Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu to software engineers: High salaries are not ‘birthright’

Zoho co-founder and former CEO Sridhar Vembu has shared a Twitter post, warning software engineers that the profession’s current advantages—especially in terms of compensation—are not guaranteed to last. In the post, Vembu said, “I have often said this to our employees: the fact that software engineers get paid better than mechanical engineers or civil engineers or chemists or school teachers is not some birthright and we cannot take that for granted, and we cannot assume it will last forever. He added that even customer loyalty cannot be assumed, emphasizing the need for continued innovation and humility within the industry.Vembu cited the potential impact of the productivity revolution driven by large language models (LLMs) and new development tools, warning that such advances could “destroy a lot of software jobs.” While acknowledging the message is sobering, he said it is “necessary to internalize.”Vembu also quoted former Intel CEO Andy Grove in the post, stating “Only the paranoid survive,” underlining the urgency for professionals and companies to stay alert and adaptive in a rapidly changing tech landscape.The remarks come amid increasing debate over the role of AI in reshaping white-collar work, especially in fields like software engineering, where automation is advancing rapidly.Vembu wrote:

The fact that customers pay for our products also cannot be taken for granted.

This is to remind ourselves that we can be "disrupted" - and the more we assume we won't be, the more likely we will be. Or as Andy Grove of Intel said "Only the paranoid survive".

The productivity revolution I see coming to software development (LLMs + tooling) could destroy a lot of software jobs. This is sobering but necessary to internalize.

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