Career Advice Automotive
Good morning!
I am here to ask for some career advice, considering the thought situation of German job market.
I am a 30yeara old software engineer who has been working in Germany for the last 4 years in a big automotive company.
Recently, after some reorganization, I landed in a new position. It's one of the biggest projects of my company, but my task is a pretty marginal role of an internal tool in a field adjacent to AI. Overall, work is very chill and I'm not in charge of much. My new boss is also open to the idea of me getting more into actual sw development. But I am the person with less experience and knowledge in this specific field in the whole team, as my background is a bit different.
Now, some old colleagues from another department offered me a new position, senior engineer, but very technical and hands-on in a field that matches my background and personal interests a lot. It is a very important role for that dept as it's SW that is delivered directly to customers with a tech stack more popular in usual embedded and automotive. It will hold lots of responsibility for both technical and non-technical aspects. But, the project that I am joining isn't really future proof, as they don't have many plans (yet) after 4/5 years.
My fear of staying in the current role is that I don't learn enough to be able to move internally or externally in the future. And if something goes wrong (layoffs or anything) I could be one of the first ones to get the chop AND will struggle to renter the job market.
The other role sounds more challenging but I could learn much more that would make me more appetibile to move again internally and externally.
So here is my dilemma:
Better staying in a chill environment in a more "future proof" project with a very marginal role in AI or take the leap and accept a very challenging role where I could learn a lot, but with not many plans in 4 years? Take a risk and invest in my growth now or fly low in hope of better opportunities in the future (maybe after some trainings)?