Zen spent 4 years inside GitHub watching the AI revolution unfold and what he saw made him walk away from the best job he'd ever had.
He breaks down why software engineering is broken, what AI is doing to hiring, and exactly how to break into AI engineering in 2026.
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I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.
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⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:15 From $500/Month Tester to AI Engineer
02:30 Why Zen Studied Cognitive Science and AI
03:48 How He Actually Learned to Code
04:55 Is Software Testing Still a Valid Entry Point?
05:57 Why LinkedIn Got Him Into Microsoft
06:42 How Microsoft Found His Profile
07:34 What to Post on LinkedIn With No Experience
09:44 The Microsoft Internship Interview Surprise
11:34 Do Soft Skills Matter More in the AI Era?
12:13 The Azure Cert He Failed Three Times
14:58 Why AI Advice Is Always Generic
16:20 How to Find Mentors You Can Actually Trust
17:33 Inside GitHub During the AI Boom
19:04 How Zen Stays Up to Date Without the Hype
20:28 What the AI Culture at GitHub Really Looked Like
22:18 The PR Pushback Story: 6000 Lines Rejected
25:12 How to Find the Middle Ground With AI Coding
27:38 Will AI Actually Replace Engineers?
29:09 Why He Left the Best Job He Ever Had
30:36 The Moment AI Safety Became His Mission
31:34 The Problem With Agents Reviewing Agents
32:53 Why Accountability Is Everything in Engineering
33:15 The Paradox of Criticising AI While Using It Daily
35:02 Startup vs Enterprise: How to Use AI Differently
38:08 The AI Detox Before His Safety Lab Interview
39:15 Should Engineers Detox From AI Regularly?
40:55 How He Used Claude Code to Prep for Interviews
41:59 The Deepfake Hiring Story
45:18 How Interviewers Are Catching AI Cheaters
46:36 Why Struggling in an Interview Proves You're Human
47:39 What Interviews Will Look Like in Two Years
50:33 Why Internships Are the Cheat Code Now
52:01 Why Referrals Matter More Than Ever
54:22 How His Student Landed an AI Engineer Offer
55:45 What Even Is an AI Engineer?
56:49 The Step-by-Step Pivot Into AI Engineering
59:26 Top Skills to Be Competitive in AI Engineering
1:01:34 Do You Actually Need to Be Good at Math?
1:03:15 Is LeetCode Dead for AI Engineering?
1:04:18 Where to Find Zen Online