Which career path to take PM/Software ?
Looking for some sane advice! Not sure its right place or not but dont have anyone who I can talk to.
I am an ASIC engineer with horrible WLB(80 hours/week for 4-5 months of the year). I make money but I feel like I am working alot compared to money I am getting. Semiconductor is very insular and I dont see clear a path to getting significant promos to progress significantly. ASIC moves really slow and opportunities for startups are very very minimal, even if there are startups, most of them dont go to IPO or sold for chump change. I dont mind the WLB deterioration but I dont see career path in ASIC HW due to commoditization and very few companies in HW.
There are realistically 2 options:
1. Do a bootcamp on Software engineering and move on as software engineer, little worried on this one as I am already 35 and I could be obsolete within few years. I have basics of software and I think I can pick up things in 6 months-1 year. I am a good engineer I think, so this seems to be the easiest option.
2. Do MBA from UC Berkeley and move to product management. I am interested in creating new ideas and making products from drawing board to market.
3. Online masters from GA tech in Software/AI-ML, not sure on this one, I need to explore more on AI-ML. Once again this will lead to software engineering work
Please give your opinions or inputs. Really confused on which direction to take. I think this is the right time to prep for post recession career change.
TC:370K
YOE:11
TLDR: Confused about career, asking for direction.
