ETA: summary…
Author describes how agentic coding tools have disincentivized the developer training and mentorship pipeline that the software industry has implicitly relied on to produce seasoned developers, predicting that once the shortage is fully realized it could take years to reverse.
The solution proposed is for managers and senior developers to get ahead of this shortage by foregoing the immediate yet shortlived productivity maximization offered by the agent-multiplied-senior structure in favor of longterm sustainability by deliberately facilitating experience fan-out to juniors.
The methodology proposed is based on a successful nuclear engineering apprenticeship program carried out on active service naval submarines.
I’m a senior software engineer (~20 years of experience) and job-hunting right now is killing me. Most want AI prompt experience of which I have zero. I don’t use coding agents. I’m also in deep rural Japan and most jobs here are killing remote (which is why I need to find one). I have citizenship in Canada and the US and remote jobs there aren’t interested for both time zone reasons and logistical ones (such as needing to use an EOR or similar which is cost, even though I go lower on my salary requirements). I’ve also mostly been doing golang for the last 6ish years which is not the most sought-after, and haven’t touched any modern UI framework. I’ve even decided I’m OK with basically giving up on the life I built in Japan (where I planned to retire) and applied for jobs in EEA countries to no avail since no one wants to do visa support at least in my target country. Shit is awful right now.