I've been an IT resume writer for more than 15 years—and I've helped IT pros from developer to CTO. I've seen great hiring markets, good hiring markets, bad hiring markets, and terrible ones.
In that time, I've seen multiple disruptions.
But I don't think I've ever seen the broad career anxiety among IT pros that I've seen in 2025—and that shows no signs of ebbing in 2026.
People are scared. Some of that is realistic; things are changing. But more, I think is the endless hype in the news, on LinkedIn, telling us that our jobs will cease to exist—and soon.
So in this and future articles, I'm going to dissect some of these concerns, give my opinions on which we can put to (partially) to one side, and how to handle those that are based more in reality than hype.
The AI Apocalypse! AI Job Replacement Fears
This is the biggest general fear—and not only among IT professionals. I've been hearing how writers like myself are now obsolete—but I've been hearing that for a long time.
The AI apocalypse (with or without zombies) is everywhere. Tech news. General news. LinkedIn appears to have absolutely no other topic (at least in my feed).
So first, I think we need to look at the motivations behind all this noise.
1) The media loves posts with "the death of___"
It's dramatic! It's powerful! It gets clicks (and consequently revenue).
It's usually at best exaggerated, and at worst, BS.
As I said above, I've seen a lot of these in my 15 years as an IT resume writer. Remember when the cloud was going to be the end of IT jobs? When offshoring would eliminate all US-based IT? When the CIO would cease to exist?
None of 'em happened. Were there changes? Sure. Were some jobs lost? Yes. Did some IT professionals need to pivot in their careers? Of course.
None were apocalyptic. Now, I realize that there's a logical flaw in this—the fact that all of these previous predictions of the death of IT never happened doesn't prove that the predictions of AI apocalypse won't come true. However, given that the circumstances were very similar? I'm betting that neither IT pros nor writers are going to go extinct in 2026.
There's another parallel with both the cloud and the offshoring craze. The companies that were massive early adopters, that didn't look at the downsides, that just saw these strategies as a way to FIRE IT PEOPLE SO WE CAN CUT COSTS?
They regretted those bad decisions. And generally hired back a lot of headcount—at higher salaries.
2) Money. A lot of money.
It's very easy to forget that AI is not profitable. It's not even close. ChapGPT may break even by 2028. It may be profitable by 2030.
As Jayne Cobb said in Serenity, "I'm smelling a lot of 'if' in this deal."
There are a lot of very wealthy, very powerful people who could lose a heck of a lot if the entire world doesn't adopt AI. Now, I don't want to say that Big Tech and the leaders thereof might be unethical. That they might not have the best interests of anyone but themselves at heart. That they may be deliberately creating a panic to help bail them out of very costly, very poor, very premature decisions.
That's crazy. We know these are good ethical, people, right? Only concerned about the greater good, right?
Still, money does talk. And the talk on AI is very loud.
Am I saying we should ignore AI? That AI won't lead to some loss of jobs? Of course not. It will. But the IT leaders who are using AI strategically—and I've worked closely with one in particular—aren't using AI to replace people, to lay people off, to save money.
No. The people who are using AI strategically and intelligently are using it as a tool to increase productivity where it's needed and valuable—and to free developers up for more interesting tasks.
We may not be facing an AI apocalypse, but it's well to be prepared
As with any major disruption, it’s a good ideal to chart a course to address the real challenges.
Here are a few idea:
First, upskill in AI literacy and prompt engineering. It is becoming an important and marketable skill—and something good IT pros will have no problem with.
Second, focus your IT resume on human-unique values—strategy, leadership, business impact. AI isn't going to replace those skills anytime soon, so they'll become even more valuable.
Third, build your personal brand and grow your network. These are good buffers against automation—and valuable job search strategies more broadly.
Fourth, diversify your skills. It's always a good strategy, but today, with hybrid roles rising—like AI ethics and data governance, it's something worth pursuing.
Finally? Monitor the trends calmly through reliable sources, not hype feeds.
Bottom line?
Be prepared. But don't lose any sleep over this. At least until the AI powered zombies start chewin' through the fence.
In my next article, I'll discuss something that I hear a lot of as an IT resume writer: ATS paranoia and application burnout.
If you would like to discuss my IT resume writing and tech career coaching services, I'm always available for an initial conversation.