Although AI companies are soaring to multibillion-dollar valuations, job prospects in the tech industry are growing murkier. Computer programming employment in the U.S. is at its lowest level since 1980 as companies increasingly automate tasks. Some firms like Anthropic are already using AI for 100% of coding.
The speed of change has left even top tech leaders struggling to predict what comes next. Yamini Rangan, the CEO of a $15 billion software company, HubSpot, admits she doesn’t know what jobs will look like in an AI-enabled future—even in as little as two years from now.
“As things evolve every decade, new jobs will emerge,” Rangan said recently on the Silicon Valley Girl podcast. “You can’t even plan for a job that will be there 10 years from now, or 20 years from now, or even two years from now.”
For Rangan, that career uncertainty isn’t new. Before becoming CEO, she served as the chief customer officer of HubSpot, and previously at Dropbox—roles that didn’t even exist when she graduated with her MBA decades ago, the executive noted.
So when her college freshman son told her he wanted to study computer science, Rangan pushed him to pursue his passion—despite the growing narrative that “coding is dead.” Studying technology isn’t just about mastering today’s technical skills, it’s about learning how to think, she told her Gen Z kid.
“What you can do is learn how to think, how to break down and solve problems, and how to ask good questions,” the HubSpot CEO said. “If you can do those things, education is incredibly worthwhile.”
She advised budding workers to go deep into their work, instead of being a generalist. If her son wants to pursue graduate school or further specialized training, she said she’s “all for it.”
“Depth in an area, combined with learning how to learn, is what really matters,” Rangan added.
The skills needed to land a tech job in 2026
Despite widespread layoffs across the tech sector, Rangan revealed that HubSpot is still hiring—particularly in research & development and sales. The company currently has more than 250 open roles worldwide, boasting salaries as high as $400,000.
But standing out in an increasingly competitive tech job market requires more than technical know-how. Rangan said that she looks for candidates with what she calls a “scientist’s mindset.”
“I look for people who are comfortable experimenting—having a hypothesis, proving the hypothesis is right or wrong versus saying there’s a set path,” Rangan said.
Curiosity and a willingness to go deep also matter, especially when it comes to understanding customers.
“For AI to be effective, you have to be close to the ground. You have to know what parts of the workflow are broken, what parts of the workforce can actually get value from AI,” Rangan told the Silicon Valley Girl podcast.
“My focus is, Don’t just use AI for the sake of AI, use it to solve real problems for customers. Can you ask the right questions? Can you stay curious enough to uncover what truly matters?” she added.
Knowing how to embrace AI will be especially important for young workers who take initiative, according to Andrew Seaman, a LinkedIn jobs and career development expert.
“While the job market is tough for career starters right now, as entry level work changes, there’s a real opportunity for candidates to lean into in-demand skills like AI literacy,” Seaman previously told Fortune. “The great thing about these tools is that they really are pretty accessible. You don’t need to go back to school or learn code to stand out.”
And despite uncertainty over the future of work, overcoming adversity is the ultimate rite of passage for successful people, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
“I don’t know how to do it [but] for all of you Stanford students, I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering,” Huang told Stanford Graduate School of Business students in 2024. “Greatness comes from character, and character isn’t formed out of smart people—it’s formed out of people who suffered.”
Like Jensen Huang and Tim Cook, HubSpot’s CEO embraces an intense work schedule
To stay ahead in the fast-moving tech industry, Rangan embraces a demanding schedule.
All of her workdays begin around 6 a.m.—with meetings starting at 7 a.m.—and some days stretch as late as 11 p.m. But she still makes time to find some version of work-life balance.
Rangan carves out Friday night and all of Saturday as protected personal time. She spends it walking with her family, doing yoga, meditating, and reading—rituals she says help her avoid burnout.
Sunday, however, is a different story. Rather than dreading the end of the weekend, she uses the day for focused, self-directed work—partly because she enjoys the quiet.
“I’m not scared of Sundays. I enjoy it because it’s my time,” Rangan said on an episode of The Grit podcast last year. “I get to decide what I’m learning, what I’m doing, what I’m thinking, what I’m writing. It is completely my schedule.”
She’s not alone in rejecting the traditional nine-to-five model in favor of a more intensive rhythm.
Nvidia’s Huang has admitted he works every day of the week—including holidays.
“I work from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. I work seven days a week,” Huang said in an interview with Stripe’s CEO Patrick Collison in 2024.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is also known for starting his days well before dawn.
“I can control the morning better than the evening and through the day. Things happen through the day that kind of blow you off course,” Cook told the Australian Financial Review in 2021. “The morning is yours. Or should I say, the early morning is yours.”
