I just finished a PhD in stats, and before that, studied computer science. I had planned to go back to industry to do software engineering or be a data scientist afterwards.
However, it seems that in the meantime, vibe coding has taken over the software industry and swallowed most data scientist roles. Few open positions, and the ones that do exist are just pushing a button instead of thinking and solving problems. Is this a correct assessment? Should I try to get back in or just find a new career? I am not too keen on staying in academia either.
My advice, as always, is to take a look at current offers and to try to find both a line of work and a company that would interest you (and has the right benefits for you). Then build towards the requirements, not the other way around.
Every single piece of our economy runs on software so there are plenty of options beyond being an AI wrangler at Evil-Corp.