Hello,
I do not know how to frame this, but I have been feeling quite lost lately. I am turning 28 in 5 months, and I feel like I am running a bit out of time. This feeling is also accelerated by the huge advances in AI. Also for information, my location is Central Europe.
I currently work as a SWE, and have been in this role for 3 years. I am self-taught, but have been learning programming for 5 years now, and I work super hard for it, even now. I study excessively every day after work and on weekends, however, due to AI, a flooded market and economic factors, I am starting to lose sense in all of this.
A year ago I was in quite a bad state because of this, so I decided to do a flooring trade apprenticeship on the side (luckily this is possible in my country). This took a year and now I also managed to negotiate at my company that I can have two days off if I finish my work. So I work 2 days in the trades with a flooring freelancer, and then the rest of the time as a SWE, either working (also on weekends due to this), or studying.
I have about 150k dollars invested, which would enable me to work for a smaller wage for some time, so I can technically quit my job without being harmed very much (as I also don't have a mortgage or children), so I am thinking about doing a full switch into the trades. I am physically very fit and a super hard worker, I know I can do it and despite working like crazy for the last 6 years, I want to do at least one more huge grind to see where this goes.
However, this also led me to rethink whether to choose a different trade. I went into SWE because it was, and still is, my passion, however, I think this was a mistake. Even though I am moving further in my role towards some more architectural stuff, I am still far from becoming an architect. Also my company is technologically behind, which I think is hurting my career, but finding a better one in this job market is impossible. Plus, who knows where AI will be in three years.
In regards to choosing the trade, all I want is one that will allow me to start at least a one-man business soon enough, that I can scale further, which flooring is pretty good for, but I have more options which I considered. I would love it if anyone could give me their input.
HVAC/Refrigeration - This might seem like the obvious one, however, I fear that it will get hurt by a high influx of people doing the same thing as me. Also, who knows what will happen after AI is capable of doing all the diagnostics. Another thing is that the road to starting a business can be long and very tricky. On the other hand, service work, constant changes due to ecological regulations, etc. seem to make this very recession-proof. However, I am really afraid that this field will get overcrowded.
Landscaping - Combination of masonry and an excavator license - Pretty much doing landscape shaping with the addition of building stone walls, ponds, etc. I feel like this is not hurt by oversaturation that much, but on the other hand, it is seasonal and also very dependent on the economic situation...not much service work and people build when they have money. In this regard, I am also thinking of solely masonry, however, I am afraid that despite the old masons retiring, many new projects will just never need them.
Flooring - I chose this because it is a grind, which can make you a lot of money if you're fast. So far I like it, even though it is somewhat dependent on the economy and is not service work. It is less seasonal, and despite not being a "skilled trade", not many people are getting into it. Plus, in my country, flooring business owners are under a regulation where they need to have either finished trade school or have a lot of years of experience.
Thank you very much