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Worried Recent Grad

4 pointsukmlb6 comments

I graduated last year and had to take a break due to mental health - I did very well, I finished my masters at the top of the class (and was offered a job, which I had to decline).

Since then we've obviously seen the hype around ChatGPT explode, including using it for code. I use it to help me with personal projects for my portfolio (though sometimes it's been unhelpful), as well as refreshers on various concepts and fundamentals.

I want to start my software dev career but feel paralysed by uncertainty. I've started to get calls from recruiters, emails about entry level roles, but I'm anxious that 6 months from now I'll find myself turfed out with no way into industry - which has a knock on of killing my motivation to do anything.

How do I get over this? It's hard to get a real sense of the industry feeling - honestly, am I wasting my time?

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Congrats on graduating, and good move building experience with the latest dev tooling like ChatGPT.

I don’t think you should feel too discouraged. Plenty of companies do not allow their developers to use third party language models/services (due to privacy, legal, or other concerns) so they’ll have plenty of standard unassisted dev work. And for the companies that do leverage the tech, your experience with it will make you an even stronger candidate.

Thanks, it feels overwhelming enough with all of the stuff I don't know without worrying about seniors and managers taking a view that investing in new employees wont be worthwhile. Appreciate the reply.

Don’t let the hype overwhelm you, technology is moving fast but this is just another tool to have in your toolset.

Using gpt4 I think it’s an amazingly helpful tool but it is very far from being able to replace a human coder. The feeling you should have about it is excitement, there will be disruption for sure but you are just getting started on your life and career, at a very exciting time, and one thing humans are very good at is adaptation.

Remember fear and doubt are the mind killers, it’s very likely not what you fear that will hinder you, it’s your fear itself that will. So dive right in, you will most likely find a way to surmount what is making you worried today.

The whole point of the technology industry is introducing new and disruptive technologies. If you’re going to work in the industry, you need to be ready to adapt and pick up new skill sets on the fly. It has always been this way.

I get that. I suppose I haven't gone through anything like this before, since I'm new. It does feel more disruptive than, say, a framework or something though - everyone seem to be trying to leverage this type of AI.

Especially when you read senior staff opinions or about meetings with managers saying that they expect they wont need their juniors soon.

Shocking headlines drive clicks to media sites.

Don’t worry about it. Just go apply for jobs.

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