AI Summary
5 min readIn 2020, Gergely Orosz watched Uber’s ride revenue drop to nearly zero on an internal dashboard and knew layoffs were coming. When they did, a quarter of his team was gone, and the mission no longer made sense. That moment, combined with a stock grant that had turned into a meaningful savings cushion, pushed him to leave—not to start a startup, but to finish a book. The book took longer than expected, and the startup idea he considered (productizing Uber’s internal RFC system) didn’t excite him enough to commit a decade to it. So he tried something else: a paid newsletter for software engineers. It worked. In this AMA episode of The Pragmatic Engineer, Gergely Orosz answers questions about how AI is reshaping engineering teams, hiring, and his own career.
How AI is changing the software development lifecycle
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:01) **Introduction and AMA Format** - Gergely introduces the AMA format with guest Giggs (Voldemir Gignyak, CTO at Warzoneath) and outlines the question categories.
- 2 (01:10) **Why Gergely Left Uber for Content Creation** - Gergely explains the two triggers: COVID-era layoffs at Uber and a stock grant that gave him financial runway.
- 3 (08:28) **AI-Native SDLC in Big Tech** - Gergely discusses how engineering teams are adopting AI in the software development lifecycle, using Anthropic as the prime example.
- 4 (13:12) **How AI is Changing Hiring** - Gergely and Giggs discuss how AI is reshaping what employers look for in candidates.
- 5 (18:17) **Which Engineers Are Thriving Right Now** - Gergely identifies the types of engineers in high demand despite layoffs.
- 6 (21:30) **Hiring Landscape for Juniors and Low-Level Engineers** - Gergely addresses the saturated entry-level market and the relative demand for systems-level engineers.
- 7 (23:53) **Meta's Layoffs and Culture Damage** - Gergely analyzes why Meta's leadership, particularly Mark Zuckerberg, would reassign engineers after a record year.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Brought to You By:
• Antithesis – verify your system’s correctness without human review or traditional integration tests – and avoid bugs or outages.
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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!
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Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:56 From Uber to writing
09:22 AI-native SDLC
14:00 AI and hiring
19:06 Engineers currently thriving
22:18 Junior roles
24:44 Meta’s war mode
27:54 AI at Big Tech vs. startups
36:46 Tech debt
41:36 Types of engineering managers
44:40 Measuring AI productivity
48:30 The value of CS degrees
50:53 AI at Pragmatic Engineer
56:09 Future-proofing your career
1:01:36 The EU job market
1:03:55 Making money as a creator
1:08:20 What’s next for The Pragmatic Engineer
1:09:27 Bunq and Pollen
1:13:38 Spotting trends
1:14:33 Book updates
1:15:20 Favorite books & tech products
1:17:13 What won’t change in engineering
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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
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].
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