Like what? I'm bad at interacting with people so sales is out of the question. My grandpa was a blue collar worker and it fucked up his body big time, so I'd really rather not do that.
Is software engineering subject to the same issues coding is? Could I do that?
I have an IQ of 116, is that smart enough for software engineering?
I genuinely don't understand the distinction between coding and software engineering as a career. They are the same to me although you could argue engineering is more than just coding. And it is. But I am familiar with the latter, and yes the field is terrible right now.
Above average intelligence is plenty. Super genius isn't the requirement. The ability to think like a software engineer is the important part. By this I mean there's a level of logical, abstract thinking you have to be able to do. I used to tell people if they were in college if the basics of programming make no sense to you by the end of your 2nd semester, you probably aren't cut out for it. Realistically someone inclined to it who will be good at it will get the basics more or less much faster than that.
It's a particular way of thinking more than raw intelligence. Most famous of the field are generally not the real geniuses but just th sales assholes who stole someone's work (die bill gates in a fucking fire you trash upon the fucking world)
I unfortunately don't know what to tell you to pursue. I'm old enough and have for various reasons little I am trained for otherwise so if I cannot stay in software I'm probably fucked.
I understand the hesitance about physical trades but, it really might be worth making sure none of them appeal at all. I wish I had better advice to give you. But I'm telling you now entry positions in tech are being fought over by 1000 jeets for every role because they want their visa to either come here or stay here and management thinks AI means we need far fewer engineers than we do. If you don't have experience or a degree you aren't gonna walk in cold off the street those days died in the post 00 dot com crash and frankly right now is the worst I have seen the field in my lifetime.
I say this having known multiple people who wanted to switch to software in the past 3 years when times were not as bad and none of them could break in. Project manager roles are slim picking as well. Scrum master is dead nearly as a role that's paid on its own. QA is outsourced these days or just ignored (see the windows lack of qa for patches these days) .
You could see if tech writing is a thing but I don't know how many roles exist for that. That's often the customer facing documentation writers who have to have English skills and be able to talk to the software side of the house. Because we stop being sane people who talk normal at some point in our careers.
You can try to break into software development but if you need a job anytime soon and need a good chance of getting in I can't say that's what I'd recommend. If you're dead set on it you can try Im not trying to squash dreams here. The economy as a whole fucking sucks.
I'm also talking from a USA perspective and cannot speak well to companies based on the EU or UK.
Trust me I wish I knew what I could move into more than the nothing answer I have and I wish the field wasn't a shit show.
