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Ask HN: I can't do development any more, what should I transition to?

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11–20 of 65 posts

Re: Ask HN: I can't do development any more, what should I transition to?

#11
I've wanted to leave the industry for a while for various different reasons and it seems the golden handcuffs are very real. The only realistic options seem to be moving towards adjacent business roles (various management, business, or customer facing roles mostly) as you'll see these are pretty much the majority of suggestions you'll see on these threads. Occasionally you'll see the person who left for a trade or something completely unrelated to tech, but ofc with those you risk starting from the bottom again and not making anywhere near your target salary. IT roles can make around what you want, but i imagine you'd be unable to start in roles paying that without experience.

Another option, which may be unpopular is to find a less demanding job. No one wants to hear it, but theres a plenty of development jobs, especially in non-tech companies where you don't have to be that good, you won't do much outside the standard 9-5 hours, pay what you want,and you can coast at for a very long time as long as you aren't a total incompetent. These ofc come with their own issues, but it might be the most realistic option you have, although you haven't gone into much details as to why you want out.

Re: Ask HN: I can't do development any more, what should I transition to?

#12
post #10
post #6

Are you someone that gets energy from working with people or working solo on tasks? I used to have a similar challenge, I stopped enjoying my technically demanding job until I realized that there was just as much value to be had from my time share my experience and skills with other geeks in my field. It made what I do enjoyable again and also got me to accept my value as a story-teller and education when I had convi…

Working solo. If I could maintain some servers or gear in a remote location or something, that would be perfect.

That’s my dream job you’re talking about there

Re: Ask HN: I can't do development any more, what should I transition to?

#13
post #10
post #6

Are you someone that gets energy from working with people or working solo on tasks? I used to have a similar challenge, I stopped enjoying my technically demanding job until I realized that there was just as much value to be had from my time share my experience and skills with other geeks in my field. It made what I do enjoyable again and also got me to accept my value as a story-teller and education when I had convi…

Working solo. If I could maintain some servers or gear in a remote location or something, that would be perfect.

What about moving into sys admin / devops?

Re: Ask HN: I can't do development any more, what should I transition to?

#14
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working solo. If I could maintain some servers or gear in a remote location or something, that would be perfect.

What about moving into sys admin / devops?

Azure would compliment my previous work with MS technologies. I think AWS is more popular though so might be more amenable to a lateral move. But I'm sure Azure has their own path as well?

Re: Ask HN: I can't do development any more, what should I transition to?

#17
I work as an application engineer for a SaaS company and I do a lot of troubleshooting up and down the stack, but I do not write code except for some console apps or scripts. I do a lot of DB work, some DevOps stuff like cert renewals, custom reports, write bug tickets, etc. The job is not that stressful and I earn close to what you are looking for in terms of salary. I actually expect the amount to be in that range in the near to mid term after some restructuring of our department and reevaluation of the position. They are actually going to be hiring in Q4 for two similar positions, possibly remote. Please let me know if you have any interest!

Re: Ask HN: I can't do development any more, what should I transition to?

#18
post #9

How about a technical support role? You still get to solve technical problems and you're helping/interacting with customers directly without being responsible for shipping new features or fixing production downtime incidents.

I am in tech support and I am expected to fix production downtime incidents.

Re: Ask HN: I can't do development any more, what should I transition to?

#19
post #8

Technical project manager, product manager, product owner. Engineering manager. Scrum Master. As long as you enjoy leadership any of these options should do quite well. Being technically-savvy is usually an asset in these positions, and you should be able to make good money.

What if you can't tolerate the BS that comes with those positions?

That is an interesting point of view. What if you choose to be no BS project manager or no BS product manager etc. Unless you mean the BS that comes from dealing day to day with humanity?

Re: Ask HN: I can't do development any more, what should I transition to?

#20

It was React/GraphQL/Apollo that broke me. I liked it better when just knowing ruby and sql were good enough. Those jobs are still out there but they’re getting harder to find.

Wow, you echoed my sentiments exactly. I just hate frontend development so much for some reason.
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