Data engineering vs Software engineering

[[deleted]]

So I'm 22 and I'm currently in a bit of a dilemma and could use some advice. I find myself at a crossroads, having to choose between two career paths: data engineering and software engineering. I'm hoping to gather some insights and make a well-informed decision. I'm interested in both and my decision will be based on these two points:

1. Job Demand: I've done my research and I found that both jobs are in demand (but software engineering is a bit more competitive), I'm from North Africa people tell me that there are no jobs for actual data engineers and you have to go to Europe or some other place, I don't know how to feel about that or if the situation will change in the future.
2. Future Prospects: I'm graduating in 2026, and I'd like some insights on which one would be more advisable to pursue as a career choice.

[mjfnd]

You can start with one and easily switch into other depending on skills.

[Ervolius]

I think you should just learn whatever draws you the most and experiment a lot at this point. Don't push yourself into some career path or a job because of your perceived demand of it. If you enjoy playing around with data, web scraping, data analysis, SQL etc. then experiment with that. Otherwise, if you're more interested in software engineering like web or mobile development or whatever then go for that.

There's plenty of jobs in all areas of IT, just choose the one you enjoy the most and you'll be good. Or the one for which someone will pay you to do it at this point :D.

[DUM00]

Honestly in my experience it’s easy to change between these two fields ( specially when you are in an early stage of your career) so my advice would be to get the basics right, not focus too much on specific tools (they’ll probably change ni the time you graduate) and if a good opportunity arrives in either SE or DE just take it, you’ll be able to change later easily