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Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#491

Post by DeanWormer »

biztos wrote: post #211

So nobody's interested in sales? It's a job that solves a lot of the problems people complain about in programming, like spending all day staring at the screen or not interacting with people or doing things that might be pointless. The downside of course is that you eat what you kill.

I have a software development background and am very interested in software sales, but it's been surprisingly hard to make the transition. I can't make it past a resume screen at most places. And coming from a development background, not a lot of my connections are in sales. I reached out to the ones that are and they said they'd keep me in mind.

A recruiter friend reached out and I'm considering working sales for his staffing agency.

I'd love to hear from people that made the dev -> sales switch!

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#492

Post by shostack »

stevekemp wrote: post #163

In moments of madness I've considered both locksmithing and plumbing. Both are jobs that cannot be outsourced, and which SEO can be useful for. That said I'm a sysadmin rather than a programmer, and I have no immediate plans to change. One thing I would not do is become a photographer; that's my hobby (well that and rock-climbing / gyming), and I've seen too many people be burned by trying to become professionals. I…

Somehow I feel like locksmithing and plumbing are metaphors for aspects of programming.

BTW, photography is a great hobby, but doing it for a living entails very different skills, mostly of the sales and marketing variety.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#493

Post by tobz »

I've thought about going back to school to get a Mechanical Engineering degree, or Chemical Engineering degree.

I grew up with my father being a machinist, and eventually going on to being a QA specialist for a large defense contractor, so I've be lucky enough to be able to learn a lot when it comes to machining and designing. Spitting out a 3D design from a printer is really cool, but nothing beats slapping a chunk of steel into a Bridgeport and ending up with a precisely-milled widget.

My wife is also an engineer at one of the largest (probably largest) physical testing companies in the world, and got her Chemical Engineering degree as well. There's constantly stuff she's telling me about, problems at work, custom things she's doing, and we get pretty deep into conversation sometimes about how to best solve the problems.

The money just isn't there compared to being a software engineer, but like a lot of people have said in this thread, maybe this is just a "grass is greener" thing: these problems that I can't work on just seem that more tantalizing than being the person who is actually dealing with a backlog of them. Vacationing in other people's jobs is fun and easy, and ignores actually being that employee.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#494

Post by eonw »

terminalcommand wrote: post #461
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Once people realize you're "different", you get the "poor boy treatment" and that hurts. Or worse, once you're pegged as a hopeless geek then people tend to walk all over you and you're not seen as the kind of person who advances, becomes management, etc. You're a freakshow human resource to perform labor that, unfortunately needs to be done, until everything can be a one-click cloud solution. I make a very special…

That's true, most of the time I only say that "I'm good with computers". Nobody understands. But sometimes, it slips out inevitably. Regaining your image or just being able to hold your head high requires great effort.

i try to never let it slip at work that i went to college for graphic design, can shoot great photography, am very proficient in photoshop, do UI/UX design and edit video as well... the things i really dislike doing on a professional level but love to do in my spare time, i don't let on about at work, don't want to muddy the waters. the places where i did let it slip, ended up wanting me to do all that kind of stuff so they didn't have to outsource it or go to another team.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#495

Post by stevekemp »

shostack wrote: post #492
stevekemp wrote: post #163

In moments of madness I've considered both locksmithing and plumbing. Both are jobs that cannot be outsourced, and which SEO can be useful for. That said I'm a sysadmin rather than a programmer, and I have no immediate plans to change. One thing I would not do is become a photographer; that's my hobby (well that and rock-climbing / gyming), and I've seen too many people be burned by trying to become professionals. I…

Somehow I feel like locksmithing and plumbing are metaphors for aspects of programming. BTW, photography is a great hobby, but doing it for a living entails very different skills, mostly of the sales and marketing variety.

Indeed that's exactly why I'd not want to do it full-time!

I do it frequently enough to make me happy, and I'm lucky enough to get paid for it, in my small niches. But I've no interest in the rest of the stuff that I'd have to do if I needed to fund my life (rather just fund new camera-toys/lighting gear every month or two.)

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#496

Post by po-tee-weet »

terminalcommand wrote: post #457
digler999 wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and made a fool of myself. Good. you got out there and made mistakes. Now you can learn from them and you wont ever be that bad henceforth, hereunto. I made a total ass out of my self the first few programming interviews I went to. First one, recruiter called me (woke me up at ~10am) and I thought I'd show "initiative", I said "sure Ill be there in 2 hours". Went totally unprepared, didn't even bring a copy of my r…

Thanks for the support. It's been an embarrasing experience, but I've learnt a lot. First, I shouldn't mention my passion for computers. They're looking for a lawyer, not an engineer. They already employ engineers, who are active in legal research. Second, I should pick a career outside of IT-Law. Solely working on technology feels too close to the heart. Third, I shouldn't speak a lot and reveal details about my lif…

Are you looking to get involved in the patent-law field? You can apply your love for computers and as far as I understand, there's more job stability as well.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#497

Post by allsystemsgo »

JaumeGreen wrote: post #450
allsystemsgo wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, shameless plug but, my SO runs danceweekly.org. Check it out and let us know if you like it.

Not my kind of site. My dancing information needs are covered by my Facebook feed, the swingdancing reddit and sporadically yahoodi.com. As I don't think I'll be able to earn my living with dancing, nor will my free time be dedicated to it, I'm trying to finally learn lisp, so most of my news' search is about that. Also.. I don't like pages with the look and feel that that one has, I know modern pages tend to be like…

Alrighty! Thanks for the feedback!

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#498

Post by protomikron »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #465

I definitely have. I enjoy programming and I think I'm pretty good at my job, but I can't help but think that maybe there's something out there. A lot of my most compelling business ideas I've ever come up with haven't been apps or anything I could start programming right away, but rather have been totally different brick and mortar retail businesses. Opening a retail business is something I've thought about doing fo…

> The idea of designing city features that would have a real, dramatic impact on people's every day lives is really compelling to me.

Maybe you might want to go into urban water management? It is done both at an academic level (environmental engineering), governance level (the city's sewer and water supply planning organizations) and private level (e.g. companies building special-purpose solutions for urban water management).

Although you said you want to get rid of programming, keep in mind that your programming capabilities get you miles there. Most stuff is still done in Excel, etc. but the field is getting more and more technical, and cities start to plan and simulate their sewer and water supply systems with sophisticated simulators (e.g. SWMM or Epanet), so your knowledge might be well received.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#499

Post by tim333 »

ljw1001 wrote: post #282
JDiculous wrote: post #120

Yes, I want to do something more meaningful than build and maintain web CRUD apps. Despite the media perpetuating this notion that there's a shortage of engineers, I actually feel that this field, particularly the web space (where most of the actual jobs are), is starting to get really saturated. And from a job security perspective, the barriers to entry are fairly low. These days I'm most interested in economics and…

This is an economic problem at heart. If you could find a way to make investing in, say, peace, or hunger, as tempting to investors as software we could solve the really important problems.

I'm kind of working on that stuff. Onwards...

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?

#500

Post by asveikau »

pc86 wrote: post #414
asveikau wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that ever a valid response to a disorder or illness? Cancer? Get over it man. Depression? Get over it man. This is not cool.

His comment was aimed at @iand, not at Asperger's.

His comment was aimed at someone defending those with a disorder they cannot help. I call that bullying.
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