Dispatch
Six in ten engineering leaders the Pragmatic Engineer interviewed are taking or planning a career break
Gergely Orosz interviewed roughly 20 CTOs, VPEs, and heads of engineering and found 6 in 10 considering or already taking a career break, which he calls the highest rate he has seen in about 20 years. The ten reasons he lists start with job deterioration from unrealistic AI expectations and 20 to 50% cost cuts, then equity rendered worthless by preference stacks, and fear of obsolescence without hands-on AI experience. Named examples include Matt Boyle (Gitpod/Ona, acquired by OpenAI), Claire Vo, Karthik Hariharan, and Katelyn Lesse, and the piece notes a steep year-over-year drop in frontend and native mobile hiring.
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