The Pragmatic Engineer AMA

Brought to You By:• Antithesis – verify your system’s correctness without human review or traditional integration tests – and avoid bugs or outages.—In this special “ask me anything” episode of Pragmatic Engineer podcast, I am in the hot seat facing questions sent in by subscribers that are read out by guest Volodymyr Giginiak, CTO and cofounder of Wordsmith AI, a legal tech startup (note: I’m an investor).I tackle your questions on the software industry, AI, hiring, engineering organizations, career growth, the business model of the Pragmatic Engineer, and more. We also discuss where software engineering is headed, and I offer advice on some specific situations. Thanks to everyone who sent questions!—Timestamps00:00 Intro01:56 From Uber to writing09:22 AI-native SDLC14:00 AI and hiring19:06 Engineers currently thriving22:18 Junior roles24:44 Meta’s war mode27:54 AI at Big Tech vs. startups36:46 Tech debt41:36 Types of engineering managers44:40 Measuring AI productivity48:30 The value of CS degrees50:53 AI at Pragmatic Engineer56:09 Future-proofing your career1:01:36 The EU job market1:03:55 Making money as a creator1:08:20 What’s next for The Pragmatic Engineer1:09:27 Bunq and Pollen1:13:38 Spotting trends1:14:33 Book updates1:15:20 Favorite books & tech products1:17:13 What won’t change in engineering—The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:• State of the software engineering job market in 2026• The impact of AI on software engineers in 2026: key trends. • How 10 tech companies choose the next generation of dev tools • The reality of tech interviews—Production and marketing by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://penname.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@pragmaticengineer.com. Get full access to The Pragmatic Engineer at newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/subscribe