Join us as Brian Hough (CEO & Founder of Tech Stack Playbook, AWS Hero) gets brutally honest about the state of tech hiring and what skills developers actually need to survive - and thrive - in the AI era.

Brian walks through his frontline perspective on why tech layoffs aren't about skills - they're about market economics - and what that means for engineers trying to stay relevant. You'll learn which roles are actually hot right now (ML engineer, AI engineer, cloud architect, full stack dev), why companies want utility players who can build end to end, how to use social media and building in public to get quietly hired, and why the engineers who thrive will be those who can go from vision to deployed system. Brian also covers practical strategies for positioning yourself before the next wave hits, including using roadmaps as a personal curriculum and leveraging AI as a career accelerator rather than a threat.

Timestamps

0:00 Cold Open

0:11 Welcome & Introduction

2:16 Taking Vibe Code to Production-Grade Systems

3:01 Brian's Update: Dog Feeding & Building Internal Tools

8:05 Mac Maximus: Building on AWS EC2 Mac

9:49 Let's Get Into the Presentation

10:10 Agenda Overview
11:11 Is Anyone Actually Working Less Because of AI?
12:52 What Happens When You Don't Understand What You Built
20:10 AWS Root Account Horror Story
23:24 The Skills You Need in 2026
24:09 Tech Scene Overview & Job Posting Divergence
26:19 What Companies Actually Want: Utility Players
28:00 Hot Roles: ML Engineer, AI Engineer, Cloud Architect
32:00 The Layoff Reality: It's Market Economics, Not Skills
40:49 Now Is the Best Time to Start a Startup
42:31 Roles & Salaries Breakdown
43:55 This Advice Is for Everyone - Not Just Job Seekers
48:01 What's Getting Replaced vs. What's Irreplaceable
49:14 How to Become an Irreplaceable Engineer
52:42 Maximum Viable Product
53:02 Building in Public & Social Media Strategy
55:32 Positioning Yourself Before the Next Wave
56:19 Brian's Closing Thoughts
57:03 AI on Your Resume = Getting Hired Fast
58:12 Using Brian's 30-Day Plan as a Claude Curriculum
59:55 Platform Engineering Hot Take
1:03:05 Wrap-up & See You in Seattle

How to find Brian:

https://brianhhough.com/techstackplaybook

Links from the show:

https://roadmap.sh/python

https://roadmap.sh/ai-engineer

https://roadmap.sh/machine-learning

https://roadmap.sh/ai-agents