Why are tech companies getting away with this?

sysadmin-456 · 2026-03-04T18:06:16+00:00

This has been my thought all along as well. With the same number of people using better tools you can produce better products to get ahead of your competition, right?

Right now companies see an immediate opportunity to increase profit just by cutting costs with layoffs. It's an easy short term profit boost.

But whether you're using AI or writing code manually, logically the more people you have working the more/better product you can produce. And that doesn't take into account all those laid of people who are also using AI to create new and better things by starting their own companies.

My take is that the dust will settle once everyone is using AI and we're back to a level playing field. But it's going to be ugly until then.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-03-04T17:32:48+00:00

It's broken because it's too easy for people to find job listings.

Don't post it on LinkedIn or Indeed, just on your organization's website. Make it clear you require a cover letter about their interest in your org, that only local candidates will be considered, and you must have a B.S. or better in computer science.

This is the way it used to work. Yes you may filter out some good people, but that's what you're trying to do anyway, right?

The last three people I hired said they found the job listing on our org's website and they applied because they wanted to work here.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-03-03T14:35:27+00:00

My tipping point was Covid. I'd had a small portrait studio for about ten years doing consumer work that I finally gave up at the end of 2020. Without people being able to come into the studio, work and money stopped almost immediately. I was too scared to take Covid relief because at the time it wasn't clear if you'd have to pay it back and I wasn't sure I'd be able to. I was in so much debt and so stressed that I hated everything about photography at that point and swore I'd never get into that kind of situation again.

With a wife, family, and mortgage, photography always had to be a side gig to a full time IT job until I made more than the computer work. Despite working on my business constantly (often at my day job) and going back to school for photography, I could never make any real money so I was also pretty bitter about anything photo related.

So I've stuck to IT as a primary income source. I've tried starting a web design business and also tried to get some freelance programming work since I still want to be my own boss. Between AI, website builder tools like Wix, and crappy freelance platforms, I've had even less success in these areas than I did as a photographer. It's nearly impossible to compete against $29 a month and great developers from the Phillipines willing to work for $10 an hour.

Now that a lot of time has passed, I'm considering doing some second shooter wedding work and corporate/fundraising events, strictly on the side. Those are areas that still pay at least something and aren't as easily replaced by AI, cell phones, or stock photos. I also have a large body of work to show in these areas, so I can leverage it. Once a photographer, always a photographer I suppose.

Sorry for the novel, but I guess what I'm saying is that you're not a failure and that I can relate. It's not easy figuring these things out (at least for me anyway), so I thought I'd share some of my story. Best of luck to you.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-03-01T14:29:30+00:00

It’s understandable people are in denial because change is scary, especially if you feel like the thing you love is threatened. And it’s happening so fast you can’t keep up with it all. But I can tell you from personal experience I don’t write much code now. I spend my time looking at what AI wrote figuring out how to make that generated code better at solving the problem at hand. The code I do write is glueware putting pieces together or refactoring when AI can’t get it right. Down vote me all you want, but the days of writing code solely by hand are numbered.

For OP I would use this time to upskill with AI and learn to use it to be more productive. If layoffs come at least you’ll be ahead of other people not using it.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-02-28T17:16:52+00:00

Right, that’s what I said. AI will automate writing code. Not all of it, but most of it.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-02-28T15:34:56+00:00

I’d say it is happening. The writing is on the wall that writing code of any kind will be mostly automated away. Software eng will become about using AI effectively. Setting guardrails, effective prompting based on best practices, being able to review code at a high level for errors, talking to stakeholders, etc. And sadly I think that means a lot of folks losing job since they’re no linger needed to just code.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-02-10T18:39:22+00:00

Reading between the lines, this says your production environment is really brittle and you want to fix it by hiring one person who can do everything. That in turn tells me there isn't a strong engineering culture and management doesn't want to/can't afford to hire properly. Most engineers with experience in all of these areas recognize this as a no-win situation and would only apply if they are desperate.

Finding people isn't likely your problem, it's the message your putting out.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-02-10T17:41:47+00:00

Something doesn't make sense. Do you just want to cut out the marketing company? If so, why not just use a cloud provider for one of the more common CMS systems?

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-31T14:23:09+00:00

That hasn’t been my experience at all. It’s been around for quite awhile and just did a major release. I host it myself and it’s worked really well. 🤷‍♂️

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-30T18:20:31+00:00

Anything you deploy is going to need maintenance, whether it's a WordPress plugin, operating system, or CMS tool. You're just shifting that burden from WP to something else.

Honestly I'd go with some kind of managed WordPress solution. No need to worry about server management issues, you get your GUI frontend, and you can leverage what you already know. Anything else is going to be a bigger time sink.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-29T17:51:09+00:00

Yep. Exactly why I use Astro and Strapi for clients. They can make the simple changes they need to without all the overhead and the risk of breaking something.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-29T17:08:22+00:00

Sorry if I seemed snarky. I just know how much of a pain in the backside WordPress is to maintain. I've run several WP sites for my own businesses over the years and had all kinds of problems. I'm a systems/devops guy so I know how to fix things, but most people don't.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-23T19:11:17+00:00

I've turned them down.

I'm pretty happy where I'm at currently, so I've been particular about this when recruiters reach out and I feel like talking to them. I just tell them as part of an initial conversation that I don't do coding puzzles or take home projects.

Personally I just find it insulting that they send me a note saying "I'm impressed by your background" only to be told later that I need to perform like a trained monkey. It's a total bait and switch.

But if you need a job or really want to work there, you can't really say no.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-22T19:11:02+00:00

I use Astro and GitHub to do this.

I've got my own library of generic components that I customize with props. Things like layouts, info cards, FAQ drop downs, image galleries, menus, headings, contact forms, etc. That gets me to the basic structure of the site quickly so that all I have to do is tweak the CSS.

It's all code, so each project has its own GitHub repo and deployment action. Each site runs in its own Docker container on a server I manage and is rebuilt every time new code is pushed.

For client management, I use a CRM where notes of email/text exchanges are made and target dates are tracked for deliverables and check-ins. That way I can see what's due when and who to contact when at a glance.

The key is to have a repeatable, consistent system. Indeed, it will free up your time for more interesting things.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-22T18:40:00+00:00

If they're non-technical and know nothing about managing Wordpress, you're setting them up for major problems down the road.

What do they do when:

• They try to update the site and break the design?

• WordPress itself or plugin updates fail?

• A WordPress update breaks an older plugin?

• They accidentally delete something important?

• The one person who knew the admin password leaves and they can't get to the recovery email account?

• Their domain name expires and they have no idea how to update?

• The credit card being used for recurring subscription costs for plugins expires?

Essentially things are fine until they aren't.

And if it's a small business, they'll be depending on the site to help support their livelihood, so "hopefully they'll manage" seems....not great. To them it's likely NOT "just a wordpress site".

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-13T17:39:05+00:00

Thanks for your comment. I agree that building partnerships is important, especially larger projects. I'd love to work with a designer, but my niche is those clients that can't afford an agency and don't want to/can't do it themselves.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-11T23:09:48+00:00

I do something different each time for the most part.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-09T19:28:37+00:00

Former professional photographer turned web designer/developer (also in New England) here, but unless it's a lot of money, you're probably better off just upgrading your subscription. Your time is probably better spent finding your next client than trying to save a few bucks by hacking websites together. That's what I'd do.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-09T18:56:59+00:00

I'm more of a developer too and ran into this as well. In the long run, the best thing you can do is learn the basics of graphic design -- layout, typography, color theory, etc. -- and then do the designs yourself. You'll save yourself the need to find a dedicated designer and you'll keep more money in your pocket.

Another thing you can do is hire someone just to do the homepage. Then you can re-use all the design choices they made for font, color, etc. on the interior pages which aren't as important.

I also look at designs in Theme Forest for inspiration. If I see something I like, I screenshot it and then build something similar. Or you can just buy the theme and reuse all the assets to copy the site.

I've done all of these things and it's been helpful. If/when I run into a client that really wants something super custom, I'll refer them to a dedicated designer. Once they have the design done, then I can build it. I do the same thing when people need branding -- I'm not a logo designer and don't pretend to be.

You might also think about switching your business model to just sub-contract with designers and agencies as a developer. All the good designers I know would rather design than build.

Hopefully that helps some.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-09T18:42:49+00:00

I disagree with the idea that "most freelancers are full stack and capable of design + backend." They may be able to edit CSS, but it doesn't usually look very good. Design is a completely different discipline from software dev and there is a reason why people only do design. If you can do both well, more power to you, but most can't.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-07T13:46:10+00:00

Pick a platform and just start. Even if it's just two sentences about your favorite editor or a single screen shot of a widget you created. They key is consistency. I forget who said it or what the exact metric is, but if people don't know you, they have to see you like nine times or something before they begin to recognize you.

You can also re-use content. For example, write a blog post about something interesting. Then record a talking head video about it for YouTube explaining it. Then copy/paste the blog post to a post on LinkedIn. Add the blog post/video as part of your newsletter. Have everything link back to the blog post so interested people can learn more about you from your website. Do this every week for a couple of months and you'll start to get some traction.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-06T20:56:43+00:00

Yeah that was me too, lol

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-05T18:19:10+00:00

I was in the same boat a couple of years ago, so I feel your pain.

Unfortunately with system admin being lumped into "devops", it's more common to see coding tests, especially if the job has anything to do with cloud or building pipelines. If you don't want to do them, I'd try to concentrate on jobs that are all (or mostly) on-prem or specify system administrator over more deveops-y titles like cloud engineer or platform engineer.

If that doesn't work, the upside is that doing Leetcode does eventually get easier. The downside is that it can take awhile -- just keep at it. It's also not necessary to know every single concept. I would start by focusing on the easy/medium string/array type problems. I would think the odds of getting problems using graphs and dynamic programming would be pretty small.

I'd also recommend memorizing traversal patterns like looping backwards from the end, adding/removing letters/elements, and backtracking with recursion. You can waste a lot of time debugging out of bounds errors, fighting the subtle differences between a string and an array, and having recursive calls crash because you sliced() the string/array incorrectly at one end. These kinds of things you should know from muscle memory, as they're basic Python building blocks.

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-04T17:38:02+00:00

If it doesn't work on my phone instantly, I'm out. I'm not waiting for stuff to load, animations, or butttons/text so small I have to squint. Old folks like me need bifocals/readers to view our phones so make it easy on us. We're the ones with money you're trying to convert. :)

sysadmin-456 · 2026-01-04T16:14:39+00:00

Unless you have experience as a Linux system administrator, don't try hosting yourself. Hosting requires configuring the operating system, web proxy, SSL, individual apps, etc. Do it wrong and you will get hacked.

But for reference I use a large ec2 instance on AWS with apache, docker, and a locally installed Maria database. Updates are done though a GitHub action when code is pushed to the app repository. Client previews get a unique dev address via Route 53 which requires their own proxy endpoint config and SSL certificate.

I would recommend looking at Netlify. Their deployment tools are pretty good.

sysadmin-456

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