Beyond The Build

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Last week in tech, around 20,000 layoffs landed in seven days. Meta announced 8,000 cuts and froze another 6,000 open roles, reorganizing survivors into a new Applied AI Engineering division. Microsoft ran its first voluntary buyout in 51 years, using a Rule of 70 to target longer tenured staff. And Sam Altman, of all people, publicly called the whole trend "AI washing." In this episode of Last Week in Tech, Uma and Ope break down what is actually going on under the hood. Are these AI layoffs or just rebranded cost reductions? Why are stocks climbing while engineers are getting cut? And what does the gap between capex and headcount mean for your career as a software engineer in 2026? We cover Meta's autonomous coding agents push, Microsoft's buyout criteria and pay restructuring, Oracle's 95 percent net income jump alongside 30,000 cuts, why employment for engineers aged 22 to 25 is down nearly 20 percent since 2024, and what 80,000 Q1 tech layoffs actually tell us about the future of the industry. Beyond the Build is the podcast for software engineers who want to talk about everything outside the code editor. New Last Week in Tech episodes drop weekly. Tech layoffs 2026, Meta layoffs, Microsoft buyout, AI replacing software engineers, AI washing, Sam Altman, junior engineer job market, Big Tech earnings, software engineering career, capex AI infrastructure.
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AI coding tools are everywhere right now. They’re helping engineers move faster, ship more code, and build things that would’ve taken days in a fraction of the time.
But there’s a catch.
Recent studies show that around 40 to 46 percent of AI-generated code contains security vulnerabilities. At the same time, 93 percent of companies are still pushing that code into production. Not by accident. On purpose.
In this episode of Beyond the Build, we break down what’s actually happening behind the scenes. Why teams are choosing speed over security. Whether this is really a new problem or just something AI has made more visible. And what it means for engineers who are now expected to review, validate, and take responsibility for code they didn’t fully write.
We also get into the real questions nobody has answers to yet. Who’s responsible when AI-generated code causes a breach? Are we actually more productive, or just creating more problems faster? And what skills actually matter now that writing code isn’t the bottleneck anymore?
If you’re a software engineer using AI tools or thinking about how they’re changing the industry, this is a conversation you need to hear.
Topics covered include AI-generated code security, software engineering with AI, developer productivity, debugging AI code, OWASP vulnerabilities, and how AI is reshaping the role of engineers.
Subscribe for more episodes of Beyond the Build where we talk about what software engineering looks like beyond just writing code.
Connect with Ope - https://www.linkedin.com/in/osunkoyaope/
Connect with Uma: Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/umacodes) Tiktok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@umacodes) Twitter: (https://twitter.com/umacodes) LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/umaabu/)
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Sources:
Main Story: https://sqmagazine.co.uk/ai-coding-security-vulnerability-statistics/
Cognitive Debt: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/as-ai-accelerates-software-complexity-thoughtworks-technology-radar-urges-a-return-to-engineering-fundamentals-to-combat-cognitive-debt-302737210.html
Stacked PR - https://github.github.com/gh-stack/

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Most engineers think onboarding is about learning the codebase.
It’s not.
In this episode of Beyond the Build, we break down what onboarding actually is and why so many smart engineers struggle in their first 90 days, even when they’re technically strong.
We talk about the hidden layer no one teaches you. The part that actually determines whether you succeed or stall. Things like how decisions are made, what “good” really looks like, and how to build trust before you’ve shipped anything meaningful.
We walk through a practical 30-60-90 day approach, but not in the typical checklist way. This is about understanding the system you’re stepping into and learning how to operate inside it.
If you’ve ever felt lost in a new role, unsure if you’re doing well, or like everyone else understands something you don’t, this episode is for you.
Because onboarding isn’t about learning faster.
It’s about reducing uncertainty and building trust.
Connect with Ope - https://www.linkedin.com/in/osunkoyaope/
Connect with Uma: Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/umacodes) Tiktok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@umacodes) Twitter: (https://twitter.com/umacodes) LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/umaabu/)
Follow us on Social Media Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/beyondthebuildpodcast) TikTok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@beyondthebuildpodcast)

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In this episode of Beyond the Build, we break down one of the most uncomfortable but important parts of being a software engineer: receiving feedback. We get into why feedback hits so hard, especially for high performers, and walk through what it actually looks like to receive it well. Not just smile and nod, but genuinely process it without spiraling, defending yourself, or mentally checking out. We cover how to separate feedback from your identity, what to say in the moment when you want to argue but shouldn't, how to tell the difference between real signal and noise, and how to turn even vague or frustrating feedback into something actionable.
Connect with Ope - https://www.linkedin.com/in/osunkoyaope/
Connect with Uma: Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/umacodes) Tiktok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@umacodes) Twitter: (https://twitter.com/umacodes) LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/umaabu/)
Follow us on Social Media Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/beyondthebuildpodcast) TikTok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@beyondthebuildpodcast)

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The game has changed, but not in the way most people think. AI has made it easier to build things fast, but it hasn't made the hard parts any easier. In this episode, Uma and Ope break down the new meta for software engineers: what gatekeeping used to look like and why it no longer scales, why a "quick fix" can still turn into a months-long cleanup, and what it actually means to operate a system safely versus just being able to write the code.
They also dig into what engineers should be learning right now, why judgment and operational maturity are becoming the real differentiators, and what work is getting dangerously undervalued because people assume AI makes it trivial.
Connect with Ope - https://www.linkedin.com/in/osunkoyaope/
Connect with Uma: Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/umacodes) Tiktok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@umacodes) Twitter: (https://twitter.com/umacodes) LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/umaabu/)
Follow us on Social Media Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/beyondthebuildpodcast) TikTok: (https://www.tiktok.com/@beyondthebuildpodcast)