Started my career as an embedded software engineer in telecom.
Around age 30, left and went traveling for a few months. Came back, fell into a software dev role in fin tech. I stayed in the financial realm, and made significantly more money than had I stayed in telecom. This industry tends to be counter-cyclical to the job market, so there are other benefits.
Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
31–40 of 86 posts
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a gold rush (mental health crisis society), sell shovels?
I could be wrong, but I assume tech still pays better than therapy? I assumed OP was going into therapy for personal reasons more than for money.
Highest amount of money is not necessarily the most optimal thing.
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#33Did a PhD in CS straight from undergrad. Stayed in academic research until I was 37 and was then offered a job in the automotive industry. Pays much better. Benefits are much better. Off-work time is respected. The work I did in academy felt more fulfilling, but I got over that after a year.
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#34Network engineer
Frontend engineer
Now a hotel owner
But can't leave behind tech. Still writing code to automate things at work.
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#35I spent some time driving forklift after programming and computer tech work burnt me out. Also did some construction, and a few other things. I think me calling the "driving forklift in a warehouse" "my vacation" the entire time I was working there helped attitudes a lot. It sure got people laughing often .. (made "employee of the month" a couple of times too, I was definitely keeping up with everyone!)
After that, pivot to IT security ... burn out. Then pivot to web development which emphatically burnt me in different ways (I'm kind of nonvisual, so visualizing things is my bane. see aphantasia which I found out about later). Last - embedded electronics software, where I'm much happier. Sadly out of work for the last year so let's see where next....
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#36Yes, I ended my career to make apps on my own or within worker cooperative structures. No more bosses, no more wage labor. It’s peachy.
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#37I changed from being a system software engineer (working on device drivers) to applied research engineer (ai). I worked for small startups for 2.5 years in order to gain relevant experiences.
How easy/hard was for you to find job?
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#38Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#3910 years at FAANG companies, laid off, now considering classical guitar conservatory + indie dev ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: Ask HN: Did you change career paths after 30?
#40I'm trying to break into SE (at 32 from an accounting background), but not having a US/EU passport and living in a third world makes it hard. So I will say that depending on where you are from, things can get tricky. But the usual still stands, you get jobs by knowing the right people.
I don't know you and don't mean to insult but I advise you to change your mentality. Victimhood is a choice. Yes, you live in a 3rd world country where things are harder. But SE is one of the only fields where you don't need a degree, could work from anywhere in the world and still make decent money especially depending on the cost of living in your country. Plenty of poeple live in 3rd world countries and have found…
You don't mean to, but you actually do. Come off your high horse and stop assuming things you don't know. Please do not misinterpret what I wrote, I think it's clear enough.