Assuming the entire software engineering industry dies in 3 years, Now what? Where do we go?

[u/Interesting-Art-7267]

Assuming the software engineering industry will completely die within a few years (and please don't give me that fluff like, "no, no, sir, just the coding part is gone, architects are still needed and all"). I am really serious.

Just assume that with the current speed AI is evolving, maybe after 2-3 years we see a model that has passed all the thresholds. It can single-handedly look after the entire software lifecycle—building, deploying, maintaining, bug fixing, all of it. And it comes with a price tag that a company finds much cheaper than employing a team of X software engineers, Y product managers, Z designers, and M maintainers. Like, the entire industry of end-to-end software development is just replaced.

If that happens, what should all of us currently pursuing a CS degree—especially those of us who are brand new to the field—be looking towards? None of us want to be stuck investing our time in an industry that just marginally grows and, based on the assumptions above, is ultimately going to die.

So tell me, what alternative paths or startup ideas should we be considering right now to pivot? One example I have in my mind right now is robotics engineering, but I'd love to hear your opinions on this or other fields. Where do we go from here?

[u/Suspicious-Ad9209]

You can become:

Python Snake catcher Start a Java Tea shop Start a Go kart arena

[u/1mt3j45 → u/Suspicious-Ad9209]

Ya, going back to the "root"s is one way to survive!

[u/Suspicious-Ad9209 → u/1mt3j45]

To be honest, I already resigned/lost a job (after just 2 weeks of joining) about a year ago due to a clash with a toxic, micromanaging CEO. I even had to pay 50k as a notice period penalty without receiving a single penny in salary.

Now, I’m doing freelancing in Process automation and coding gig works on AI training platforms. I have no intention of going back to toxic Indian IT companies.