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Ask HN: Anyone else tired of working in tech?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of working in tech?

#21

Post by vunderba »

SolubleSnake wrote: post #9

I now see groups of people just meandering between buzzwords and sort of calling it a career. Honestly I know people who were 'crypto developers' 3 years ago who are now 'senior AI implementation architects' and similar..and they have a 'bootcamp' etc....I am a software engineer who qualified in cs but after working around engineering and manufacturing a lot I'm also qualified in CAD...thinking to get into more physi…

I've worked in both education / tech fields, education is more personally rewarding but if you're used to working as a salaried software engineer you will no longer be able to take a proverbial "bath in a bundle of bills" - unless they're $1 bills.

Medicine is always in demand. I did a brief stint in EMT but felt mostly like a glorified bus driver doing lots of interfacility transport work. In addition to regular nursing, you could look into nurse practitioner as well if you wanted a bit more autonomy.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of working in tech?

#22

Post by vunderba »

SenHeng wrote: post #20

I’ve been fantasising about getting certified as a CPA. People don’t believe me when I say this but my childhood ( Having run a business for almost a decade, I’ve accumulated a lot of accounting and tax knowledge that I think would be cool to properly certify. Also it would be to re-live a childhood dream.

Gotta get that number #1 lucky dime first - I've heard it helps to pass the CPA exam!

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of working in tech?

#23

Post by solarisos »

The shift from 'building cool stuff' to 'navigating endless layers of abstraction and compliance' is definitely wearing people down. It feels like we spend more time managing the 'noise' around the work (Slack, Jira, AI-generated emails) than actually writing code that solves problems. I've found that working on a small side project with a very constrained, 'old school' tech stack is the only way I can still find the joy in it lately.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of working in tech?

#24

Post by harryquach »

disillussioned wrote: post #18
SolubleSnake wrote: post #9

I now see groups of people just meandering between buzzwords and sort of calling it a career. Honestly I know people who were 'crypto developers' 3 years ago who are now 'senior AI implementation architects' and similar..and they have a 'bootcamp' etc....I am a software engineer who qualified in cs but after working around engineering and manufacturing a lot I'm also qualified in CAD...thinking to get into more physi…

One thing I find distressing is how useless most of the knowledge I've accumulated is! I use to try to refresh my knowledge of things learned long ago, once or twice a year, but that's pointless now: everything is a prompt away. All that, plus the skeleton crew due to my company's offshoring is making me jaded.

I have tried focusing my attention on the interview process. Although almost all of our knowledge is a prompt away, interviewing is a skill which cannot be outsourced. It seems like this is the way to outlast AI in this industry.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of working in tech?

#26

Post by ex-aws-dude »

No because I used to work at McDonald's and loading trailers from warehouses before working in tech.

That gave me perspective that lasts even to this day.

I'm not saying this is true of OP but I've met a few people who constantly complained about working in tech and one thing I noticed is a lot of them never worked a really shitty/physical job.

It blew my mind in university meeting people who's first ever job was a software internship. I remember thinking wow they must have a totally different idea of what a good/bad job is.

I can't think of a better value job that working in tech in terms of amount of effort and schooling required.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of working in tech?

#28

Post by boredemployee »

ex-aws-dude wrote: post #26

No because I used to work at McDonald's and loading trailers from warehouses before working in tech. That gave me perspective that lasts even to this day. I'm not saying this is true of OP but I've met a few people who constantly complained about working in tech and one thing I noticed is a lot of them never worked a really shitty/physical job. It blew my mind in university meeting people who's first ever job was a s…

Well, different people, with different backgrounds, have very different perspectives, feelings, and standards when it comes to the world of work. I’ve also had a physical shit job before, and I don’t want to go back to it at all, and between that and being a developer, I'd obviously rather be a developer. But that doesn't rule out the possibility of wanting a different kind of profession. the current state of things just isn't good. the fact that it's one of the few types of work that still pays well makes it seem like this 'privilege' is often used as an excuse for all kinds of wrongdoing.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of working in tech?

#29

Post by mancerayder »

One big problem is spending 10 years or more learning something that's completely obsolete - I experienced Unix and systems engineering, Perl and much much more becoming useless on my CV. Now, someone will point out how those foundational items prepare you for other things (i.e. Python is absolutely easy if you mastered Perl, deep unix systems knowledge is useful to grok containers, etc.). Problem is interviewing. No, I don't think I should have to learn Go, a zillion new SRE buzzwords used by salespeople, but more than that I feel like I have a right to not be punished in LeetCode interviews because supposedly all infrastructure is code. It's not.

So I went into consulting, and also management. The throwaway experience I had of my deep knowledge going obsolete in interviews has created a built in aversion to learning every new thing that comes out - something I loved in my 20s.

That's my issue with the field. I think developers are in a better spot - you're either a strong developer or you're not. Systems or ahem, "DevOps" suffers from this commodification of resume buzzwords over and against analytical, learning and adjacent mastery of skills.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of working in tech?

#30

Post by ex-aws-dude »

boredemployee wrote: post #28
ex-aws-dude wrote: post #26

No because I used to work at McDonald's and loading trailers from warehouses before working in tech. That gave me perspective that lasts even to this day. I'm not saying this is true of OP but I've met a few people who constantly complained about working in tech and one thing I noticed is a lot of them never worked a really shitty/physical job. It blew my mind in university meeting people who's first ever job was a s…

Well, different people, with different backgrounds, have very different perspectives, feelings, and standards when it comes to the world of work. I’ve also had a physical shit job before, and I don’t want to go back to it at all, and between that and being a developer, I'd obviously rather be a developer. But that doesn't rule out the possibility of wanting a different kind of profession. the current state of things…

I think the reality is as a human your brain adjusts to whatever situation you’re in and that just becomes a baseline from which annoyance and complaints will rise up just the same.

But no one wants to admit that because it’s nice to fantasize about the greener grass, that there is some perfect ideal job out there.

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