I've always held a passing curiosity about civil engineering; have you ever seen someone make the reverse switch? Or, is the career of a SWE simply that much more enviable?
Also the pay as a civil engineer with 3 years of experience was roughly half what I ended up making my first year as a software engineer.
But civil has serious issues (very low pay for how high the legal liability is).
If you search for jobs in civil you'll see hundreds of civil engineering firms are desperate for people to hire - it's similar to accounting where there's a mass exodus.
That may be a blog post in and of itself, why that industry is struggling and what that means.