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Ask HN: Why did you leave the tech industry?

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

#241

Post by jorblumesea »

austincheney wrote: post #191
ruffrey wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This describes a lot of software. No doubt. It's depressing and disturbing. But not any of the systems I've worked on over 10 years. You may not get the absolute top salaries working on more meaningful projects, but there's plenty of them. Here are some examples that I worked on. To a fault, most of these places over-focused on the business and under-focused on exceptional engineering. Nonetheless, there's a lot of m…

In most all the systems I have worked on its more about screwing the user from a technical perspective than a deliberate business action, though there have been some of those too. Either way it all comes down to some combination of mental laziness and no ethics. There is no ethical code, that I am aware of, for writing software. Here are my experiences as a web developer: * Frustration at the general technical incomp…

As someone who worked in the frontend space, and now doesn't, I think this has much to do with the fact that "anyone can learn to code" but often don't have any formal background. Lots of bootcamp grads, lots of people hearing about fat programmer salaries trying to get into the industry, people completing udacity courses and throwing buzzwords on their resume.

My experience in frontend feels like everyone learns ad hoc without digging deep into basics. Overall, I felt if you have aptitude or real passion for the work, you would just get a computer science degree and be attracted to other parts of the stack or other problems to solve.

This obviously doesn't apply to large tech companies which make it a point to hire talent (frontend, backend, whatever).

> Hiring software developers is still somehow an arcane mystery few people can objectively figure out.

This is actually one space where I feel the frontend world shines. Almost every frontend interview question has been very practical.

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

#242

Post by str34ml1n3 »

chewz wrote: post #94
PsylentKnight wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much did you have saved when you set out? Have you worked at all in the last ten years?

No, I haven't been working in the last ten years. For seven years I have been mostly traveling and drifting, mostly in SE Asia. Long story. You need way, way less money then you think you do but the expectations adjustment process on the mental level is very slow. But of course it is good to have some savings.

I have lived in SE Asia for about seven years.

In case anyone is curious, I've been able to live well on about $6000-8000 a year. I certainly eat like a king, since fruits and vegetables are amazingly cheap here. Otherwise my hobbies are inexpensive, e.g. exercise and sports, writing software for personal projects, making digital art, etc.

It's not for everyone, but I would have really struggled on a more conventional path. It's been my experience that working for someone else is really degrading, although I'm sure some companies are better than others.

I consider myself extremely lucky, as most of my neighbors here lead very difficult lives. In the poorer half of the world, life is extremely brutal and arduous for most people. It's very sad and I've seen things here that are shocking and appalling (and I am not faint of heart, after spending many years "hustling" in the US). The behavior of other expats here also leaves something to be desired, although at least it's not as bad as Thailand...

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

#243

Post by jonny_eh »

ativzzz wrote: post #235

I've made a few rules for myself regarding working in tech: 1. Do not work for a company where tech is not their primary product. If you are only a cost center, you will be treated like a second-class citizen. 2. Work for a smaller company. Your work is so much more impactful when you are not part of a mega-machine. 3. Work only remotely. The quality of life increase that comes with working remotely is massive, and I…

> 2. Work for a smaller company. Your work is so much more impactful when you are not part of a mega-machine.

That depends. If you work for a small company working on a product few use, then what's the impact?

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

#244

Post by non-entity »

blodkorv wrote: post #211

I haven't left yet but i do less and less programming work. The reason is simply that i realized that i was not as good at problem solving as i thought, i also dont find joy in sitting for hours solving problems. I used to be passionate when it came to programming, but i realized that the reasons i thought it was fun was mostly because i thought i was better at it than i actually where. I was the only kid in the enti…

I've kinda had similar realizations to what you mentioned, althoughI can still kinda enjoy programming occasionally. Any idea where you're gonna go from here? Personally, the most realistic path is to just remain an enterprise code monkey unless salaries get massively deflated, and then move to tech adjacent business fields (management, etc.). I'll absolutley loathe the coming decades, but there isnt a ton of well paid options for an uneducated person that doesnt depend too much on luck.

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

#245

Post by erdos4d »

I left employment in the tech industry for freelance work. I really dislike Agile/Scrum/Kanban or whatever the new thing is that lets middle management put pressure on developers. I don't like the stress of open offices, meetings to tell everyone how soon I'll be done, or working around many people who are literally sociopaths and sycophants. I love to code though and find enormous enjoyment in writing software, its very soothing in itself. So now I do freelance and spend the extra time to make things right and try to improve at my craft. Still reading HN because lots of cool stuff pops up on here. Zero regrets on the move, I really knew I didn't want a career path that kept me in an office after the first year. I just stayed around until I had the skills I wanted and then went out on my own.

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

#246

Post by dvirsky »

eastbayjake wrote: post #240
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…

Two threads from replies here that are helpful: look at B2B SaaS or join enterprise IT . There are a lot of companies that are trying to modernize their tools and adopt agile ways of working, and if you're coming from a startup background you will bring a really valuable perspective and set of skills. I know Fortune 500 developers who are working on super cool DevOps enablers and internal libraries using modern tech.…

I worked for a good B2B SaaS, and while I was able to tell myself I'm not doing anything unethical or immoral, and while some of the customers were indeed very valuable (in terms of value to their customers) Fortune 500 companies - a large chunk of customers were adtech, dodgy mobile gaming, etc.

So you're still just providing infrastructure for these guys and not really contributing anything useful to the world, you're just one level removed from that, and hopefully you have enough customers who actually do good.

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

#247

Post by sabman83 »

I worked in the industry for over 10 years and I have a PhD in Computer Science. In my last job I felt miserable from Day 1. I had reached a point where coding brought me no joy. In all of my job, at the end of the day, I was serving ads to users. I was also an average developer and part of that is because I never found the motivation to keep improving. I was only so much interested in getting things done and never interested in going deep and figuring out how it’s getting done at lower level.

So I quit. I decided that movies is something that I have always loved and it’s what brought me most joy. I researched different career options and I came across creative development and producing. It resonated with me. Read movie scripts, give notes to improve it, work with writers, directors and identify the best strategy to get a movie made. One doesn’t need need money to become a producer. So I left the Bay Area and moved to Los Angeles and interned at two companies. The second company was a great fit for my interests (genre, etc) and I am now in full time Role and absolutely enjoying every minute of it.

I earn a quarter of what I used to make but I am much happier. But there are things about technology that I still like. And I am always curious about new developments. So I still enjoy reading Hacker News everyday.

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

#249

Post by karatestomp »

epicureanideal wrote: post #239
benhurmarcel wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same for all kinds of work outside of academia. I studied aerospace engineering and day-to-day it's exceedingly rare to need any math beyond basic trigonometry. 80% of the time it's useless meetings, emails, paperwork; only sometimes it's actually useful or fun. Some people study business for years and end up splitting their days between sitting in meetings and updating Gantt charts. That's just how work is.

Which makes me wonder how much faster we'd be seeing progress in the world if companies were better managed.

I suspect we were far too quick to get rid of secretaries as actual job-performing useful people rather than just status-signaling living perks. Also I think much of our workforce is wildly over-qualified and over-educated for what they actually do. I suspect there are more people than ever in the proverbial "mail room" that are plenty capable of rising to CEO or President of a region or division and doing a fine job without taking time and money to qualify for then attain an MBA at a top school, but we just don't really do that anymore. 500 people with the education and smarts, given a tiny amount of coaching, to do jobs two notches up the "ladder" for every such position that exists, but several HBS grads applied so we're taking one of them anyway.

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

#250

Post by jl2718 »

peckrob wrote: post #108

I stated my career early - while I was still in high school. I went from bagging groceries and doing checkouts at a grocery store to programming for a local company my senior year of high school. I continued doing this for my first couple years of college. But then dot-bomb happened and it looked like the party was over. I looked down at the job opportunities after graduation. I didn't really want to spend the rest o…

Like most people here, I developed myopia fairly soon after starting a cubicle job, and I can’t even see the stars anymore. It’s just a memory now. Even with glasses it’s not the same. Whether staring at a acreen was the cause, or just the thing I wasted it on, it’s gone.
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