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Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

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21–30 of 111 posts

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#21
If I can, to the ranch with the family, breeding plants and apiculture.

If I can't... depend in function of my physical condition. Repairing cars, welding, industrial agriculture, photography lab or making photos... Or simply one mill and make pieces.

If you can choose, be yourself, live, one Shabbatical year can be a good election.

I'm sorry Jerry I hope it is nothing. My best wishes.

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#22

Do you really need to leave IT just because of these symptoms? There are so many areas to work in. Anyway, what illness are you talking about here? Boredom? Got stuck in a place where the project sucked the life and general interest out of you? OCD? Depression? Anxiety? UPDATE: Got good answers about what can cause these symptoms. If you want to leave IT then try to find jobs that are still challenging your creativit…

Being a carpenter might involve handling tools that are potentially dangerous if handled without one's full attention. So, may I suggest that one avoid such endeavours unless one is able to fully focus on the job at hand.

Being a carpenter also sucks

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#23
I hate to say it, but sometimes corporate IT support in mid-size companies might be the way to go if you are dead set on staying in your lane. Depending on the company, it could be as simple as going through a binder for answers, logging in requests into a ticketing system, rinse & repeat.

I am sorry to hear that you are suffering such an illness, it definitely sucks to lose physical abilities and it takes great personal strength to get through it. I wish you all the best to still keep your intended career path, but if not I wish you all the same in finding an ideal worksite for yourself.

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#24

Do you really need to leave IT just because of these symptoms? There are so many areas to work in. Anyway, what illness are you talking about here? Boredom? Got stuck in a place where the project sucked the life and general interest out of you? OCD? Depression? Anxiety? UPDATE: Got good answers about what can cause these symptoms. If you want to leave IT then try to find jobs that are still challenging your creativit…

Being a carpenter might involve handling tools that are potentially dangerous if handled without one's full attention. So, may I suggest that one avoid such endeavours unless one is able to fully focus on the job at hand.

Yeah, that is actually true. Might not be a good idea working with a big sawing machine and not paying attention.

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a carpenter might involve handling tools that are potentially dangerous if handled without one's full attention. So, may I suggest that one avoid such endeavours unless one is able to fully focus on the job at hand.

Being a carpenter also sucks

Ever tried it? You sound someone who has a great deal of experience in the field.

My father was one and I loved the smell of wood in the workshop.

I would have loved to be a carpenter. It's one of those professions that might never go away. Even having mass production stuff, there are still people who prefer the human touch and the originality in the arts and crafts.

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#26
post #2

What illness does this?

ADHD can cause similar symptoms and more and more people have it. It's something very unpopular to diagnose in adults because many psychiatrists are convinced that it's just a childhood illness.

Many Software Engineers reach for Adderall or Ritalin to help them with this.

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#27

> little to no concentration and a very low level of comprehension This might sound like a flippant response but it's not: could you move into management? You don't need to know the finer details, but you'd have the experience required to empathise with the developers in your team.

I think this may backfire even more. Sure there are stories about how one can get by as a manager without knowing much or doing much, but that's rare. As a manager you have to answer to your boss and make sure team delivery is met. You will need to do budget and stay current with what's happening at work, so that you don't become clueless in meetings. This can be stressful at work since politics is inevitable.

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#28

I hate to say it, but sometimes corporate IT support in mid-size companies might be the way to go if you are dead set on staying in your lane. Depending on the company, it could be as simple as going through a binder for answers, logging in requests into a ticketing system, rinse & repeat. I am sorry to hear that you are suffering such an illness, it definitely sucks to lose physical abilities and it takes great pers…

There are other roles like that in large organisations. Release management, standards compliance in regulated industries, maybe scrum master jobs.

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#29
Here is an inspiring story of a Hacker News contributor who was once in a similar position (though he has since recovered):

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/we-made-it-our...

    “What product could I, in my mentally addled state,
    come up with making?” he wondered. That’s when he
    remembered his longtime love of ice cream.

Re: Ask HN: What job did you leave IT for?

#30
I would take a break and perhaps work in animal cares or something that would give you a break from human politics. Call it therpay if you want. For me I might eventually get a master and teach in university but in your condition this is probably a bad idea. The best thing right now is use up your vacation days and sick days and quit if you can support for a while before look for a new job.

Banking teller job is also a good option that makes decent money without having to work extremely hard all day long. Museum Tour guide is also a good one but I imagine the pay will be quite low.

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