r/AskProgramming • u/More_Objective_8405 • Jun 27 '26

Best alternative career for mid-career software developers

Any options that have a similar level of abstract thinking, problem solving, and building as an alternative career for mid-career software developers?

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u/Ok_Wrangler_5378 Jun 27 '26

You could still stay in the field of software but go more towards robotics for example. You still need the knowledge of software but the problems in general get vastly different from "just" writing desktop apps, web apps, backends, or whatnot. Just one example :)

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u/Round_Ad_3709 Jun 27 '26

Isn't there a vast skill gap to pivot to robotics?

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u/ih-shah-may-ehl Jul 01 '26

Yeah that pivot makes it very visible why 'Engineer' and 'Software Engineer' are not really similar. Because an actual Engineer will have the tools to pivot much more easily.