Ask HN: SWE to CAD Career Switch
I have been a software engineer for about 15 years and am kind of burnt out. Thinking about switching industries and am curious if anyone has made the switch to a CAD Drafting role? If so how was it, did your background in SWE help with the transition? Just exploring my options at the moment so open to other fields as well if you have any ideas.
3 comments
Very bad idea. I did the reverse couple of decades ago. Satisfaction doubled, income tripled.
From what I have heard a lot of that job market is drying up due to AI / offshoring. I guess it depends on how solid your offers are.
Going to see a lot of career switches in SWE, because the majority of them were bootcamping in frontend frameworks which that quickly evaporated thanks to LLMs.
All the industry is just asking for is expert-level full stack software engineering experience (not anything niche, specific or narrow) which you just need an elite focus on systems design and architecture.
If you can't demonstrate to a company that you can make them a lot of money with your skills, they will just see you as another cost and a massive risk.
Generalists are the winners in this and CAD will just as automateable as SWE.
All the industry is just asking for is expert-level full stack software engineering experience (not anything niche, specific or narrow) which you just need an elite focus on systems design and architecture.
If you can't demonstrate to a company that you can make them a lot of money with your skills, they will just see you as another cost and a massive risk.
Generalists are the winners in this and CAD will just as automateable as SWE.