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Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

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Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#161

Post by DanielHB »

lesuorac wrote: post #159
DanielHB wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People would be surprised how much of the software world relies on low-pay PHP/wordpress developers. I know a few people who started their careers like that. No-code and low-code solutions have been getting better so the demand for those jobs is drying up though, but there are still massive operations running on top of some wordpress server that people FTP files to.

Yeah straight up, SquareSpace is killing more jobs than LLMs.

That is a very spicy hot take, wasted on hackernews.

I agree though.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#162

Post by dvaun »

0_gravitas wrote: post #148
itishappy wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And collect a full salary? That sounds rather like admitting there's an SWE bubble, and I can't imagine indicates good things for the future job market...

It's highly unlikely anyone is producing for all X hours in their work-week, especially in a "thinky" field, there has to be some time for the mind to digest and breathe. For many people this usually happens in the midst of chatting with coworkers, clicking through HN, or staring off longingly into a space that isn't there, passively thinking about a side-project, etc. Why pretend like this digestion time doesn't exi…

Ditto. This isn’t exclusive to programming. Everyone that I know who has worked in any office environment has downtime.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#163

Post by georgeburdell »

itsoktocry wrote: post #14
Gooblebrai wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Makes double the money he did doing remote coding. Yes, but I presume at a high physical cost in the long-term? (I mean, more than the physical cost of sitting in a chair)

> Yes, but I presume at a high physical cost in the long-term? Why? Electricians aren't doing intense labour, and I'm 99% certain that being in a job where you move around a lot (as opposed to sitting at your desk) has long term health benefits , without even getting into carpal tunnel syndrome and other RSIs associated with being at a computer.

I have a relative who’s a lifelong electrician, and now in his mid 60s he’s basically confined to a recliner unless he takes his pain pills. Twisting, turning, and kneeling takes its toll.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#164

Post by GrumpyYoungMan »

tharkun__ wrote: post #73
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the same age, and I'm pretty sure the industry has substantially changed, not just me. EDIT: and by changed, I don't mean improved. I was a huge advocate of agile and eXtreme Programming early in my career, and I even worked in shops where it seemed to be really having good results. Now I see everyone using SCRUM and... it's garbage and I want to gouge my eyes out in the meetings. I see a lot of talking but not a…

I think the issue with Scrum and agile is that it's become mainstream. Anything that becomes mainstream is likely to get twisted and turned into whatever the "powers that be" want it to be. So, while using XP or Scrum or Kanban for that matter properly in a sane environment is going to be great, if you work in an un-sane (sic) one, then the powers that be have turned whatever system you're using into theirs . This is…

The issue with scrum and agile is that it became a managerial and reporting process to force teams to hit a management imposed deadline instead of what it was intended to be: a tool for engineers to self-manage and self-evaluate their progress to provide a realistic completion date.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#166

Post by _benj »

joewhale wrote: post #158
_benj wrote: post #45

I’m usually hesitant to share but I’ve been doing commodities trading. There’s a humongous amount of BS out there about trading or day trading but the fact is that people do it and make it, and my best friend being a consistently profitable trader for the last 4 years didn’t help my skeptic case… At any rate, turns out that the challenge of trading is less of a technical or financial one. Sure, one needs to understan…

I work for a commodities data analytics company. curious to connect!

email on profile ;-)

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#167

Post by selimthegrim »

infamouscow wrote: post #156
selimthegrim wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe me, I tried, but when the local economic development person’s [1] idea of a peptalk is to tell you how many Nvidia remote employees moved into your state before, and after the pandemic, and how most start ups die here having raised between half a million and 1 million when with Section 174 you need a million to pay your taxes, that kind of sticks a fork in it. [1] Currently bragging about leading a $50 millio…

Just wait until you have competitors that want to put you out of business. If this is too difficult to overcome, you're not going to make it.

Well, yes, but you have to convince people to do business with you first instead of people like Axon and Nuance who can afford to lose money and charge $.10 an hour. I’m just saying I’m located in a very challenging investment environment.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#168

Post by _benj »

silent_cal wrote: post #150
_benj wrote: post #45

I’m usually hesitant to share but I’ve been doing commodities trading. There’s a humongous amount of BS out there about trading or day trading but the fact is that people do it and make it, and my best friend being a consistently profitable trader for the last 4 years didn’t help my skeptic case… At any rate, turns out that the challenge of trading is less of a technical or financial one. Sure, one needs to understan…

What platform do you use for trading, and which commodities do you trade?

I have to confess that I have a platform addiction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But I finally stuck with MotiveWave, so much so that I actually paid for a full license even though there are a bunch of great free platforms. Main thing, works on Linux and macOS, where as many other platforms are exclusive Windows.

Also, the SDK is quite nice too!

As for commodities, I've found some success in agricultural commodities but I also dabble in currencies and indexes. Agricultural though have some interesting characteristics given than they have an actual physical thing behind them as opposed to how stocks move... which varies depending on which side of the bed the CEO of the company woke up!

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#169

Post by dharmab »

neverartful wrote: post #111
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How I wish I could do this. Mortgage is paid off but everything is still so expensive, at 50 I can't plot a way through the next 30-40 years without starving. I want to write software. But these days jobs don't want to pay me to write software. They want to pay me to write JIRA tickets. JIRA tickets about fixing other people's code. I keep trying again and again, but the industry has completely lost any magic for me.…

Consider writing your own software. Maybe something that scratches an itch, related to one of your hobbies, or a need you've observed in the market.

My problem is the amount of money I would make in a year selling the software I make for my hobbies would likely be less than one paycheck at a normal job.

Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

#170

Post by [deleted] »

sillywabbit wrote: post #134
jebarker wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wonder why more people don't use wildlife photography as a more challenging alternative to hunting.

If you're doing something for fun, cheating just ruins the experience. If you're doing something for the result, or for a trophy, cheating becomes more appealing.

[deleted]
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