1. Introduction
The pivot to the automation of web development by the Ivory Tower management jumping onto the AI hype (in reality, they are delusional as this causes more AI slop due to burned out seniors) has ruined my career.
I need to add a disclaimer that this post is related to non-FAANG (or equivalent in your country).
I entered the job market in 2022 (4080 USD) with a state contract job, was laid off in late 2023, and got a small company new job in 2024 (2550 USD). I'm in my late 20s.
The small companies have "CEO, Senior devs, devs" ranks for the development team, while state departments/large corps have about 12-17 something ranks ranging from Junior all the way to Senior Manager (going from Junior to senior dev is pretty straightforward, but joining management may involve office politics, just like in any private companies).
My script was simple: Keep my head down, do not make troubles, arrive on time, obey orders, get promoted to senior positions and maybe management over time (I have some management experience leading Roblox groups, albeit they can't be put on a CV).
The passive autopilot script was disrupted just 1/10 years in; for those who did not get laid off, the script is still valid, as state contractors do not base on department loyalty, but YoE.
2. Work Duties
I have no illusions about having to upskill and learn new things — this is the spirit of development, even in the 2000s ancient frameworks, there are new things to learn. My current duties show this spectacularly.
My duties over the years (some details are faked for OPSEC reason):
2022-2023:
- Java web app, full stack
2024:
- Asp.net, full stack
Then my small company decided to inflate it's value and dump all the hardest responsibilities to me while my colleagues get the web apps.
2025-2026:
- Designed and created a whole Single Sign On platform (co-architectured by a Senior) and integrated the apps, including global admin panel
- Created Android apps from ground up, with a senior telling me which pages to add and rubber stamping UI decisions, the android apps include 2x Drone SDKs and ridiculous listeners on top of listeners, unstable state machine logic (handlers, threads etc) simulating unsupported features forced onto them.
- Because of the small company nature, all the translation, web app-to-mobile APIs etc, are all written by me.
- Created game engine VR from ground up, my senior also rubber stamped my UI decisions and told me what pages to add
- Also do regular web app jobs including multiple JavaScript map libraries
3. Aftermath
You can see how my resume is fucked. I'm put to 'own' these widely different domain categories, legally risky apps, forcing me to use AI slop bots like Gemini just to survive the workload and context switching. My android architecture is SHIT and deeply problematic, because I was forced into Android after fixing a very simple android app bug in 2025 (literally swapped orders on a web API call and added a new popup page).
I got severe skin infection from mosquitos and midges because I can't test the apps without going outside, and the designated recovery period lasted 20 days.
I looked into the web app job market and guess what? Pay is worse, you have hordes of people going for them, even my former contractor who asked me if I wanted a new contract job (but with a higher title) gave a pay worse than the 4080 USD I was hired initially for.
4. Reflection
This is the reason why supermarkets' UI are so shit and have quirky reset default value behavior. Everyone is quiet quitting by scrolling phones all day because of the poor pay and disrespect.
I hope one day, when the AI slop gets so bad that web development jobs grow again, but we will probably see more boilerplate frameworks that are designed with AI helpers in mind.
5. Conclusion
Stay the FUCK away from the tech industry. I don't mind juniors joining (gosh I desperately need people to do basic tasks like checking if a button works, a task that my supervisor senior is wrongfully assigned to), as my multi-YOE shields me from entry level competition, but I'm not trying to drag more people into the sinking ship.
I used to have energy for daily morning runs for a hour and half, now I have none.
Seriously, get a job where automation/boilerplate frameworks do not exist, or will not replace anytime soon. Moreover, a field like nursing (my relative) is inherently stable, has clear progression paths, and has strong legal boundaries (albeit also high stress).
The pivot to the automation of web development by the Ivory Tower management jumping onto the AI hype (in reality, they are delusional as this causes more AI slop due to burned out seniors) has ruined my career.
I need to add a disclaimer that this post is related to non-FAANG (or equivalent in your country).
I entered the job market in 2022 (4080 USD) with a state contract job, was laid off in late 2023, and got a small company new job in 2024 (2550 USD). I'm in my late 20s.
The small companies have "CEO, Senior devs, devs" ranks for the development team, while state departments/large corps have about 12-17 something ranks ranging from Junior all the way to Senior Manager (going from Junior to senior dev is pretty straightforward, but joining management may involve office politics, just like in any private companies).
My script was simple: Keep my head down, do not make troubles, arrive on time, obey orders, get promoted to senior positions and maybe management over time (I have some management experience leading Roblox groups, albeit they can't be put on a CV).
The passive autopilot script was disrupted just 1/10 years in; for those who did not get laid off, the script is still valid, as state contractors do not base on department loyalty, but YoE.
2. Work Duties
I have no illusions about having to upskill and learn new things — this is the spirit of development, even in the 2000s ancient frameworks, there are new things to learn. My current duties show this spectacularly.
My duties over the years (some details are faked for OPSEC reason):
2022-2023:
- Java web app, full stack
2024:
- Asp.net, full stack
Then my small company decided to inflate it's value and dump all the hardest responsibilities to me while my colleagues get the web apps.
2025-2026:
- Designed and created a whole Single Sign On platform (co-architectured by a Senior) and integrated the apps, including global admin panel
- Created Android apps from ground up, with a senior telling me which pages to add and rubber stamping UI decisions, the android apps include 2x Drone SDKs and ridiculous listeners on top of listeners, unstable state machine logic (handlers, threads etc) simulating unsupported features forced onto them.
- Because of the small company nature, all the translation, web app-to-mobile APIs etc, are all written by me.
- Created game engine VR from ground up, my senior also rubber stamped my UI decisions and told me what pages to add
- Also do regular web app jobs including multiple JavaScript map libraries
3. Aftermath
You can see how my resume is fucked. I'm put to 'own' these widely different domain categories, legally risky apps, forcing me to use AI slop bots like Gemini just to survive the workload and context switching. My android architecture is SHIT and deeply problematic, because I was forced into Android after fixing a very simple android app bug in 2025 (literally swapped orders on a web API call and added a new popup page).
I got severe skin infection from mosquitos and midges because I can't test the apps without going outside, and the designated recovery period lasted 20 days.
I looked into the web app job market and guess what? Pay is worse, you have hordes of people going for them, even my former contractor who asked me if I wanted a new contract job (but with a higher title) gave a pay worse than the 4080 USD I was hired initially for.
4. Reflection
This is the reason why supermarkets' UI are so shit and have quirky reset default value behavior. Everyone is quiet quitting by scrolling phones all day because of the poor pay and disrespect.
I hope one day, when the AI slop gets so bad that web development jobs grow again, but we will probably see more boilerplate frameworks that are designed with AI helpers in mind.
5. Conclusion
Stay the FUCK away from the tech industry. I don't mind juniors joining (gosh I desperately need people to do basic tasks like checking if a button works, a task that my supervisor senior is wrongfully assigned to), as my multi-YOE shields me from entry level competition, but I'm not trying to drag more people into the sinking ship.
I used to have energy for daily morning runs for a hour and half, now I have none.
Seriously, get a job where automation/boilerplate frameworks do not exist, or will not replace anytime soon. Moreover, a field like nursing (my relative) is inherently stable, has clear progression paths, and has strong legal boundaries (albeit also high stress).
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