Latest news with #ShawnK
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Software engineer who lost his six-figure job to AI opens up about being rejected from 800 roles
A seasoned software engineer - once earning a comfortable six-figure salary - is now living in an RV, driving for DoorDash and battling financial insecurity. At 42, Shawn K - whose full legal last name is just one letter - finds himself among the early wave of knowledge workers dealing with the economic fallout of AI advancements, a trend he believes is 'coming for basically everyone in due time.' In a personal essay on his Substack, Shawn painted a picture of his current reality. 'As I climb into my little twin sized bed in my small RV trailer on a patch of undeveloped deep rural land in the Central New York highlands, exhausted from my six hours of DoorDash driving to make less than $200 that day, I check my emails one last time for the night: no responses from the 745th through 756th job applications that I put in over the last week for engineering roles I'm qualified or over-qualified for,' he wrote. He closed in on the 800 application mark in over a year of being an unemployed software engineer. Despite owning three properties – a fixer-upper in upstate New York and two cabins on rural land – his financial situation has only worsened since being laid off from his engineering job, which paid around $150,000 annually. He has since told that he had moved to New York to care for his family and grow long-term equity with real estate, an opportunity he said didn't exist on the West Coast for more than 15 years. Shawn attributes his sudden unemployment and job search issues to AI. 'Something has shifted in society in the last 2.5 years,' he wrote in his Substack, describing how AI caused him and many talented developers at his previous company to be laid off despite the company's strong performance. He said in his Substack that getting his resume seen has become a 'sisyphusian task' - in reference to a task requiring continual and often ineffective effort - and the technical interview process a 'PTSD-inducing minefield.' Shawn explained that companies are doing what they know best: practicing capitalism. 'The economics are very simple: if you can produce the same product and same results while drastically cutting your expenses, what business wouldn't do that? In fact you would have to be crazy not to,' he wrote. 'We have reached a time where human labor is no longer a necessary input to generate economic value, which is a drastic departure from everything that has come in history before.' Shawn estimates he has interviewed with about 10 companies in the last year, often getting through multiple rounds but never receiving an offer. He wrote in his Substack that he suspects his resume is 'filtered out of consideration by some half-baked AI candidate finder service because my resume doesn't mention enough hyper-specific bleeding-edge AI terms.' If he makes it past the bots, he explained that he is then competing with 'the other 1,000 applicants (bots, foreign nationals, and other displaced-by-AI tech workers) who have applied within the first two hours of a job posting going live.' He said in his Substack that he is often more skilled than those who interview him for roles, and that he believes his age plays a factor in his inability to secure a job. Shawn also explained that he has gradually been lowering his job expectations. Initially targeting engineering manager roles, he then applied for positions at his previous level, then at lower pay, and eventually, 'anything and everything I was capable of,' including a Wordpress theme developer role offering less than half his worth. He even researched expensive engineering manager certificate programs, but lacked the investment money needed - this was also true for roles like crane or equipment operator, drone surveyor pilot, or CDL driving. Eventually, he decided to consider an entirely new career and is now attempting to start a pressure washing business. In the meantime, he rents out his city house but explained in his Substack that it doesn't make any profit, which is the same fate for a cabin he rents out on Airbnb. He also is a DoorDash driver - something he described as destroying his body and his mind. He recounted his struggles with the New York State unemployment system, which he described as 'one of the most ineffective, counterproductive, unhelpful, wasteful, hopelessly bureaucratic toxic messes.' Now living in an RV, Shawn told that the hardest part of this lifestyle shift is 'knowing I have the skills and capabilities of building software that can generate millions of dollars... yet I don't have the cash runway to focus for a few months on building a product like that and bringing it to market.' He emphasized, 'The mortgages still need to get paid. The pressure is extremely real to get money for the very real and immediate needs.' Despite the immense pressure, Shawn strives to maintain a positive outlook. 'It's mainly survival instinct. I don't have much of a choice,' he told explaining that the alternative is losing his houses and moving into his car. 'I've actually been through harder times than this,' he said. 'I went from being homeless in my car in Oakland California to owning three houses in four years.' He explained that he practices yoga, exercises often, spends time in nature, talks to his friends, and tries to lean into positive thinking. Forcing himself into a positive hopeful mindset is usually his primary task of the day. 'Some days I lose that battle,' he said. Shawn believes his story is not unique but rather something that will eventually happen to a lot of people. He wrote in his Substack that while people think AI job replacement is in some faraway future, it's actually happening in the now. The solution? He believes businesses should hire more technical people, abandon pre-AI playbooks, and reinvent themselves as AI-first businesses. He believes AI should be leveraged to 'invent new science, crack the challenge of clean renewable energy, solve cancer, etc.' 'AI replacing jobs is only a bad thing because we have a system that says you aren't entitled to feed yourself or have housing unless you spend the majority of your time working to make a company rich,' Shawn wrote. 'AI is exposing that as a lie.' He urged others to let the machines do the work and to instead focus on the real problems society faces. 'Let's put the rights of a human above that of a corporation, let's ensure every human has the right to food water and housing,' he wrote. 'Universal Basic Income is a start, it's the least we will have to do to avoid the worse of the coming collapse.'
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
From $150K Tech Salary To DoorDash: Software Engineer Applies To 800 Jobs And Gets Rejected By AI
Shawn K, a 42-year-old software engineer with two decades of experience and a computer science degree, is no stranger to tech layoffs. He's been through the downturns of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic and bounced back each time. But after losing his job last April, he found himself shut out of the industry — not by people, but by algorithms. As Fortune reports, Shawn's job at a metaverse-focused company disappeared as the industry pivoted toward AI. Despite sending out more than 800 job applications, he's landed fewer than 10 interviews — some conducted entirely by artificial intelligence. "I feel super invisible," Shawn told Fortune. "I feel unseen. I feel like I'm filtered out before a human is even in the chain." Don't Miss: Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — Inspired by Uber and Airbnb – Deloitte's fastest-growing software company is transforming 7 billion smartphones into income-generating assets – Shawn's experience reflects a broader shift in hiring practices. According to a Resume Genius survey, 48% of hiring managers now use AI to screen resumes, and 30% even use it to conduct AI-assisted interviews. Among Gen Z hiring managers, more than half say they screen resumes with AI before looking at applications themselves. That shift creates a new barrier for job seekers. Harvard Business Review notes that many companies now use AI-powered applicant tracking systems like Workday and Oracle HCM to scan for keywords and rank candidates by fit. Resumes that don't contain specific language from the job posting may never be seen. Shawn has had to adjust his lifestyle drastically. He now lives in a small RV trailer in central New York and makes deliveries for DoorDash. He supplements this income by selling items on eBay, but it adds up to only a fraction of his previous $150,000 salary. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — He told Fortune that he considered going back to school for a technical certificate or commercial truck driving license, but the cost made both options unattainable. While his financial situation is uncertain, Shawn still considers himself an "AI maximalist." He doesn't resent AI for doing his job better, if that's what is happening. But what does frustrate him, he says, is how companies are choosing to cut talent rather than amplify it. "I think there's this problem where people are stuck in the old world business mindset of, well, if I can do the same work that 10 developers were doing with one developer, let's just cut the developer team instead of saying, oh, well, we've got a 10 developer team, let's do 1,000x the work that we were doing before," he said to 2024, more than 150,000 tech workers lost their jobs, and that trend has continued into 2025 with another 60,000 layoffs so far, according to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently told the Council on Foreign Relations that AI will be writing 90% of code by September — and may soon handle nearly all of it. For engineers like Shawn, the shift is not a distant threat but a present challenge. Shawn calls it "The Great Displacement." He believes his experience is a preview of what's coming for many other professions. "It's coming for basically everyone in due time," he wrote on his Substack. Experts suggest that job seekers prepare by identifying tasks AI can't easily replicate — like those involving empathy, persuasion, or creativity. As HBR notes, creating a resume that highlights "AI-resistant" capabilities is one key to navigating this new job market. At the same time, many hiring managers are also looking for employees with skills in AI that can help propel their businesses forward. Read Next: The team behind $6B+ in licensing deals is now building the next billion-dollar IP empire — 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. Image: Shutterstock UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article From $150K Tech Salary To DoorDash: Software Engineer Applies To 800 Jobs And Gets Rejected By AI originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
Gizmodo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
Laid Off Metaverse Engineer Says He Is DoorDashing and Living in a Trailer
A software engineer has revealed that, while he once made six figures at a metaverse company, his recent layoff means he's been thrust into a life of relative precarity, which involves DoorDashing, selling stuff on eBay, and living in a trailer. Shawn K's layoff some twelve months ago (his legal name is 'K') has landed him in a situation that, a few years ago, would've seemed relatively unheard of for a seasoned software engineer. However, in the age of AI, Shawn worries that his situation may become more normative, as tech companies race to replace their workers with algorithms. In an email to Gizmodo, Shawn provided more details about his layoff, which appears to have been at a company called Virbela, which is owned by eXp Realty. Virbela says it offers metaverse solutions for remote work through the creation of 'engaging virtual spaces that replicate real-world dynamics and social interactions.' Shawn said that, in the months prior to his termination, his work at the company became increasingly AI-based. 'Different orgs move at different rates with technology, and within our company, we were very forward-thinking and early-adopting with AI,' he said. 'In the first year that ChatGPT was released, the average developer on the team was seeing productivity increase of 3x-10x with ai assistance,' he said, adding that it 'reached a point where it became inevitably clear that it was no longer going to be 'business as usual'.' 'On my team, we made a hard pivot to have nearly every developer on the team focus on integrating AI features into the existing software product,' Shawn revealed. He added that, not long afterward, during a 'frenzied peak' of AI enthusiasm, the company 'let go a portion of the developers across all the teams in the company, including on my team.' He added: 'I couldn't really estimate on the percentage of the dev staff laid off, but it was all around the same time across multiple teams.' It's unclear whether the specific catalyst for Shawn's termination was AI or not. Gizmodo reached out to Virbela for more information. That said, if that's the case, it wouldn't be unheard of. Over the past two years, tech companies have gone through historic rounds of layoffs, as many of those firms have pivoted towards automation. Multiple reports show that software workers at companies like Panasonic and Microsoft are losing their jobs, as companies seek tools that can automate code-writing. Shawn has been writing about his unfortunate 'displacement' by automation on his personal Substack, ShawnfromPortland, which details his struggles since getting laid off. He says that he makes less than $200 a day through food deliveries and that he has also resorted to selling random personal items on eBay. Shawn's situation is complicated, as he also owns multiple properties. He says, however, that owning property doesn't necessarily make him wealthy. His mother, who is disabled, lives on one of the properties and has nowhere else to go. The other properties, which were bought when things were going well for Shawn, pose financial difficulties were he to attempt to sell them right now, he says. He currently lives in a small trailer on one of the properties in upstate New York. 'I'm now in the trailer because something has shifted in society in the last 2.5 years,' Shawn writes. 'Something that caused myself and a large portion of the talented dev teams [to be] let go at a time when our company and parent corp were doing great.' That 'something' would appear to be what Shawn has referred to as the 'great displacement,' an economy that is trending further and further towards automation and away from human labor. AI also seems to be screwing Shawn when it comes to the job hunt, as he suspects his resume is being vetted by algorithms that sift for AI-related buzzwords. 'In this last year, I interviewed with close to 10 companies, getting as far as a 4th round interview twice and several second and third rounds, but not getting any offers,' the out-of-work engineer says. 'I suspect my resume is filtered out of consideration by some half-baked AI 'candidate finder service' because my resume doesn't mention enough hyper-specific bleeding-edge AI terms.' Shawn has also been forced to study AI so as to be more competitive in the current software market. 'I have spent 2 to 5 hours per day in the last year consuming AI news, papers, and podcasts, and constantly thinking and reflecting on the latest AI trends,' Shawn reveals. 'I have built about 10 small 100% AI-generated codebases in the last year as personal learning exercises, and any time there is free access to any new AI tool, I go out of my way to try it out.' Still, Shawn seems to be firing applications off into the abyss, and says that he's nearing his 900th application, with no signs of a job offer. 'This article isn't for sympathy or to make me feel better by making excuses,' he writes. 'I'm sharing my real-life story of how I went from a highly valued technologist to basically nothing in the course of a year or two with the rise of AI.' In an email, Shawn also shared that the job hunt in the software industry has never felt so grim. He noted that he's 'been in the game for a long time, and the vibes have never been the way they are now.' Ominously, he added: 'I don't think my story is unique, I think I am at the early side of the bell curve of the coming social and economic disaster tidal wave that is already underway and began with knowledge workers and creatives. It's coming for basically everyone in due time.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Software engineer lost his $150K-a-year job to AI—he's been rejected from 800 jobs and forced to DoorDash and live in a trailer to make ends meet
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has predicted that AI will be doing all coding tasks by next year—but an existential crisis is already hitting some software engineers. One man who lost his job last year has had to turn to living in an RV trailer, DoorDashing and selling his household items on eBay to make ends meet, as his once $150k salary has turned to dust. Tech layoffs are nothing new for Shawn K (his full legal last name is one letter). The software engineer first lost his job after the 2008 financial crisis and then again during the pandemic, but on both occasions, he was back on his feet just a few months later. However, when K was given the pink slip last April he quickly realized this time was different: AI's revolution of the tech industry was playing out right in front of him. Despite having two decades of experience and a computer science degree, he's landed less than 10 interviews from the 800 applications he's sent out. Worse yet, some of those few interviews have been with an AI agent instead of a human. 'I feel super invisible,' K tells Fortune. 'I feel unseen. I feel like I'm filtered out before a human is even in the chain.' And while fears about AI replacing jobs have been around for years, the 42-year-old thinks his experience is only likely the beginning of a 'social and economic disaster tidal wave.' 'The Great Displacement is already well underway,' he recently wrote on his Substack. K's last job was working at a company focused on the metaverse—an area that was predicted to be the next great thing, only to be overshadowed in part by the rise of ChatGPT. Now living in a small RV trailer in central New York with no lead on a new tech job, K's had to turn to creative strategies to make ends meet, and try to replace a fraction of his former $150,000 salary. In between searching incessantly for new jobs, checking his empty email inbox, and researching the latest AI news, he delivers DoorDash orders, like Buffalo Wild Wings to a local Holiday Inn, and sells random household items on eBay, like an old laptop. In total, it only adds to a few hundred bucks. He's also considered going back to school for a tech certificate—or even to obtain his CDL trucking license—but both were scratched off his list due to their hefty financial barrier to entry. K's reality may shock some, considering that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has consistently labeled software engineering as one of the fastest growing fields, but stories like his may soon become all more common. Earlier this year, the CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei predicted that more software jobs will soon go by the wayside. By September, he said AI will be writing 90% of the code; moreover, 'in 12 months, we may be in a world where AI is writing essentially all of the code,' he tells the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2024, over 150,000 tech workers lost their jobs, and so far in 2025, that number has reached over 50,000, according to 'It's coming for basically everyone in due time, and we are already overdue for proposing any real solution in society to heading off the worst of these effects,' K wrote. 'The discussion of AI job replacement in the mainstream is still viewed as something coming in the vague future rather than something that's already underway.' Despite being unemployed for over a year, K still hasn't lost hope, nor is he necessarily mad at AI for replacing him and still calls himself an 'AI maximalist.' "If AI really legitimately can do a better job than me, I'm not gonna sit here and feel bad about, oh, it replaced me and it doesn't have the human touch,' K says. What's frustrating, he adds, is that companies are using AI to save money by cutting talent—rather than leveraging its power and embracing cyborg workers. 'I think there's this problem where people are stuck in the old world business mindset of, well, if I can do the same work that 10 developers were doing with one developer, let's just cut the developer team instead of saying, oh, well, we've got a 10 developer team, let's do 1,000x the work that we were doing before,' K says. This story was originally featured on
