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Ask HN: Those who left software development for a different technical field?

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Re: Ask HN: Those who left software development for a different technical field?

#11

Post by neuroticfish »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #6
neuroticfish wrote: post #4

You and I are in the same boat, except I've grown to hate not only the culture, but programming too. I've not heard of former devs breaking into other technical fields, but I have heard of them getting into stuff like farming, construction, or trades (electrical, plumbing, etc.). I wish I hadn't spent my 20s dwelling in anxiety. I wish I had moved around, become a trail guide, or got into scuba diving, or even joined…

My VP Engineering quit and opened a Falafel joint.

I enjoyed working in restaurants in my formative years but I don't think I'd be happy owning one. Honestly I think my dream job would be working on a cargo ship or something but sadly I'm well past the age cap for breaking into the field.

Re: Ask HN: Those who left software development for a different technical field?

#13

Post by cmsyspref »

Life is short, do what makes you happy is what they say, right?

I've begun the transition from sysadmin into nursing to hopefully a NP certification. Maybe I can blend my background of cloud security and Kubernetes with medicine somehow. Or not.

Re: Ask HN: Those who left software development for a different technical field?

#14

Post by legerdemain »

From first-hand experience working in Silicon Valley, I've seen some people move into independently wealthy "landed gentry" lifestyles, and certainly some younger people who left tech jobs to attend law school, but few or no people who left software for a different, but still remunerative career.

Re: Ask HN: Those who left software development for a different technical field?

#15

Post by _bxg1 »

silverreads wrote: post #5

I just left cloud software development to be the jack-of-all-trades only computer person at a local shop. I love it. I spend all day helping people instead of fighting jira.

I have a related experience: a few years ago I built a website for a local music store, and I still do the occasional maintenance task for them. Their gratitude and happiness with the product has made it one of the most fulfilling technical projects I've ever done.

Advantages of being "the technical person" for a non-technical project/business/etc:

- You get out of the insular, one-upsmanship-steeped technical culture

- You can implement things exactly the way you want to

- You're probably much less abstracted away from the people you're actually helping

It's the third thing that I think is most important. In most tech jobs you're either gently swindling your customers through A/B tests and "conversion metrics", or you're doing "tech for tech's sake" which can be fun but ultimately feels empty. It feels really good to directly help real people.

Re: Ask HN: Those who left software development for a different technical field?

#17

Post by willj »

neuroticfish wrote: post #4

You and I are in the same boat, except I've grown to hate not only the culture, but programming too. I've not heard of former devs breaking into other technical fields, but I have heard of them getting into stuff like farming, construction, or trades (electrical, plumbing, etc.). I wish I hadn't spent my 20s dwelling in anxiety. I wish I had moved around, become a trail guide, or got into scuba diving, or even joined…

30s is so young, though! If you don’t have kids, the world is still wide open to you!

Re: Ask HN: Those who left software development for a different technical field?

#19

Post by throwaway9482 »

droptablemain wrote: post #9

I am a software engineer for 10 years, and have been dabbling in audio engineering / recording / mixing for the past couple of years. I haven't made the transition, but I wouldn't rule it out in the future. I'd probably never stop coding though. It would just be a matter of switching from pro to hobby, and vice-versa.

Sonic Pi might interest you if you don’t know it already. It’s an alternative to DAWs where you use ruby code to make music

Here’s a demo https://youtu.be/KJPdbp1An2s

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