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Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

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Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#121

Post by ghaff »

giantg2 wrote: post #118
trevett wrote: post #10

1. Hiking the NW, thinking about next-steps. 2. Startup I was working for was acquired by FAANG co. Able to retire from FAANG after four years of plumbing / ops / politics / meetings. There was awful latency at all levels, from dev environment to deployment. I found it extremely boring compared to startup life. I would say don't judge software engineering by how it is practiced at the FAANG level (where you can serio…

Wow retired after 4 years. I'd work in hell for 4 years if it meant I could retire. You must of had a nice piece of equity in that startup. Congrats!

He didn't necessarily say he was permanently retired. I read it as taking some time off. Which is still nice. I've taken month long vacations but never felt I was in a good position to take extended time off between jobs.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#122

Post by giantg2 »

ghaff wrote: post #121
giantg2 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow retired after 4 years. I'd work in hell for 4 years if it meant I could retire. You must of had a nice piece of equity in that startup. Congrats!

He didn't necessarily say he was permanently retired. I read it as taking some time off. Which is still nice. I've taken month long vacations but never felt I was in a good position to take extended time off between jobs.

Still, must be nice to make that kind of money.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#123

Post by muzani »

hellonoko wrote: post #67
H8crilA wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long have you been doing "nothing"? I tried it (sort of) for a year, and found it a little dull.

About 12 years I believe.

That seems sad. I'd probably just take any job to be able to do this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlmightyJanitor

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#124

Post by plumeria »

shahinrostami wrote: post #68

1. UK university academic (on sabbatical, consulting and adapting!) 2. Wanted to try something different... last software engineer post was 2010. I became very interested in Evolutionary Computation, so I went for a sponsored PhD position.

Is a sponsored PhD like an industrial PhD?

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#125

Post by codingdave »

I moved into Product Management - partially because I wanted to stop coding, partially because after our SaaS got bought, I'm the last man standing from the original team - everyone else quit, so my knowledge is more valuable than my code... which means I have more impact as a product guy.

But I expect this job will end within 6 months anyway (if it was going well, the rest of the team would not have quit), so I'm going to be doing consulting when this is over. I'm working on the materials and workshops now, focusing on leadership and team dynamics, because I want to try to help other teams fix the problems that make software professionals miserable.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#126

Post by shahinrostami »

plumeria wrote: post #124
shahinrostami wrote: post #68

1. UK university academic (on sabbatical, consulting and adapting!) 2. Wanted to try something different... last software engineer post was 2010. I became very interested in Evolutionary Computation, so I went for a sponsored PhD position.

Is a sponsored PhD like an industrial PhD?

Sorry, lacking sleep and wasn't clear! I didn't mean an industry-sponsored PhD - I meant a fully funded PhD, e.g.:

  These add a non-repayable, tax-free maintenance grant known as a 'stipend'. In 2018/19 this is worth a minimum of £14,777 and it can be used towards living costs. https://www.prospects.ac.uk/postgraduate-study/phd-study/phd-studentships

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#127

Post by firethrow »

claudiulodro wrote: post #56

On a related note for all the financially independent people I see posting here, how did you get enough money to just peace out? Was it just the tried-and-true strategy of work at FAANG for like 10 years?

I'm in my early 30s and never had more than a 100k income. We save 100% of my wife's income (~60-70k) and I also fully do a roth (6k) and my 401k match (4k). We currently have around 1.5m saved.

We also live in a low cost of living area and have no kids. The house will be paid off and we'll have a bit over 3m saved by the time we're in our early 40s.

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#128

Post by superhuzza »

ericgong wrote: post #41

1. Started a recruiting agency https://www.ericgong.com 2. Everyone hates the recruiting industry so it's ripe for disruption with an actual technical recruiter.

Your logo is almost identical to the International School of Geneva's.

It doesn't really matter I guess, just something I noticed.

https://www.ecolint.ch/sites/default/files/logo_eig_bleu.png

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#129

Post by Zucburger »

jcborro wrote: post #17

1. Opened a ski mountaineering shop ( https://skimo.co/ ). I backcountry ski most mornings in winter/spring before we open at a casual 11am; work on the site in the summer. 2a. Sick of pointless discussions about languages/frameworks/architectures, none of it matters to low-traffic/low-tech business. 2b. Sick of meetings/arguments to decide what to build. Making business and tech decisions simultaneously is amazingly…

@jcborro

I think there are many reasonably low hanging fruit in the industry that can and should be solved.

The way that we are still needed to design a schema for things like a simple login system in a simple website, is a nasty smell that there are many reasonably low hanging fruit.

@zffr

Are you thinking of leaving the software industry?

Re: Ask HN: Former software engineers, what are you doing now?

#130

Post by Zucburger »

itsmejeff wrote: post #110

When I got bored with software engineering, I decided to invest in developing leadership skills and to try to build teams. Many people (myself included) are motivated by the impact their career can have. The impact of a great leader is exponentially larger than that of a direct contributor (based on the number people they can typically influence, and the amount of resources at their disposal to pursue “bigger” ideas)…

@itsmejeff

What were the critical skills that you made yourself learn for the transition?

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