But the point of the article is to not pigeonhole yourself. Don't be that guy who wrote that library, or the guy who maintains that app. Be the guy who brings value to the business. Be the guy who is considered an asset no matter what role they have, because you are working towards the goals of the business. Be the guy who knows when to say, "Yes, I can code that, but we can buy it just as cheaply, and let me focus on more important details of our business."
Uh no. I code, that's what I do. I'm fine with being laid off if that's not creating value. I can code somewhere else.
If you go into a non-engineering role, you are sacrificing your engineering career for temporary survival at your current job. The next engineering job you apply to wont probably like that you haven't done SWE work for whatever amount of time. Just pull off the bandaid and get a new job.
I'm an engineer. I want to be good at engineering. I'm not interested in the rest of it. It's not my job to make sure the engineering tasks line up with business success. My job is making the math and the code work. Division of labor. I don't want any other role. If engineers aren't valued I'll go somewhere where they are. There are lots of engineers creating value all over the place. There's lots of opportunities out there, there's no reason to have to sell yourself if your skills don't.
As an engineer it's easy to think "yeah, well I write good code.." but in my experience you will never be able to adequately demonstrate that to a potential employer during the interview process.
Being "interested in the rest of it" makes you a better engineer. Indeed, there's an argument to be made that that's part of what makes you an engineer.
How do you know whether you're creating value if you don't care to know what's valuable? How do you expect to be able to make yourself worth hiring if you don't know and won't learn how to make your paycheck worth signing? How do you intend to build tools that make people's lives better if you can't be bothered to understand what they need?
If all you do is code I wouldn't consider you an engineer.
> Engineers design materials, structures, and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality, regulation, safety, and cost.
* don't call yourself a programmer, you are a revenue-enhancing solution provider
* especially don't call yourself an X programmer, you will use whatever tool is necessary to complete the project and provide value
* don't look for a job, this shows that you're weak. Let the jobs come to you.
* keep yourself current with the latest frameworks and languages to prove that you can adapt to new challenges
* having at least one but ideally more open source projects on github proves that you have passion
* make sure you're a culture fit. Do go to the company parking lot beforehand to see what others wear.
* wear nice clothes, brush your teeth and eat your veggies
* <insert your own here>
After doing all of this you will probably succeed in avoiding having your job outsourced or having that promotion given to someone that's an even bigger bulshitter than you. Congratulations! Now you only need to have some minor plastic surgery done and learn a few recent cultural references in order to not make your colleagues uncomfortable.
You are well on your way to become the perfect solution provider citizen!