Microsoft's proposal for 60,000 people to voluntarily quit their jobs partly shows that many programmers have to change skills, even quit their jobs when businesses increase AI applications.

The number of 60,000 is equivalent to more than a quarter of Microsoft's global workforce. The new move comes in the context that the technology giant wants to reduce costs and focus finances on large investments in AI.

"The proposal allows eligible employees considering another future path to have new options to change with the company's support. It will also give departments and divisions the opportunity to adjust human resources to suit changing market needs," Microsoft Human Resources Director Amy Coleman announced on October 26.

The large-scale change caused a stir in the technology world.

"I couldn't stop thinking about the news while driving to work this morning. I left Microsoft 11 years ago and haven't worked in the technology industry for nearly 4 years, but I still feel shocked," Ian Yong Hoe Tan, a former Microsoft employee, currently a lecturer at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), shared on LinkedIn on the morning of October 27.

Tan warned that other technology companies may follow in Microsoft's footsteps, and even companies in other industries will follow suit. According to him, workers can use AI to increase work efficiency, but only if they keep up with AI developments and learn how to use new features.

"Most of them don't have the time or motivation. Some are too busy opposing AI to understand how the business world really works: minimize costs, maximize profits," Tan explained.

While many technology industry employees are slow to adapt, some seek to upgrade their skills and even change careers to cope with the coming wave of AI.

Matt, a software engineer in the US, chose to stay in the industry and change his skills. He said that since the beginning of the year, his work has gradually shifted from writing code, solving problems and designing software architecture to testing and evaluating code created by AI. He shared with Guardian that before AI, he proactively deployed solutions, but now the line between his decisions and what AI provides "has become blurred".

George Dover, a software engineer with 6 years of experience, was fired by digital marketing platform Intuit Mailchimp at the end of 2024. While looking for a new job, he temporarily worked as a preschool teacher. "It was difficult to let go of something that had become such an important part of who I was for so many years," he said*.*

Dover did not give up. Realizing he needed to understand AI, he used this technology to create website development code and evaluate strengths and weaknesses. The effort finally paid off. Nearly two years after losing his job, with 400 applications and countless interviews, Dover found a new software engineer position related to AI.

According to Julian Togelius, professor of computer science and engineering at New York University, the definition of "software developer" has changed when moving from programming and writing syntax to designing and managing. Meaning, they take on roles where judgment is more important than programming language.

Ryan J. Salva, senior product manager at Google, said that five years ago, the value of programmers lay in programming languages ​​like Python or Java Script. Daily tasks mainly consist of opening the code editor and writing "if-then" statements.

"Today, that's no longer true," Salva told Business Insider. He believes the value of programmers now lies in deciding what products to develop, thinking about software at an architectural level, predicting possible problems. At Google, Salva often asked employees to make constructive judgments, determining what features should be worked on or what bugs should be fixed instead of writing code by hand.

In his new job, Togelius found that people with human resources management experience excelled especially. When coordinating multiple programming agents at the same time, they use skills similar to managing a team, such as frequently switching between tasks or writing instructions for the agents.

"These skills are very different from just writing code," Togelius said.

Unlike Matt or Dover, Tabby Toney chose to change jobs. When she was fired from her software engineering position last May, she was angry at the tech industry.

"I have always loved technology because it provides intellectual stimulation and the opportunity to solve problems creatively. I feel like that is slowly disappearing as AI begins to reshape the industry and job market," Toney told Business Insider.

Toney decided to rest for a month before looking for a new job. During that time, she used her family's welding tools and discovered she loved her new job. Cô đăng ký chương trình đào tạo nghề cấp tốc và hiện đã là thợ hàn toàn thời gian.

"I don't have to constantly worry about being unemployed anymore. That's the most comfortable thing about changing careers," Toney said, adding that the technology industry is still experiencing continuous layoffs and is no longer a stable long-term job.

Shawn Mrzena made the same decision after nearly 25 years with Microsoft and witnessing major changes in the industry. Mrzena also reinvented himself many times, starting from a sales position, a business architect, then helping to establish and develop data security operations. But as AI develops faster than anything before, and at the age of over 50, Mrzena decided not to follow the tech industry's big trends and agreed to participate in the company's first voluntary retirement program in April.

Hiện Mrzena dự định học nghề hàn và gia công kim loại, với mục tiêu nhận công việc gia công bán thời gian. "I like technical craftsmanship because I can feel and touch the product," the former engineer told GeekWire.

Theo Cục Thống kê Lao động Mỹ, kỹ thuật phần mềm là một trong những ngành nghề lớn và được trả lương cao nhất ở Mỹ năm 2022, với 1,5 triệu người kiếm được gấp đôi mức lương trung bình quốc gia. Nhưng theo số liệu từ Layoff.fyi, kể từ cuối 2022, khi ChatGPT ra mắt, hơn 600.000 nhân viên công nghệ tại Mỹ đã mất việc.

The popularity of AI dramatically changes jobs in the technology industry. During a meeting in February, Gustav Soderstrom, co-CEO of Spotify, announced that the company's best programmers had "not written a single line of code since December of last year" thanks to AI. In April, Google announced that three-quarters of the company's new code was written by AI and reviewed by human engineers.

By May, Anthropic Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao said more than 90% of the company's code was written by Claude Code, the AI ​​programming tool developed by the company. Rao told the Invest Like the Best podcast that at Anthropic, AI is doing more and more intellectual work, from software engineering to financial reporting. Trong khi đó, con người chuyển sang vai trò giám sát, đánh giá và lập chiến lược.

"It's difficult to predict exactly what the software engineering profession will look like in the next two years, but it's clear that coding skills are no longer as important," Bouke Klein Teeselink, associate professor of economics at King's College London, told Guardian.

While experts are unsure what will happen next, former software engineer Shawn K is less optimistic. He shared with Fortune, he lost his job the first time after the 2008 financial crisis, the second time during Covid-19, but both quickly found new jobs. Tuy nhiên, khi nhận thông báo sa thải vào tháng 4 năm ngoái, anh lập tức nhận ra tình hình khác trước. This time, the AI ​​revolution has completely turned the technology industry upside down, especially the programmers.

Dù có hai thập kỷ kinh nghiệm và bằng khoa học máy tính, Shawn K nhận chưa đến 10 lời mời phỏng vấn sau khi gửi 800 đơn ứng tuyển. Worse, some interviews take place with AI agents instead of humans. Hiện anh giao đồ ăn để kiếm thu nhập, và cho rằng trải nghiệm của anh có thể chỉ là sự khởi đầu của "làn sóng thảm họa về kinh tế và xã hội".

"The 'epidemic' of labor migration is happening strongly," said Shawn K.

Thu Thao summary