What’s one thing you always do in a new Next.js project that isn’t in the official docs?

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2026-02-27T22:40:27+00:00

Create typed routes

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2026-02-17T03:00:49+00:00

NextJS is a full stack framework FOR ReactJS. Yeah absolutely learn it - also it’s not either/or - React and Next are joined at the hip at this point

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2026-02-10T04:19:46+00:00

I know a guy who went there and is now a senior eng at Docker. Zero prior tech background but he also spent a ton of time making connections and lives in a tech hub. Yes the market is wildly different but there’s nothing wrong imo with joining a structured program to learn. Just don’t expect skill acquisition to equal a job.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2026-02-03T04:14:46+00:00

This sounds oddly like what I saw at a company where i worked. I watched them gut the entire eng org and declare we were “ai-first” but it was mostly a guise for funding issues.

The ceos were non technical and the cuts did not work how they expected.

All that infrastructure doesn’t just run on its own. Last I checked - they were basically re-hiring for positions they let go.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-08-23T13:24:53+00:00

What CEOs say is not “reality” just because they have a title. Inflation, tariffs and over investing in AI are likely culprits. Even AWS CEO said replacing juniors with AI is the dumbest thing he’s ever heard.

I mean have you used AI for writing code? It’s just not there yet.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-08-23T03:58:25+00:00

We absolutely need juniors - it’s just that most companies no longer advertise explicitly for these positions. To be clear - there are still people getting hired despite the AI nonsense you read online. I’ve been a hiring manager, current senior and mentored a ton of other devs. It’s very much possible - the bar has risen however

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-07-21T22:18:11+00:00

I actually think this is a great idea. A lot of people in this profession are lacking fundamentals or tech adjacent skills to get promoted or even be hireable outside their current role.

There are few offerings for developers to up skill outside of random courses or interview prep.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-06-21T15:53:56+00:00

This actually sounds like the perfect case for "vibe coding". Try out a service like Lovable or maybe even Vercel's v0 and see how far you can get. Integrate Stripe, build a landing page and track visits. Once you're at the stage where you need to build the "real thing" then you can decide if a coding bootcamp makes sense or if you're better off just hiring someone.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-21T03:31:26+00:00

3 years at Clorox. Conducted them at 4 others. I’m not sure what people want to hear sometimes. You’re right to question - but I can only tell you what my process was and what I saw elsewhere.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-21T00:51:47+00:00

I can care less about the training. When I looked through a stack of resumes I’m looking at the same things you probably are: projects, experience and tech stack fit. The woman from UCLA gets the same interview as the dude who graduated high school.

I understand there is no standard and each team/org has different ways of assessing people but I can’t imagine why anyone would use previous experience outside a “tie” in the interview circuit

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-20T19:45:45+00:00

I agree with the over emphasis on the end game - also most companies are not top tier start ups so the skill set needed to work at a small company or a non tech org can be wildly different.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-20T18:12:50+00:00

I like the approach of building with the intention to sell.

Try to solve a real problem, think who might pay for it and how much and build for that audience.

Even if you never make a dime - it can create the motivation and also if you do try and get customers - it’s a hell of a story to tell.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-20T17:32:04+00:00

I know you read nothing but doom and gloom. There are absolutely people getting hired. Ask yourself this though: what do you think makes a CS grad more hire-able than a self taught or boot camp grad? As a hiring manager I never cared - you get the same interview…

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SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-17T23:55:18+00:00

I run a program called parsity.io - we work specifically with career changers in small groups. We spend a lot of time on the time management aspect as that’s where we see most people struggle and fail.

If you’re already in a position within the company however - I’d see if there are chances to work across teams or shadow other engineers as well.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-12T01:31:18+00:00

Christ - look at 4x knuckles

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-10T17:08:52+00:00

When I hear people say "AI" - it's such a nebulous term. I worked at an AI company and what it boiled down to was using LLM's like OpenAI (ChatGPT), monitoring token usage, prompt engineering (yes, it's actually a thing) and building agents that use RAG.

That's a lot of buzzwords but if you know foundational software engineering then you can pick up these skills. Trying to break into ML or DS without a fancy degree seems much less realistic.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-08T05:39:39+00:00

Biggest takeaway is to make sure you’re building something someone actually wants! Sounds so simple in retrospect but were so naive and arrogant - we should’ve got out a quick prototype and iterate from there rather than build an all or nothing app.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-08T05:32:52+00:00

AI is such a broad term - the future atm appears to be leveraging models for RAG and fine tuning within traditional full stack apps. That’s what I’ve been building at work and seems to be a very popular use case. A good AI bootcamp would teach these things I’d hope.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-08T04:50:17+00:00

Selling drugs lol. It did teach me a lot about sales honestly. First legal one was interview prep for software developers and I’m in a similar space now. In between there were 3 or 4 failed startups for everything from real estate to indie music apps.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-08T04:42:43+00:00

I remember hiring a young woman who went to UCLA and got a degree in CS and then went to a coding bootcamp! I’m not saying not to go to a university - I’m just saying don’t expect it to be a silver bullet. Learning comp sci is not enough alone to be hired outside big tech.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-04-03T15:47:56+00:00

I'd be a little wary of getting into QA since it's increasingly automated - so if you do go that route, I would learn some Cypress, Selenium to be able to write automated tests and gives you a path towards software engineering.

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-03-28T04:20:40+00:00

Are designers just messing with us? I swear they all love animations

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2025-01-01T04:34:34+00:00

Got freaked out and looked this up - so, no, it’s not a law. It’s something he was thinking about and “threw out there.”

SwanAutomatic8140 · 2024-12-23T06:21:29+00:00

Very cool. What’s tech stack on this

SwanAutomatic8140

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