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Ayush Raj Jha said he worries about AI’s impact on software engineering.
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Jha said tech layoffs have created “constant fear and uncertainty” for H-1B visa holders.
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He shared how he’s adapting to an evolving software engineering industry.
When Ayush Raj Jha moved from India to Illinois in 2018 to pursue a master’s degree in computer science, he was optimistic about the future of software engineering.
Now, after years of layoffs and the rapid rise of AI, he’s worried about the future of his industry — and his long-term future in the US.
Jha is one of hundreds of thousands of workers in the US on an H-1B visa, for whom losing a job can mean more than losing a paycheck. They generally have 60 days to find a new employer or risk losing their legal status in the US.
Major employers in tech rely heavily on H-1B workers. Federal data shows that the “Magnificent 7” companies, including the likes of Amazon and Apple, have had more than 200,000 H-1B applications approved since October 2020.
“It’s really started impacting the lives of people who are on visas,” Jha said. “There’s constant fear and uncertainty.”
He’s among the tech workers who are looking for ways to stay competitive in an evolving industry. Some are responding by working harder and learning AI skills, while others are preparing for job searches or actively seeking more secure roles.
AI’s impact on software engineering
After earning a master’s degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2020, Jha joined Motorola Solutions as a software engineer, where he worked on software for public safety agencies. In 2022, he joined Oracle as a senior software engineer, where he helped build cloud infrastructure used to deploy healthcare software to hospitals. ChatGPT was released late that year.
Since then, Jha said two things have reinforced his concerns about AI’s impact on software engineering. The first is his experience using AI tools.
To stay competitive, Jha said he spends an estimated eight to 10 hours a week outside of work taking online courses on platforms like LinkedIn Learning and Coursera, experimenting with coding tools, and contributing to open-source projects. Seeing what the technology can do firsthand has both impressed and worried him, he said.
“If we don’t adapt to these new technologies, it just becomes impossible to stay relevant or even be employable at this point,” he said.
The second is LinkedIn. He said posts about tech layoffs have become a regular sight on his feed, serving as a constant reminder of how quickly the industry is changing.
