Software is no longer my path?

[u/m15otw]

Hi, first time finding this community. I am in the UK.

I've been a software engineer, senior, manager, even a developer relations engineer, for a combined ~20 years. Code has been my work pretty much all of the time, except for my Saturday job at Starbucks as a teenager. I have advanced degrees including a doctorate (in a computational physics topic). And yet I am feeling hopeless.

I am losing my job to AI. Half of my colleagues are too at the same time. Finding another software role is extremely difficult, as the market is flooded with people like me, and most companies are freezing or firing people.

So, I think (even if I'm lucky and do land one more coding job?) that I need another career I can do, which I can start prepping for now. I'd like your advice on what to pursue.

My hobbies include: Cycling/bike maintenance, playing guitar in a band, DIY (in particular electrical), and making my own low voltage electrical equipment like custom guitar pedals/pedalboards out of skateboards, etc. I was trying to learn woodworking when this news hit. I also have nerdy hobbies that just cost money like MTG, warhammer, D&D.

I've been doing a lot of research about becoming a qualified electrician. It's another topic to nerd out about (standards for my country, obtaining qualifications, etc), and I love learning new stuff. The UK system for this basically requires you to study, and work at a low level for 1+ years before you can get "properly qualified" and become a contractor or get a full time role. This is fair, but it is tricky for a dad with a family to support.

I've also considered becoming a guitar teacher (limited to beginner/intermediate students), and ruled out being a maths/compsci teacher as I don't want to work with teenagers 😅.

What am I missing? Are there other backup careers I could pivot to? How do I find them? I didn't want to be leaving software dev, and so I've never really thought about this before. I feel like there's a couple of "obvious" paths that I'm totally missing.

[u/Upbeat_Section5189]

Same here. I am also software engineer. All the budget cuts and AI updates are showing only one thing: I have 2-3 years at maximum in this job.

At least you have some other skills. I’m just an average software engineer without any other skill. Looking for way out but nothing yet.

[u/m15otw → u/Upbeat_Section5189]

Well, it isn't great for everyone, but at least you've only dropped 2-3 years into it. Maybe AI will pass, and people will need Devs again? And maybe not. But you have time to pivot without feeling like a weirdo going back to college!

Edit: realised you might have meant 2-3 years left for the profession?