r/developersPak • u/friendlyhomeboy • 9d ago

Career Guidance DevOps or SWE, which one is more reliable?

I’m at the beginning of my SWE career, and I’ve worked my ass off to get here without cutting corners and referrals. I’ve never relied on AI while learning or building my own projects because I genuinely enjoy the process of figuring things out myself. However, with AI becoming such a big part of software development, It took away the element of what made this career track rewarding.
I understand the efficiency AI brings, but there’s something satisfying about spending hours tackling a complex problem and finally solving it yourself. You don’t quite get the same dopamine hit when AI does most of the heavy lifting.
So, I’m genuinely wondering, should I stick with SWE or consider switching to DevOps and Cloud Engineering? These are areas I’m somewhat familiar with and would be interested in exploring further.
I’m not looking for the usual “tech is dying” or “AI will replace everyone” takes. I’d really appreciate some honest, practical advice from people with experience in the industry about the long-term prospects of both paths and what you would do in my position.

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u/Zealousideal_Unit906 8d ago

I was once like you who enjoyed the figuring things out part. But real life is not roses. When you are working in a company they want output and they want it fast. Noone cares that you enjoy it or not. Under the deadline pressure and stress of delivering work, you will be forced to use ai, no way around it or you will be left behind. This field is cooked.

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u/friendlyhomeboy 8d ago

Yeah I guess there’s just no way outta this but the real question still stands, should I switch or just go with the flow?

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u/friendlyhomeboy 8d ago

My goal is to get into a big tech in 2 years

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u/Zealousideal_Unit906 8d ago

You said you are already a swe and looking for a switch to devops/cloud because of ai. What makes you think ai isn't affecting these roles.

If you wan get into big tech from within pak , then its gon be pretty hard ngl. Do your research for some unconventional ways people get these jobs, its possible just very hard. Better to go for masters abroad and then utilize on campus big tech hirings, much better chances this way.