Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

news.ycombinator.com

1–10 of 111 posts

Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#1
I really like programming but I quickly get bored at work. I often work on personal projects during work hours because they're more interesting. The success or failure of a business, even one I depend on for income, does not motivate me. None of my personal projects are monetizable. They're just things I do to learn. It's the experience of learning that excites me. I have a little experience teaching (after-school program) and writing about what I learn. I enjoy that too. My ideal life would be one where I am free to explore things that interest me and share that knowledge with others.

Unfortunately, I can't afford not to work. So I need a career of some kind and am looking for a career that's more aligned with what naturally motivates me. I've contemplated going back to school but am not convinced this is a good idea. I have a degree from an art school, no formal computer science education, and no math since highschool. I also don't have much money. If I wanted to study computer science, I'd have to start at the undergraduate level and borrow a lot of money. School as an investment makes sense to me but I'm not sure what I would be investing in. I don't think a career in academia would appeal to me, and borrowing that much money because I'm bored at work sounds like a bad idea.

Does anyone have a suggestion for what I can/should do to improve my circumstances?

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#4
Accept it or change it.

Accepting it is transitioning from the realisation that you’re doing it because it’s interesting to doing it because it pays the bills and funds other interests.

Changing it is transitioning something else into the place that is currently occupied by work.

Both of these require finding something that interests you so start there.

But remember, life is long, interests wax and wane so this is perfectly normal and don’t sweat it as some failure or worry about it being a wrong attitude.

Edit: Just to add I’ve been through this twice. First I changed it (electrical engineering to software engineering). Now I accept it because my interests will never pay the bills I have :)

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#6
Freelance. Seriously, freelance remotely.

You will be able to find work you love. If not, you will be able to easily switch projects and find something you will love doing. You will have the flexibility to work when you need money and the flexibility to work on your own projects when you have some savings in your pockets. Or better, you can do part-time projects for clients and part-time in your own projects. You can tailor your working habits.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#7
There is this very popular place earlier known as Hacker School and now known as Recurse Center at NYC, so if you can manage to arrange some place to live in NYC I suggest you to go and check out this place. It's community driven and ask for no fee though is very good and worth giving a try. Here is the link to the same https://www.recurse.com

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#8
You said you like to explore things and share that knowledge with others.

The things that you can do is becoming a tech blogger. You can explore the latest JS frameworks, Robotics, AI, blockchain, mobile apps and put your exploration in a blog.

You can monetize it by creating an ebook and sell it in your blog.

But writing is hard. So you must be patient. For now stick to your job and do the blogging part-time.

Re: Ask HN: What should I do when I'm bored with my career?

#9

Freelance. Seriously, freelance remotely. You will be able to find work you love. If not, you will be able to easily switch projects and find something you will love doing. You will have the flexibility to work when you need money and the flexibility to work on your own projects when you have some savings in your pockets. Or better, you can do part-time projects for clients and part-time in your own projects. You can…

It's hard to find freelance work - the contract roles are guarded jealously by recruiters and agencies (who take 30-40% of the revenue prior to giving it to you), and anything else is extreme luck or extremely good networking. If the latter (networking), remote is very very hard for someone who isn't already well-known.
Post reply on HN