The AI hype train hasn’t touched me, and the hype trains of yesteryear have gone totally silent. The work I used to get approached about most (full stack web roles) have eerily dried up.

It’s nice to know there’s work available, but a little concerning that I’m not finding what I’d like to be doing most.

Virtually all roles I hear about or see are senior too, and occasionally but rarely intermediate. I have a huge amount of sympathy for people just getting started right now — it seems like a hard time to get a foot in the door.

This is the general trend of things. Experienced workers displace younger workers because they are more productive and cost the company less in training.

Overall the number of jobs available causes this displacement, the experienced workers would prefer to be paid for their experience but haven't found jobs and so compromise. You always have companies hanging out a hiring sign even if there is no real active position available.

There's a book about it called 'The Pinch'. We'll have some real societal trouble once the experienced people start passing. This is two generations in the making. Generally speaking no one wanted to have a discussion about it when it could have mattered. Things are so integrated now; you'll basically have a generational die off of knowledge.

As for the AI hype train, its largely not hype anymore. If by hype you mean doomsday talk, that's actually quite accurate. There's a good overview video done on youtube that does justice to what it can or can't do, and the issues that need to be discussed as opposed to the hyperbole and propaganda flowing about.

The main point being, the advances are happening so quickly now that we can no longer react to any potential problems. Any engineer will say that is a bad situation to be in; a runaway train being appropriate metaphor.

I’m concerned about where it’ll take us. On one hand, people talk about how calculators didn’t make it so everyone was unemployed and we’ve had automation for 100 years and so on… But like you mentioned, these technologies weren’t runaway trains. They made slow but steady progress. The latest AI leaps have made fast and dramatic progress, with no obvious reason to see it stopping. The changes will impact certain knowledge workers first, but I have a strong sense that it will reach out further into blue collar work perhaps sooner than we’d first guess.

That only touches on fears about employment and wealth disparity. It doesn’t begin to touch on micro and macro threats on a sociopolitical level. These are strange times.

This is the video I was talking about. My main background is in Systems Engineering, and my main concerns are the fact that we can't react, coupled with the socioeconomic part of it. I've got a decent background in economics as well though I wouldn't call myself an economist. I've yet to meet a real economist, most just use it as a prop to lie and support credibility for something that clearly isn't true when you dig into the details.

You really don't need a super advanced AI to do irreparable damage. All you really need it to do is stall the economic cycle and people end up doing the rest when they can't get food. Its one of those cascade failures that has repeated throughout history fairly regularly. Food Shortages->Unrest->Collapse->New Government, and that's what keeps me up because its so simple, but like any dam you don't see what led to the collapse until its really too late to do anything. Its worse when its pointed out, and no one pays attention.

My guess would be that many companies are now trying to restructure from large "agile" teams back to the small groups that get actual work done.

I think it has to do with RTO and layoff morale hits decimating the senior workforce, compounded by companies not being willing to train staff anymore and just cannibalizing each other for seniors. Another compounding factor is simply the seasonality of recruitment in tech. Recruitment efforts wind down for Nov - Jan, and peak in May - Jun and Oct; specifically after the quarter's financials are done.

These short-term factors could also exist within a larger trend. But it's good to remember that they are present.

When you started your consulting business where you advertising or through networking to find clients?

1. My experience and skill set is not that common. Most EEs and MEs have eschewed this field because it has, outside of FAANG-type companies, paid less.

2. If you go the formal accreditation route, getting up to speed in EMC/Product Compliance/Corporate Conformity, depending on the industry sector, is approx 4 to 7 years.

3. Most of my original client contacts came from attending various IEEE Society symposiums. New business contacts are through former/current clients.

I’m getting tons of reachouts.

My first job was as a senior developer. I knew the stack, other devs didn’t, so I had to teach them. I knew how to negotiate. So I started as senior at a big corporation.

I bumped around startups for a while. I’d regularly go from “developer” to “senior”. Then the company would bust. Then repeat.

I’m currently “non-senior” at a unicorn, but have more responsibility than I did anywhere else (unless you include 5 dev shops).

Eventually I’ll hit “senior, for real” where I won’t be willing to go back down.

What I really need is some mentoring (which I’m getting). Making the jump to “senior for real” means getting planning and management skills I don’t have, and won’t get from YouTube.

I’ve benefited from really good mentoring in the past, and plan to do so again soon.