> It sounds and feels a lot more like an engineering or product management role—something a lot of programmers would never in a million years have signed up to do voluntarily
Now that you phrase it that way.. I think I'm very glad to have transitioned from 'programmer' or 'dev' to 'big-tech software engineer'. The jobs are very different. I had no idea what I was in for. SWE is much less fun. All meetings and alignments and docs. But I think that's what my job would have been forced to become with AI anyway, so at least it prepared me for this new world.
Now that you phrase it that way.. I think I'm very glad to have transitioned from 'programmer' or 'dev' to 'big-tech software engineer'. The jobs are very different. I had no idea what I was in for. SWE is much less fun. All meetings and alignments and docs. But I think that's what my job would have been forced to become with AI anyway, so at least it prepared me for this new world.