If Ben Zabihi had started his career five years ago, his working hours would have been very different than they are today.
A few years ago, he might have spent a lot of time formatting code and creating documentation. Zabihi, who has been working as a software engineer at a small startup in New York City since December, said he spends a good portion of his day using AI tools. In addition to writing code, she also works as a research assistant to gain a deeper understanding of the industry and business terminology.
The 23-year-old comes into the profession at a time when companies and employees are actively testing and debating how useful AI can be and what requires a human touch.
Zabihi says that relying too much on AI early in a career can weaken the foundation for learning in the long run, but he also knows that technology should be leveraged to optimize workflows.
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The tasks that used to keep entry-level engineers busy may not be as important as they once were, he said.
Instead, he focuses on Big picture: Things like understanding business objectives, system architecture, scaling, and security risks. These were once the domain of senior engineers.
risks and opportunities
While many new graduates see AI as a way to quickly gain superpowers, some industry veterans worry that the technology is eroding the formative stages of learning that build judgment and problem-solving skills. This gap is likely to become more apparent as today’s engineers advance.
Georgian Tutuianu, a 36-year-old engineer, said that when he entered the field several years ago, 95% of the work was painful. But he worries that for today’s young engineers, there are a lot of shortcuts that can come at the expense of deeper understanding.
For example, a core part of his job is managing codebases through pull requests, where engineers submit code for review before it’s merged into the system. Tutuianu said he was reviewing about 100 to 500 lines of code in pull requests. There are now well over 1,000 LLMs, he said, and they often add layers of complexity that employees don’t understand.
“This is very worrying because it just adds up to a whole bunch of horrible things that we have to fight against,” Tutuianu said. “It’s literally just pollution.”
He said he was concerned that young engineers were outsourcing the most difficult part of their jobs – wrestling with things they don’t understand – to LLMs.
Mr. Zabihi and Mr. Tutuianu’s differing experiences reflect broader changes in the industry. Software engineering, one of the fastest adopters of AI, is undergoing a transformation, and entry-level roles, once a training ground for mastering complex jobs, are undergoing a fundamental transformation.
It comes with risks, but also opportunities.
move forward
There is no crystal ball to predict where the industry will go, but one thing is clear. That means junior developers are navigating an uncertain job market as the industry undergoes seismic shifts. That means you need to move quickly to stay relevant.
A change in focus may also force us to rethink the fundamentals of our work. If AI can handle much of the code itself, the value of engineers may not lie in perfecting the syntax, but in gaining broader expertise in defining problems and building solutions.
“The question then is: How are job and skill requirements changing?” Matt Kropp, managing director, senior partner and chief AI officer at BCG X, the technology division of Boston Consulting Group, told Business Insider. “If you’re a junior engineer, how do you make sure the market fills those skills?
“There’s no substitute for doing this,” Keith Ballinger, Google’s vice president and general manager of developer and experience, told Business Insider.
“You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to do something important and meaningful,” Ballinger said. “Just make a cool app and post it on your website.”
Ballinger said most software engineers didn’t get into the field to write code in a particular language or framework. A developer’s job is to use technology to solve problems and apply engineering techniques, he said. Good engineers have always known how to break down problems into smaller problems, Ballinger said, and now agents can help handle the rest.
“This is a skill that we can teach and that people can learn, but it’s more important now than ever before, and it’s certainly more important than memorizing how APIs work,” Ballinger said.
As entry-level hiring opportunities change, Mohit Bende, co-founder and CEO of engineering recruiting platform Carat, said aspiring engineers should look for organizations that are focused on developing young talent. Increasingly, he says, these opportunities may lie outside traditional technologies.
Bende said he expects more talent to move into sectors such as finance and health care, where AI adoption has been slow and security concerns have increased the value of human oversight.
He said CTOs are also increasingly looking for engineers who understand the business side of their jobs. Bende said aspiring engineers should prioritize acquiring knowledge in their field, whether through on-the-job training or formal education.
“Maybe you’re graduating with not only a computer science degree, but also a business degree,” Bende said, adding, “The jobs of the future will be a blend of the two.”
For example, Zabihi is bullish about what rapidly evolving technology means for his career. He said that AI has greatly increased his productivity, which ultimately rewards him.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for a junior developer,” Zabihi said.
