Many engineers are leaving the IT industry, seeking better benefits, work-life balance and stability by bringing their IT skills to other sectors.
As Big Tech layoffs continue, software engineers are finding it harder to make the hop from tech job to tech job.
Maybe you don’t need to?
Increasingly, developers are looking toward traditional companies — in older sectors like healthcare, banking and manufacturing — that have found themselves accidental tech companies — in pursuit of steadier employment and more work-life balance.
Despite Big Tech’s downturn, tech teams at traditional companies across industries are continuing to grow.
Now, they’re doing what they can to attract tech talent. This ranges from a massive push toward systems modernization and cloud migration to stand-out benefits. For example, 163-year-old manufacturing and mining company Sandvik recently added a global 14-week paid parental leave policy — while Netflix may be rolling back its “unlimited” leave policy.
Last year’s focus on developer experience continues in an effort to retain talent, too. Gartner predicts that a whopping 80% of all organizations will invest in an internal developer platform by next year, and giants like Capital One are investing in expanding their DevEx teams. Pfizer has added “principal engineer” to its company hierarchy as a path for technical progression.
But how do you decide whether to leave the allure of Big Tech? How can you make sure you can continue to grow and learn at these older companies? The New Stack talked to engineers who have taken that leap — and not looked back.
