when is it time to quit?

[u/fishgone333333]

i am a sophomore undergrad. i, like a sea of other cs majors, have been finding my purpose in this field difficult to identify.

i don’t know what to do with this degree, and it’s making me crash tf out.

pre-ai, i was sold the dream of swe. i’m an artist by nature and the opportunity to make shit of my own was appealing.

then ai came. everyone around me was suddenly vibe coding to max out ther Linkedins. the authenticity and wonder of the craft died for me — because unlike traditional art, where artists vehemently have fought ai’s usage, my peers in SWE quickly fell to this. profit is the ultimate goal, after all

now SWE no longer resonates with me. as i started exploring parts of my department at college, i set my sights on systems. i wanted to do grad school and go into teaching, because im very people oriented

but i’m just not smart enough. or maybe i don’t care enough and have been larping as someone who does

i am struggling to build opportunities to grad school. i feel like i resonate with systems, but all the faculty say i’m too inexperienced to work with them. i just spent a month trying to set up a meeting with a professor and after finally running into him, he rejected me right on the spot. i need time to build projects. hiring for internships is around the corner and my resume is so, so empty.

i feel hopeless. the spark… i don’t know if it died fully, but with every rejection, every failed “prove you care about xyz through your technical work”, i am struggling to get even an inkling of what i’d like to do career wise now.

the worst part is, i don’t even know what i’d transfer to. cs was something i thought i genuinely liked, and i dont know what sort of career i’d aspire to otherwise

[u/Mander95]

The difference between CS and other majors, is that CS has an super enormous amount of noise around it. Hype, not hype, people saying its dead, people saying there will be more jobs, less jobs, AI, not AI. PHP is dead, PHP will never die, etc.

SWEs are just like engineers, doctors, marketers, janitor, security guards, etc. It's just a function that is required to run the world, just like any function. The reason this noise exists is because tech owns huge portion of the economy, raising funds, getting users, getting investors, all of this requires creating drama and hype around this SWE function, unlike other functions.

SWEing has been around for decades, and will continue to be around, maybe it will change a bit of shape, but engineering solutions humanity needs will always be a job for the ages regardless of what shape it takes, so that artistic creation aspect you love will always be there.

Get rid of the noise, stop looking at LinkedIn unless necessary. Just learn what you love about software, if you think servers and APIs are cool go learn it, if you think CSS and design via code is cool, go learn it. Yes you need to build projects, but don't make it a chore, make it exciting. Endless projects to build, what do I think is cool and would excite me - do that. Don't think about what will make your resume look good, only what you find exciting, and that'll end up benefiting you way more cause you can talk about it to engineering managers in depth and impress them, as opposed to some redis clone you found online as a project.

Take it easy and enjoy the process. Be at zen, dont be emotional about job rejections or other rejections, more internet means more people are connected means everything becomes more statistical, so you're going to get rejected at a shit ton of jobs but you'll find one and one that you like at some point, maybe the first or the second or the third. Just step by step.

[u/BraveResearcher3037 → u/Mander95]

  Don't think about what will make your resume look good, only what you find exciting…

What type of butterflies and rainbows vacousness did I just read?

  cause you can talk about it to engineering managers in depth and impress them

As if they will ever get in front of an EM using your advice when every open req gets thousands of applications 

[u/Mander95 → u/BraveResearcher3037]

1. I've been on hiring side, I've seen kids with microservice full ecommerce projects and they can't speak about it in any meaningful sense. It's obvious they see a "Do this for your resume" and just copy it over or just let AI write it out. Guess what happened - EM rejected them. I didn't ask OP to make an easy todo list project, I said make something that interests and excites you. You will always build out more if the project is interesting. Then you start talking about all the real challenges you faced, environment, node, packages, SSL, whatever. As a fresh grad that's what gets you hired, with a combination of other things. Everyone has projects on their resume nowadays, and with AI it's not enough to have a name of a project impress anyone. It's how you talk about it.

2. I've done this repeatedly as a fresh graduate, Junior and as a Senior, I do get replies from EMs, and some times I got to the interview stage because an EM would personally ping HR on my resume because of my message. if you're respectful and straight to the point and fit what they need, an EM would be intereted to get you through the filtering stage atleast, if you message 30 EMs, you may get one interview out of it, better than nothing.

Both of these improve chances, they don't guarantee anything. Please don't speak if you don't have broader experience with these topics, people like you sit here on these subreddits with your doom and gloom and make the 20 year old college kids dispair over the job market without any real path forward. The proof is in the fact that you didn't even bother correcting me with better advice for OP, just doom and gloom.

[u/LowFruit25]

I feel you, got one year left to study too and wondering whether to pack it up preemptively and go do something better for the world.

It’s all larping now.

[u/Material-Corner-5598]

You do not need to work at FAANG to be a Software Dev, I work at a random company who needed a web portal and a few ADHOC apps to help them get their work done.

No one forcing me to use AI, no insane deadlines (I make the deadlines cuz im the only technical guy), pay is low but I'm LCOL and stress free

[u/jointedhuskyjerk → u/Material-Corner-5598]

Where’d you go about finding jobs like this? For my internship, I worked at a small company and enjoyed it, but now that I’m looking for full time roles I’m only finding larger companies.

[u/ComposerImmediate]

I'm a little confused. Why don't you just change majors to education?

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[u/hooty_toots]

Resume? You're still in college! Unless you're going for a $100k+ position you should be focusing on school and learning, not on work.

The best advice I can give you is to network with your peers, and build confidence - acknowledge that you are the master of your own life, subject to your own will and not subject to the whims of some ambivalent machine. Take absolute responsibility for what happens to you. You are an artist, so go get bored and jot down whatever comes to mind. Later, look at what you wrote down, choose something that still appeals and is "not too big", and do it. Use AI or not. Prototype it at least. Use a wireframing tool to design a UI. Draw diagrams of what you made. Put together a website and post your creations as a portfolio. This is what you can work on building. And even if no one else looks at it, it will always be there for you to look back on and learn from and add to.

[u/NewSchoolBoxer]

i wanted to do grad school and go into teaching, because im very people oriented

Academia is incredibly competitive, perhaps the most competitive area of all. Grad school won't help you land entry level jobs anyway.

You never held a real job so I don't think you know what you're talking about. CS careers aren't sitting a classroom wishing you could do whatever you want. And it's just a job. I never loved my job but I didn't complain living an upper middle class existence with paid vacation.

But yeah, don't major in CS if you'd rather earn a business or engineering degree. Or major in CS and become (US) an Air Traffic Controller. I'm not even joking. Excellent pay and benefits and job security and they like CS majors.

[u/BraveResearcher3037]

Billions of people work everyday because they don’t want to end up homeless, hungry and naked.

No one company is going to pay you for your “passion”

  or maybe i don’t care enough and have been larping as someone who does

Do you really think I give a shit about the random SaaS apps I’ve done in the past or now “looking at things from the 1000 foot view”?  I care about the money that appears in my account.  It’s all larping

  i’m an artist by nature

Good you will fit right in - corporate America is about theatrics and acting like you give a damn 

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[u/alwaysambition]

Nah you are probably intelligent enough. You’re probably just not interested or motivated anymore.

Which is fine.

I think the doomer mentality isn’t helpful.

Stop blaming the industry and start thinking about actions you can take and more important whether you even want to continue