Like many on HN, I started programming at a young age. Throughout my teens I taught myself programming through projects, and at 16 got an apprenticeship. From there I worked my way up to where I am now. Programming felt like my calling.

I once arrogantly thought software engineering would be one of the last roles to be impacted by AI, but now it's looking like it's one of the first.

We can debate about to what degree AI can actually take over from software engineers today, but I think there's no denying the trajectory. Companies don't want tenured and skilled developers anymore, they want dime a dozen agent supervisors to pump out features. Quality is taking even more of a backseat than before. Even if developers can't be replaced, AI significantly lowers the leverage we have.

Needless to say I didn't sign up for this. Supervising agents takes away pretty much everything I enjoyed about my job. I am somewhat mourning this loss, but I can at least be grateful I'm still relatively early in my career and young enough to learn a new skill.

So, now I'm thinking about what's next for me so I can protect both my income and my sanity. Since I left school at 16 I have no real qualifications, just my experience, which makes it harder to pivot.

If you feel the same way as me, what's your next move?