Is L4 the new L3 given increased productivity due to AI?
Thanks a lot for the great content, Alex and Rahul! Your courses to understand the expectations of various levels is really helpful.
AI is continuously increasing the productivity of software developers. AI can now write test cases, automatically fill the code given just high-level description, automatically write a summary in the PRs, add comments to the code, etc. This increases the code quality as well.
So, will the current L4 role be the expectation out of an entry-level programmer in the upcoming years? Also, due to AI, do you think the demand for non-AI software developers will keep decreasing over the years, and the job market might move towards other fields such as space engineering, robotics, nanotechnology, dna editing, etc.?
As the supply of engineers is increasing with fresh grads coming out every year, and the demand is decreasing due to increasing layoffs, do you expect the trend of reduction in software salaries continuing over the long-term? Or are you expecting a recovery in demand and salaries for software developers?
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
![Entry-Level Software Engineer [L3] at Google company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fgoogle.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3D780356ef-3efc-4728-9eb4-d909b75bb4a6&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Discussion
(2 comments)- 0a month agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
do you expect the trend of reduction in software salaries continuing over the long-term?
I think there will be an increasing demand for software engineers in the next 5-10 years, but the roles and expectations will change as we learn how to properly use AI. There is a very, very large appetite for software in the world, so we'll finally see "software eating the world."
- There will be more emphasis on the intersection of software and knowledge of another domain, e.g. genomics and software.
- There will be more emphasis on understanding customer requirements and working with other functions in the company to create effective solutions.
Also, I expect the salaries to go up.
I made a video about using AI here which might be interesting! A Framework For Integrating AI Into Your Workflow
- 0
13 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroI don't expect full-on L4 to become the bar (at least not within 5 years), especially as L4s do have meaningful expectations around people skills, mentoring/teaching, and other non-single-player things that AI can't really solve on its own.
L4s also have expectations around code quality, which is something AI really struggles with. AI is overwhelmingly trained on online code samples which are almost always centered on just getting the thing working as opposed to writing the cleanest code.
What I do know is that L2 engineers (i.e. engineers who can't really code, pretty much intern by FAANG standards) will be useless. Most engineers graduate school operating at L2, and that's what most companies hire at (in the official Meta leveling guide for example, PayPal SW1 is considered a Meta intern). If you haven't done 1-3 FAANG internships (or interned at a company of a comparable level), it's not likely you are operating as a solid L3.
