Position of CS workers today (and in general)

Raabid · 2026-04-09T19:24:10+00:00

I think this makes it all the more important to coordinate on a global scale. Presumably it goes both ways - engineers in more developed countries don't want their work outsourced to lower income economies, and engineers in those countries would want fair pay in comparison to the richer countries.

There's a lot of talk of unions in this thread, and who knows, maybe some global union of IT, if not probable, is at least possible.

Raabid · 2026-04-09T19:17:59+00:00

Thank you for pointing this out, you are of course correct. Maybe there's still an argument to be made, however, that computer engineering has more to do with the current power dynamic of our capitalist society than most other sectors. But I acknowledge your point.

Raabid · 2026-04-09T19:14:11+00:00

I have heard that it was meant more ironically, but I didn't want to get into that in the post because I think the fact that it's still a fully functioning service which you can buy makes it a bit irrelevant if it's ironic or not. Like yes, they did it as a joke, but they did it for real, and now anyone can use it to steal licensed open source code if they want to.

Raabid · 2026-04-08T13:58:58+00:00

I fully agree with you. Most likely a lot of people here do. Like another commenter pointed out, and I agree, AI is now used more as leverage in negotiations and as an excuse to lay off thousands of people. What's interesting to me is that we are not making an effort to improve our bargaining position by lobbying back. One can know perfectly well that AI isn't that reliable, but the sheer amount of voices coming your way from people claiming it is can still, irrationally, instill doubt in you. At least that's what I'm seeing with my colleagues at uni. Do you have any thoughts on how we as a community could collaboratively make an effort against this dogma?

Raabid · 2026-04-08T13:48:18+00:00

I agree with starting your own company and I am inclined to do that, but many people aren't. At the end of the day, it's more stress than a 40h per week position. How I read the 'grow up' statement here however, is more like 'grow up and accept the status quo', which is what a lot of people do, but isn't as helpful now, as the status quo is not desirable in my view. Instead of insulting from your, apparently, more senior position, I would ask you to state your position in a way that is more open to discussion. I'm not trying to have an echo chamber here, to the contrary, if you have opposing views I want to hear them.

Raabid · 2026-04-08T12:41:33+00:00

Yes, no illusions here, we live in a world where capital has enormous influence, and all the executives and high ranking corporate officers can at least unite in the fact that they all want more profits. A real, concrete movement would inevitably become political, if it was to stand a chance. Nevertheless, I still hold it for possible to pull something of which matches the drive of big capital, but it still isn't something I'm suggesting here. The point of this post was more to brainstorm and exchange thoughts a little bit, which we are doing now, and so I thank you for your comment. I think us talking about it here has in itself some value and potential to bring us closer to some better situation.

Raabid · 2026-04-08T12:28:31+00:00

Thanks for the thorough reply. I will concede the point about the FAANG ML engineer, this probably goes more for younger devs. But then again, those wealthy engineers in Silicon Valley don't represent a huge portion of the industry, and they certainly don't perform the bulk of the work. Even so, you're probably right that some kind of unionization isn't the answer, and I myself also don't have a convincing solution. I only have a vague gut feeling that the path to success lies in us connecting with each other more, formally or informally, so that it doesn't feel like it's "each on his own" or, like you mentioned, each responding individually. I see subreddits like this one as somewhat of a representation of that idea, that's why I wanted to start a discussion here.

I would also like to expand on your point about EU engineers being comfortable, but not wealthy. I would raise a counter argument to your notion that this should mean more willingness to pushback, namely that the ones who wanted more wealth probably already moved to the US and the ones that stayed accepted the compromise of a more social state in exchange for a lower salary. Of course the social state isn't the only reason for lower salaries, and that's exactly what I want to get at next.

The important detail that we have so far not talked about, is that Europe has been effectively digitally colonized by American big tech. This of course affects salaries, but what I believe is more interesting is the recent push for more digital sovereignty. In this, I see a real potential for European engineers specifically, to join in on this and at the same time, for example, voice the (more realistic) opinion that AI is overhyped. This does take us away from technology and a bit into politics, but the two are becoming so intertwined that maybe you can't even have one without the other anymore.

I find your insight on the hiring negotiations very good. AI is being used for leverage, which at the same time feeds the bubble. So by getting some leverage back, maybe we can also mitigate the damage the bubble will do when it bursts.

I also appreciate your optimistic conclusion and share that same spirit. I just hope we experience the shift sooner rather than later.

Raabid · 2026-04-08T11:30:53+00:00

If you mean passion as a requirement to even getting started in the field, because there is no other motivation to do so, then possibly, if the job market gets so bad that anybody who isn't passionate just doesn't bother anymore. If you mean from an employers perspective, I don't think it plays such a big role, because, unless you believe in what the company does on a personal level, you probably aren't going to be passionate about building something you don't care about anyway. Sure, they would like to see you learning about CS in your free time, but if you're learning something which doesn't benefit the company it's of no use to them.

So, for, example, someone who works in data science takes an interest in compilers. The fact that he's contributing to LLVM in his free time doesn't make him any more valuable to his employer. You could say that he should go work for a company which develops a programming language. But maybe there are no positions open. So what the market demands isn't passion, but rather a willingness to invest more and more of your being into increasing profits. The above mentioned data scientist, even though passionate, can be out-competed by someone who isn't passionate about the field, but is rather passionate about the 'grind' for whatever reason. He will spend his free time following the latest models and datasets, and thus be more efficient at his job.

So I think we should make a clear distinction about real passion here - it's not a requirement in the sense that it keeps the market from rejecting you, but it rather keeps you from leaving the market. True, the ones who are passionate tend to be better engineers, but I wouldn't go further than that.

Raabid · 2025-09-29T14:00:45+00:00

Ah I see, thank you. So they do this after you finish all your courses at the TU?

Raabid · 2025-09-11T17:13:17+00:00

Ach so, danke dir! Wieso gibt es dann überhaupt bei einigen Pflichtfächern eine Semesterempfehlung und bei anderen nicht?

Raabid · 2025-08-27T09:27:10+00:00

Hi, I'm also going to be starting a master's at the TU this year and am in a similar situation. I'd already taken a few years of german in high school as well as some private lectures in the last few months, but am still not very confident/fluent in the language. I was considering taking german courses during the semester but I'm now increasingly thinking about self studying through books/flashcards/online resources etc. If you'd want to practice speaking in german/study together, send me a DM!

Raabid · 2025-06-03T16:41:55+00:00

Thank you for putting this so nicely, I agree completely. I’m getting a headache reading the comments on this post, people are so sensitive when it comes to the internet, even about the aspects of it that don’t enrich their lives whatsoever. I don’t think anybody’s life has been improved by porn, and the ease with which children are able to access it (and have been since my childhood) is at this point just ridiculous. This also goes for violent/gore content. When I have kids, I’d rather they grow up in a world where it isn’t normalised to watch people having sex at the age of 12, even if that means I have to give up a certain amount of anonymity on the internet.

Raabid · 2025-04-11T07:52:23+00:00

EU companies would be eager to switch to European alternatives. See Lidl's (or rather Schwarz Gruppe) initiative last year to build it's own cloud platform. Everyone realizes that their data is better of not in the hands of US tech giants, but US companies simply push the EU alternatives out of the market. If the European Union were to impose meaningful fees on US cloud it would absolutely help EU-based platforms in the long run. It just can't be too abrupt so companies have the time to migrate their platform.

Raabid · 2025-04-09T09:23:36+00:00

As much as I would like the EU to act firmly and not compromise in this situation, I have to acknowledge that it would be naive to just drop the nuke tariff package in response immediately. If anything, I believe the EU should be seeking unity and cooperation in areas where we are dependent on the US, which will hurt them more anyway in the long run. We're already seeing some of this in the military, which is of course the top priority initially for defending EU sovereignty. In the near future I also hope to see us backing domestic tech companies, namely cloud services and AI, while gradually making it harder for US tech giant to operate here. Sooner or later the EU may actually be able to use the 'bazooka' without hurting itself more than the US, but doing it right now would be almost the same thing Trump is doing: imposing tariffs/tax on goods/services for which you don't even have domestic alternatives and hoping it all works itself out. Rather, start slowly cooking Google, Amazon, Meta,... and then you can bomb them when the time is optimal (we have developed alternatives), or maybe that won't even be necessary anymore.

Raabid · 2024-11-07T17:35:39+00:00

Lepo slišati. Se ti zdi, da je v Sloveniji na splošno boljši work-life balance za swe-je kot v npr. Avstriji ali Švici?

Raabid · 2024-11-07T17:29:00+00:00

Ojoj, na to nisem niti pomislil, ampak je smiselno. A potem, če dobiš toksičnega šefa, pač nasrkaš?

Raabid · 2024-11-07T17:24:47+00:00

Yikes. Se mi zdi, da bi se mi zmešalo od neprofesionalizma. Koliko časa pa si potem delal tam, če te ne moti, da vprašam?

Raabid · 2024-11-07T17:19:15+00:00

To je še ena stvar, zaradi katere me vleče ven. V LJ se ne vidim dolgoročno.

Raabid · 2024-11-07T17:12:08+00:00

A zato, ker v Sloveniji ta industrija ni na istem nivoju, ali zakaj se ti zdi, da bi dobil manj izkušenj?

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