Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#141

Post by BerislavLopac » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:49 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #133

BerislavLopac wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could always switch to a company that doesn't make its money with ads I always thought that I would be able to switch to any programming job I wanted, and that the only decision would be between making a lot and roughing it up (like the GP), or working for a better cause for less money (as you propose). But now I find it -- after 25 years of professional experience -- nearly impossible to find any job. Maybe it…

This is my observation as well, and it was even before the coronavirus. The majority of tech jobs in London are bullshit startups chasing after AI, blockchain or the latest JS framework. It's very rare that a real company hires (presumably because they have all the talent they need and don't need to hire for the sake of "growth") and when they do it's often a bad fit for my skills (Python/Django).

Heh, to me (also in London, and struggling to find a job right now) it feels like everyone is doing Django these days... :D

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#142

Post by TheCapn » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:51 PM UTC

non-entity wrote: post #89

TheCapn wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find your way into Industrial Electrical work if you can. You get a strong mix of tech and electrical, moreso than Residential, can't really say the comparison to Commercial work though... My company (Automation & controls) is partnered with electricians for all the jobs we bid on. Having electricians that know wiring for specialized bus networks, how to do basic troubleshooting on control circuits and all that is am…

I recently became kinda intrigued by PLCs and even consider buying one just to play with it (idk maybe it's the novelty of it) and the various programming languages for them and how they can be so different. What kind of education do you need to work on this kind of stuff?

I commented to another user, my background is a Software Systems Engineering degree but the majority of my coworkers are Electrical Engineers or some style of Electrical Technician.

As long as you understand digital logic well enough you'll be able to grasp the concepts. Having more formal education helps but is one of those fields that isn't strictly necessary unless you're working in a specialized sector. My personal take is that Software is still playing catch-up in this domain to the rest of the world but its coming. Up until the last 5 or 10 years the software was mostly just running the facilities but now integration to the business environments is becoming a bigger and bigger requirements of my clients.

I've mostly become hands off on the PLC/SCADA systems at my company now because the requirement for software utilities to function within the control system for data collection, trending, reporting, etc. has become so so much bigger. I have clients that want to use OCR to track shipping containers throughout their yard, clients who want me to integrate their invoicing systems to the operations so staff can see the scheduled daily loads coming, designing unmanned kiosks for customers to key through when coming to site and a whole lot more things.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#143

Post by jwr » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:52 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #64

I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…

I can relate to your point of view, which is why I don't work for "the tech industry", but instead have my own SaaS. This lets me stay close to tech (I love programming in Clojure and ClojureScript!), do what I enjoy, and not have my soul sucked out by evilness and stupidity of today's adtech world.

I have a product which solves a real problem and I'm getting paid by customers who appreciate that their workflow is somewhat easier with my tool. No tricks there.

So, you do have a choice. I'm not saying it's easy or quick, but the choice is there.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#144

Post by hnybadger » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

TheCapn wrote: post #134

angstrom wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You uh...built a better mousetrap I see.

Heh, speaking of mouse traps, while working at an inland grain terminal I met a guy who was using arduinos hooked up to what's essentially a highly pressurized central vac system as a pest control system. Against the walls were small little "tunnels" the mice would run through, trigger an optical sensor then get sucked into the vac system at something like 500psi and their goop put into a holding tank for them to cle…

Incidentally, I am a Software Engineer that owns an Electrical Contracting business too and I would love to learn more about your company and your requirements for electrcians, what is the best way to contact someone to learn more?

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#145

Post by godtoldmetodoit » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #64

I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…

Get out of the VC backed world then. Plenty of stodgy old enterprises that make actual useful stuff need good IT talent, and they pay well enough. These environments come with their own set of issues, but I've never felt like I'm working for companies where I am scamming the end user.

Just stop working for shit companies producing stupid shit, money isn't everything.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#146

Post by _davebennett » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

jwr wrote: post #143

Nextgrid wrote: post #64

I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…

I can relate to your point of view, which is why I don't work for "the tech industry", but instead have my own SaaS. This lets me stay close to tech (I love programming in Clojure and ClojureScript!), do what I enjoy, and not have my soul sucked out by evilness and stupidity of today's adtech world. I have a product which solves a real problem and I'm getting paid by customers who appreciate that their workflow is so…

How do you propose finding those real problems to solve? I know that every problem I encounter in my life (or work) has already been solved 100 times over.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#147

Post by hkmurakami » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #64

I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…

I have no inside look and can only comment as a user, but isn’t a company like gusto providing a genuinely valuable service? As a small time startup operator I was happy to pay for their product.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#148

Post by aqme28 » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #64

I wish I could leave. The tech industry nowadays is no longer about solving real-world problems and making the world a better place, instead it's all about screwing the end user in every single way possible, whether it's ads, stalking and privacy violations, spam ("marketing" as they call it) or just plain fraud where the company is happy to take the money but can't make it right if things don't go to plan and the cu…

> Technology-wise, we no longer use engineering as a means to an end to solve a business problem. Instead, engineering became its own thing and most companies encourage and reward those who opt for over-engineered solutions, which means you spend more time fighting with dozens of layers of abstractions and chasing the latest JS framework instead of actually delivering functionality. This is mostly a symptom of the previous point where showing "growth" and bragging about your (over) engineering is more important than actual profit.

This seems to vary company-to-company. I've seen the extremes on both sides of this. I recommend finding a new company that shares your views on tech-debt and pragmatism.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#149

Post by Nextgrid » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

BerislavLopac wrote: post #141

Nextgrid wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my observation as well, and it was even before the coronavirus. The majority of tech jobs in London are bullshit startups chasing after AI, blockchain or the latest JS framework. It's very rare that a real company hires (presumably because they have all the talent they need and don't need to hire for the sake of "growth") and when they do it's often a bad fit for my skills (Python/Django).

Heh, to me (also in London, and struggling to find a job right now) it feels like everyone is doing Django these days... :D

All the permanent Django jobs I see also have over-engineering such as insanely complicated front-ends (that actually perform worse than good old HTML) or Kubernetes (when the entire product could be served off a single bare-metal server) or similar, not to mention they are BS startups doing user-hostile things.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

#150

Post by TheCapn » Wed, Apr 15, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

CaciaraAsAServi wrote: post #139

rustyboy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For someone with a MS CS what would you recommend for transitioning to such a field?

Now that more IT is entering the shop floor, many places are adopting some solutions (for diagnostics, data collection etc.) with more "computer" content than the past; for example all the predictive maintenance platforms big vendors are developing. Or you can concentrate on the "upper" levels, like SCADA, MES; of course working with these tools is not super CS rocket science, most of the time. You can start from pos…

Controls aren't much different than other industries who rely on vendor product solutions either imo. You can talk to your SCADA vendor to see what their Historian / MES solution is and look at integrating that or develop a custom solution. Each obviously have pros/cons. What you might gain in rapid development using the Vendor provided solution your client will probably lose in steep licensing fees. Vendor solutions are typically set up in a way that anyone could configure them using only the manual and a few tutorials but giving any joe the ability to set up a system always has the drawback of the system being very "one size fits all" and customizing it to work in certain scenarios is difficult.