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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 12726 votes
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 40 comments
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Re:Mission option: staffing agencies (Score:4, Insightful)
It used to be the other way around. You used to (back in the 90s) get paid MORE becuase you were temporary and did't get ANY benefits.
We are sliding back into the 19th century when it comes to worker's rights, compensation, and being treated like human beings. But that's the markets for you. Labor is now a very cheap (and getting cheaper) commodity. Thanks to extremely cheap telecommunications and whatnot, you can be replaced by someone cheaper by going overseas and it's dragging our standard of living down - except for CEOs. They have their buddies on the boards to give them a shit load of compensation to fuck up a company.
Marissa chicky is trying to rescue Yahoo! by making it a Google clone - she will fail. And they will kick her sever so sweat ass out the door with tens of millions of dollars for her troubles.
In the meantime, the underlings and engineers who tried to put her plan in action will get canned with maybe a couple of months of severance.
Suck it peons! You got a refrigerator and a TV! You're rich!!! Just keep telling yourselves that.
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Completely agree, outside the Yahoo comments I know nothing about.
Re:Mission option: staffing agencies (Score:5, Informative)
Yup, in the past decade or so these despicable companies have taken over a large part of the employment market here in Sweden, especially for younger people. Companies use it as a way to skirt employment laws by stacking multiple short-term positions on top of each other, meaning the employee is never covered by the employment protections and can be fired without compensation without reason or notice. There have been multiple instances of idiotic leaders (presumably MBAs) firing the entire staff only to rehire them through these companies with essentially zero employment protection. They charge the company about the same as they would pay for a regular employee but pay the employee much less and take the difference for themselves.
Sweden used to have really good employment protection but the past 20 years of neoliberalism (subscribed to in varying degrees by pretty much all parties except the left party, including the social democrats) has changed that, employees are now disposable cogs in a machine and nothing else.
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What exactly would their choice be? Quit and not qualify for unemployment insurance while the unemployment rate is 8%, even higher among young people? It's a situation that urgently needs the attention of the mainstream unions but they don't appear to care much, the syndicalist union is the only one I know of that has tried to do something about the situation.
I am not employed through one of these companies, but I was for a short time.
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Europe has terrible employment laws for both the employer and the employee.
They are good for the employee, so good the employers are exercising arbitrage.
THey can't fire them when they fuck up scares the shit out of management!
They can. They just have to demonstrate that the employee was properly trained. And that remediation was attempted (unless the incident was sufficient for summary dismissal, which plenty are). They don't like being required by law to pretend they care for employees.
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At the same time you wrote that I hope you were thinking about all the things that you just put up with instead of spending all your time fighting. Life is tricky. The bastards know that and they keep you busy with more than a decent person could possibly combat.
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Well not quite. They do have the elevation of the "free market" to some sort of infallible "god" status in common, but neoconservatism seems much more concerned with things like nationalism and social conservatism whereas neoliberalism is pretty much only concerned with economics. Classic neoliberal ideas are things like "free trade" (exploit workers in the third world for peanuts and keep workers on the homefront from demanding their worth, knowing their jobs can be offshored), the "natural unemployment ra
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We are sliding back into the 19th century when it comes to worker's rights, compensation, and being treated like human beings. But that's the markets for you. Labor is now a very cheap (and getting cheaper) commodity. Thanks to extremely cheap telecommunications and whatnot, you can be replaced by someone cheaper by going overseas and it's dragging our standard of living down - except for CEOs. T
Bullshit. Standard of living has nothing to do with telecomunications. Standard of living is about what a society is able to produce and/or do, and whether it is willing to actually produce/do it. Most of the problems with modern society are that we have people willing and able to do things, but are not allowed to do so due to undercutting if they are in america/europe, or "intelectual property rights" if they aren't.
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Thats how I got my current job, staffing agency sent me for a 1 day assignment, got there and its an electronics contractor and I sold myself to them. It was a win win, I got work in something I love to do, and they got a no strings attached 4 month trial though randstad.
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Missing answer (Score:3)
Selfemployed (Score:5, Interesting)
So... which option is that?
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So... which option is that?
The last one.
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This reminds me of a Bachman Turner Overdrive song [youtube.com].
Yup, you're old.
(says the old guy who also remembers the song)
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No, damn it, I can't be old, I am only 30!
If I remembered the song first coming out, that might be different. But I certainly remember the song; I think BTO is a great band.
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So what does that say about someone who new what song was linked to, without even checking it out? Just from the context of the comment?
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Yeah, that was the case for me as well - but I clicked on the link to double-check. I was in junior high at the time. For a short time BTO was almost everyone's favorite group!
Ah, looking back... I hate the 1970s. What a wasted decade that was. Disco alone was enough to condemn any decade.
Re:Selfemployed (Score:5, Insightful)
Paper(!) newspaper ad (Score:5, Funny)
That was a long time ago back in 2001, when dinosaurs, CRT monitors and flip phones roamed the Earth.
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It's a similar situation in my town. The single largest employer is the hospital, and there's a huge population of geriatrics in town. So if you check Craigslist, or the paper, most of the jobs are for RNs and adult homecare professionals, essentially underpaid servants to the infirm old.
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Not to say that I don't do a fair amount of babysitting in my current position, but the pay is a hell of a lot better and the diapers are fewer.
But the clients are just as full of... felgercarb.
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Calender only goes to december 2016, though, might have to "upgrade" after that
Job sites? (Score:2)
I picked "advertising", but that doesn't quite feel like the right answer. I posted on a job site and they found me.
Re:Job sites? (Score:5, Funny)
Same here... but I voted cold calling... it was winter time when they called me.
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Word... I pretty much got all of my jobs over the last 12 years by maintaining a monster.com profile. All of the headhunter / recruiting firms pull from that database to match you up with their clients... after getting a job and setting my resume back to "private" I still get a few emails per day for jobs in various places for quite a few weeks afterwards. I've also been direct hired by large companies as well.
It works pretty well, since you can sort of play all of the employers against each other after a
Friends are the best way (Score:4, Interesting)
It sure beats having to compete with other people for a job.
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I totally agree. Most of my jobs were a result of friends or family putting my resume on top of the stack. Those jobs then led to other jobs. That's why I actually participate in linkedin, despite a natural aversion to such sites.
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I originally started where I am at now as a Contractor because a friend told me about the position and recommended me for it. I was close to starting terminal leave and just reaching the panic stage when a friend I hadn't heard from in years emailed me to ask if I was looking for a local job when I got out. Only one other person had interviewed for the position and wasn't interested at all. From there I just waited until a regular position opened up in the same office, applied and got the job.
Hackerspace connections (Score:5, Interesting)
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I'd give that a try if I could get to a hackerspace without a plane ride.
Missing option: Postdoc (Score:3)
I have my job because I couldn't find a real job.
Yah Friends, Boo Ex..... (Score:2)
I was happy in my previous job, and in a marriage that had been good except for a couple months. I was led to believe things in my marriage were going to work out when the Ex pulled the rug out from under me. I struggled to find a place that I liked in the town of my last job, but to no avail. My backup plan was kicked into gear with friends. I begged them to give me places to apply. They scored me big with an interview in their company. When asked why I was leaving, I was honest with the interviewer
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things in my marriage were going to work out when the Ex pulled the rug out
A man who managed to find and persuade a woman to marry him, and then can just throw her away?? What is he, a rock star? Athlete? Couldn't be a geek.
leaving a perfectly good full-time job in lieu of a contract position
But, but ... this display of independence is supposed to tell potential slave drivers/employers they should hire someone else!
friends ... scored me big with an interview in their company.
Oh, right. It's not what you know, it's who you know.
converted from contractor to full-time
That still happens?
I hope all the hard work lands me some stability and a long lasting career.
Are you joking? Well, maybe that still happens too. But don't count on it.
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He was no rock star, just a narcissistic, pathological, compulsive lying, cheater husband, who showed his true colors when he decided that having an independent, financially successful, voluptuous, supportive, no kid baggage, loving wife was not going to let him go out and F*$@ anyone he wanted to when he wanted to simply because he wanted to. So he kept up a lie until he was finally able to support himself and dumped me. His mother once told me they considered him the family gigolo.
My friends of 20 years
School recommended me. (Score:3)
I checked "Just fell into it". The company called my school for recommended students for a job they had. I was recommended and interviewed and got the job. Been here 27 years now doing mostly sys admin and DB admin work with some programming. I'll be retiring in 4 or 5 years.
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Part-Time Professors (Score:2)
Myself, including others I've known, have been able to get into positions otherwise inaccessible through asking our professors about any potential job openings at their other employers. Part-time professors commonly are not just being a professor for fun and working as a McDonalds manager for pay; they typically have job titles that reflect what they teach in class, and that means they have the position to put people in places, or at least have a strong enough reputation at their job to give their recommend
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I'll also add that even though I was in Computer Science, one of the biggest things I looked at before even considering recommending them was written communication skills - if their emails to me tended towards "Cn U Hlp Me?" there was no way I'd be putting them forward as a candida
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Verily. That's kind of why I skimmed past mentioning about grades specifically in my wording and referred to other elements like classroom ethics. Professors will look beyond the scores they give their students and will take into consideration their presentation. If the student is willing to show a professional attitude in the classroom, they will most certainly display it in the workplace.
Fallen into (and occasionally through) several (Score:3)
Apparently, as a Philosophy PHD, my boss really enjoyed a good argument.
Opensource project contributions (Score:2)
I got my current job because of my opensource work. A major contributor to a project I maintain founded a startup and hired me there. The project is used by the startup, but remains "independent" and is still opensource and alive.
Imo, major opensource contributions really do help getting an interesting job.
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Personally, pretty much all job offers (and my current job) were in fact due to my own project.
That's not to say that you should start a FOSS project
Missing option: temping! (Score:2)
Bes thing ever.
Fell into it (Score:2)
Checked 'just fell into it'...could have also gone with advertising perhaps, as I fell into it at my university career fair. Decided I wasn't going to waste my time with the usual big names -- not much point in spending an hour in line to talk to Google/Cisco/Intel/IBM/etc when I'd almost certainly not get the job. Instead I was talking to anyone who was free. Paused right before leaving the room to glance quickly at a company two booths over, and the woman from the company right in front of me noticed 'com
Missing option: (Score:2)
Created it myself.
In the end... (Score:5, Funny)
...we all work for CowboyNeal.
Back on topic... (Score:2)
Actually, the missing poll option is, "They read my book about their product, and contacted me with an offer."
Headhunter (Score:2)
Headhunter is not an option? (Score:2)
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odyssey (Score:2)
Missing option: My boss (Score:2)
In the last 20 years, I've worked for about 12 different companies. Throughout that time, I've had a total of 4 bosses. I've worked for my current boss for about 12 of those years, and 5 of those companies.
I'm very loyal to people, not organizations. As much as a bad boss is worth leaving a company for, a good boss is worth following.
Missing option: i made it (Score:2)
I made my own collectively managed workplace with some friends. Works great, you should try it.
They called me (Score:2)
Missing options: Networking, job fairs (Score:2)
Specifically "stranger" networking. Getting your jobs through friends is a form of networking too but the mechanics are completely different.
I am currently working two contract gigs: A part time contract (which started first) which came about because I talked to the right person at a trade show.
The full time contract came when a headhunter contacted me through LinkedIn.
Job fairs aren't what they used to be but they still exist. Surely somebody has managed to land a job that way recently. Last time it wo
Trick Question (Score:2)
I have actually started this job twice. First time, I temped with the company for several months (fell into it), then after moving to a different temp assignment the company added a permanent position, which was advertized in the local paper (Advertizing). Several years later I left for greener pastures that turned out to be less green. 18 months after leaving, a former co-worker called me to let me know that my two replacements had moved on and my old job was available again (same workplace or different
Blog (Score:2)
I had a finance and econ blog where I talked about regulatory policy, economics, and finance. One of my regular readers' wife was working at a top i-bank, and she was part of a management consulting firm that specialized in these things for them. He liked my blog and my analyses so much that he passed it along to his wife.
So, next thing I know, I get a call asking me if I'd be interested in a job. A phone screen and two case interviews later, I switched gears from R&D to go into management consulting. I
Me? (Score:5, Funny)
I killed the last man in this position, thus assuming his title.
Klingon? (Score:2)
Are you Klingon by any chance?
Yes, obviously. (Score:2)
HIja'ba'
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Your comment reminds me of The Los Angeles Angels for some reason.
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And you shall remain the Chair of Indefinite Studies until someone has the guts to off Mistrum.
They called me... (Score:2)
My current employer found my resume on Monster.com and called me. I voted for "Advertising", but I could as easily have chosen "cold calling"...
Missing option: (Score:2)
Jobs are for people who can't figure out how to make a living on their own.
I employ others (Score:2)
And for what its worth, I only ever hire through agencies. Mostly for risk mitigation reasons.
Headhunters (Score:2)
Most of my jobs have been through headhunters calling me, often via Linked-In.
Fishing (kindof) (Score:2)
I voted "I fell into it", but actually the job found me. I was looking for a position and was in a conference, I put a "I am looking for a job" slide in my presentation and got an offer.
Networking (Score:2)
I am retired. Thus: "Who says I have a current job?"
In my 40+ year career before retirement, I had six jobs. Three of them, I found by networking, which involved both "Friends (at the same workplace)" and "Friends (at a different workplace)". Together, both forms of networking resulted in over 75% of my years working.
A little history... (Score:2)
I got my first job on my sixteenth birthday by walking into the manager's office and saying "I've just left school, I'm going college in September, I want to work the Summer." Ten minutes later I had a work uniform and a purchase order for a pair of toecaps and for the next three and a half years, I worked a warehouse floor. Got trained on a highlift in the process. Carried on weekends during term time and paid my own way through college with money to spare.
My last job I did sort of the same thing. Walked i
Missing option - Professional Networking (Score:2)
Better than headhunters, for sure.
Recruiters (Score:2)
Asking for a recommendation (Score:2)
I was applying for a research job in Canada, one of their requirements was a recommendation for some (notable) people. So I asked my late professor for that. He wrote one and send it to the Canadians, however, he also offered me a research job at his new location. And in the end I went there. My next job, I organized in cooperation with other researchers.
So I opted "just fell into it ..."
Usenet (Score:2)
Although most of you guys were still in diapers back when it was worth participating in. :-)
Now get off my lawn!
Birth (Score:2)
Royalty has its perks.
None of the above. (Score:2)
Kijiji (Score:2)
Another survey with lame choices (Score:3)
None of the above.
I created my job.
I built the company.
I own my business.
Very carefully planned.
Very long term.
These surveys really need an "other" choice.
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I guess they must work for some, because I have seen two people post in favor of temp agencies. I have NEVER gotten a job through a temp agency or a headhunter. I have only gotten about two interviews through a temp agency. Most of the time, they have you take a bunch of special tests to prove your knowledge, which I always pass with high marks, but then they never seem to be able to get any clients for me to interview with. When I was unemployed, I probably spent a full day every day filling out everybody's special online form that was unique to them only and required you to spend two hours applying for that position which you had a 1 in 100 chance of actually getting a callback.
They work when you have a niche specialty on your resume. If you don't (say you are a recent grad) then you are in a pool of a zillion faces that all look the same. Those aptitude tests are a joke, everyone does well on those and I bet the results aren't even used to decide who gets what referral, nor are they passed to the clients (your prospective employer). If you can boast about 7-10 years of experience in some particular field, that is in demand in a decent labor market (some relatively large city)
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I got my current job via an employment agency calling me and pimping the job to me. The fact that I've wanted to work for the company in question for years was icing on the cake.
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Yes, they do work.
Sure, they work - for themselves. I put my trust in one while looking for my current job. For four months, he found me a lot of interviews, but I never got a callback. I started digging deeper - turns out the only applicants for the positions were through him. He got paid no matter who got the job, so he had no incentive to help me at all. Moreover, I found out he was quite literally sabotaging me: he would edit my cover letters and correspondence to sound "more formal" - utterly stilted and inhuman -
Re:Employment Agency (Score:5, Interesting)
An employment agency, but it depends on ones field of expertise. I've had what was once a 1st Phone license since '62, and have been a C.E.T. (much rarer) since '72. In broadcast engineering since '62, most of my jobs were from the famous "friend" network, till I registered with the one agency that specializes in placing broadcast engineers. For some reason, my lack of formal education (only 8th grade) didn't bother him, or his clients, who if they hired me, had to off with 6 months worth of the salary they offered as the agencies fee. The first place I was, for only a year, turned out to be a teaching position, teaching their fair haired fellow how to become friends with high power klystrons (where stupidity has a $150k price tag for a new one), but once that was done, I was surplus. So the next place they sent me for an interview was 130 miles up the road in WV where I was hired as a long hair hippy riding a motorcycle but sold them that I could do the job anyway. That was in '84. About a year later the agency called again wanting to know if I was ready to move on as they had an opening in a much larger market that paid about 15G's more. I thought about it for maybe 30 seconds, thinking of the added costs of living in that larger market, and said no, I think I've found my place.
The money did come as the years went by, and by the time I was ready to have roast turkey and a Rolex at my retirement party in 2002, I was probably making as much money as the well dressed, with clean fingernails CE in one of the top 10 markets. In a market in the 160's for folks who understand that lingo. My retirement stipend includes a medical policy that pays what medicare doesn't, and I still consult from time to time for that station, and now I am collecting some radio stations too because the engineers that have been doing that are falling over at an alarming rate. That leaves me as almost the last of a dying breed locally. That is a bit scary because I could be next, being diabetic & what not.
So despite being 'jobless' (almost retired, I call it) for the last 10 years, at nearly 78 yo & counting, the right agency CAN work wonders. This particular agency is now I think 3rd generation family run, and AFAIK, it is all they have ever done. I first saw their little 1/2" advs in the back of the trade papers 50+ years ago. Those in the broadcast field will know who I am talking about.
Cheers, Gene
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On the other hand...internships aren't everything. If you're seeking a position at a company that isn't one you interned with, it can be a bit of a risk for them.
Most recruiters I talked to seemed a LOT more impressed that I had actual freelance work experience rather than an official internship. I mean hell, if you have an internship, you may have been working on projects...or you could be like my friend, whose 'internship' mostly consisted of smoking pot with the boss and occasionally running errands (lik
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This is my preferred way to get jobs.
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Job hunting 101: never EVER give up. If things are that bad, what you do is take a copy of the Yellow Pages, and go through it. Start at the front, and write EVERY company in your qualifying field with your CV*. It'll take time, so pace it. Do a page or five every day. The response rate WILL be low, probably 1-5%, and out of those maybe 50% will forward to an interview, but out of a thousand letters or emails (or better yet, phone calls), you're talking what? 5 interviews? A response at all is good, means t
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addendum: I've had CS majors send my their CVs, and to be honest they've left me less than impressed. Sure, the things are brimming with HSCs, college degrees and whatnot, but they lack what's important in a potential individual who I might be spending a significant amount of my day with - interesting hobbies, some personal background such as time in Scouts, things that make me think "Hmmm, this guy looks like he knows what to do if something happens that's not in the script!"
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Well, it works, right? My dad had to ask me 3 times to work for him before I finally said yes. 7 years later, it's probably more accurate now to say that he works for me. Meanwhile, after 3 months of looking, I still can't seem to find an entry or junior level programmer to hire. If you live near St Paul and you can pass the fizz-buzz test, send me a resume!