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Software Engineer Shares Career Insights From AMA After Burnout and Layoff

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Cesar Aguirre, a software engineer with over a decade of experience, hosted an Ask Me Anything session on Dev.to to mark seven years on the platform and eight years of blogging. The AMA covered his personal journey through illness, burnout, and a layoff, as he works to rebuild his career. He shared that true seniority comes from knowing when a solution is good enough, rather than endlessly refining it. On handling layoffs, he advised building financial safety nets through freelancing and taking time to recover rather than applying to jobs indiscriminately. Aguirre also reflected on what he misses most about employment — the problem-solving highs of coding — and what he does not miss, citing corporate culture and excessive meetings as key burnout drivers.

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Software Engineer Shares Career Insights From AMA After Burnout and Layoff · ShortSingh