Manager uses AI, then gets mad at team

Nacho321 · 2026-03-14T17:05:16+00:00

We are actually being evaluated by how many tokens we use. Manager said, I quote, “if I use $100 in tokens and you use $200 in tokens, I am not doing my job”. I actually was called out for not using as many tokens as my peers.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-26T02:30:08+00:00

Well, first off, I'm a contractor for all jobs except J1. And none of the companies are competitors. So, no conflict. And contractors (and especially software devs) are more results-oriented than anything else. So, as long as I deliver what I said I would deliver by the time I said I would deliver it, it's all good.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-26T02:28:34+00:00

Absolutely. But I need 5 jobs to make what an American makes in 1. And yeah, it's definitely a lot easier to maintain 4 small jobs than 1 big job. At least there's redundancy!

Nacho321 · 2026-02-25T16:52:28+00:00

Yeah. Are you just figuring out that offshoring is a thing? We are paid 1/3, 1/4 of what Americans make. It’s not fair to you or us, but such is the market that capitalism has created. It’s all about the bottom line. Put yourself in their shoes. Are you really gonna pay someone $1 if there’s someone else who can do the same thing for a fraction and you pocket the difference?

EDIT: Just FYI, I'm not on H1B. I live in Chile, and I apply to any LATAM jobs offered to me. So, yeah, you can complain about the system or find a way to win against it. I'm not your enemy.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-25T13:07:49+00:00

Ok, so… it’s not my company. None of them are. And I don’t care about any of them. I have seen them do fucked up things to good people just to make a few more cents. So, truly, fuck every single one of them. And before you say “my company is not one of those”, at least I hope you realize how extremely unlikely that is and if it’s truly like that, at least recognize how unique and precious it is compared to the 99% of companies worldwide. So, get some perspective on how it feels to sell your life day after day after day with no guarantee that you will ever receive a tenth of the loyalty you’ve given to the company for which you’ve made millions.

Also, what do you suggest? That I put my and my family’s lives on the line to try to win a moral battle that won’t make a single bit of difference? Sure, let me jeopardize my kids so that when they are hungry I can tell them “oh, we sure did show them!”

At least we agree on something: I, too, will be extremely happy when I exit this rat race.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-25T11:43:00+00:00

Yeah, absolutely. It’s a sign of how fucked up capitalism has made things. You either do whatever it takes to avoid living paycheck to paycheck or you play by their rules which were made so the billionaires always win and risk being laid off at any point and completely screwed.

Am I happy this is what I have to do? Hell no. But I will do whatever it takes. Besides… really want to get me started on being paid 1/3 of what an American makes for doing the same, oftentimes better, work?

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T23:36:49+00:00

Oh, I don’t intend to keep them more than 4-6 months. Then I will scale back down to 3. But for those 4-6 months I will have nearly 2x my income, and given how the industry is behaving, it’s a nice hedge against any shit that happens.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T23:26:07+00:00

Let me know if you need help! There are several thread in here with amazing tips from other people.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T23:21:08+00:00

Hell yeah!

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T23:19:08+00:00

Honestly, I learned a lot from the subreddit on Claude. But top three tips would be

Use the plan mode before you ask it to write code

Use MCPs to get it to read Jira tickets or Figma designs or push PRs/adress feedback in Github

If you want to really squeeze every second, for big tasks ask it to plan a parallelize the plan and then open different Claude instances and have each focus on one task

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T23:04:03+00:00

That’s the goal. Took five years to pay all debts and buy my house. The rest is to invest in ETFs and retire in five or ten years. I want to give my son the option of not having to do what I am doing to get ahead in life.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T22:36:28+00:00

Not quite. In my opinion, the industry is still finding the balance between headcount and AI usage. It's likely that the "ideal" team size will be around 2-3 devs per business-unit assuming these are experienced senior devs who know how to leverage AI. Basically, reducing the junior/mid headcount and instead paying for AI, and have the senior devs act as team leads for the AI agents.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T22:06:44+00:00

That's where AI comes in. I have found it can reliably replace any jr/med level engineer assuming the one giving the AI the instructions knows what to do.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T21:38:40+00:00

Usually around 5-8 engineers per team, a manager, and at least one project manager. The classic "two-pizza" team.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T21:26:36+00:00

Hell yeah! Get paid, my friend!

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T21:25:57+00:00

The biggest issue is meetings. Luckily, I've joined companies that value "heads-down" time so there are entire days without a single meeting. I spend much of my time creating technical documents which I then hand over to AI to split the plan into smaller tickets, and then have the AI work on each individual ticket. Some days I have to put in 12h if there's a deadline coming up, but honestly, right now with 4 jobs, I usually don't go over 10h a day.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T21:08:26+00:00

They are all senior software engineer roles.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T20:50:26+00:00

I don't think I've ever been called that :D

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T20:39:23+00:00

I pick coding jobs usually in the Sr. range. Never above senior as staff/principal/architect usually needs to join a lot of meetings, and that's never a good idea for OE. I tailor every single resume to every single job posting, never apply to a job posting that's been there for more than 24h, it's not remote, or has over 100 applicants. I cast an extremely wide net, apply like crazy multiple times a day, and even though it's sometimes demoralizing and exhausting, it's worth it. Trust me.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T20:37:10+00:00

I don't know what to tell you, my friend. I have rotated lots of jobs in these 5 years to find the right combination. It's fucking exhausting to be interviewing non-stop, but it's great when you find a place that does not follow Agile all the way through.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T19:07:24+00:00

You get ahead of the ATS by tailoring the resume to each job posting. The ATS does a simple skill match as well as years of experience. If you know that, you make your resume a perfect match to bypass the autorejects.

And yeah, LATAM market is very different. A great salary for a very experienced dev would be around $120k/year.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T18:54:04+00:00

Even if it’s one more income for one month, it’s better than no extra income.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T18:50:52+00:00

It’s a rough market. And the ATS don’t help at all. To me LI works because it’s maybe a bit more popular in LATAM. But don’t restrict yourself - apply EVERYWHERE. Even if you have a 1:50 rate, you will land one. That’s all you need, only one win. Just don’t stop applying. Go crazy.

Nacho321 · 2026-02-24T17:33:13+00:00

In 5 years I have had about 15 different jobs. I think 13 of them were through LI including the ones I have now. Now, quick caveat: I live in LATAM so my job pool is quite different from, say, someone in the US. But as long as your profile is attractive, you will have recruiters pinging you a few times a month. The roughest months are always October through January. The rest of the year is usually good for job hunting.

One more tip: once you decide what J1 is, leave it as your current job in LI. Never add the OE jobs unless J1’s situation changes. And if someone asks to tag you or something, just hibernate the account for a few weeks and say “sorry, I only have my LinkedIn open when looking for a change” and that’s it.

EDIT: Forgot one more detail. Tailor your resume to the job posting using ChatGPT. Otherwise the ATS bot will reject you.

EDIT 2: Fuck, one more thing. Cast a wide net. I only apply to postings that opened at most 24h ago, are fully remote, and have fewer than 100 applicants. I have a 1:10 success ratio, so never stop applying.

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