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What other careers can laid off software engineers move to?

6 points by epicureanideal ↗ HN
What else would pay reasonably well, and be attainable with similar skills to a software engineer, and where there are enough jobs to soak up a good number of the laid off software engineers?

19 comments

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the_only_law
Do you have formal education? I’ve been trying to find an answer to this question, but it seems impossible without that.
epicureanideal
All the laid off engineers I know have formal education, so if you happen to have an answer, it would apply to at least some people. Looking forward to your answer.
the_only_law
I guess I’d depends on what “pay reasonably well” means. If you’re in the US, I don’t think you’ll be able to just walk into to any other career and make close to what you made as a developer. If you’re just looking for a decent middle class income, there might be more options, but it still seems rough.

I’ve been watching the local job market near me and it’s pretty dim. Some of the companies near me that usually hire devs aren’t really hiring devs right now, but are still hiring for adjacent business roles (think business analysts, etc.). There are a lot of management roles across all sorts of industries, but the better ones tend to want established domain experts.

epicureanideal
> There are a lot of management roles across all sorts of industries, but the better ones tend to want established domain experts.

Where do you see those? Can you give me some examples? Thank you for your comments.

the_only_law
Just from a casual search on some jobs boards, some of the better paying non-dev stuff seems to be:

1) B2B Sales

2) Business Analyst/Systems Analyst/QA

3) Management (mostly retail, logistics, and medical)

I imagine 2) is the easiest for devs who are out of work. Sales might be an option if you have the personality (but B2C sales don’t pay very well). 3) seems tougher because they usually want people with king established domain expertise, but it might be possible.

There seem to be some well paid trades/industrial jobs, but anything paying decent money seem to want very experienced people, probably with catches (the biggest I’ve heard from talking to people are excessive hours in harsh environments). There’s also a handful of well paid marketing positions as well as medical positions, but those are probably going to be a no-go without a background there.

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shams93
I went back to school to be a pharmacy tech, if you're good at math and memorization you could pass the exam in about 6 months of study.
epicureanideal
Thanks for sharing!

Does it pay well?

Are there a lot of these jobs available, a shortage of thousands that might make sense for quite a lot of laid off people to pursue this? Or do you think it's good for a few people but not many, otherwise we'll oversaturate the market?

seattle_spring
Coming from software engineer, pharmacy tech salaries are a pittance. $30-50k tops.
jauntywundrkind
I really really wish there were more obvious good answers here. I struggle to think of other jobs I'd want where I have as much ability to go off and get hard things done, again and again and again, with relatively little interference.

It's both embarassing to me personally, for feeling like I'm an idiot who can't appreciate the world & how much it offers. But it also makes me sad and mad, is a persistent feeling I've had that the world has peaked, has failed to sustain a broad system of good hard worthwhile jobs that pay pretty well & feel fulfilling. It feels terrible, like we are failing to fulfill an obligation to the future. Hello next-comers, you've arrived, but we have so little for you, sorry.

the_only_law
> has failed to sustain a broad system of good hard worthwhile jobs that pay pretty well & feel fulfilling

Honestly I wish I could go back to school. There are so many jobs I think I would enjoy that fit this, but they all are heavily credentialed. i know for sure that I could get so much more out of education now than I could of had I done it when I was a more naive 17/18 year old, but sadly the further you are from that demographic the more expensive it becomes (without gotcha’s at least). Honestly, I really wish I could just redo my life starting from maybe around 16-18.

Software did me good for a while economically, but it looks like that’s over now.

jacobriis
Political organizer to repatriate the temporary visa workforce.
ensocode
I think as engineers we are all a bit spoiled with good salaries. On the other hand software engineering is quite an abstract craft with questionable personal rewards. Maybe we can think about it more as a temporary stage where we use our skills to get the good money and if the time should be over we could more concentrate on what "pays reasonably well" in other terms like doing good things, gratitude of others, ... Maybe think about what is needed: kindergarten teacher, ranger, stuff like that. Could be very useful and satisfying
kingkongjaffa
Other professions should be paid more, software engineers should generally not be paid less. We’re only spoiled in tech in comparison to how poor other fields are paid.

Personally I was doing a fairly glamorous non tech job (engineering super cars like Ferrari, Bentley, Aston Martin , Rolls Royce etc.) and even that was poorly paid in comparison to tech.

the_only_law
> Other professions should be paid more, software engineers should generally not be paid less.

Sure, but only one of those is a realistic option, and it’s not the former.

ilaksh
You didn't explain why that's desired. It almost sounds like you believe there are no more jobs for software engineers.

There are definitely plenty of jobs for software engineers that are skilled and can live on a very modest salary.

jfil
Software QA testing, technical writing, anything to do with no-code development like Salesforce Administration, Marketing Operations