If the semiconductor industry is undersaturated its not reflected in our salaries. My CS friends with lower grades and fewer ECs are doing quite well compared to me. My coworkers are fairly open about their salaries and even mid and high level salaries are pretty meh. At worst it would be a lateral career move, the recent tech layoffs seem exaggerated to me as long as you don’t work for a major tech company. I have a few software engineer friends working at F500 companies and they’ve been completely unaffected.

As far as getting experience on the job, I’m a ChemE working as a process engineer. When I’m using software it’s Excel 95% of the time. I’ve made some useful macros for my team but other than that my role is so far removed from anything programming related that I don’t see a reasonable path for learning on the job. My role is pretty hands on, I’m not even using a computer half the time.

I get that this might seem like a stupid decision but I’ve thought about it and it’s right for me. Personally I feel like I need the structure and goal of a degree to ground me as I learn new skills, even if self teaching would be cheaper