There's always great demand for developers in major academic projects (e.g. cancer, genomics, climate, etc). It won't pay as much, but it's much less soul draining
Do you have a recommended resource for discovering SWE openings within such projects?
I'm hating swe, what could be another career?
31–40 of 43 posts
Re: I'm hating swe, what could be another career?
#32Carpentry
Why a lot of software engineers have carpentry as a hobby or pivot to that job?
Some similarities; with a small amount of math, planning, and investment in understanding tools, you can quickly achieve things that the non-practitioners think are cool and useful. Plus the tactile experience provides a nice antidote to the endlessly ephemeral working experience of gazing on the computer screen.
Re: I'm hating swe, what could be another career?
#33This post needs an "[Ask HN]" prefix
Re: I'm hating swe, what could be another career?
#34Get out of consulting and get into product development. It's much better.
Re: I'm hating swe, what could be another career?
#35Re: I'm hating swe, what could be another career?
#36I would ask yourself if you enjoy writing software, and consider trying different SWE jobs and areas if you do. To me, it seems like you're struggling because of your workplace conditions. There are many, many SWE jobs out there (all sorts of industries need to write software!), and even SWE is a very broad term. For example, you might hate webdev but end up really enjoying writing database software or mobile apps or whatever else. If on-call and deployments are stressing you out, there is software out there with longer release cycles that doesn't require on-call at all.
The start of your career can be tough, as you don't have much experience, but it's also a good time to explore and try different options. Don't let one bad workplace define your entire career!
That said, it's also totally fine if SWE is just not a good fit for you. There is a lot of process around planning, code reviews, git, etc. that is separate from the act of coding itself. If you want to keep coding, there are plenty of areas and industries that still need to write code. If you want to switch careers but stay tech adjacent, there are some broader options too, like IT and sales engineer.
Re: I'm hating swe, what could be another career?
#37Try teaching, in the high school and below level
Doesn’t that take a year or two extra schooling to get into?
Re: I'm hating swe, what could be another career?
#38early in our career we are (we should be) in "sponge mode". we can learn at lot and quickly. You should not waste this time. As somebody already said, things change a lot depending on the people you get to work with, and then how you work with them (you could be surrounded by amazing people but because of corp-rigidity you would not learn much from them anyway).
Reach out to your connections and figure out which company(ies) to apply for.
Go through interviews with a clear idea of what to ask for: interviews are not just for candidate screening, do the reverse and learn how to screen for good companies (before and during the interview process)
IMHO remote work is not the best for a career start
Re: I'm hating swe, what could be another career?
#39Carpentry
Why a lot of software engineers have carpentry as a hobby or pivot to that job?
Ah !
- working outside
- wood is a joy to work with: touch feels good, looks good, smells good too
- you get to build cool things that are actually useful like sheds, car ports, house extensions, bridges, even simple furniture
- when it's done, it's done
- it's both intellectual and physical work, it's good for your body and your mind
- learn new things