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Career advice in 2025.

by career (45)15 Mar 2025

Yesterday, the tj-actions repository, a popular tool used with Github Actions was compromised (for more background read one of these two articles). Watching the infrastructure and security engineering teams at Carta respond, it highlighted to me just how much LLMs can’t meaningfully replace many essential roles of software professionals. However, I’m also reading Jennifer Palkha’s Recoding America, which makes an important point: decision-makers can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. (Or, in this context, remain employed.)

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Highlights

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    • Many people who first entered senior roles in 2010-2020 are finding current roles a lot less fun
  • hiring managers need some way to filter through the higher volume of candidates.
  • if you’re finding this job market difficult, it’s certainly not personal.

Summary AI-generated

Summarised by an AI assistant when this source was saved. Double-check against the original.

In summary, the tech job market has fundamentally decoupled traditional career variables like prestige, learning, and team dynamics, forcing professionals to actively optimize for one while accepting trade-offs in others rather than expecting the comfortable balance of previous years.

  • Senior leaders are struggling as past success metrics (team building) no longer align with current demands (AI integration, rapid execution), creating a widespread skills mismatch across leadership tiers.
  • The AI transition is invalidating established playbooks, making it critical for engineers to adapt to augmented workflows rather than waiting out the technological shift.
  • Tighter funding and valuation standards have reduced opportunities outside AI sectors, increased candidate competition, and shifted financial risk onto employees at later-stage startups.
  • Job market friction is structural, not personal; professionals should proactively optimize current roles for growth or satisfaction instead of taking prolonged employment gaps.

Notes this inspired