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Software engineers are facing an 'identity crisis bordering on depression,' Menlo Ventures partner says
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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Huh. Maybe I will have a shot at getting a job... Oh, wait, I have 35 years experience, am over 50 and have been unemployed for 16 months. Never mind.
I gave up the humiliating shit show called a job search 3 months ago, and frankly my last job killed any interest in software development anyway.
It's all idiots telling professionals they're wrong and incompetent while blaming them for the ongoing production failures we solved and explained every month for a year but still can't get the code past review because "it does too much". 30 fucking lines of code "does too much". Pompous morons.
We're a threat of competence, and they're excising us relentlessly. I will laugh bitterly as I watch the soon to be torrent of fiascos and lamentations these idiots spout while still finding a way to blame software engineers.
Hey are you me?!
Yeah I wonder how low I will go for a job, it's not bright exactly...
If, like me, you took it on faith (at the age of 23) that social security will be gone by the time I retire, you have been saving and investingcas much as possible. Then you can get by on low-end work.
Remember, jobs don't really give you prestige. A job is a job. The issue is whether it can help you pay your bills or not.
Note that Social Security is slated to not have enough money for full payments 3 years before I'm due to enroll (for full payments). You'd think I'd have earned Millions with my precognitive skills.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
A bit different over here in the EU I guess, but similar too; got my apartment almost paid off, social security is guaranteed, retirement will be like 1k€/m in like 9 years...
Hopefully RAM prices will have fallen by then 😁, or maybe we old C/C++ devs will be the new COBOL guys...
I'm sorry that happened to you. I've also seen it happen to a lot of very good engineers I've known over the years. It's truly insane. I know some people who've had to dip into their 401k accounts early just to keep their heads above water, and it's going to be an economy-wide disaster soon.
Yeah, I didn't want to retire yet, but like my father before me, the choice was not mine. I saved enough that I should be able to actually retire and survive on part-time low income jobs. Unless the market crashes for a year straight cuz after that I got to start selling stocks.
I'm with you, MasterBlaster!
It sucks for lots of us, more every day, so at least we're not miserable, alone.