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

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21–30 of 52 posts

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

#21
post #12

How about becoming a primary or a secondary school Math teacher?

I also want out of tech; I started 15 years ago as a help desk analyst, now I’m an Engineering Manager. The burn out is real, the golden handcuffs are real and I’m just tired of being in this kind of work, thoroughly sick at what I’m seeing in the tech industry from a career perspective, tired of standups, tired of sprint planning, tired of retros, scrum, “technical recruiters”, the resume skill rat race, interviews, interviewing...[trails off]...

As recently as this morning I was talking to a friend who teaches pre-calc at local high school and tutors part-time independently about potentially making this very career pivot, to the point where I’m legitimately looking at financial aid and scholarships to potentially just go back to school and get a BSc in Maths and Physics so I can go be a school teacher and geek off with kids about science like I do with my nephew whenever I’m babysitting him and we spend hours playing Kerbal Space Program

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

#22
Get some hands on experience with cloud computing - either AWS or Azure - and leverage you’re combined skills of development and cloud to get a role in the cloud consulting department of either Microsoft or Amazon. No algorithms studying required. Pay is good, abc permanent remote work is possible.

Pre-Covid there were a lot of other consulting roles available, but they seem to have dried up.

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

#25
I am a programmer but I prefer physical object business.

During Corona self isolation, I started creating and selling filament:

I documented the journey here: https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-ho...

The price of filament is still going up.

Since selling filament I am working partime, mostly doing maintenance (updates/patches) existing application.

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

#27
post #7

I write firmware for micro-controllers and deal mostly with engineers, techs, other sane code monkeys, and an occasional customer. My occasional dealings with actual mainstream software developers is generally unpleasant. I would suggest firmware or some other job where software is part of the product not the product.

are you hiring?

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

#28
post #24
post #23

I know of one programmer who went from writing software to building cars, rockets and a solar grid. I hear he's doing quite well.

When did Carmack get into solar??? /s

Come on, Carmack isn’t interested in solar. Not when we can literally mine the energy straight from Hell, do you know how many btus we’re talking about here?

...I’m now being told trying to extract energy from Biblical Hell is a bad idea?

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

#29
post #28
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did Carmack get into solar??? /s

Come on, Carmack isn’t interested in solar. Not when we can literally mine the energy straight from Hell , do you know how many btus we’re talking about here? ...I’m now being told trying to extract energy from Biblical Hell is a bad idea?

Is Hell based heat exchange a second law violation? Ignoring the obvious angry, cold demons

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

#30

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…

I've gone in another path: applied programming. I chose a position that also involves programming rather than an actual developer role.

Personally the whole standup thing just drove me away

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