Tom Archer had already spent years coding as a self-taught developer before he joined Microsoft, where for the last two decades he has worked as a senior AI engineer. Then he made a decision that many did not see coming. He went back to school to study computer science. As the AI wave came to town, he decided to go back again to get his master's.
With the rise of vibe coding tools like Loveable and Replit, many young tech misfits have landed coding jobs. In February, Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström bragged on an earnings call that the best developers at the music and podcast streaming company “have not written a single line of code since December.”
But Archer, who has been working as a senior software engineer since 1985, says things are changing. "In today's competitive AI landscape, that theoretical foundation matters. It distinguishes engineers who can use tools from those who can build them,” he told Techloy. "If you have an AI degree, you stand a higher chance of getting hired. That is just the reality," Temitope Adejolu, an AI Software Engineer who works at Interswitch, said.
The debate presents the latest generational divide between the early builders of what we now call the World Wide Web and the younger generation of builders, irritated by gatekeepers and busting with energy to break things.
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