I've walked away from software development
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I've walked away from software development
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Re: I've walked away from software development
#2I went into tech sales as my exit. It feels like a highly paid vacation compared to SWE.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#3One thing I still believe in: you don't burn out from code, you burn out from people.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#4I went into tech sales as my exit. It feels like a highly paid vacation compared to SWE.
I tried that this year and failed miserably. I don't know how it is at other places but I sat on zoom 6-10 hours a day with new clients giving them architecture pre-sales guidance and I have never had a week of work burn me out so much. I had no energy to talk to anyone after work, including my partner. It turned into me dreading going to sleep because at 8am I had to sit on zoom and try to summon all of my charisma for 6-8 hour long calls a day. I lost all agency of my own schedule. Couldn't pop off and go walk my dog in the park with my partner for 30 minutes without worrying about a client message I COULD NOT MISS (leadership).
I'm glad I tried it, it's unfortunate I didn't do well as it really knocked my confidence down but I'm happy to have found a supportive and good environment after that back in SWE. Lots of bad companies/jobs, but there are some good ones.
I'm hoping the same story goes with tech sales at some places and that ship was just on fire and I didn't realize it because I had no prior experience to look back on.
edit: And then the culture. The enterprise sales culture. I'm sorry but I never want to encounter it again. The amount of slack messages I got that were "hey" and waiting for me to respond there was wild. But the biggest was nobody at all cared about what I had going on. Just a worker drone to shutup and generate revenue no matter how close to burn out you get.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#5It's interesting that the OP on reddit is describing normal company politics. It exists at every company I've ever worked at, and will exist anywhere there is money, power, and status at stake in the decision making process.
My suggestion is to find a company where you can accept and work within that company's dysfunction, and stay put as long as you have a positive career path there. Every company is dysfunctional in some way, from small startups to large public corporations. As long as there are people involved there is going to be some form dysfunction and politics.
This is actually why I didn't mind he transition from IC to management, because even though I code less, I have the ability to influence the decision making process and improve day-to-day for everybody who reports to me.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#6I went into tech sales as my exit. It feels like a highly paid vacation compared to SWE.
I tried that this year and failed miserably. I don't know how it is at other places but I sat on zoom 6-10 hours a day with new clients giving them architecture pre-sales guidance and I have never had a week of work burn me out so much. I had no energy to talk to anyone after work, including my partner. It turned into me dreading going to sleep because at 8am I had to sit on zoom and try to summon all of my charisma…
Maybe it was a bad year to make the jump. The normal sales job (from a non-sales person POV anyway) seems to be business class travel, eating the finest foods, drinking the finest booze, going out and entertaining the engineers for stuff they were going to buy anyway, and then cashing big checks.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#7Agree 100%. Similar situation; been doing this for 20 years; in my 40s now. My exit will be into rental properties and flipping houses. Not ready quite yet; might have another couple years in me, but we're planning on it.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I tried that this year and failed miserably. I don't know how it is at other places but I sat on zoom 6-10 hours a day with new clients giving them architecture pre-sales guidance and I have never had a week of work burn me out so much. I had no energy to talk to anyone after work, including my partner. It turned into me dreading going to sleep because at 8am I had to sit on zoom and try to summon all of my charisma…
Maybe it was a bad year to make the jump. The normal sales job (from a non-sales person POV anyway) seems to be business class travel, eating the finest foods, drinking the finest booze, going out and entertaining the engineers for stuff they were going to buy anyway, and then cashing big checks.
Yeah, started right before the pandi, was 60% travel but before I ever got to travel we went into lock down and it became 100% zoom.
I'm curious if being in person would have helped me, though. I'm not sure how much it it was zoom exacerbating my anxieties or my own anxieties/introversion burning me out.
(or the terrible company)
edit: I was a PSE not really tech sales, I did have to do engineering and got the hard technical questions all day long. It's not your run of the mill sales job, the sales person used me as their tech arm. It was mentally exhausting.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#9The writing of a deeply sane person. I’m ready to go now (spiritually/financially) but planning on leaving after another year. Too much money on the table to leave of my own accord now, though if they fired me I’d be alright either way.
Re: I've walked away from software development
#10This sounds like every big company ever, more or less. As a principal engineer your role is more political than technical. The title is prestigious but if you want to be happy, there's nothing wrong with topping out as a senior engineer with no direct reports or broad architectural responsibility. The pay at that level is already (for me) more than my parents ever made on two incomes, plus equity. And i don't have to worry about the politics and the infighting. Just build things until the weekend