Real-World Career Pivots for Software Engineers in 2026

This article is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers newsletter. Sign up now to get insider tips, expert advice, and practical strategies, written in partnership with tech career development company Parsity and delivered to your inbox for free!

When I changed careers at 30 to become a software engineer, I expected it to be hard. I expected to struggle to fit in, and I expected to bomb a lot of interviews (I did). What I didn’t expect was how few people would support me.

As a parent, I get it now.

A career change is a risk, and the people who care about you tend to project their fears onto you. They don’t want to watch you struggle or fail, so they discourage you or just don’t offer much enthusiasm.

Right now is a strange time to be in engineering, or knowledge work in general. Plenty of us are excited about what AI means for our jobs. More of us are nervous, and I think that fear is justified. Employment for entry-level software developers has fallen nearly 20 percent since late 2022, according to Stanford’s 2026 AI Index, and it can feel like the knowledge we spent our careers building is being commoditized.

Lately I’ve seen a flood of social media content telling software developers to go into the trades. YouTubers are telling you to become a plumber or a goat herder.

But before you do that, I want to warn you, there is no EASY path. Even if you want to become a goat herder.

I’ve changed careers once so far, but my business has forced me through several pivots that felt a lot like career changes—new audiences, new skills, new identity. Here’s what I’d tell anyone considering a change, whether you’re moving into engineering, leaving it, or finding a new speciality.

Find someone who’s done it and ask how

This is exactly what I told my oldest son, who’s getting ready to enter the job market full-time. Outside of the primary social media feeds, the internet is full of free and paid communities on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other sites. Reddit works, too, if you can stomach the trolls, because there’s valuable information buried in there.

Many of these spaces are flooded with people trying to break in, so look for the ones full of people who already do the work and talk openly about what is and isn’t going well. Then find one or two people in your own circle who’ve done it and ask what the job takes.

You’ll often find the degree matters less than you assumed. Indeed Hiring Lab found the share of U.S. postings requiring a bachelor’s degree fell from 20.4 percent in 2019 to 17.8 percent in early 2024, and more than half listed no education requirement at all.

Build proof of work, even if it’s unpaid

Yes, you’ll probably need to do some work for free, or at least far cheaper than you’re used to. I’ve had to do this in my business over and over. Nobody cares that I’ve been a software engineer for 12 years. They want to know whether I can do the thing they need.

When I started pitching businesses, I offered to build something for free as a case study, then used it to land clients who paid well. You can copy this in most fields. Say you want to get into marketing: Learn how Facebook ads work, find a friend or small business that needs help, and run the campaigns at a low price. Now you’ve picked up the jargon, and you have something concrete to show a hiring manager.

Stability is a myth

It may be corny, but change is the only constant. If you’re a software engineer, you could argue you’re in the middle of a career change already, whether you opted in or not. Programmers in the 1990s had the same experience when the web showed up and they had to quickly learn new tools just to stay relevant.

If you’re looking for stability, you’re in the wrong place, and I think it will get scarcer as AI and other forces reshape work. The best move is to build a strong foundation so you can adapt when the ground shifts. I wrote about the foundational skills to focus on if you’re interested.

—Brian

Barbara Mazzolai Wants to Build a New Field of Robotics

Roboticist Barbara Mazzolai is a prime example of someone who advanced her career by switching fields—and now, she’s helping to create a new one. Learn how her background in biology led her to co-author a manifesto on “sustainability robotics.”

Read more here.

Turning Tech Talent Into Leadership Legacy

The transition from a technical role to a leadership position can be challenging. To help seasoned professionals navigate the shift, IEEE is hosting its first International Leadership Conference in Budapest.

Read more here.

IEEE Celebrates Innovators Shaping the Future

Every year, IEEE recognizes engineers whose technical achievements and leadership have made a lasting impact with its Technical Field Awards. See who’s on the 2027 list of awardees, which was announced in late September.

Read more here.