Becoming a software engineer was a life hack. The best profession on earth deserved the wake up call

Manager.dev

Software engineering has become oversaturated with mediocre talent after years of being the most accessible high-paying career. The current job market squeeze is eliminating engineers who only write code without broader skills, while creating opportunities for those who combine technical abilities with product management and design thinking. The profession is evolving from being accessible to everyone to requiring genuine passion and continuous skill development, with AI tools changing the landscape but not threatening truly capable engineers.

The software engineering "squeeze"

funny, i graduated during the great recession and i only made 30k a year at my first programming job. i made more at the factory i was working at during school, because at least the factory paid overtime. my programming job made me come in on saturdays, and it was salary so no OT.

What I’m reading here is that those developers who display initiative in both learning and contributing at their job will be the ones who will continue to be in demand in this AI era.
Those who just sit back awaiting tickets to arrive which they can then work on won’t thrive as much. Those who refuse to learn new tools or technologies won’t thrive as much.
The inverse is also true. Those who will learn new tools and technologies and best practices at work will thrive. Those who will seek ways to contribute more at their company (e.g. acting like a PM or a designer at times) will thrive

Great article! Really enjoyed reading the insights that you shared in this, and completely agree on every level.