian company remotely, searching for additional job in EU/UK timezone (if some HR reads this, i'm available :) )

[@lomilomi2693]

It's true they don't want to plant and grow the trees in many cases, but it is so dumb. You can pay less for those with little experience. And in some cases, you are going to hit a gold mine, in that there are some really talented folks out there, that just need some experience. Then you'll have the first opportunity to give them good raises and keep their expertise and talent.

[@JD-vj4go]

There is no shortage. Companies like to say there is a shortage every few years to raise the Visa cap and bring in more cheap labor. Meanwhile they are offshoring anything they can.

[@funguy2627]

Companies dont care about junior people or want to train them. They know its a problem but they have no intention in solving it.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

it's a challenge for sure

[@bugra320]

Actually it is not entirely true, I've been hearing that the tech companies are discarding senior devs and go on with the juniors. Today, the exact same thing happened to me. While I was the only senior backend dev in a project from the very beginning, and being a key member of the team, as we progress, more and more junior developers joined and finally today they said for financial reasons they were laying me off. Hovewer nothing happned to junior devs

[@LukeAvedon]

You would be surprised how many companies have to hire juniors. They don't even expect them to produce, they just need headcount or their department budget gets cut.

[@alexmen95kn]

The most clear comment about today's searching tech job!

[@BAMnKLL]

​@bugra320 they are just hiring seniors at junior pay

[@crazydrifter13]

A lot of people are saying that junior jobs are going to India. I'm in India and all I can say is we aren't receiving these jobs either guys. If you think the junior dev situation is bad in US, try India.

[@HCforLife1]

In current market nobody hires true junior Devs. All junior positions regardless of country list junior jobs, but require 2-3 years of experience. There is almost no entry jobs, the only ones are those who hire CS graduates if there is some gov program to pay for them.

[@austinbecton5341]

I work on the consulting side. It's not looking good. The big tech consulting companies are heavily off-shoring right now, mostly to India, but also Europe. I blame remote work. Why would you pay somebody 150k who might not even be working half the time, when you could pay somebody 20k who will work their a$$ off? I think San Francisco is going through a "Detroit" moment. In the 70's, inflation got bad. Companies needed to grow by slimming down on cost. The auto industry moved to Japan, and the rest of manufacturing went to China. It was cheaper that way.

[@thatrandomperson3968]

US salary and cost of living is ridiculously high compared to the rest of the world. Remote work is normalizing the salary of tech jobs, but the sad part is with normalized salary engineers based in the US wouldn't survive. Better migrate to another country or shift career where remote work has little to no impact.

[@Juan_deep]

Lmfao the worst absolute worst tech workers are from offshoring but they are so cheap companies dont care

[@offeibekoe452]

​@@Juan_deep cope💀

[@thatrandomperson3968]

@@Juan_deep my dude just insulted the rest of the world. lol

[@TheBlackManMythLegend]

@@Juan_deep remote worker learn fast. and european tech worker are almost on par and some of them better than americans tech worker and cost less. the only thing that could save us worker is a raise in the salary of tech worker abroad. .( hint: won't happen. )

[@corkedfever]

There isnt a shortage of software engineers, they just dont want to hire us anymore.

[@jacekjacenty]

My six-year job is coming to an end because the system will be retired and replaced by another product. I am beginning to look for jobs again. It is depressing to see that, on average, I will compete against 20 people to get a new job.

[@Canthev]

A lot of the jobs I'm looking at have hundreds of applicants. It's so insane.

[@Juan_deep]

Lmfao try like 200+

[@icheckedavailability]

Hundreds if not thousands bro :/

[@gehdochnicht]

if you were junior it would be you against another 2000. Yes, I know from talking to HR people who receive these thousands of cvs.

[@wrght2002]

Im pulling the ripcord, this industry is toxic as hell when it comes to junior/entry devs. Ive been in it for about 4 years now and it is crazy how shitty the support is for junior people who are trying to learn. U either need to be a natural, a fast learner, or be prepared to work alot of unpaid hours in order to learn skills/insane tech stacks necessary to get/keep a job. Software companies and managers also love to utilize constructive terminations, they dont want to pay out for a layoff, they just want a revolving door of developers without any commitments in order to find someone who can perform at a level they want. There is little to no commitment/training for entry/junior devs. FUTURE ASPIRING SOFTWARE ENGINEERS BEWARE!!!!

[@nerdobject5351]

The first thing is I’ll say is no one owes you anything. So if you keep that mindset your just going to keep getting run over by people that have better frame of mind. The only way to really learn in this industry is to learn by doing. You start a project and work through the thousands of small problems that come up. Companies do not have time to have 150k + resource hand holding you all day when the next kid behind doesn’t need that kind of hand holding and is ready to learn and ready go.

[@cbaesemanai]

A shortage when every job posting is getting hundreds if not thousands of resumes ? no not a chance.

[@TheBlackmanIsGod]

No there’s a shortage of jobs paying software engineers or just tech people in general livable wages for their knowledge…..

[@gaiustacitus4242]

The shortage of software engineers was so 2021. The job postings for software engineers are mostly fake. These are always left open just so companies can take in resumes in case an open position does materialize. Change to Section 174 of the tax code that requires capitalization and amortization of all costs related to software development (which is now treated as specified research or engineering (SRE), aka. research and development (R&D)), and this includes payroll taxes paid on wages. This change to the tax code causes FICTIONAL PROFITS and higher taxes, thus jobs in R&D are going to be fewer until Congress corrects its mistake.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

interesting. I will have to read about that section 174 change

[@gaiustacitus4242]

@@StephenSamuelsen Refer to IRS Notice 2023-63. There are several videos on KZbin discussing the impact.

[@susanooalarichard]

Would be nice if we could just sum it up with changes in the tax code. Recommend you study this more than just the tax code.

[@gaiustacitus4242]

@@susanooalarichard While there are other factors, no business can accept being taxed on 80% of annual R&D expenses as if they are profit. This will cause small startups to fail, and allowing continued excess tax payments on FICTIONAL PROFITS for a publicly traded company will drive stock prices down (resulting in the firing of senior managers and possibly board members). Section 174 of the tax code was a poison pill to businesses. No other country in the world punishes companies for investing in R&D. In the short term it reduces investment in R&D. In the long term, it reduces the competitiveness of American businesses, and that will most certainly drive job losses outside of R&D. It doesn't help matters that we are now in a full-blown recession.

[@swaggitypigfig8413]

There's only a shortage at Staff+ (8+ years of experience) levels. Even for senior there are a lot of candidates, since folks who got a job in 2020 now have 3-4 years.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

yeah I have seen a lot of job postings for like 10+ years experience recently

[@RafaelGarcia-kx4yt]

Isn't 3~4 years mid-level? I see seniors as 6+ years.

[@alexmen95kn]

The most clear explanation about today's Tech jobs problems. No ads, no lies, no effects, just honest explanation of the problem! Great job!

[@campagnollo]

To try to learn applied things is incredibly frustrating. The topics are so broad that it is hard to focus on a subject. One day, selenium, the next aws, then the next django, the next sql..........Uhhhhhhhh!!!!

[@random_nick_for_comments]

Common. If there is a shortage of something, it's price increases several times, see face masks in covid. If there was a shortage of software developers, their salaries will increase. We see the opposite, there is an excess of workers in that area.

[@konstantinrebrov675]

I would say that there is a shortage in very skilled software engineers, specialists in one particular field, but an excess of beginners and juniors.

[@eliaskouakou7051]

Well, that the fault of recruiters who want us to know every damn techs on the world

[@Juan_deep]

You dont get it or have the full picture. They offshore beginners and juniors then import everyone else from india and chinese immigrants for temporary short term profits. That indian and chinese person has their life set but displaces another tech worker born in the USA. Its simple math really. Do this a million times and you see why there are no jobs in tech in this country

[@angelo1246]

This seems like an obvious metric in any field.

[@jamessullenriot]

Been a dev since 2006. That actually means nothing other than I have seen a lot. My view is this - when people started getting this fascination with FAANG which ultimately led to unlimited courses on how to "nail the FAANG interview" or KZbin channels explaining how you need to know all types of algorithms. Thing is this, for every Google, Meta, and whatever other big tech company there it, there are thousands and thousands of small -> mid-sized companies that just need some devs to grab your data from a DB, add some features, clean up some code that hasn't been touched in 8 years, etc. You don't need to know how to implement a binary search tree or whatever other leetcode question that they randomly give devs. It's like interview roulette. I have no issue hiring JR devs. In fact, I prefer it because I think the best way for devs to learn is to teach. In hiring a JR dev, I explain how the current JRs and mid levels can help teach, and in teaching they will increase their skills. But what the f@ck do I know?

[@deontawilliams3131]

Hey , I’m a fresh new grad IS , I really enjoy programming I’m a decent beginner(1 python game ,couple web apps, SQlite in C, couple of penetration home labs etc) . I’ve had trouble finding a job but “I don’t think I’ll burn out” I will say I’m getting very annoyed with rejections, I apply to job posting only requiring a boot camp and get passed then to turn around and only get a OA from Amazon( I failed but I’m still leetcoding) . What would you recommend for jr , I wouldn’t mind being a PM, SE, network engineer , help desk , QA I just need to know how to get there if there’s a way😂😢?

[@empiregone]

At my company (I am a dev), we went from ~40 devs in 2019 to just 5 in 2024. The owning investment firm is only willing to add contractors, because having few employees makes the valuation higher at this time. My understanding is they require all of their companies to do the same as ours. In our case, the pressure is to outsource those contract roles overseas as well.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

"few employees makes the valuation higher at this time" , that's an extremely interesting point you bring up

[@ball-e]

The exact same thing happened at my company and with our investment firm

[@ev3rybodygets177]

honestly i think the growth and shortage is over exaggerated. most teams of 7-8 are really only being held together by 1-2 devs who are doing 70+ percent of the work. It is such a new, diverse and unique field we dont really know how to staff it yet... i wouldnt be shocked if its closer to half the amount of what they are predicting by 2030. this is just my thoughts and experience the last seven years i have been in industry.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

the classic 80/20 rule. yeah I could see that too for sure. It is crazy to think about how new this field still is

[@smreason]

But those 1-2 could leave any day. You almost need 5 more to guarantee one is training up to be next productive senior. Plus most of those 5 are bringing some specific insights or needed soft skills.

[@denisblack9897]

I can say there is no shortage of pretenders😅 actual software engineers are very rare, those who build reliable stuff step by step, instead of polluting project with tons of garbage frameworks and methodologies and then even present it like it’s some kind of a milestone😂 poor managers can’t discern real deal from bullshit and they tend to favour those who “integrate an already well tested solution” and follow “popular solutions and best practices” We had our fun, now it’s not worth to work for someone.

[@DrunkenUFOPilot]

Speaking of bloatware made with loads of frameworks of questionable value, I don't get the point of these new-fangled IDEs like Atom and VS Code, bulky foundation of Electron, crashy, in some ways slick but just not a fast light tool like everything I use every day. Kids these days...

[@bigbao9843]

US companies can hire remotes from other countries to lower the labor if the work is not related to national confidential work

[@chrisneff78]

I lost my role with a startup after 5 weeks. Funding pulled out.

[@sandman.38]

That’s terrible, that’s a new fear for me. That’s why I always over analyze the income streams of small companies during interviews

[@hypergraphic]

I've been there, but for me it was after 5 months. The startup's whole focus was in person after school activities. Then the pandemic happened and that dried up fast.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

oh man I'm sorry to hear that. Was there any warning beforehand or was it s surprise?

[@buc991]

same for me year ago, and ceo just dissapeared without paying anyone for the last month of work, then i searched for a job for a six months and only found one for 1000$ a month =D But i'm in a 3rd world, maybe it's different in the U.S.

[@yoshu4221]

@@buc991 $1000 a month is less than minimum wage in the US. You can't survive on that here.

[@robbybear6912]

You'll be fighting with the offshored roles for the entry level positions now.

[@ewolz]

Took me 4 years just to get my first jr dev job, suffered so much applying and they view me as an intermediate but I am fighting my imposter syndrome cause of what the market did to me.

[@gehdochnicht]

They view you as an intermediate at your first job? How's that? What did you do before you got your first job? Asking as someone who's been trying also for 4 years (but still nothing).

[@aodfr]

They will change their tune when all senior devs hit retirement age. Plus over time the of new devs will dry up due lack of interest because there are no positions at the entry level. My advice to younger devs is to stop looking at big tech and look at other industries for work.

[@deontawilliams3131]

Hey , I’m a fresh new grad IS , I really enjoy programming I’m a decent beginner(1 python game ,couple web apps, SQlite in C, couple of penetration home labs etc) . I’ve had trouble finding a job but “I don’t think I’ll burn out” I will say I’m getting very annoyed with rejections, I apply to job posting only requiring a boot camp and get passed then to turn around and only get a OA from Amazon( I failed but I’m still leetcoding) . What would you recommend for jr , I wouldn’t mind being a PM, SE, network engineer , help desk , QA I just need to know how to get there if there’s a way😂😢?

[@aodfr]

@@deontawilliams3131 Granted take my advice with a grain of salt because I'm neither an expert or a hiring manager. The major thing you'll need is... 1. Portfolio 2. Website for Resume/Projects 3. Use Indeed and Linkin for research purposes only don't apply to jobs there. Big waste of time. 4. Apply to the job directly to a company or using a head hunter agency (note: cost you some from your first few paycheck for a bit but worth it because they handle hiring for smaller startups that have a small HR dept.). 5. Apply for internships first not junior positions. I saw your play around with leetcode. The main thing you'll learn there is about algorithms and some data structures. To me leetcode more of a video game for programmers. It is useful to learn about algorithms outside of that it's not that useful. However, going to a boot camp will be very useful because it will give an opportunity to study current tech and opportunity to build your resume/portfolio. If you want steps for the position you're in right. Here are the steps. 1. Go to boot camp and start working on portfolio and build a web site/app for both your resume and projects list. Also use GitHub or GitLab for your repos. 2. Apply for an internship first before a junior position. 3. Do the internship for 3 to 4 months and start applying for junior positions. As for the type of programming jobs... 1. Web Development ~ Over saturated but there might be a position opened and there are also tons of start ups in that space. 2. Game Development~ either do it as a hobby or become an indie via side hustle or full time if you have capital to play with. Don't waste you time with AAA because they are terrible. 3. Data Science ~ it's in the same boat as Web Dev so there could be opportunities here. 4. AI ~ the biggest sector right most likely has tons of opportunities. 5. Big Tech ~ Wait and see. 6. Outside of the tech sector ~ Untapped and most likely is interesting even more so than AI. Well good luck.

[@zuniga325]

Entry level positions do exist. They have been predominantly outsourced especially to India. They get paid a salary that would put them at poverty here in the US.

[@blazkowicz666]

It’s very similar to how Chinese manufacturers were only able to beat US made products on price, and not quality about 2 decades ago. But now they beat they US hands down at both. Unless the US does something quick, a similar situation would ensue in terms of services and software development to India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. They

[@bgiv2010]

I'm a decidedly mid-level developer. I largely concur with your observations. Sometimes I do feel like I'm competing with senior devs for mid-level jobs moreso than with juniors. Also are you noticing the security clearance requirements, too? I'm not sold on the "fake jobs" yet but something weird is happening these days.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

I have seen some jobs requiring security clearance, yeah, but the ones I saw were for companies contracting with government

[@sandman.38]

There’s more supply than demand in the US right now. Large companies are moving their core teams to cheaper countries in droves because the work is agnostic enough to warrant not having to pay 10-20x more to a US employee, compared to somebody in India or Mexico. Like think about it, imagine paying somebody in Zimbabwe or Pakistan $500 to build a SaaS web app vs paying a person in the US $10,000, just to get the same or similar enough end result. Which option do you think people will go with? Globalization is killing software engineering that doesn’t pertain to national or state government work. These private companies do not care, and they even stopped pretending to care, e.g. Google.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

I think it would be interesting to see data on the rate software engineering jobs are moving outside the U.S. versus how many new software jobs are being created inside the U.S.

[@ldandco]

@@StephenSamuelsen Agreed, data is important, otherwise pure talk and speculation.

[@BroodYouth]

if coders in 3rd world countries can compete with your skills, the problem is your skills! get better! COMPETE!

[@bogdyee]

That depends on the jobs itself. Most devs out there can build generic websites with a few forms, however, when a complicated feature is needed which require changes in infrastructure or obscure algorithms, then a developer with experience is required.

[@JD-vj4go]

​@@BroodYouthlol just git gud bro! Major economic trends are no match for me bro! Dig my survivorship bias bro!

[@gahangwasteve8789]

i think the engineers these days underestimate themselves ! they are the ones to create jobs not other way around. that's my opinion.

[@joeblow1688]

Brilliant observation.

[@dranon0o]

I would chose remote all the time, i've been remote for more than a decade now. I refuse to go into an office and to commute!

[@StephenSamuelsen]

I commuted for my first year working and always got stuck on the highway. It was terrible. I will only work remote now

[@cryptopatrick]

@@StephenSamuelsen In your opinion, what are some downsides to working remote only? Thanks for an awesome channel!

[@StephenSamuelsen]

@@cryptopatrick not a lot of downsides tbh! I guess just keeping social life active and getting out. For me getting another hour back in my day by not having to commute is amazing. I put that hour directly back into software engineering stuff and KZbin

[@cryptopatrick]

@@StephenSamuelsen Thank you so much for you reply. Have a great day!

[@crockpotdev]

love your videos bro. i've been doing gameplay programming and software for game developers for the last few years. i currently am struggling to find another programming job. it could be because the specific niche i was working in (roblox) and that it has basically zero opportunities when it comes to companies hiring. ive been very fortunate to have found 3 full time jobs in the space. trying to break into other companies but i feel like i'm getting one of two scenarios.. a) no one is even seeing my resume/ portfolio OR b) they are not interested in me from having worked on roblox (assuming roblox has a bad rep? even though it's software and web dev is much simpler than gameplay programming.)

[@nestharus]

I think that the best engineers are those that started it as a hobby modding games while they were a kid/teen. Wc3, minecraft, and roblox :). At the same time those people can be burned out by the time they enter the workforce.

[@crockpotdev]

@@nestharus i been doing it for companies. never did it as a kid. but the amount i do get burned out. i just feel like im wasting my time bro when i apply. nobody even looks at my shit

[@StephenSamuelsen]

that sounds very interesting! I don't know much about Roblox specifically. I was just looking through the developer page at their api. looks pretty cool! Yeah I guess I would just try to describe everything as technical as possible because I feel like the principles would apply to any development field. I would also agree with the other comment that game dev and any other creative dev work like that is super helpful for engineering. I've been through times when I have applied to like 75 jobs and only heard back from 10. Resumes are a bit of a black box, but then I just started having to make my resume include every keyword possible that the job listing had.

[@crockpotdev]

@@StephenSamuelsen that's wild bro lol. keywords on a resume is crazy imo.

[@crockpotdev]

like i understand why they work but i think it's ridiculous and doesn't do any value.

[@thisiswill]

You don't have to put you credit card to play with cloud services. For instance, the AWS SDK lets you run local container instances to spin up Lambdas and DynamoDB instances that you can test against.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

I think I’d run into the extent of the free tier very quickly in my case. There were some services I’ve used in the past like AWS DMS that basically were outside of the free tier and could quickly become quite expensive to leave running for any length of time. Lambda I guess has the advantage of being relatively cheap per request anyway

[@Zuranthus]

1 million openings? don't know where you got those figures, everywhere that i've seen it's usually 300-400k nationwide, that's a veeeeeery low amount for the number of people out there looking

[@marioantoniocrespoMexican92]

I like working on a computer 12 hours a day 💻 I love being on technology all day long

[@KN-wb6un]

H1b visas have been having a significantly negative effect on American workers especially stigmatized communities.

[@johnprice6805]

Its awful here in texas.

[@blazkowicz666]

@@johnprice6805 Elaborate?

[@TreeLuvBurdpu]

Working remote is a 20% savings just in hourly wage. That's if you drive an hour to and from work. Plus all the additional travel expenses.

[@adamasimolowo8285]

Also a 20% higher chance your job gets offshored

[@TreeLuvBurdpu]

@@adamasimolowo8285 we won't run out of work to be done.

[@kmoov90]

The tech companies outsourced all their entry level jobs. I'm in the Philippines and a lot of people got hired instantly, with a salary of $30K with no benefits but that's the reality.

[@chrisgomez6265]

Damn 30k? I know guys in Cebu that got hired for only 15k which is insane because that could have been 80k in America.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

30k no benefits…that’s crazy to hear

[@kmoov90]

@@StephenSamuelsen You should see what they do in Bangladesh and you could see KZbin videos where the Indians would outsource to another dude for cheaper so that's double outsourcing lol.

[@yg78t76t7]

@@chrisgomez6265 30k is good money in Philippines. But for them, they live better since they don't have to pay high cost of living in US. Rent is too expensive.

[@kevinyonan9666]

phew, it's a damn good thing I switched over to *Computer Engineering (CE)* 2 years ago. I already saw how CS as a major was oversaturated. Decided to take the more difficult but rewarding route by doing more electrical engineering classes and found I can major as CE instead of CS.

[@deontawilliams3131]

😂😂 feel that man, I’m an IS major but I try to teach my self EE and CS on my own, I know damn well they won’t let me near a soldering station or PLC but it’s interesting to play around with electronics. Hardware will remain untouched!

[@first001]

There’s a massive surplus. Look at how many CS/SE grads there are per year, insane growth. AI+offshoring will render junior market almost extinct.

[@okaydraw5184]

There should be a law that forces corporate companies to always accept junior or entry-level roles.

[@donaldjohnson-ow3kq]

I realized in 2017 that a lot of these hiring companies are not serious about hiring anyone quickly. The problem is that our manager said they wanted to hire someone in a QA role who had the same experience as the person who had left. The way the former employee got that experience, though, was by spending several years as a developer learning the application, and then also years of experience at a former employer of doing sysadmin work, and then years of experience at the same current employer of QA. You can't find a person with experience in all roles very easily, especially as a junior. People tend to specialize now in a QA role if that is where they started. Gone are the days when people switched from being a support developer to QA just because they needed a paycheck, and unintentionally gained expertise in a variety of jobs.

[@jimbojones8713]

I think its unbelievable because its probably not true. I bet those numbers aren't the actual numbers of what's available. Also the recruiting and hiring process of most companies needs a huge makeover imo.

[@FuKungGrip]

Is there a shortage, or are companies just pushing for more H1Bs to keep salaries down?

[@Kendrix528]

This is happening to me now. Just cannot find / land or hold down an entry level/ junior position for long enough. What im considering now is to go into tech for the government or become an electrician. Im 28 can’t keep waiting, I have goals.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

Sorry to hear that. What technologies and languages are you trying to focus in?

[@nsambataufeeq1748]

Software development is far from reaching maturity, with numerous future opportunities. Its always been hard for Juniors.

[@BMPcoding]

This is my last year in uni, I'm really excited about the next one, can't wait to start working at McDonalds!!!

[@Albertux]

doubt it

[@computernerd8157]

My only thought is work for yourself. Got my degree BA in IT its not enough. You have to get exprience without a job so in conclusing for creating your own company as your first plan and getting a job is the backup plan.

[@gehdochnicht]

I agree. But I think there's also a second option: become an influencer. In any case it would be related to having/being your own business.

[@JudahCrowe-ej9yl]

There is no shortage. What there is is a off shoring problem a software engineer in America makes on average 250k In India there making 30~ 40k That's the problem. I point at Google and meta. Huge lay offs in America As they hire software developers off shore in a massive quantity.

[@hyper_based]

This is all cyclical. Companies do this all the time and always seem to have amnesia. Ultimately, you get what you pay for and offshore dev resources often don’t pay-off long term. Companies forget that they will end up needing to hire another level of management just to manage these offshore teams. Once the costs start to become a wash and stuff starts hitting the fan they will be back to hiring domestic devs again. Rinse and repeat.

[@thatrandomperson3968]

​​​@@hyper_based nope, off shore teams are proven and tested. These companies let the consulting companies do a test run and made deals with them. Guess where those consulting companies hire majority of their devs and tech related roles. Accenture, EY, Deloitte, etc.. those companies made billions off of these big tech companies. You do realize that Meta, Google, Amazon had deals with those consulting companies before they jumped in. They basically offloaded some of their apps to be dev or maintained by these consulting companies. they found that it works and decided to hire directly from offshore instead of paying middle-man fees to these consulting companies.

[@bogdyee]

Google laid off about 6-7% of its employees. While this number is big, its nowhere near company ending numbers. And they laid of managers, sales people and other roles too not only SE's.

[@genericdeveloper3966]

You think average is $250K? You must only be looking at Google.

[@marcoalexander6214]

Looking in the wrong place - junior developers are mostly hired via internship type avenues.

[@j01237]

Imagine the health industry or any other being like this.. only 20 yrs experienced are hired..only in software there is still not a platform and procedures where new people are allowed to join ..

[@am-fq8lz]

Not all those millions of opening are genuine. They are just props, the company never intend to fill those positions

[@swaggitypigfig8413]

How did you get the top bar in macos to show for both monitors?

[@ARESxWARLORD]

This, yes this is the important question to be answered

[@StephenSamuelsen]

Desktop & Dock / Displays have separate Spaces Turn that setting on and restart. It changed after an update

[@tommeadows-ie2xb]

There is no shortage. Big firms say that to tell our government too let more "specialist" IT workers from countries like India and China into the market. When I worked at MTV they hired several hundred Indian programmers in one shot without looking at a single resume. Same in finance, media, telecom, pretty much every area but defense.

[@joeblow1688]

I agree. Definitely a scam created by companies, with the complicity of the US Government Law Makers (Grifters).

[@proletar-ian]

Another tragedy in the commons

[@stivstivsti]

I believe there is no real shortage of developers at the moment. All these open positions are to keep HR busy, they collect resumes for the database and don't take much people.

[@AnonymousAccount514]

no...there are more than enough...companies just need to stop waiting for perfect fits....i understand the hesitancy to hire a Fresh, ,but there is no excuse to disregard an experienced engineer because he doesn't match your stack exactly

[@Jibon-in7jr]

Hey Stephen, really nice video ! I was wondering if I could help you with Best Quality Editing in your videos better than your Editor with good pricing and also make a highly engaging Thumbnail which will help your videos to reach to a wider audience ? Pls let me know what do you think ?

[@kingdomVI]

No mass shortage just employers wanting Senior engineers or people who have 5+ skills. For entry level is pretty bad even mid level somewhat. Anyways I get rarely get interviews I recently graduate in January, I'm applying primarily to java, c# and javascript jobs. Anyways economy sucks but I'll keep upskilling.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

yeah just keep mass applying to everything and reaching out to the hiring person on LinkedIn

[@Ricocase]

Entry jobs sent overseas. Hr told to look busy, so unrealistic posts. CS amer left fighting 4 scraps. Buy a dog or pivot. Visas, int'l competition lowered your pay.

[@yossirosenfeld8161]

No company should be concerned with the fluctuations of the economy; instead, the economy should be self-correcting. If it doesn't stabilize on its own, then government intervention should be implemented.

[@MrBranh0913]

The issue is people try to learn how to become developers off TikTok. The dev influencer culture has sold juniors false promises. So experienced people thought they could learn programming from some overpriced boot camp and nail a job at Google making 110k. I said back then that this model was unsustainable and it will only flood the market will lackluster talent. And I was right. Now being a junior is radioactive. Most junior’s are woefully underqualified to work in production code. Because their boot camps only taught them basics. They only have 6 months of dev knowledge max. Not what you want when you need to to write code that hits production. I have 20 years in the field. A junior dev use to have several years of programming knowledge before looking for work. And even then companies didn’t trust anyone with no experience. These days you have people trying to enter dev jobs who were literally a waiter at IHOP just 6 months ago and who care barely format their hard drive. And they think they’re going to waltz into a job and demand 120k off the bat. This all comes from expectations set by influencers. Who are probably sponsored by boot camps. It’s slimey

[@nerdobject5351]

Most developers I know didn’t go straight into Product/Software Development from college. They started out as Professional Services or implementation engineers first. Company’s don’t want to bring in entry level developers to have them spin their wheels on string manipulation for two and then bail at first offer they get. They would rather let another company do that. They will use internships which are very very scarce and competitive. My advice to you knew guys, look into professional services, implementations and configuration engineering to cut your teeth. Then work your way into product/software development.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

yeah I have known some who started as support engineers and then moved to dev

[@nerdobject5351]

@@StephenSamuelsen Good call. I forgot about support roles.

[@mikestems508]

If companies remain unwilling to hire juniors then eventually it will lead to an actual shortage I don’t understand why they don’t realize this!

[@mathisfi.5593]

Assuming this path continues to be followed how long do you reckon it’d take until we hit an actual shortage

[@susanooalarichard]

The Department of State, aka the State Department, has been keeping track of this trend and more for decades. As has Bureau of Labor and Statistics, or even the House Oversight Committee and more. Main issues are the postings real? Followed by are the real postings fillable? Only saying this as one of the primary issues in labor generally speaking is that the exact requirements of a job are often the real issue here. I might need someone that can prototype both hardware and software when looking for a Software Engineer. But this doesn't mean that they can fail a background check, understand ITAR, or even have the proper character requirements for the position. Anyway, I don't know what you read. So, can't really say anything weighted about it. Other than this issue as described is nothing new. Edit: Sorry, you actually talked about a part of what I stated. Probably ought to have not commented when only watching the first half of the talk.

[@WisomofHal]

As an American I feel there's a huge shortage of American Software Developers. Just so many foreigners in American industry.

[@ekinstrain4862]

THEY TERRKK ERRR JERBBS

[@konstantinrebrov675]

You're just going to be competing against other developers, Americans or foreigners, doesn't matter. What matters is your level of skills relative to them. If you're more skilled, then you can go around them.

[@WisomofHal]

@@konstantinrebrov675 I totally agree with, "If you're more skilled, then you can go around them." I'm not disputing that. I've been in the industry 5 years and have worked at house hold names. I'm responding to the idea of "Shortage of Engineers" in the US market. There's no shortage, most are coming from overseas, but I think there are pros and cons to that. One being that many Americans are being ousted, just simply from people hiring because someone is from the same "region back home".

[@konstantinrebrov675]

@@WisomofHal Then apply to local jobs in the United States. Let's say you live in San Bernandino, so apply to jobs that are in your city, although you would physically have to go to the lab, that gives you an advantage to go around foreign candidates. Also a good idea is secret labs or military labs, which hire only US citizens. Otherwise get used to the fact that we live in a capitalist globalist system, and so having to compete with developers all over the world. You don't have to be better than everyone else just be better than the other applicants to that job position.

[@WisomofHal]

@@konstantinrebrov675 You’re right man. To be clear, I have a pretty locked in job and I’m not concerned about competition. My concern is that in the United States we have been majorly ignoring growth from within our own country. If we have an issue with Americans studying STEM, we need to fix that from within instead of from easing immigration policies. Much of corporate circles influence the rest of The US (politics/policies). Like Google CEO is openly lobbying for easing of immigration policy. He is thinking about the talent from India locating to the US. He isn’t thinking about improving those already in US. That immigration will misplace US citizens who are already here. But I totally agree with you, I believe in the Capitalist economy - I believe it incentivizes innovation and progress and ensures freedom in a free market economy, BUT easing immigration policies are not positive for US citizens because it displaces them. Especially when places like India who have 1.4 BILLION, will have more STEM talent just based on pure math alone. Do you see my point? I agree with you, but those aren’t good consequences. Less than 5% of US country are STEM practitioners, of course millions of students from country with 1 BILLION+ will outpace us (in pure numbers only). To be clear: my concern is that easing immigration policies will only displace Americans and it will ruin the fabric and culture of our country.

[@oneman5753]

Shortage?! just use GPT

[@stevemargolies1187]

Theres an infinite supply of software engineers. Foreign countries etc. Maybe a shortage in newest and latest. Companies want to make it sound like shortage so they can bring in foreign labor. Wait until youre in your 50's and get laid off. Need unions

[@StephenSamuelsen]

Unionization of software engineers would be a very interesting topic to discuss

[@slimjimjimslim5923]

Too many people become SE. When I was in college back in 2011, 70% of my hardware engineering friends were either switching to comp sci or plan to get a job as a programmer. Hardware doesn't pay as much, and to be honest it requires multiple discipline. On the other hand to pass FAANG interview, go practice leetcode and know your algorithm class. And now we are 13 years later, years of people moving to SE not just in USA but also in EU, in Asia, in other continents, and everyone coming to USA, it was bound to happen this over-saturation. However I believe the light at the end of the tunnel may be near, as soon as these big tech sees US gov rate cuts, they will rapidly try to grow and make profit. But this was also a lesson for me, don't get too comfortable with your job, don't put your eggs in one basket, diversify and always grow your skill. Perhaps learn something on ML, AI, something on computer system, something related to chemistry or chip design. We need SE everywhere but some of these jobs require some other skills. Try to specialize in something rather than a generic code monkey.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

yeah I totally agree. internet of things devices connected to cloud like AWS seems like a really cool space to experiment with making products

[@KeepItFresh02]

no there is no shortage. companies are just disconnected between real development, what developers actually do and using Leetcode to "determine if you can code". No dude, I dont memorize how to use recursion to flatten an object. So I guess I cant code even though I just held a senior software engineer position for 2 years building real software.

[@CKSLAFE]

No

[@thisguymartin]

There is no shortage. Many of those positions are fake just to see or test employees. This has been well known and has been a trend that has been going on.

[@ericb7223]

there is an absolutely massive shortage of exceptionally skilled, highly experienced devs that are willing to put up with poor work environments for low six figure pay that are citizens or permanent residents, yep

[@bjbegui]

There is definitely not a shortage of senior or good people they're a dime a dozen and we find them all the time.....fyi

[@A--_--M]

No there is a shortage of Software jobs. Companies aren't hiring enough.

There is no shortage. Everyone is writing the exact same code. 99% of the industry could be fired point blank and its output would be exactly the same.

[@blackhole4813]

I am doing nothing but code, what industry am I suppose to switch I live in Philippines

[@blackhole4813]

Am 4 and almost 5 years coding

[@blackhole4813]

No job yet

[@blackhole4813]

Starting business

[@williamrinaldi1808]

7 years experience and can't get a job. Thousands of applicants to many jobs. There is no shortage.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

what programming languages/frameworks are the jobs in?

[@williamrinaldi1808]

@@StephenSamuelsen react / vue & JavaScript

[@glui2001]

Not in the last 2 years.

[@xxxx-tb4de]

Absolutely no shortage. This is just an excuse to be able to outsource to other countries.

[@ProgrammingWIthRiley]

Rich get richer

[@NineInchTyrone]

RIP USA

[@NineInchTyrone]

No