OR it could be because their concerns are genuine but are ignored in favour of a good sounding story.

I think that's the root of the problem.

The company could lay you off tomorrow. At which point all that thought and care that you put into your work instantly becomes meaningless not only to you but also to your potential new employers.

You will be lucky if any of the skills in your day-to-day job are actually tested in an interview. If you get a chance to speak about your work, it'll only be at a high level.

While you're training to perform as a code-monkey for interviews, back at the company, your carefully thought out designs are benefitting not only the cogs that replaced you but also the people who made the decision to drop you.

The better the system runs without you, the more easily they will be able to justify not needing you.

I'm not saying you should actively try to make a system harder to maintain just don't worry so much if it becomes that way due to "leadership". Remember that they get paid multiples of your salary to make these type of decisions.

AI slop degrades the quality enough that it makes it easier to cut back on that wasted time.

lol

So when things break or they have to make changes, and the AI gets lost down a rabbit hole, who is held accountable?

Interviewing is a skill and unfortunately the best way to practice that skill is real interviews.

If a month goes by without a single interview, that is all the feedback you need that you need to try something different.

It's good that you have made it a routine to apply, I would just try to fine tune your application towards specific roles.

Also consider how AI is changing what employer's are looking for. The job posting you're seeing likely exists because underneath is something that AI can't do. i.e Perhaps that simply means knowing how best to leverage AI or there's some communication / ownership element to the role that they want a human to be in charge of, etc.

If you look at things in this way you'll apply for fewer jobs. Some days you may not apply to any because none meet your criteria.

So the TLDR here is to remember it's more about focused quality instead of playing the numbers and aiming for quantity.

1. Knowing what you don't know

2. Knowing who is likely to know

3. Asking the question in a way that the other human, with their limited attention and context-window, is able to give a meaningful answer

You could be made unemployable even without AI, all it takes is a bit of bad luck.

This fear of AI taking over your job is manufactured.

Companies would change their tune on WFH real quick if that were the case.

You touched on some of the reasons; it doesn't take much skill to call an API, the technology is in a period of rapid evolution, etc.

And now with almost every company trying to adopt "AI" there is no shortage of people who can put AI experience on their resume and make a genuine case for it.

If the goal is to keep your motivation up, you have to find some joy in the activity itself.

You have to accept this on a visceral level.

Alternatively, remember that the reason the company is making you jump through these hoops is that there are many other candidates who are equally qualified.

I think the reason we don't see many LLM wrappers is because Games are technically complex, multi-disciplinary and ever changing.