[throwbigtech256]

This is something I've also been mentioning to my engineers, since before LLMs in some shape, that if you do something that can't be commoditized (solving hard problems vs exclusively focusing on "programming") you'll have better career resiliency.

Problem I'm running into (and why I still share OP's anxiety) is that after being in bigtech for nearly 15 years you lose a lot of touch with the outside world, in terms of avenues into those sort of non-tech companies.

I realize this is a very "from left field" question so totally understand if you pass on it, but how does one cross the fence into that side of things? I have no contacts in businesses like that, and at least in bigtech, applying through the front door is a moonshot at best. If you look at folks with a pure tech background, what do you look for/where do you typically find folks (For EM through director level roles)?

Throwaway as I'd like to avoid broadcasting on my professionally linked account that I'm actively trying to move out of bigtech.