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Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

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Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#181

Post by sigi45 »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #77
krashidov wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How was traveling until you ran out of money? Do you regret it? Also, what do you mean by 'pivot into something else?' Do you intend to take your Grad school knowledge and start a business?

No regrets at all. I only had about 2k + another 3k off credit that I spent. It seemed like a lot then, and it can go a long way when you're 23 and cheap. By pivot, I mean my end goal is to open a beach bar in the Caribbean.

I read it surprisingly often that someone wanna open a beach bar somewhere.

Also my coworker wanna do that too! :D

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#182

Post by mjolk »

HFTGuru wrote: post #65
voidz wrote: post #16

I became a full time father and results have been stellar. My boy is now one year old and turns out to be very clever... And very strong. He could crawl at seven months and started to learn how to walk at 11 months. His first word was 'hunger' (in Dutch, it sounds virtually the same) at two months, maybe it was imaginative but he was happy to eat after we we heard him say it, haha. Now he can also say 'mama' and 'pap…

I've been developing in C, in the finance industry as a high frequency trader as well as being a father. My son is home schooled and is typing elementary level sentences at 3 years old, he can also strum the guitar playing notes C D E F G A B on request. The down side is I work 10-12 hour days, but I get a performance bonus between 400k and 800k every year. I'm hoping I can retire in my late 30's, but I do miss out o…

Is this an outlier comp package? When acting as an employee, I make far less, am only there for the money, and still work 10-12 hour days.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#183

Post by grecy »

donretag wrote: post #172
grecy wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm wary of DRC, but I have to cross it on my way South on the West coast. I'll go fast. My research says Burundi is pretty stable.. I was planning to go there. Do you recommend otherwise?

From what I remember, the southeast corner, bordering Uganda and Rwanda, is/was the most unstable. Burundi had issues because of the election. Not sure where it stands now. I did not go to Burundi since the travel visa was expensive. I was traveling on public buses, so even a three day visa might not be enough.

Thanks for the info. It seems virtually every country on the continent has issues around elections, and should be avoided. DRC, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Mali, etc. all have recently been not-good places to be due to elections

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#184

Post by nunobrito »

satysin wrote: post #95
HFTGuru wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been developing in C, in the finance industry as a high frequency trader as well as being a father. My son is home schooled and is typing elementary level sentences at 3 years old, he can also strum the guitar playing notes C D E F G A B on request. The down side is I work 10-12 hour days, but I get a performance bonus between 400k and 800k every year. I'm hoping I can retire in my late 30's, but I do miss out o…

Personal opinion... You can always work a few more hours/weeks/months/years when your kid is an adult and living their own life but you won't ever be able to get those childhood years back. Also 50-60 hour work weeks are not healthy for you in the long term unless you are very vigilant with how active you are and take regular (every hour) breaks. Also anecdotally I know several people who planned/hoped to retire in t…

Just to help with feedback, I'm one of those who retired before 30s. Not rich but enough savings to live on a (humble) tropical island until old age.

I wasn't able to stop. Applied my savings in day trading, everything went well until 2009 happened and most of it washed away. Applied what remained on the tuition of a top university to up my academic credentials and then went on try other tech industries (e.g. aerospace). Today have a small startup (Europe). Life is hard (empty bank account at the end of the month) but the plus side is that your brain keeps active.

If you really like writing technology, in my opinion it gets difficult to stop doing what you naturally enjoy doing.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#185

Post by qaq »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #77
krashidov wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How was traveling until you ran out of money? Do you regret it? Also, what do you mean by 'pivot into something else?' Do you intend to take your Grad school knowledge and start a business?

No regrets at all. I only had about 2k + another 3k off credit that I spent. It seemed like a lot then, and it can go a long way when you're 23 and cheap. By pivot, I mean my end goal is to open a beach bar in the Caribbean.

I'd try working in one before actually trying buying one :)

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#186

Post by DoodleBuggy »

ChristinaM wrote: post #160
DoodleBuggy wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You feel confident sailing the world after sailing for under a year? That's fantastic, I figured it required a lot more experience.

I met two different couples who literally sold everything, drove to Florida, bought a boat, had an instructor on board for a week, and sailed away with no previous experience. Neither has gone past the Caribbean but they both did fine. One of them now runs a day charter on a catamaran. I spent several years learning and improving sailing skills before heading off. 2-3 years of weekends and a few vacation weeks would…

>> "Neither has gone past the Caribbean"

That doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. What a fun lifestyle if you can pull it off.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#187

Post by iamdave »

cylinder wrote: post #123
iamdave wrote: post #104

I quit and will be starting my first of a two year pre-law program in two weeks. I'm quitting for a reason I haven't seen represented in the thread: "It's not even what I wanted to do as a career when I finished college" I only ended up in IT when my first job at a law firm as a file clerk nearly ended due to workforce reductions at a mid-sized law firm-an attorney I had helped in a big way solve a rather mundane wor…

Curious why you're doing a pre-law program. You can just take the LSAT and go to law school...

Mostly for personal fulfillment reasons, to be honest.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#188

Post by iamdave »

xrd wrote: post #113
iamdave wrote: post #104

I quit and will be starting my first of a two year pre-law program in two weeks. I'm quitting for a reason I haven't seen represented in the thread: "It's not even what I wanted to do as a career when I finished college" I only ended up in IT when my first job at a law firm as a file clerk nearly ended due to workforce reductions at a mid-sized law firm-an attorney I had helped in a big way solve a rather mundane wor…

I'm disappointed you are leaving tech. I wish there were more opportunities in tech that fulfilled your desire to fight for better laws and access to public resources. I suppose I'm happy you aren't leaving because of discrimination (making the assumption your social group represents your heritage...)

Thanks. On the one hand, there are opportunities just like that; they don't appeal to me however-or perhaps more clearly, many of them exist in a different context of practicing law than the one I'm interested in (public defense and mitigation). As I said, I only ended up in tech when early in my career I almost lost a job with a great law firm after I finished my Politics degree.

I got complacent on the help desk because the position paid more than being a file clerk and just never really got back to the legal world. To be honest, I'm going-pure and simple because this is the track I wanted to be from the beginning. As time went on, my legal skills stagnated to the point where I couldn't even get call backs because it had been more than a few years since working in a legal services capacity and the only experience I had was a resume full of help desk work. At 23, I was chasing money and girls and not really thinking about building a career.

Ah. Youth. :)

Here I am now a lead DevOps engineer who is legitimately and thoroughly burned out on tech-although I love the company I'm with right now. They give me time to deal with school stuff, and I've been talking with our CEO who is more than interested in my career plans about changing roles to work under our legal council in a few months-who could really use a 2nd-hand.

I suppose I'm happy you aren't leaving because of discrimination (making the assumption your social group represents your heritage...)

Honestly, not terribly much or at least none of it overt; I did a reasonable job of learning to pick battles when 'those' sort of moments happened-but there honestly weren't enough of them for me to remark on as something that stands out in my career. There were definitely your obtuse, bloviating managers who thought they were God's gift to the workforce, but that's not unique to working in tech, and I've seen that type of attitude transcend race and ethnicity so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edit: I will mention this: I was VERY often the only black person at many of the companies I worked for, but Austin also has a crisis of African-Americans fleeing the city at astonishing rates.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#189

Post by iamdave »

draw_down wrote: post #169
iamdave wrote: post #104

I quit and will be starting my first of a two year pre-law program in two weeks. I'm quitting for a reason I haven't seen represented in the thread: "It's not even what I wanted to do as a career when I finished college" I only ended up in IT when my first job at a law firm as a file clerk nearly ended due to workforce reductions at a mid-sized law firm-an attorney I had helped in a big way solve a rather mundane wor…

I think for a lot of new people in the legal profession, the concern is not so much that one won't get rich, but more that one will have trouble finding well-paid work at all- not that you personally will encounter that issue, necessarily. But I take your point of course.

That's a solid point. I brought up that particular topic because it's something a lot of people have told me (curiously, none of them worked in law or even anywhere near it so I smiled politely and listened to their points).

That said, it's not like that very thought isn't something that's on my mind, because it is-every day. It's a leading reason for why I have my eyeball on the University of North Texas' Law School and their current struggles receiving an ABA accreditation-without this, even should I graduate with a JD, I wouldn't be able to sit for the bar. UNT has a very affordable program that so far has been receiving positive remarks from the legal community and her students.

Plus as an Austin resident with extended family in Houston, well it's more than an ideal location.

Nonetheless, the concern you highlighted is definitely a valid one and it is one that's definitely influencing decisions through this career pivot.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#190

Post by iamdave »

omegaworks wrote: post #166
xrd wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm disappointed you are leaving tech. I wish there were more opportunities in tech that fulfilled your desire to fight for better laws and access to public resources. I suppose I'm happy you aren't leaving because of discrimination (making the assumption your social group represents your heritage...)

Me too. I'm looking for ways I can apply my technology skills to further social progress.

Does your city have an open data initiative? That's a good start; Austin is working on turning a lot of paper forms into webforms to make it easier to request various city resources.
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