Microsoft and CMU Team Up to Train Early Career Software Engineers(www.cs.cmu.edu)
27 pointsby azhenley3 hours ago9 comments
  • layer8an hour ago
    > "With so many companies worldwide faced with upheaval due to AI in software development, I believe this program will become a template for rapidly leveling up new developers across the industry."

    This seems cognitively dissonant with the AI upheaval resulting in the industry needing fewer developers. Maybe they want cheaper developers?

    • LanceH23 minutes ago
      It feels like it's all senior developers now and nobody new. At some point they will want someone new and won't be able to find them.
  • petcat15 minutes ago
    "software engineer" is likely a career long gone. "Product engineer" and architect is probably the only software-adjacent title that will have consistent demand for awhile.

    Basically still just a prompt jockey but knows the difference between outputs that are good and bad.

    • rfgplk9 minutes ago
      Yep. If you think your job involves "writing code" as the core part of your responsibilities, write yourself off immediately. That career is dead and dusted. Sadly most companies still haven't realized this, given how few Architect openings exist (and those that do, most are asking for 20+ years of exp lol)
  • bradfaan hour ago
    Curious how realistic the skills learned in such a program are still applicable in 1-2 years. This industry is moving very fast, it feels like the self motivated, self starter, self learner has been thriving. Probably a good thing to have such a program, but I have doubts.
    • avaer13 minutes ago
      The YC meta model is probably a better school than school now. I'm sure YC knows that.

      If you need to be told what to do, it's a short step to your AI replacement being told what to do; money will ensure it. If your job is to discover and capture new things in an exploding possibility space, that's a career.

      Schools should teach hacking, but it doesn't seem that's what this program is doing.

  • geraldwhen21 minutes ago
    Microsoft? Maybe they’re hopeful the next admin will make OPT cheap labor again.
  • thadk18 minutes ago
    Can anyone share syllabi for these?
  • BatchJob9 minutes ago
    Im sorry for being so negative but MS sold software engineers (and US high school and college students) down the river so long ago, the nerve of them now even pretending to care is just so offensive. This business has gotten so rotten, the best thing I can tell anyone is to find something rewarding to do with your life.
  • coolThingsFirstan hour ago
    Now that you have learnt Software Engineering, hunting for a job is easy just make 10^10^10^10 job applications.
  • dyauspitran hour ago
    “So you type your request into this chat window…”
  • flowerladan hour ago
    The assumption here is that senior engineers are still needed to review AI-generated code. That assumption might not be valid for very long. I find myself reviewing AI-generated code less and less because the code quality is very good -- and getting better every month. Soon reviewing AI-generated code will be like manually verifying the results of a calculator--it is a waste of time. At that point all you need is an architect. I predict senior software engineers will be obsolete within a year.
    • lelanthran23 minutes ago
      > At that point all you need is an architect.

      What value would an architect provide that a SOTA LLM can't?

    • BoggleOhYeahan hour ago
      As a principal, I still catch people submitting shitty AI code on a weekly basis. Their brains are rotting to the point that they can't tell if the code is doing the correct thing or not.
      • LanceH16 minutes ago
        I've found myself engaging more with AI writing code. There is no easy time during the work day. I'm talking to product about what they want, communicating with AI to write it, and verifying that it covers what was asked for. And the better I get at it, the more of the product I need to learn at a faster pace. If I find some downtime, I work on additional features at the same time, something I wouldn't do on my own.

        Quite simply, I'm more mentally drained at the end of a day working with AI than I am a normal day of coding. There is still a lot of energy and thought that needs to go into what needs to be written.

      • frank00001an hour ago
        Just left my programming job due to this. Stopped thinking, stopped caring. AI destroyed my coding joy, so I’m finished with that. Leadership challenges next - hope to use my brain a bit more.
        • deadbabean hour ago
          You won’t, leadership requires even less brain.
          • bradfaan hour ago
            Good leadership requires brains. Average leadership is attainable without brains.
      • throwaway_4540 minutes ago
        The issue is the higher ups don't even seem to care. You just turn into the guy that's yelling at the clouds. I don't know what the future of this industry is.
    • dude250711an hour ago
      [flagged]