Reddit is boiling over a new conspiracy: Software engineering is a feudal system. Entry-level is dead, and Seniors are reaping the benefits. Is it true?
Getting ghosted by recruiters so much lately you feel like Patrick Swayze? Over on Reddit, a spicy conspiracy theory is gaining traction: Software engineering has morphed into a "feudal system." If you didn't snag a seat before 2022, you're officially part of the underclass. Sounds unhinged, but honestly... it hits a little too close to home.
The original poster (OP) went off, basically claiming the "Junior Developer" role is resting in peace. The entry gates aren't just closed; they are welded shut.
The narrative? Those lucky bastards who got in during the zero-interest pandemic boom are sitting pretty on $300k TCs and 2% mortgages. Meanwhile, the rest of us are running 10-round Leetcode gauntlets for ghost jobs that only exist in HR's imagination.
By killing entry-level hiring, corporations have accidentally spawned a "Software Aristocracy." No juniors mean no future seniors to replace the current ones. The pre-2022 devs have zero competition, meaning their salaries will theoretically moon forever. OP's conclusion: They won the timing lottery, and we're left fighting for scraps in the dark.
The thread blew up with over 2k upvotes, and devs immediately formed factions to combat in the comments.
1. The Bitter Veteran A dude with 14 years of XP who used to pull $200k+ got laid off twice recently. He's sending out hundreds of applications and getting zero bites—even getting rejected for entry-level pay brackets that match his 2011 starting salary. He claims the market is way worse than 2008. Another user chipped in with a reality check: "Wait till you're 50, then you're too old, eat too much RAM, and are too expensive to keep around."
2. The Senior Curse: In $\neq$ Safe One brutally honest dev (NoBalance4908) pointed out a massive flaw in OP's logic: "Just because you got in, doesn't mean you're going to stay in." Layoffs don't discriminate, and high-earning seniors are often the first targets when the CFO needs to trim the fat.
3. The Overworked Senior Speaks Out A bootcamp grad turned Senior jumped in to defend the veterans. Seniors aren't pulling up the ladder; middle management is burning the bridge! Seniors want juniors because otherwise, they do the work of 10 people.
She hasn't seen a raise since 2021, inflation is eating her paycheck, and her team went from 10 devs down to just her maintaining the whole codebase while being told to cross-train. "Aristocracy? Bro, I'm barely surviving," she essentially said.
4. The Escape Artists Some devs saw the writing on the wall in 2023 and bailed. One guy switched to nursing school, absolutely sick of playing the "tech lottery." The consensus among this group is that nowadays, only nepo babies or kids with direct university-to-corporate pipelines get a foot in the door.
Look, the industry is going through a massive hangover after the COVID hiring binge. Calling it a "closed caste" is a bit dramatic, but the entry-level bottleneck is 100% real.
Blaming seniors, though? Nah. Seniors are out here doing the jobs of three laid-off colleagues, praying they don't get PIP'd next quarter.
Survival guide: If you're a junior, drop the $100k starting salary delusion. Build things that actually solve problems instead of cloning YouTube to-do lists. If you're a senior, don't get complacent. "Senior" isn't a tenure track. In tech, there is no royalty—just code monkeys who can easily be replaced by cheaper offshore devs or an AI if they stop grinding. Keep your tech stack sharp and your head down.
Source: Reddit
