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Wouldn't that require going back to get an entire BSEE at least?

Probably, although maybe you can get a job in such shop as a software guy first and learn the ropes there.

Anyway, my bigger point is, if you hate focusing in front of the computer, then software engineering is not a career for you and you need to retrain for something else. But, it's very uncertain if you'll like that other thing. So, maybe it's best to just accept the drawbacks of the current career, as other careers might not be better.

This feels a bit defeatist. You could definitely go into software sales, evangelism, or move laterally into the management path without any extra formal retraining.

True. These jobs also have very real drawbacks, but there are certainly some people for whom the drawbacks are not that bad (better than coding 40h/week).

Not necessarily, I've worked on embedded products for many years and saw quite a few "pure" software engineers doing a good job.

Not everything in embedded or robotics is related to Electronics, and many things can be easily understood at a level adequate for development.

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