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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?

#31

Post by kylecrum »

I quit my career for 4.5 years while I did other things that I wanted to do like teaching, writing, and traveling. It was definitely worthwhile and I'm grateful I was able to do it, but the same things that I disliked about my experience in the IT industry end up showing up in other jobs and things I did. I came back to IT with a different perspective and I got a lot better at making my job what I want it to be.

If you're going to quit, I think it's better to have clear goals and ideas of what you are going to do next and why you want do to those things. The act of quitting will give you immediate satisfaction, but long-term finding that thing that gets you up every single morning is more rewarding.

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

#32

Post by almost_usual »

delgaudm wrote: post #21

Quit development, became a voice actor. A lot like a freelance developer or designer is a hustle, but damn do I love being behind a mic. If you need a voice for your explainer I'm still pretty comfortable with tech lingo terms, although I could not tell you what a tensor is!

I have a very deep voice, it's usually the first thing people notice about me. Strangers will comment on it in public and ask if I do any voice work. I've toyed with the idea of getting into voice acting but I'm not sure where to start? Do you have any advice on getting started part time?

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

#33

Post by eplanit »

late2part wrote: post #20

Point of order - most of us don't work in IT. We work in "tech." I love my IT brethren but not all of us do desktop installs and tech support for a living.

Hear, hear! I left "Enterprise IT" and went into embedded systems. The first 2-3 years were exciting and exhausting because it felt like I needed to recall everything I ever learned from my Comp. Sci. education and from my early career -- I had to became a real software engineer again. Rather than some application on a framework on a virtual instance....it's now board bringup, bootloaders, and kernels. I now love my career again, and the work I do is far more challenging and interesting than any IT assignment. More power to those who do it, but no more Hibernate mappings or soupe-du-jour frameworks for me!

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

#34

Post by sdfjkl »

After about 20 years of computer stuff, I've found a new interest - sailing. I spent most of the money gained from computer stuff on a boat, learnt how to repair it and sail it (repairing being the far more extensive subject), and am about to set off for a long trip. While doing this I've been using my newly gained skills and combined with my existing skills (computers, networks, electronics) did some work in the marine sector (mostly for the odd dinner, some of it paid) - turns out boats are full of special purpose computers and most of the "specialists" fixing them are uhm, not the best. My skills found quick appreciation. Might continue down that road once I run out of money.

I guess my advice is to do a bunch of things and see what you enjoy, new opportunities will happen as you do. Having an IT background is helpful almost anywhere, and more valued outside of core IT areas.

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

#35

Post by mathattack »

I took a 5 year journey into grad school and finance. Came back to tech on the services side. I found my programming skills got dated very quickly, but it's been fun learning new things on the side of my day job.

One suggestion - look into new domains to apply your tech skills.

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

#36

Post by cerrelio »

beachstartup wrote: post #15
cerrelio wrote: post #11

I took two breaks from tech. One was for grad school, which I dropped out of after 3 semesters. Like some others in the thread I found academia to be pretty bad. You're paid shit and treated like a peon. The work was actually interesting, but I knew I could just go back to private industry and make 5-10x as much doing the same type of work. I took a break from "everything" at one point and became a nightlife photogra…

have you ever tried technology sales? i can turn on the social charm like a light switch but it requires significant effort so i wasn't able to do it long term but it might be a good transition for you.

I was considering that. I don't have any sales background, but I can communicate what's good and bad about software/systems fairly easily. In my career I've also had to "sell" complex ideas to management, and I've had pretty good success in getting permission to execute those ideas. Interacting with people can tire me out though. Nevertheless, I can power through anything with the proper motivation.

I'm currently trying out management, but the management atmosphere at my company is pretty bleak. None of the managers seem genuinely interested in launching products. They just kind of kick cans down the road for a few years hoping to fail upward. Over the past two years I've seen effective managers leave the company while the mediocre ones stick around. I probably just need to explore companies whose work ethic suits me better. However, it's hard to know beforehand if the company/team you join is going to fit you.

The other option is starting/founding a company. To explore that I've been going to monthly alumni events to network. There's so much money being thrown around in the Bay Area, I might as well try to tug on the brass ring. And it's not entirely the money that's the attraction, but the opportunity to call the shots.

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

#37

Post by delgaudm »

almost_usual wrote: post #32
delgaudm wrote: post #21

Quit development, became a voice actor. A lot like a freelance developer or designer is a hustle, but damn do I love being behind a mic. If you need a voice for your explainer I'm still pretty comfortable with tech lingo terms, although I could not tell you what a tensor is!

I have a very deep voice, it's usually the first thing people notice about me. Strangers will comment on it in public and ask if I do any voice work. I've toyed with the idea of getting into voice acting but I'm not sure where to start? Do you have any advice on getting started part time?

Sure! Read aloud into your phone. Try and make it sound like you're NOT reading. Listen back, and do it again. If you want to do fiction, you also need to learn how to act. Which is significantly harder.

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

#38

Post by delgaudm »

minhaz23 wrote: post #27
delgaudm wrote: post #21

Quit development, became a voice actor. A lot like a freelance developer or designer is a hustle, but damn do I love being behind a mic. If you need a voice for your explainer I'm still pretty comfortable with tech lingo terms, although I could not tell you what a tensor is!

Hey do you have any resources like books or youtube that can help someone work on their voice? Im not looking to get into voice acting at the moment, but I do love what some actors are capable of doing with their voice. For example James Gandolfini, his voice is completely different as Tony Soprano from his real life voice. Granted, he has voice and dialect coaches, but ANY book or video that can help me even begin t…

Thanks! Acting and "inhabiting" a character is critical. The person you're pretending to be has to feel as real to you as you are to yourself. Staying in character is very challenging.

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

#39

Post by delgaudm »

voidz wrote: post #22
delgaudm wrote: post #21

Quit development, became a voice actor. A lot like a freelance developer or designer is a hustle, but damn do I love being behind a mic. If you need a voice for your explainer I'm still pretty comfortable with tech lingo terms, although I could not tell you what a tensor is!

I would love to do this too. Congratulations, sounds like a lot of fun.

Thanks. I do love it. Sometimes when I'm working it feels like I'm stealing money I'm having so much fun.

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

#40

Post by jbverschoor »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #12
mediaserf wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my plan! What kind/size of boats are you looking at?

Originally, we were looking at a Lagoon catamaran, 38-42 feet. Due to personal circumstances around an elderly parent (can't sell our house, they'll need to live in it while we're out sailing), we're now looking at a Beneteau 381 (and a few others, needs to be blue water capable but would also like to have a lot of guests on during passages). I'd love a Lagoon, but unless my options are worth >$100K at a liquidity ev…

Could you check out https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/comfort-mate/id1030350632?mt... / https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nl.marin.comfo... ?

Thanks

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