I had a six month co-op in college where I worked for a major defense contractor working on software for an embedded system. I really enjoyed the work and had

I had a six month co-op in college where I worked for a major defense contractor working on software for an embedded system. I really enjoyed the work and had a few offers from defense contractors doing embedded development when I graduated but ultimately decided on going to work for a growing e-commerce company near Boston. My primary reason for not going back into the defense industry despite enjoying the work was because I saw that kind of work as too unstable and career limiting going forward. I have to say that based on my experience I believe very little meta engineering skills would transfer between these two industries. The way software is written for a full authority digital engine control and the way software is written for an e-commerce website have very little in common other than they are both called "software engineering." The process is immensely different, the technology is immensely different, testing is immensely different, integration is immensely different. It's a different universe. If I went back to work for one of those companies I would be starting from the bottom - if they would even hire me. Yes, if you squint really hard, you can see parallels in the two industries - they both test, for example - but to try to extrapolate beyond that is... well, quite a big pitfall. The things you mentioned - a good sense for designing things for greater productivity, where to be paranoid about failures, what corners can be safely cut, or where the pitfalls are - are extremely different between the two industries. The nature of computation opens up a boundless universe of possible ways to both run a software project and build a software project. This sets us apart from other engineering disciplines -- there are a limitless number of ways to architect almost any software project, but there are only so many safe ways to build a bridge. This allows our industry to fork off into places we can't possibly imagine today. I agree with you that in 2035, our field will be very different.