I am gonna say something risky:
Most of the FDEs I've seen are solving BS problems.
1. Existing enterprise workflows were designed around people, not agents.
2. Real AI gains require rebuilding the org chart.
3. Most execs have no incentive to do that, and most CEOs aren't in founder mode.
4. So FDEs automate the status quo, because that's what's easy to sell. But the status quo is stupid and will be obsolete.
5. If you FDE on critical workflows, 1) enterprises are really this dumb to hand off trade secrets? 2) if you know that, shouldn't you start a competing firm?
If you FDE on non-essential AND soon-obselete workflows, did you learn anything meaningful and repeatable?
6. If you are a smart young FDE, why spend your best years automating dying workflows and managing people who fear AI will take their jobs? Shouldn't you start an agent-native firm from scratch in that industry instead?
Analogy would be, instead of teaching everyone to be AI builders within a tech company, you as FDE build agents that auto-ingest meeting notes for PM, QA, front-end, back-end, devops, UX and help each of them write PRD, Figma, and meeting notes faster for their sync meeting, but the right solution should be to shrink roles, hire full-stack AI builders, and kill meetings. You gain lots of experience with your PRD/Figma/standup meeting sync agents but it's a useless skill.
I am not a FDE expert so I might oversimplify things. I am genuinely curious about this topic and welcome any critiques and comments.