Interesting signal from IBM. The "AI will replace all junior devs" narrative never accounted for the fact that you still need humans who understand the business domain, can ask the right questions, and can catch when the AI is confidently wrong. Turns out institutional knowledge doesn't just materialize from a model — you need people learning on the job to build it.
Perhaps I'm being cynical, but could they be leaving out some detail? Perhaps they're replacing even more older workers with entry level workers than before? Maybe the AI makes the entry level workers just as good-- and much cheaper.
Another one? What is it with IBM, they must really save lots of money in a way no one else has figured out by firing people at 50yo. This is like the 3rd or 4th one i've heard from them.
Why is that bad? You write better code when you actually understand the business domain and the requirement. It's much easier to understand it when you get it direct from the source than filtered down through dozens of product managers and JIRA tickets.
Not because it's wrong, but because it risks initiating the collapse of the AI bubble and the whole "AI is gonna replace all skilled work, any day now, just give us another billion".
To a non-technical individual IBM is still seen as a reputable brand (their consulting business would've been bankrupt long ago otherwise) and they will absolutely pay attention.
Interesting signal from IBM. The "AI will replace all junior devs" narrative never accounted for the fact that you still need humans who understand the business domain, can ask the right questions, and can catch when the AI is confidently wrong. Turns out institutional knowledge doesn't just materialize from a model — you need people learning on the job to build it.
Perhaps I'm being cynical, but could they be leaving out some detail? Perhaps they're replacing even more older workers with entry level workers than before? Maybe the AI makes the entry level workers just as good-- and much cheaper.
Interesting given the current age discrimination lawsuit:
https://www.cohenmilstein.com/case-study/ibm-age-discriminat...
Another one? What is it with IBM, they must really save lots of money in a way no one else has figured out by firing people at 50yo. This is like the 3rd or 4th one i've heard from them.
"software engineers will spend less time on routine coding—and more on interacting with customers"
Ahh, what could possibly go wrong!
Why is that bad? You write better code when you actually understand the business domain and the requirement. It's much easier to understand it when you get it direct from the source than filtered down through dozens of product managers and JIRA tickets.
Programmers have an unfortunate tendancy to be too honest!
I’m a people person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNuu9CpdjIo
Probably not on the IBM jobs site yet, where the number of entry level jobs is low compared to the size of the company (~250k):
https://www.ibm.com/careers/search?field_keyword_18[0]=Entry...
Total: 240
United States: 25
India: 29
Canada: 15
Aren't those general jobs opening. Like junior swe only needs a single generic posting for all positions
Bold move.
Not because it's wrong, but because it risks initiating the collapse of the AI bubble and the whole "AI is gonna replace all skilled work, any day now, just give us another billion".
Seems like IBM can no longer wait for that day.
Is IBM invested big in LLMs? I don't get the impression they have much to lose there.
Their CEO already said what he's thinking about all the spending [0].
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46124324
Good. Nobody needs to rip that bandaid off. Might as well be IBM.
I mean it’s IBM. On average, 70% of their decisions are bad ones. Not sure I’d pay a single bit of attention to what they do.
Yeah, they are only 114 years old. How they can have the knowledge to stay afloat in trying times like this?
To a non-technical individual IBM is still seen as a reputable brand (their consulting business would've been bankrupt long ago otherwise) and they will absolutely pay attention.
[dupe] Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46995146
Thanks - we-ve merged that thread hither.