You keep seeing the question everywhere.
Reddit. LinkedIn. Group chats.
“Are software engineers doomed in 2025?”
Some say yes. Most are coping. Software engineers inclduing myself are wondering if AI is taking over...
I’m not here to cope. I’m here to tell you exactly what I’m living, end of 2025, while still shipping code every single day.
The 2021–2022 Dream Is Gone Forever
You remember it.
Learn React or Next.js in a weekend, add Stripe, deploy, and suddenly you’re “senior” money while working three days a week.
That timeline is deleted. Not paused. Fully Deleted. Gone for good!
The layoffs from 2023 through today weren’t a “correction.”
They were the market finally admitting half those roles never made real business sense.
The engineers who actually built systems that make money and don’t break? They never stopped getting DMs.
Everyone else woke up competing in a game where the rules changed overnight.
The Competition Just Got Savage
Right now you’re not fighting 2022 bootcamp grads anymore.
You’re fighting:
-
Laid-off staff and principal engineers who will take your offer just to stay in the game
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Quiet 10–15 year veterans who never posted salaries and now look like Titans
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AI that writes 70–80% of the code you used to stretch across two months
What was staff level output in 2019 is now the baseline for mid-level, faster, cleaner, and for less real money.
The One Table That Decides Everything in 2025
I keep this bookmarked because it forces me to stay honest every morning:
Quietly Fading in 2025 | Pulling Away Hard in 2025 |
|---|---|
Waits for tickets | Hunts problems worth real money |
Writes code 8 hours a day | Owns outcomes 8 hours a day |
Knows one framework inside out | Knows systems, trade-offs, revenue |
Treats AI like the enemy | Uses AI to ship 4–5× faster |
Builds features | Builds leverage and automation |
Optimizes for the biggest paycheck | Optimizes for equity + total freedom |
Scared of being exposed | Ships so much nobody can question |
Who’s Actually in Danger Right Now
No sugarcoating:
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The 2022 bootcamp grad who stopped learning after “MERN + 100 LeetCode mediums”
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The mid-level CRUD specialist whose biggest app never saw real traffic
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Anyone calling Cursor or Copilot “cheating” while seniors outrun them 5:1
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Engineers waiting on the sidelines for “the next bull market”
Who’s Quietly Winning (And How)
Meanwhile these people are laughing:
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The bedroom SaaS that clears $8–15k/month and never interviews again
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The staff engineer still pulling $600k+ because monolith migrations are suddenly rare
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The freelancer charging $20k for a one-week MVP using steel-thread + AI
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The indie hacker who replaced a five-person team with himself and good prompts
Bottom Line
Software engineering isn’t dying.
It just stopped being free money and went back to being actual engineering: solve hard problems, deliver massive value, own the result.
If you love building things that work and make money; this is the best time in history. Tools are insane, distribution is free, the bar is finally visible.
But if you just wanted to type code and collect easy six figures forever… that version of the job is gone.
So the real question isn’t “Are software engineers doomed in 2025?”
It’s “Are you going to level up today, or keep pretending 2021 is coming back?”
Your move.
Thanks for reading. Share your thoughts.