Why HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan told her son to study computer science, even as coding is dead

Yamini Rangan knows better than most that the rules of tech are being rewritten in real time. She runs HubSpot, a $15 billion software company. She watches artificial intelligence absorb tasks that once kept armies of engineers employed. She sees the data showing computer programming jobs in the US have fallen to their lowest level since 1980. She knows that companies like Anthropic are already letting AI handle 100% of their coding.

And yet, when her college-freshman son told her he wanted to study computer science, Rangan didn’t hesitate. She told him to go for it. It sounds contradictory. But to Rangan, the decision had very little to do with coding itself.

Speaking on the Silicon Valley Girl podcast, she admitted that even tech’s most powerful leaders are strugglig to anticipate what comes next.

“As things evolve every decade, new jobs will emerge,” she said. “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.” That uncertainty is precisely why she believes computer science still matters.

It’s not about the code anymore

Rangan’s own career offers a clue. Before becoming HubSpot’s CEO, she served as chief customer officer and previously held senior roles at Dropbox, jobs that didn’t exist when she finished her MBA decades ago.

So when she thinks about education, she thinks less about specific skills and more about building mental muscles.

“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 on the Silicon Valley Girl podcast.

To her, studying computer science teaches exactly that: how to break down problems, test ideas, and stay comfortable when there is no clear roadmap. She also stresses that AI only works when it is grounded in real human needs.

“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,” she said.

“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?” Those are the qualities she hopes her son, and his generation, will carry forward.

Why struggle still matters

Beyond skills, tech leaders are also warning young workers to prepare for something harder: discomfort. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made that point bluntly while speaking to Stanford Graduate School of Business students in 2024.

“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 said. “Greatness comes from character, and character isn’t formed out of smart people, it’s formed out of people who suffered.”

In an era of instant tools and automated answers, Huang’s message landed like a reality check. Rangan’s advice to her son ultimately reflects a larger shift underway in tech. Coding may increasingly be done by machines. Job titles may disappear. Career paths may zigzag instead of moving in straight lines.


But curiosity, resilience, and the ability to think clearly in uncertain moments remain stubbornly human. That is what Rangan is betting on, not a specific programming language, not a guaranteed profession, but a way of thinking that can survive whatever comes next.

And in an industry where even CEOs admit they can’t see two years ahead, that may be the most practical advice of all.
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