Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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!
—
Brought to you by:
• Antithesis – verify your system’s correctness without human review or traditional integration tests – and avoid bugs or outages antithesis.com/pragmatic
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*The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:*
• State of the software engineering job market in 2026 newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/state-of-the-job-market-2026
• The impact of AI on software engineers in 2026: key trends newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-impact-of-ai-on-software-engineers-2026
• How 10 tech companies choose the next generation of dev tools newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/measuring-ai-dev-tools
• The reality of tech interviews newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-reality-of-tech-interviews
—
*Where to find Gergely Orosz:*
• X: https://x.com/GergelyOrosz
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gergelyorosz
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gergely.pragmaticengineer.com
• Newsletter and blog: pragmaticengineer.com
*Where to find Volodymyr Giginiak:*
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/giginiak
• Newsletter: legalengineer.substack.com
—
*In this episode, we cover:*
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
—
See the transcript and other references from the episode at newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast
—
Production and marketing by penname.co/.
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!
—
Brought to you by:
• Antithesis – verify your system’s correctness without human review or traditional integration tests – and avoid bugs or outages antithesis.com/pragmatic
—
*The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:*
• State of the software engineering job market in 2026 newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/state-of-the-job-market-2026
• The impact of AI on software engineers in 2026: key trends newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-impact-of-ai-on-software-engineers-2026
• How 10 tech companies choose the next generation of dev tools newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/measuring-ai-dev-tools
• The reality of tech interviews newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-reality-of-tech-interviews
—
*Where to find Gergely Orosz:*
• X: https://x.com/GergelyOrosz
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gergelyorosz
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gergely.pragmaticengineer.com
• Newsletter and blog: pragmaticengineer.com
*Where to find Volodymyr Giginiak:*
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/giginiak
• Newsletter: legalengineer.substack.com
—
*In this episode, we cover:*
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
—
See the transcript and other references from the episode at newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast
—
Production and marketing by penname.co/.
