I just finished a PhD in stats, and before that, studied computer science. I had planned to go back to industry to do software engineering or be a data scientist afterwards.

However, it seems that in the meantime, vibe coding has taken over the software industry and swallowed most data scientist roles. Few open positions, and the ones that do exist are just pushing a button instead of thinking and solving problems. Is this a correct assessment? Should I try to get back in or just find a new career? I am not too keen on staying in academia either.

  • neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works
    111·
    1 day ago

    This. You still need to know how to write and organize code to guide LLMs in the right direction, you just don’t have to write the code yourself anymore, that’s no longer economical at scale.

    The skills you need to guide LLMs though comes from practical application/experience writing code in the industry though, so my concern is how people are going to get those skills now. You don’t get them from college.

    • Gumby@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      29 minutes ago

      The skills you need to guide LLMs though comes from practical application/experience writing code in the industry though, so my concern is how people are going to get those skills now. You don’t get them from college.

      This is exactly the drum I’ve been beating for about the last year, since my company has really embraced using AI for development. I’m worried that the industry as a whole is going to become very top heavy. Nobody’s going to be hiring new junior devs, and the new devs that do get hired straight out of college won’t have the practical experience needed to really be able to fully understand the output of their AI models - what’s good, what’s bad, and how do you tell the difference?

      AI can be incredibly useful for an experienced dev, but if you don’t have that baseline experience and understanding and just blindly trust what it gives you, then you’re just going to cause more problems than you’re solving.

      Maybe I’m too cynical for my own good - I guess time will tell.

    • NoLemurs@lemmy.world
      6·
      1 day ago

      The skills you need to guide LLMs though comes from practical application/experience writing code in the industry though, so my concern is how people are going to get those skills now. You don’t get them from college.

      Yeah… it’s going to be really rough for new engineers for a while until we figure out a new way to train people. I think there will be people who are self taught and AI native who will do really well, but they will be the minority.