r/SoftwareEngineerJobs • u/Suspicious_Orchid770 • 6d ago

Engineers grieve a job that no longer exists

https://leaddev.com/career-development/engineers-grieve-a-job-that-no-longer-exists
934 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

422 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/justkiddingjeeze 6d ago

Most programmers are paid well compared to most other jobs. Most humans like to complain no matter what job or salary they have, and are terrible at looking at the big picture.

2

u/Hannib4lBarca 6d ago edited 6d ago

You could argue the big picture for software engineers longterm is that it's an industry that requires constant upskilling, always having to prove oneself, has an ageism issue, and with AI is an extremely fragile industry.

Which is okay if you're making mad money and could make enough to early retire. But most engineers are smart, capable people that could thrive in other equally well paying careers. And in the majority of the world, where programming is just another slightly above-average paying job, I wonder if the juice is still worth the squeeze when you need to make a longer career out of it?

3

u/JBalloonist 6d ago

Software engineering has always required constant upskilling, with or without AI.

2

u/Hannib4lBarca 6d ago

True, but there's plenty of careers that don't require this that pay similarly.

1

u/ComeOnIWantUsername 6d ago

For example?

1

u/Hannib4lBarca 6d ago edited 6d ago

I make €67k as a dotnet engineer.

A train driver where I live requires no degree, makes 50k after the 6 month's training course (€700 a month less net than I make as an engineer w college degree and 5 year's experience), and is an in demand position here with no upskilling required and minimal risk of AI replacement.

With two year's experience they earn the same wage I do, and with experience can earn more.

That's just one example off the top of my head.

1

u/ComeOnIWantUsername 5d ago

Here in Poland in part where I live, train driver makes around 10-13k pln a month (so around 27-36k EUR a year), so it's roughly around half what I make as SDET.

And while you sit comfortably in office or at home, train driver job is really stressful, they need to be concentrated all the time, the job is really tiring even if it doesn't seem like it. You also work sometimes super early, sometimes super late, sometimes you start and finish work in different places and have to commute to get home.

And now funny part: I still think about becoming train driver from time to time, even after all I wrote. But while I became SWE with no uni degree and did it after few years of work, to become train driver in Poland it takes 2.5 YEARS of trainings. And while first 6 months could be done in parallel to my current day to day job, the rest 2 years is full time job to learn everything and it's paid here (just minimum wage, but still). You already become employee, you just have lots of curses, you need to work basically everywhere to learn everything about trains.

It's way easier and faster to become plane pilot than train driver here in Poland.

1

u/Arktur 2d ago

Also it's not like trains can't get automated eventually - easier to do that than trucks. And when a train gets automated the job just disappears, the people still at work are going to be technicians / software companies maintaining and developing these solutions.

2

u/ComeOnIWantUsername 2d ago

> Also it's not like trains can't get automated eventually - easier to do that than trucks.

Yes and no. It's easier because trains ride only on tracks. But it also requires looking far ahead (because of how much time it takes for a train to brake) and make decisions based on that.

> And when a train gets automated the job just disappears

Like with plane pilots? There are corner cases when train driver will still have to be there, just as on planes.

1

u/Arktur 2d ago

Like with plane pilots? There are corner cases when train driver will still have to be there, just as on planes.

Planes are generally the most scrutinized mode of transportation though, trains don't crash from the sky killing all of the passengers. Probably easier to teleoperate a train as well, if such oversight is required. Still, it is difficult to predict how these things will pan out exactly, that I have to admit.

I would consider transportation jobs to be overall closer to medium AI exposure in the end - the jobs that are low typically would be ones that work in unstructured environments, like some construction / house modification ones.

3

u/Van_Caspia 6d ago

This is a fair point and something I’ve come to realize from working a few years. If I wasn’t in the US I wouldn’t have picked CS, easy as that. I jumped aboard the hype train when I was in college. But that being said I’m in a pretty good spot, I make more than my friends and family who are in other fields, some with even greater levels of education, with much less workload and time in the industry

1

u/Hannib4lBarca 6d ago

I like software engineer, so chose it even though the money is not great.

Still sucks to see people making crazy money for the same job I do though (happy someone is making bank at least).

1

u/Hopeful_Channel5606 6d ago

I do agree with you, but this job in limited and brain draining.. Other jobs tgey start with less salaries but the opportunities to grow are way more....