Blackstone CTO says entry-level engineers are more talented — but have fewer opportunities to learn on the job

• Blackstone CTO John Stecher said there's been a shift in entry-level software engineering.
• As comp-sci degrees have surged in the last two decades, he said mentorship opportunities have declined overall.
• Blackstone has a "buddy system" to help entry-level workers gain coding experience, he said.

A number of tech leaders have weighed in on how the entry-level software engineering space is changing — and now Blackstone CTO John Stecher is sharing his take.

"There definitively is a shift," Stecher told Business Insider.

The CTO, who graduated with a computer science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001, said the software engineering landscape looked "totally different" back then. In the 2000s, he said the field had a reputation for being an "ultra-nerdy" career path for "super introverted people," which he considered himself to be at the time.

He said he remembers "busting out books" and having to read about how to write code.

"Now you just Google it, or you can ask Claude how to do it," Stecher said.

Stecher said the computer science major has grown significantly since he graduated in 2001. In fall 2025, the University of Wisconsin-Madison said roughly 2,500 students enrolled in computer science, compared to about 260 in 2001.

"It's now a job people want," Stecher said.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of computer and information science bachelor's degrees conferred in the 2021-2022 academic year — the most recent year available — was up 115% from two decades earlier.

While some computer-science programs have seen a decline in recent years as job security concerns arise, the major is significantly more mainstream than it once was, and that means there's more competition for jobs.

Stecher said the early-career engineers he now works with have "insane skill sets."

"I'm blown away every year," Stecher said. "There is no way in hell I would have gotten a job. When I look at the skills that some of these people today have, it's completely different than who I was."

Fewer mentorship opportunities

Stecher said that while the core technical skills needed to succeed in the role haven't changed, it's more difficult for entry-level engineers to gain hands-on experience to expand those skills.

"You need a good mentorship and apprenticeship program," Stecher said. "That's one thing that I think has shifted over the years."

In the past, companies would ask new engineering hires to write functional tests that required them to start understanding and owning code in a specific component of a larger system. Now that coding tools can automate a large number of basic tasks, you have to find other ways to instill knowledge in new hires, Stecher said.

"A lot of the AI tooling can do that for you," Stecher said.

Stecher said Blackstone has rolled out a "buddy system" that pairs entry-level engineers with more experienced colleagues.

As tools take on more of the coding work, companies are increasingly looking for engineers who can break down logical problems and know how to use new tools — as well as question when those tools aren't providing the correct answers. The buddy system, he said, helps early-career engineers learn when AI is getting it right and when it isn't.

"That is a very important skill set that people need to pick up and work with," Stecher said.