Both parties had this view even up to a decade ago. It was actually right-wing libertarian fanatics that advocated mass unchecked immigration with a view to cheap labor. The Koch brothers(now singular) and the vast amount of billionaires wanted a complete amnesty. Ronald Reagan did give a complete amnesty to Californians. Even Bernie Sanders warned about this years ago.
"I'm already 40+, and it looks like my company doesn't go away in a few years and we are so short-handed"
FANG employee for over a decade quit her job, opened a consultancy, and sold back what she was doing to former clients of her company(and their clients). She sold back what she was having to do to make up for this short-handedness, and the incompetence of many of her former colleagues.
She did it at 3-400 times the markup she was being paid while employed :) because they were time critical.
Not fair on you. I did not mean to have a dig. I get where you are coming from, and should have elaborated. I've worked with those one or two engineers who were rude by default. Who had an extraordinary knack of vaguely describing the problem set, and then having a full on meltdown, always in front of other people, when the solutions did not match the problem in their head.*
*Goldman Sachs(sorry for invoking that name here) did a report on their high turnover, and the above framing was why many quit.
"If you can't write well, communicate well, plan and organize"
Straw man. Pretty sure, this is the dilbert equivalent of "I can problem solve". If you are an engineer, we are making boatloads being brought in to fix the incompetence of this level of thinking. INFOSEC alone is having a field day.
Would you like to buy a bridge? Coded by Claude. One previous owner. An owner who used said bridge to go to church once a week, and vibe code in Starbucks afterwoods.
Wait until you try to explain basic concepts to such people! What's annoying is HR employing more of these people and not understanding why the dial does not move.
What is baffling and infuriating is when such people are put in management. MBAs will destroy Western business eventually(those who tag an MBA onto a STEM qualification are not as bad but still infected.)
"software engineers are going to have to get better at thinking in larger abstractions"
........Math was first on my list.
I don't know how else to say that.
Beyond engineering itself, strictly computer engineering?
How many coders have no idea what goes on behind an IDE. Have not even the slightest notion how a computer works. Who thinks building a computer means watching a Youtube video and buying ready made parts, putting them together, and then think they should be employed by NASA.
To begin: Math, Linux, Devops, C, and Assembly.
Not a youtube video. Not arithmetic. Learn to the point that you could be employed by any of the above as a senior. And don't fear failure. Keep doing it until you understand it.
Software 'engineers' are going to have learn the hard skills that they have gotten by without thus far. The ones who were never engineers in the first place will have to learn 'soft skills' because they are incapable. I believe @ Tsoding put it best: The only thing AI will do, in so far as coding goes, is to remove a lot of people who should never have been in it in the first place.