1.4. "Is it Too Late to Get a Job in Tech?" No.
Yes, there are jobs in tech and there always will be.
However, that doesn’t mean things are staying the same. The types of roles that exist in the industry are shifting, and so are the skills that are in demand. The “traditional” image of a software developer—someone who writes original code for a brand-new app—still exists, but it's going to slowly become less common.
Let’s take a closer look at where the industry is heading.
Is AI Replaceing Engineers?​
No — but also, kind of.
What AI really does is give everyone a productivity boost, much like how a calculator helps a mathematician work faster.
If every developer becomes 20% more productive, then a team of four can do what a team of five used to. In theory, that means companies could reduce the size of their engineering teams while maintaining the same output.
Although we’re seeing some layoffs that are likely linked to AI, they’re mostly happening at the largest companies — Amazon, Microsoft, Meta — not the smaller players that are racing to get to market as fast as possible. For these smaller companies, AI helps them move faster with the teams they already have.
As AI tools become more common, it’s becoming a growing expectation that software engineers know how to use them to improve their work — and how to integrate AI into the products they build. At the end of the day, these fancy models are really just another component of modern software that needs to be integrated, maintained, and optimized, much like databases, messaging queues, or APIs.
AI might raise the bar for what it means to be a software engineer, but it also speeds up the rate at which new developers can become productive. You as a student will be able to learn how to build complex systems faster than ever before, and you’ll be expected to leverage these tools in your work.
Abstraction and The Rise of "Operators"​
One possibility for the future is that companies will be less focused on writing new code from scratch and instead care more about how well their systems are monitored and maintained.
As the tech industry has matured, the tools, libraries, and frameworks available to developers have become more powerful and efficient.
Many tasks that once required full engineering teams have been transformed into SaaS products or solved with widely adopted libraries. Need to process payments? Stripe handles that. Need authentication and identity management? Okta takes care of it. Need a data warehouse? Snowflake has you covered. Want to deploy code? Vercel, Netlify, and AWS make it easy. Additionally, The recent productivity boost that AI tools and LLMs are providing has further reduced the number of developers needed to build new products.
As these tools become more powerful and reliable, companies need fewer engineers to build things from scratch.
This shift doesn’t mean software engineers are becoming obsolete — it means the nature of the job is changing.
Roles like Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) and Platform Engineer have existed for some time, but I believe we’ll see their responsibilities gradually become standard expectations for most software engineering positions. Just as quality assurance (QA) was once a separate role but is now often integrated into the expectations of developers writing their own tests, the skills associated with SREs and platform engineers — like diagnosing issues, optimizing performance, and ensuring reliability — may soon be seen as core parts of a typical software engineer’s job.
The reality is today's software engineers already spend a good percentage of their time just wiring everything together. Some already sarcastically throw around the words "digital plumber" for menual labor like connecting APIs, configuring services, and managing infrastructure.
Software engineers aren’t going extinct. However, it's likely some of their "coding time" is going to be replaced by configuring and maintaining existing systems, rather than writing new code from scratch.
No, software engineering isn’t dead. It’s just evolving.
Someone will always need to add new features to the services mentioned above, and there will always be companies that need custom software built for their specific needs.
The Lost Art of Systems Work​
While SaaS and cloud tools are eating up most of the application-layer work, there are still critical areas of computing that are quietly starving for talent.
Operating systems. Kernels. Networking stacks. Compiler design. These are fields where expertise is vanishing—often lumped under vague terms like “DevOps” or “platform engineering.”
It’s easy to forget, but every flashy web app still depends on thousands of layers of foundational software to function. These low-level components don’t change much, but when they do, it’s hard work—and it takes a certain kind of engineer to do it right.
With how much the industry has shifted toward high-level abstractions, many students never even learn about these foundational areas. They focus on high level areas like web development and data science, leaving behind the core principles that make all of it possible.
Despite their being jobs in this area, fewer students pursue this path because today it's harder to learn, and not as glamorous. But the industry desperately needs more people in these areas. If you want to stand out, this is a place where deep knowledge can still command serious respect.
Computer Science Will Always Matter​
If you’re worried that your computer science degree is becoming obsolete, don’t be.
The fundamentals of computing are timeless. Understanding algorithms, data structures, and the principles of software design will always be valuable.
As long as there are computers, there will be a need for people with a background in computer science.
The jobs that exist today will change, and the tools we use will evolve, but the fundamental principles of computing will remain constant which is why your computer science degree is going to keep its value and it's essential for anyone looking to build a career in technology.
In a world full of high-level tools and services, it might be tempting to think you don’t need to understand how things work under the hood. But the most effective people in modern tech teams do understand the fundamentals—even if they’re not writing low-level code every day.
Based on how the industry is shifting right now, it's fairly easy to predict thats the jobs that exist in 20 years are going to be different from the jobs that exist today, and it's your understanding of the fundamentals that will allow you to adapt and thrive in that changing landscape.
It's also important to keep in mind that your degree is not just about pure knowledge. Going through university is about learning how to learn and how to think critically. It's about building a network of peers and mentors who can support you throughout your career.
In chapter 3, we'll discuss how to make the most of university, both academically and socially, so you can build the skills and connections that will help you succeed in your career.
So… Are There Jobs?​
Yes. But they might not necessarily be the jobs you imagined when you started studying computer science. They're not all about building the next big app from scratch.
The opportunity is still there—but to seize it, you need to understand the direction the industry is heading.