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SWE has a huge draw because frankly it's not that hard to learn programming, and the bar to clear in order to land a $100-120k work-from-home salary is pretty l

SWE has a huge draw because frankly it's not that hard to learn programming, and the bar to clear in order to land a $100-120k work-from-home salary is pretty low. I know more than a few people who career hopped into software engineering after a lackluster non-tech career (that they paid through the nose to get a degree in, but were still making $70k after 5 years). By and large these people seem to just not be "into it", and like you said are more about delivering than actually making good products/services. However, it does look like LLM's are racing to make these junior devs unnecessary.

trashtester 2y ago
> However, it does look like LLM's are racing to make these junior devs unnecessary. The main utility of "junior devs" (regardless of age) is that they can serve as an interface to non-technical business "users". Give them the right tools, and their value will be similar to good business controllers or similar in the org. A salary of $100-$150k is really low for someone who is really a competent developer. It's kept down by those "junior devs" (of all ages) that apply for the same jobs. Both kinds of developers will be required until companies use AI in most of those roles, including the controllers, the developers and the business side.