I switched from software development consulting to being a game designer at a large studio. I still use my programming skills part of the time to prototype and build content but there’s a lot more variety day-to-day especially as I’ve gotten to be more senior: writing design documents, working with producers on the game’s business strategy, working with artists and ux designers, managing and mentoring, etc. The biggest difference is that I care about what we’re making in itself. Trying to make a game fun for people is a much more rewarding creative challenge than “get people to click on ads” or “make the website scale”. When I was a software consultant I thought I could find motivation in the pure craft of code. But as soon as I got into games I realized that can’t hold a candle to making a product where you feel creatively invested in the end result.
Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
191–200 of 344 posts
Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
#192Did engineering for 8 years, product for last 6. Finding my passion for writing over the last couple years and actually selling books every other day.
I want to become a full time writer, part time programmer/indie hacker.
Life is much more than a big tech salary you can’t leave. You can bet your bippy that I’m going to work hard enough to be able to leave that behind in the next few years or retire early on reduced income to pursue it for awhile.
Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
#193I spent my 20s doing programming started off doing web dev and support and ended up doing the consulting thing. Got involved in a few games and start ups along the way. Made some money, have a bunch of opinions about how not to do things, met interesting people,and generally thought I was in for the duration.
I had kids, and my spouse flat out makes more money than me for fewer hours and better benefits. So, I am now the full time parent. We decided that having one of us stay home would be the best for the kids. So far it seems to make a difference.
It has really great parts and hard bits too. Basically, after a decade of short deadlines and long hours it's hard to adjust to the final product being your kids be good people by 2035. You get to rediscover the joy of playing at the playground, pet neighborhood dogs, and visit libraries and museums. On the other hand,I think that in the first year of COVID my number of adults interacted with per week approached 1.
I admit that I keep my foot in the door at one of my previous employers where I do someplace between zero and 5 hours a week of work on some legacy systems I helped build and have now been left to grow unchecked for 10 years.
Overall, I think that from a pure lifestyle perspective I don't think I can go back to 50+ hour weeks.
Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
#194Moved from development to quant trading. Still involves writing code but that's not the focus, and the code is for yourself, not somebody else. Much more satisfying having such a direct feedback loop between your code/research and its impact on the markets in production. Also feels more intellectually stimulating in that many of the problems you solve don't have an existing solution (or at least not one in the public…
One of the concerns about trading that I always have is being able to compete with the big traders. What are your trading speeds like? How long have you been doing this?
Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
#195Did not switch jobs, but got a huge land (with my amazing IT income) that used to be a quarry. The plan is to pump Carbon in the depleted soil to help climate change and build a fruit forest to share with local community (not doing it for profit). Too early for success story
"The plan is to pump Carbon in the depleted soil"
This sounds awesome. Can you elaborate? What does this look like and what are the costs involved?
Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
#196I worked full time as a software dev from about 1999 until 2010. It was never really all that fulfilling for me, although I was pretty good at what I did. I was laid off in 2010, and spent the rest of the year milking goats and sheep, and making cheese in France and the UK. When I returned home in late 2010, my wife and I moved to a more rural location, bought a small herd of goats, and started building a cheese plan…
i applaud your move and glad you pursue your dream. when you made the career change, what was your net worth?
Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
#197I switched from software development consulting to being a game designer at a large studio. I still use my programming skills part of the time to prototype and build content but there’s a lot more variety day-to-day especially as I’ve gotten to be more senior: writing design documents, working with producers on the game’s business strategy, working with artists and ux designers, managing and mentoring, etc. The bigge…
aren’t major game companies the most stressfull place to work far beyond other companies?
Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
#198I went and worked on Wall Street. Good experience and the work could be interesting but honestly got to the point where I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my life to the extent necessary to stick it out. Heading back to tech in a more business oriented role that I think will be better for me, and money is the exact same for now. It won’t ramp up as fast but I do think the lifetime upside is similar in compensation and imm…
how did you make the move? without prior track record in trading or finance?
Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
#199Moved 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.
That would help with climate change, but the biggest part is reducing our consumption in all senses. For example, my electricity bill is 10€/month, I have no fridge, use no heating, no hot water, so I'd totally be able to live with just a small solar panel, as I almost never use a device that requires a high power (I eat mostly raw fruits/vegs, more rarely eggs, fish or rice)
Why doesn’t using solar for heat & refrigeration do as much as foregoing heat & refrigeration? Isn’t the climate problem due to using non-renewables, and the emissions that come from physical construction, and not from energy use per se?
What do you envision as realistic for society, and how could we actually get there? Is it realistic for families with children to go without heat or refrigeration? How about senior citizens? As much as I agree that consumption should be reduced in a general sense, I’m a bit skeptical of “personal responsibility” solutions, when a huge fraction of current emissions, perhaps the majority, come from corporations. Another massive fraction comes from personal vehicles. Heating & refrigeration is pretty far down the list of big problems, if we’re going to be realistic about what the “biggest part” is, right?
Re: Ask HN: Developers who switched careers, what are you doing now?
#200Going back to school for Physics (age 30). It'd be cool to understand why the universe exists before I die.