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Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

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Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

#141

Post by kimsant »

goncaloo wrote: post #85
matsemann wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for the blunt question, but how does it feel to go from something where you make something valuable to ...that? (At least I feel what I do give me meaning)

Most developers work on meaningless, "make the rich richer", products anyways

But you can find something meaningful (very easy), or start your own business (easiest moment in history to rise 1million), or teach in a bootcamp...

There are 100 options. Wasting a wonderfull mind just because... sad

Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

#142

Post by ryandrake »

djstein wrote: post #105
smugma wrote: post #61

I was a SWE at a FANG. Left to get an MBA, then went back to FANG to do other things. Finance, Operations, Product. My role now still has me involved in solving problems, and I will still review technical architecture (eg why are you proposing a GraphDB for this highly structured data, how are you going to address the fact that Cassandra is eventually consistent, etc.), but it’s a lot more people and solutions driven…

Sounds like what I want to do. Do you believe this transition was worth it? Did you see a pay increase or cut? What do you see in the career trajectory?

I did this. SWE before, got MBA, came back to tech and eventually settled on project management.

Pros:

- You get a bigger picture of the business and product. As a SWE you generally work on a tiny morsel of a huge product. Product managers and project managers often get to work across the broad product (or even a portfolio of projects if you're overworked), interact with leadership more, if your lucky, even have a voice in the direction the project/product is going.

- Greatly helped me work on that "social skills" muscle. I have to actually talk to people--people who are not also introverted nerds like me!

- Work life balance can be better than SWE but find the right company. I currently stop work at 5:30 and it's great.

Cons:

- Your work output is generally slide decks and spreadsheets. Yuck. I miss my work output being the actual software that users use.

- The pay is much worse than as a SWE. You're not going to be seeing these $500K total compensation packages that every SWE that posts on HN apparently gets.

- The cost of the MBA can set your net worth back quite a bit, and given the above pay disparity, it's not worth it financially. You can also be a project manager or product manager without paying $X00,000 for an MBA. I'd be closer to retirement now if I just remained a SWE.

- Career growth: Meh. About the same. At most places you're either junior or senior and that's it. Just like software engineering. If your goal is to be VP or This or Director of That, I don't think changing careers to "a different type of individual contributor" is going to help.

Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

#143

Post by svnt »

k8sToGo wrote: post #127
_eht wrote: post #11

Followed Bill Gates' footsteps and bought a section of farmland. I grew up in FFA, and knew I wanted to raise beeves, etc since I was young. After a divorce, I pulled the trigger. Software funded beeves.

What is FFA?

Future Farmers of America

Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

#144

Post by askonomm »

eropple wrote: post #16
askonomm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my "retirement" daydreams is to have a garage where I'd spend my days doing woodwork. There's something about building things with your bare hands that is very appealing to me.

I’m 34 and I am nowhere near retirement and I do this now. It's easier to get started when you're young and have the physical stamina and strength to spend a Saturday in the shop. I'm going to go spend my day down there today, as it happens, while the dog supervises!

That's super cool! I'd love to have a dog as a supervisor. Unfortunately it's a bit harder to do in Europe where people don't generally live (or can afford) houses and tend to live in big cramped cities instead (I live in Barcelona). That said, I want to get out of the cement jungle in the next couple of years if the economy and work allows, and start realizing some of those dreams I've been having, before I'm dead or unable.

Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

#145

Post by marssaxman »

pogopaule wrote: post #42
jwitchel wrote: post #2

Moved to renewables. Wanted to try and help with climate change and needed new challenges. Solar is a fantastic industry. Lots of room for improvement feels like internet did in thr mid 90s. Just a ton of enthusiasm and a sense you're part of something big and important.

Did the same but as a dev. Created this list for my fellow devs who want to do the same https://github.com/pogopaule/awesome-sustainability-jobs

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

#146

Post by v-yadli »

Ayesh wrote: post #25

Not a switch per se, because I still work on IT related stuff, but I started a bakery and a retail store (two separate businesses). I hired a chef and a manager to do the work professionally, and I pay for wages, rent, material, etc. But I get to learn the immense efforts it takes for a brownie to be on a table, for a cake to bring a smile to face, and a cheesecake to melt in the mouth. It was a fresh experience, and…

> It feels like buying a new domain every day!

... and gain new domain knowledge every day (sorry :D

How about version-controlled ingredients, chief-as-a-service CI pipelines, taste issues tracker, things like that?

Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

#147

Post by xdfgh1112 »

jw1224 wrote: post #39
pul wrote: post #7

Not sure if this is what you mean, but I 'switched' from an ML consultancy to entrepreneurship. I now build and market my own projects ([1], [2]) and try to gain enough ad revenue to replace my former salary. Started 1.5 months ago, and enjoying every minute of it! No longer occupying my mind with corporate power dynamics saves a lot of cognitive bandwidth, but to my surprise it has been replaced. I thought I'd feel…

nslookup.io is great — bookmarked it, I’m sure I’ll be using it in future! Side note, curious how the domain name autocomplete works when searching? My domain wasn’t suggested, but all the other services I tried in my sector all came up. What’s the source for that data?

The SSL CT logs are public domain. Zonefiles from major TLDs can be found if you pay enough.

Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

#148

Post by draw_down »

kimsant wrote: post #128
robodale wrote: post #71

Walked away from 20 years of software development last year. I've been day and swing trading stocks for last 2 years. I'm now trading full time and doing great. I don't miss the daily stand-ups, scrum meetings, planning meetings, "quick chats", one-on-ones with management, weekly department meetings, monthly company meetings, and late night critical support calls one bit!

Sad to hear that top minds just give up on humanity and accept money as a goal by itself. I do have long term investments (5 nanometers, extreme litography, electric vehicles... just what I love), I make money, but is not something I need to live. Last month, when war started I told my team, Aerovironment stock, is gonna double (war drones) but I'm not gonna be part and I want you all to feel how calmed I'm about tha…

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?

#150

Post by vinyl7 »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #99
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, kudos to you, but the vast, vast majority of people (myself included) are not willing to give up refrigerators, or heat, or hot water, so your approach really isn't relevant give the scale needed to solve the problem.

I haven't done so myself either, but as the time passes I increasingly become convinced that the only available options for vast majority of population will be to do it now on your own terms or be forced to do it with everyone else later.

I like how as a people, we exploded with technology and capabilities, and now supposedly need to return to living like a cave man. I just hope that people who decide to live that way can cope with the fact that all the rich people and politicians will still live in affluence no matter what
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