Elevated anxiety levels about career uncertainty

With AI and ML running rampant, the barrier to entry now is a lot higher and you will be competing with other engineers for jobs.

However, just like you mentioned you don't have a formal CS education but landed a job, you could likewise get a CS degree and land a gig unrelated to tech. A degree shouldn't force you to do anything, if you like it pursue it.

Eventually everyone overhires, extrapolates from the status quo ("why am I not making a $600k salary??"). Property prices and living costs go up. People get lazy, processes are bloated because of the overhiring. Tech layoffs happen to control the bleeding and move faster. The balancing loop becomes dominant when growth slows.

Eventually everyone says tech is dead. People tell their kids to become doctors or real engineers instead. Less engineers are on the market, and it will upturn again. This is actually the best time to be in tech - most of my income is from doing Android back when people said I should be quitting tech or making BlackBerry/Windows Phone apps.

The dot com bubble popped in 2000. Web 2.0 bubble appears to have peaked in 2022, but the data is still unclear. So we can assume that there's a 22 year cycle or so. It's not sinusoidal; it's a boom and bust form where it goes up exponentially (slowly) then busts. The dot com bust cycle went from peak to bottom in about 2 years, but I expect this time it might be longer. After the bust, the market is still much stronger than pre boom, but far from the peak.

There's a lot of abstraction here and it can be modeled better, but the tldr is do what you like. Doing a degree takes time. We should be out of the trough by the time you're done. If you want to work hard and grit it out, you can do that too.

I'd say go to a good uni, though. No name ones won't give you any confidence. The benefits lie in the people you meet and the ideas.

If you're still very worried about lay offs, you should talk to your manager about it. Like you go to him and tell him "I'm scared shitless about being let go, I can't sleep". Maybe he'll tell you that the company is doing great, and the division is growing and there is zero chance you're going to be fired. If he tells you that you should be worried, it's time to take the bull by the horns and dust off your resume.

Regardless you can start looking for other jobs right now, just to see if your resume works and to tweak it if necessary. It can also help you get better at interviewing. And you know, if you land a job somewhere else, it might even make you more money... A decent share of developers jump ship all the time, it's the best way to make your salary go up.

Regarding the degree: A shit CS degree is probably worse than no degree at all. You learn very little of practical value in CS (even in good schools). A good CS degree is just a stamp of approval that you were good in school. A bad CS degree tells the recruiters that you tried and failed to get a good CS degree, so it's like a stamp of disapproval. A degree in something different means you tried different things, and that you're motivated enough to learn things yourself, it's a much better story.

Anyways, good luck, and take it easy, there's plenty of jobs out there, and you don't compete with the people being laid off that much.

You've been reading too much Hacker News. There's a disproportionate amount of people who are employed and don't post.

People posting about their experiences of being laid off or having trouble finding a new job need to be heard. We are here to support them and have a good conversation, so they can get through this phase in their lives.

Life is somewhat unique, and you'll have your highs and lows. There's no way to prevent you from pain and suffering in life; whatever comes, you'll need to figure your way out, but only when it comes.

It would be best to do what you like instead of focusing on CS. Everything has cycles, and it seems we are at the end of one cycle. Soon enough, we'll have a new one.

Go enjoy your life and live day after day; also, please make sure to take care of your personal finances, never live above your means, and save some, and I'm sure you'll do just fine.

Worrying about the future won't solve anything.

Also, if you are concerned about AI and the current mentions from top industry experts that say we'll have AGI soon, it's all BS. They just want to fil their egos.

I wish there would be consequences for them to create such fuzz and this terrible mental state into others, by lying and making cocky predictions. But karma will make sure they'll get what they deserve.

Add a way to contact you in your HN profile (the About box), if you want to chat about it with someone who took the same road you did, years down the line.