How about pursuing a software architecture role? You would be creating diagrams that depict code instead of writing code.
Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
11–20 of 48 posts
Re: Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
#12Just an hour ago I read an article from a psychotherapist that dealt somewhat about changing careers. I think the gist of it was some people might have to learn how to deal with disappoing their snobby parents and strangers when taking a step back to evaluate different potential careers, including those that pay substantially less, in order to find a more exciting career that, overall, adds more value to your life despite not outwardly looking impressive to strangers. Something to think about?
https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/what-should-tr...
Re: Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
#13What do you want to do other than coding? Different careers have different paths and ins and outs.
I don't know. I am also depressed and so, unfortunately, nothing at all actually sounds good. The path I know people talk about out of coding is Product Management. Are there others? It always seems like a pay cut and I'm already always so strapped for cash. Moving cities seems equally as overwhelming as changing careers.
Work on your mental health first. Changing careers itself is stressful. Your code doesn't have to be pretty, you can use it as fuel for a hobby you actually enjoy doing after work/weekends. It could be photography, plastic model building, racing cars at track days, tennis, golf, etc.
The key there is also to join the communities to engage and learn, along with getting outside.
Re: Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
#14Coding is a virus, a meme. What you've got is 12 years of experience breaking down problems, abstraction, functional analysis, debugging. You have skills which other parts of the business cycle need. If you aren't a "people person" then look to problem solving in logistics: the routing and scheduling behind everyday delivery is a heinous problem. Or, in the construction, mining and related sector. "for the want of a…
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Re: Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
#15Lots of good advice in here, my piece of advice is just to make sure you cater that resume to the job you are looking for. As others have pointed out you have gained skills during your work that can easily apply to other areas, so you just need to showcase that on paper and in the interview.
Unfortunately I’m sort of in the opposite boat, I don’t know how to code and have never successful pushed myself to learn much. A previous instructor told me “maybe you just like the idea of it”.
Re: Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
#16if writing software is what you don't like, you could try to go into something where you use software, rather than writing it, like a database administrator, a sysadmin, a systems analyst, or working in IT, or you could focus on a different role in software production, like usability/design/ui/ux, requirements engineering, QA, etc., or if teaching is something you might be interested in, consider teaching cs/programming courses, you could do the same thing there, if code is what you don't like, and teach courses about the things around writing code, as an example, the course I've enjoyed the most in my Computer Engineering program was about a lot of things around the code-writing in software production, there was only one programming assignment in the whole semester
maybe you'd like a managerial role? or if there's something you're interested you could try to get a job in that, in one of the courses in the EE portion of my Engineering program, a professor told us that after finishing all courses, with just about 4 more courses we could pursue Audio/Sound Engineering as a Career, if that interested us, it's basically some of the fundamentals, applied to sound signals, you could consider something like that
if you don't want anything to do with software... then I'm not sure what to recommend, give some more info about yourself?
like if you would think being a Mechanic is something you'd want... I've heard soldering (like heavy machinery soldering) can be very profitable, and fun, and the training for it takes around 6 months? something like that
Re: Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
#17What do you want to do other than coding? Different careers have different paths and ins and outs.
I don't know. I am also depressed and so, unfortunately, nothing at all actually sounds good. The path I know people talk about out of coding is Product Management. Are there others? It always seems like a pay cut and I'm already always so strapped for cash. Moving cities seems equally as overwhelming as changing careers.
Writing and communication are similar skill sets to coding. Sales engineer can pay quite well, and needs someone with a technical background. You can also do teaching and training, which is far less stressful.
Re: Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
#18if writing software is what you don't like, you could try to go into something where you use software, rather than writing it, like a database administrator, a sysadmin, a systems analyst, or working in IT, or you could focus on a different role in software production, like usability/design/ui/ux, requirements engineering, QA, etc., or if teaching is something you might be interested in, consider teaching cs/programm…
I read your comment to another answer, and I agree with the others, you have to look out for #1 (this should always mean "look out for yourself"), work on your mental health, work on your stress, and try to find a new career when you feel better
oh, and don't quote me on the soldering training time, it's something I heard in passing
Re: Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
#19I've been there. My personal take is that the day in and day out life of a coder sucks, big time. Humans weren't designed for it. If you are inventing something novel and new and actually 'engineering' then that's different, but pulling the next React feature from some PM's backlog, that's hell.
Look at your cohort, I would venture it's mostly 20 somethings men. Maybe the odd older guy but certainly not a diverse set of people. It's a young man's game because the burn out is real and for most people coding is just an unsustainable profession. Come to grips with the fact that maybe it is unsustainable for you.
It's a lot less tedious and easier in many regards working as an engineering manager. Or a product manager. Or something entirely different. Coding as a career isn't for everybody (wasn't for me). YMMV. If it isn't for you figure out how to change it, it might not be easy but it is probably worth it.
Source: ex-FAANG SDE.
Re: Ask HN: I hate coding, but it's all that's on my resume. What do I do?
#20I've been there. My personal take is that the day in and day out life of a coder sucks, big time. Humans weren't designed for it. If you are inventing something novel and new and actually 'engineering' then that's different, but pulling the next React feature from some PM's backlog, that's hell. Look at your cohort, I would venture it's mostly 20 somethings men. Maybe the odd older guy but certainly not a diverse set…
>Humans weren't designed for it.
I don't know why, but I really love coding. I have an expected output of 0% in my mind, so even the most mundane tasks can be fun for me because I'm satisfied with producing any output. I try to learn something new with every task, even if it's just a file path or simple SQL call.
And if it's some really horrible spaghetti code abstraction upon abstraction, then my 0% success expectation is even more important for my morale.
If my manager isn't happy with the output? Quit and get a higher salary somewhere else :) That's the market we live in right now.