Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 182 posts

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#171

Post by anonreeeeplor »

mwidell wrote: post #47

I felt less and less excited about tech/programming over the years. Not sure if I would call it burnout, but just a sense of boredom and that I didn't learn new and exciting stuff anymore. 7 years ago I decided to just leave it all, reset my life, and try something new. After trying some different things I found a new passion for photography. Which in turn lead me to start a youtube channel about photography. Which i…

It became completely thankless to be a programmer. I don’t know if it was something about having the right balance of being in high demand plus the fun tools and culture and platforms like iOS being achievable for small devs.

Now it has become fcking drudgery; I can’t understand why anyone would want to become a developer now. You don’t get any creative freedom and just get assigned tickets and treated like a robot by 75 layers of middle management.

Programming as a creative act is wonderful. Programming as a career puts you always at the bottom of the pile, whether you like it or not.

“Oh you shudders* code?”

Being a developer is a low status occupation despite being high paid.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#172

Post by anonreeeeplor »

irrational wrote: post #25

Go to work for a Fortune 100 company. In my experience, the salary isn’t as good, the food and massages aren’t free, but the work life balance is much better. I never feel stress. I enjoy the work. I like my coworkers. I’m the complete opposite of burned out.

Not a bad play. The companies that are below the top 15 are all starving for talent and have way lower stress and often far better work life balance and not terrible pay.

The top companies are political nightmares because the pressure and competition levels make them insane.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#173

Post by 2-718-281-828 »

anonreeeeplor wrote: post #168
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on months 10 of my "sabbatical" (deliberate unemployment) and it neither recharged my professional ambitions nor did I manage to come up with any alternative ideas. Feels more like I lost the thread. Not all is bad, though. Learned a lot and matured but jobwise it didn't help much.

Hey, I had a stretch for almost 2 1/2 years where my work and field really no longer interested me. I had really enjoyed it and then just felt like I had done it all. It took a completely new market arriving with new technology and a new culture in the environment to finally snap me out of it. The doldrums were f*cking awful. Eventually I realized I had to quit because I was so chronically unhappy and bored and under…

> Financially this has been a heavy burden.

Financial burden is something I would take upon me. But financial burden at the moment of experiencing it feels more like an existential burden. After reaching the light at the end of the tunnel it becomes a mere financial problem.

> I may or may not make it.

What does that mean? That does sound rather existential. But then again I probably understand what you mean. It's a dire and stressful situation to be in.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#174

Post by 314 »

m00x wrote: post #156
314 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't know what their job was, or what kind of engineering decisions they were having to work around. You don't know what kind of corporate hieracrchy they were stuck in, or what effect it had on what they were building. Without knowing any of those things it is a bit premature to be making character judgements.

If your job is to tell people they're wrong every day, you're working with the wrong attitude. Your job isn't to say no, it's to say: "This doesn't work, but how about this?". Engineering isn't about being a prick that shoots down ideas and be the "smartest person in the room", it's to make those ideas become reality as closely as possible while working within the constraints of what's feasible.

You seem to be making a lot of assumptions, and it's unclear how much direct experience you have of being in a bad situation where the day-to-day job does become saying no.

Some examples that you may be unfamiliar with:

* Working with a manager who is a former dev that likes to micromanage the decisions that their team makes.

* Working on a team that is driven / owned by a product owner who doesn't understand as much engineering as they think that they do.

Neither of these situations are examples of healthy functioning organisations, but they do occur. They are not an exclusive list either, just some random examples from personal experience.

Shooting down ideas may be a symptom of somebody being a prick, or it may indicate that they know why the idea will break the system (even if it closes a ticket or gets a particular feature finished). The ability to propose an alternative can be restricted by just how batshit insane the demand is.

It's not that you are wrong when you say that an engineer should respond "This doesn't work, but how about this?". But that characterization is incomplete - sure it works in theory, but there are many places where it does not work in practice.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#176

Post by AndrewKemendo »

mr-karan wrote: post #128
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll add my voice to the Sabbatical Chorus. I am on month 7 of my sabbatical and it has completely changed my life for the better

Could you please share more about your experience? What did you do these 7 months and in what way it changed your life? I'm pretty curious as I am dreaming about taking one someday in future :)

Thanks for asking.

Spending as much time with my (3) kids as possible before they leave home for good. I took a week of silence in the mountains last summer. Had multiple existential crises which led to a total transformation of my person.

The primary thing I'm doing though is pouring myself into creating as many mutual cooperative communities - that are not intermediated by money/commerce - as possible.

I wrote a treatise on Scarcity: https://kemendo.com/Myth.pdf

I'm starting a municipal waste cooperative: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34226557

I am working with my alma mater - USAF Academy - on a new class to teach cadets basic infrastructure (wastewater, electrical grid etc...)

I teach spin on Sundays at Lifetime fitness

I also manage a support group for about 15 CEOs and organize a dinner every quarter or so

I've done a few small contracts but otherwise living on savings

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#177

Post by shortcake27 »

anonreeeeplor wrote: post #169
shortcake27 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is unfathomable to me that you believe living out of a car is privileged. I sleep on a camping mat that’s hard as a rock. I pissed in a bottle last night. My car cost under $3k and campsites are virtually free using DOC pass. Which part exactly of this is privileged?

LOL Not sure if sophisticated troll but either way it’s hilarious. Owning things really sucks. I would love to live in a camper van. That would be awesome.

Sadly I couldn’t afford a campervan, but my car isn’t too bad, just slightly uncomfortable sometimes.

I’ve been daydreaming about this for years and now that I’m doing it, it is actually as good as I hoped. The cold showers, few possessions, no idea where I’m sleeping tonight, it’s all way better than killing myself to make someone else rich. I feel like I lost the past 5 years of my life. Now my life feels like it’s mine again. I’m in control. And if that means I have to pinch pennies, I’m happy to oblige. It’s a price worth paying.

I hope you get to follow your dreams one day too.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#178

Post by ActorNightly »

janussunaj wrote: post #2

(OP here) I wanted to avoid a wall of text, so I'll elaborate here on where I'm coming from. My complaints with FAANG have to do with perverse incentives that reward nonsensical decisions, poorly thought-out and over-engineered projects, grandiose documents, duplication of work, selective reporting of metrics, etc. The few times I had a really good manager, a sane environment, and fulfilling work only lasted until th…

Find work that interest you, meets your financial needs, but is otherwise easy, so it frees up your time, then use that time to actually figure out what you want to do.

The things you are going to regret not doing are things that you have interest in, but otherwise have no motivation to do because work is taking up your time/energy (both mental and physical). You aren't going to regret working at more "boring" job if it gives you the ability to do those things.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#179

Post by ChintanGhate »

baremetal wrote: post #130
ChintanGhate wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 to a vacation. And after that rather than going after what's in demand/hype right now, go after something that you want to use and isn't available in the market, and try to build that. I have found building tools for myself that I and a bunch of other people love to use as one of the most rewarding/fulfilling work.

That is great advice. Use your skills to improve the lives of those around you in a meaningful way. I'm working on building a scheduling app for water delivery at the canal company I am a rights holder in. Everyone, including me, will end up using it. Right now they use email and paper cards. They can't afford to pay someone what it would cost to develop it. I saw a need and stepped up. Very rewarding.

That’s an amazing initiative. Best of luck! :)
Post reply on HN