Claude Opus is the reason I'm about to get promoted to SDE2
I'm getting promoted to Sr. SWE with 1 YOE. I feel like a fraud but the code works.
Had my appraisal meeting recently. My manager said my throughput is "unmatched" and they are bumping me to SDE2. I’m 24, with barely 1.5 year of experience.
Here is the raw truth: i am not a 10x engineer. I’m just the only one in my startup paying for the Claude highest tier plan (out of my own pocket) while everyone else is using the Gemini subscription the org pays for or using MiniMax or some shit like that on Opencode.
The difference is night and day. While my actual Senior dev (4 YOE) is stuck debugging complex chains and state management issues manually, I just dump the entire file context into Opus. Honestly, I have seen compared opus vs 3.1 pro preview and the difference is stark, i am alarmed people do not see this.
I’m shipping 3-4 complex screens per sprint (week) while my mentor is struggling with one.
It feels illegal and fake. I’m bypassing the "struggle" phase of learning. I respect my senior, he taught me the basics, but raw coding speed doesn't matter anymore.
If you aren't paying for the best models/tools, you are already behind. 1 YOE + Claude Opus > 4 YOE. That’s the scary reality.
Until I get replaced by AI, this will work out for me :)
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Just make sure you are not getting stuck in a lawsuit, pushing out company’s data outside enterprise subscription could be an issue!
Yes about to say that since you are using personal plan you are actually exposing the data of company While the other devs using company provided ai tools there the company data is protected
That's what prompt dev do, but in future you'll find difficulty in switching when interviewer throws some hard problems.
He will become CTO of that company
When do u think AI will reduce workforce by 60% ?
Well I can totally relate to you. Something similar happened to me. Many developers in my company are more senior than I am, but with the help of AI, I’m able to get most of my work done efficiently and even produce optimized code. I’m also learning a lot along the way and continuously upgrading myself in the AI space. Over time, the CTO noticed my progress and promoted me to SDE2 within just a year.