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Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#231

Post by jderiksen »

walledstance wrote: post #24

Teaching. I moved from a big tech company to teaching. Teaching is the hardest job I’ve ever done, and requires entire new skills. Teacher pay, depending on where you are, can be real low compared to FAANG money, but damn do I sleep well at night knowing that I help people. There is nothing like watching someone struggle and then suddenly understanding the subject. But seriously, it is a hard job. You learn quickly t…

> There is nothing like watching someone struggle and then suddenly understanding the subject.

This is why I love mentoring new hires and interns.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#233

Post by mabbo »

mauvehaus wrote: post #171
mabbo wrote: post #47

The greatest such story I've ever read is this one from a GitHub issue comment: https://github.com/docker/cli/issues/267#issuecomment-695149... > Sorry I missed your comment of many months ago. I no longer build software; I now make furniture out of wood. The hours are long, the pay sucks, and there's always the opportunity to remove my finger with a table saw, but nobody asks me if I can add an RSS feed to a DBMS, s…

That's me! It also generated a rather large discussion here and if you want to read how things were going up to that point, I posted a lengthy comment there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24541964 How am I doing now? Still good, still grateful to be married to somebody who gets good health insurance through their job. Still need to update my website a bit (is that work ever really done?). Still working on the…

I need you to understand that I think about this comment all of the time. Every time someone asks for something ridiculous, I think "I could be making furniture out of wood".

I doubt that I am alone in that.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#235

Post by detourdog »

cushychicken wrote: post #227
detourdog wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What can I say. I bought an old school house around 2 miles from my house spent a fortune turning into a mixed use building. Each classroom is a studio apartment. I had a fiber line installed. I guess the only thing I can say is that 8 units was a magic number for me. The idea is that if one should pay about 25% as rent. 8 units represent 200% of the average income of my town. The downside is that all the serious bui…

That's a neat old building. You're in a cool corner of MA, too. I love North Adams.

I love it here stop by next time you are around.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#236

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

artagnon wrote: post #66

I used to work as a compiler engineer in the US for several years, before deciding to try starting over at the age of 30, in pure mathematics. I moved from the US to Paris in pursuit of an affordable mathematics education, and spent two years in a Masters program. I did have a considerable amount of savings, but it was very risky nevertheless: if it didn't work out, I'd be out-of-touch with compilers, and it would be…

The longer I live, the more I subscribe to this view. My uncle was a trucker. He lived a weird life full crazy adventures and he loved it. Yes, it did bring pain, loneliness and eventual breakup of his family unit, but I always found him in high spirits. Bad things happen, but he was able to shrug those off partially because he knew what he was doing let him enjoy life a lot more despite being somewhat unstable.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#237

Post by gavinhoward »

Got fired without warning from my first real programming job. It was probably personality differences with the company owner, but it did teach me that I am not built to work collaboratively on software.

Became a school bus driver. Quit when the school district was asking me to drive in an unsafe way. (Too fast for my experience level.)

Tried to become a helicopter pilot. The FAA grounded me for life.

Now trying to start a software business with software I wrote alone from scratch. It would be a professional services business, not selling the software, which will be FOSS.

I have a few backup plans if that fails. For example, I've already written a book when I was a teen, but didn't like it, so I deleted it. I'm trying to write another now.

I can only do this because my wife has a job. Thank goodness for her and her patience.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#238

Post by cushychicken »

I've moved from the private sector (consumer tech) to government research (contractor who works with many FFRDCs).

The cultural shift is, frankly, seismic.

The problems are no less important or impactful, but the timescale we're working on is years or even decades, so much of the all-out, balls-to-the wall constant stress you find in the startup/scaleup/consumer tech sphere is not there.

I still get to do impactful work, that I find more interesting at a consumer tech job. I took a ~10% pay cut (I'm not a SWE, so YMMV considerably on the size of pay cut you might take), but I'm super happy with the choice I made.

There are tons of federal research labs and opportunities out there hurting for software talent if you enjoy the practice but not the culture of most consumer software shops.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#239

Post by ewhanley »

artagnon wrote: post #66

I used to work as a compiler engineer in the US for several years, before deciding to try starting over at the age of 30, in pure mathematics. I moved from the US to Paris in pursuit of an affordable mathematics education, and spent two years in a Masters program. I did have a considerable amount of savings, but it was very risky nevertheless: if it didn't work out, I'd be out-of-touch with compilers, and it would be…

This sounds like a total win. You studied what you wanted, didn't completely wipe out your finances, and successfully re-opened a door you thought may have been permanently closed. I view self actualization as a far more important component of a life well-lived than your savings balance.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#240

Post by zaphod12 »

gavinhoward wrote: post #237

Got fired without warning from my first real programming job. It was probably personality differences with the company owner, but it did teach me that I am not built to work collaboratively on software. Became a school bus driver. Quit when the school district was asking me to drive in an unsafe way. (Too fast for my experience level.) Tried to become a helicopter pilot. The FAA grounded me for life. Now trying to st…

hold up...you can't just say 'FAA grounded me for life' without sharing something about that story! I've never heard of anything like it...

Going straight to helicopters without flying airplanes first is not a typical path.

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