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I've walked away from software development

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Re: I've walked away from software development

#111

Post by MrPowers »

I can't relate with the OP because tech lets you write your own ticket. There are so many different types of jobs and opportunities.

> I'm sick of wasting time writing worthless tests

You can find a codebase to work on that aligns with your testing preferences

> I'm sick of endless meetings and documents and time tracking tools.

I found a gig without heavy process. It was one of the main criteria in my job search.

> I'm sick of reorgs.

There are well organized, flat companies that don't suffer from endless team reshuffling.

> I'm sick of everyone above middle management having the exact same personality type.

Tech lets you work remotely and choose who you interact with. I live in a middle class Colombian neighborhood. When I finish Zoom calls with Americans, I can walk out my door and am transported to a different world.

I'm glad OP found a new city and job that work better. Not sure they needed to leave tech. They could have started a bootstrapped small company (no VC), or gotten a corporate sponsored open source gig, or whatever.

Re: I've walked away from software development

#112

Post by giantg2 »

ransom1538 wrote: post #88
giantg2 wrote: post #44

Well said. I'm rotting from the inside out. The only problem I have with the post is that they have the luxury of quitting. People like myself are trapped in the job. They're likely making 5x many people's salary if they are a principle engineer at a large tech firm. I dream of quitting everyday, but I know I have to deal with this job for the next 2 decades at least (about 9 years in). I'm miserable and know I'm was…

This is by design. You are supposed to pay those county property taxes and stay put [renters: are a tax payment proxy for landlords].

What do county taxes have to do with anything?

Re: I've walked away from software development

#113

Post by caeril »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #14

"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." --Drew Carey That said, there are some good (if conflicting) points in there. Large tech companies are worse than startups, usually. Startups become large companies over time, if they don't fail. A good read on the real corporate dynamic: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/

> Startups become large companies over time, if they don't fail.

Picking nits, here, but this isn't true. My personal (multiple) anecdata is that a very good number of startups neither fail nor become large - rather, they become stable small businesses.

Re: I've walked away from software development

#114

Post by prohobo »

My solution is freelancing and online entrepreneurship. I quit my last job right before lockdown, and since then I've been building my own products and doing freelancing to stay alive.

While it's arguably more stressful, it's at least good stress. Everything you do is about making a good product and making money. There's no politics, just users and clients. The act of software development turns into the craft that you wanted it to be at the corporation/startup, instead of monkey work with little to no stake in the outcome. I'd rather be poor than waste my life.

Another good thing about it is that I decide when the product is finished. Every time I've gotten a job at a startup, I built the product in about a year then was forced to stick around for the endless revisions, updates, new features, etc. It seemed like work for the sake of work. What happened to the lazy developer trope? I believe 90% of it is superfluous, and the main product + good marketing is what's actually important for revenue and satisfying users.

A dog-walking app should be finished in a few months. The end. It's not like the software somehow erodes over time (unless you keep screwing with it and adding stuff). If the users are happy, just cash out already.

Finally, you decide who you work with - as a partner, not an employee. That changes the dynamic a lot. You can say when you're done, and you get a real stake in the outcome.

Since the coronavirus, working as an employee in software has lost its lustre. You don't get the big beautiful office with bean bag chairs, you don't get to socialize, you don't learn anything, and you sure as hell don't control your hours.

Re: I've walked away from software development

#115

Post by hermitcrab »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #94
eyjafjallajokul wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you work at Amazon where the training pauses if the tab isn’t actively focused. I’m convinced that it’s a form of torture.

We have that too. A second computer works wonders here. Worse is the training I'm doing now which lets you run it in the background but makes you push a button every 30s to continue the training.

That sounds positively Orwellian.

Re: I've walked away from software development

#116

Post by specialist »

ryandvm wrote: post #48

I think all of us 40+ folks are in the same place. When we first started we didn't mind the bullshit so much because we were too dumb to realize how much there was. Then we got older and, yeah, it's ridiculous, but we were pretty decent at surfing the bullshit waves so we still didn't mind so much. Now you're in your 40s and the real obligations of life have started piling up. You've gone from 7 hours of free time a…

I decided to start my midlife crisis after a long FMLA (first eldercare, and then raising my nephews). I just couldn't go back to the daily standup agile velocity kabuki. My work has to mean something, at least to me.

Re: I've walked away from software development

#117

Post by this_was_posted »

MattGaiser wrote: post #65
ryandvm wrote: post #48

I think all of us 40+ folks are in the same place. When we first started we didn't mind the bullshit so much because we were too dumb to realize how much there was. Then we got older and, yeah, it's ridiculous, but we were pretty decent at surfing the bullshit waves so we still didn't mind so much. Now you're in your 40s and the real obligations of life have started piling up. You've gone from 7 hours of free time a…

> Oh, by the way, it's December, so we need you to watch that 45 minute security training video again so you don't accept USB flash drives from strangers in the parking lot. The ability to mute a tab and have it run in the background is at times a beautiful thing.

Not saying that these videos are a good thing, but would doing things like this be proof (assuming muting/active viewing is logged somehow) of gross negligence allowing the company to hold you personally liable if you make a mistake that could have been prevented had you watched the video?

Re: I've walked away from software development

#118

Post by jdbernard »

vfc1 wrote: post #12

I think an alternative to the reddit OP, since he loves coding and has so much experience is to try and create his own product on some niche. He would get back the joy of coding and still be a programmer, without having to deal with any of the corporate system. I can fully understand where he is coming from, it's not the job itself, it's the whole system that makes it unbearable after a while. This is the reason also…

> it's not the job itself, it's the whole system that makes it unbearable after a while.

Absolutely this. I'm in my mid thirties and I've been working professionally since high school (worked full-time through college). I still love the craft but I've had a hard time finding companies I enjoy working at long-term. Thought I found one, then we got acquired and the work and culture changed. The acquisition was probably a good thing as I don't know if we could have weathered COVID as a small company, but that fact only makes me lament the more the inevitable unbearability of it all.

I say this to underscore my agreement. It's not just one job. It's the whole system that seems unbearable. After a while you give up on finding the mythical company that fits you.

Re: I've walked away from software development

#119

Post by porker »

xfitm3 wrote: post #62
ryandvm wrote: post #48

I think all of us 40+ folks are in the same place. When we first started we didn't mind the bullshit so much because we were too dumb to realize how much there was. Then we got older and, yeah, it's ridiculous, but we were pretty decent at surfing the bullshit waves so we still didn't mind so much. Now you're in your 40s and the real obligations of life have started piling up. You've gone from 7 hours of free time a…

Identity politics have made it even more miserable.

I don't know if there's something special about working in web design/development but I see more identity politics here and in the community than I do anywhere else in my life, or in other industries. My partner works in education - that place of reputed wokeness - and while identity features, there isn't the politics in the school around it.

Perhaps webdev attracted a specific kind of person (who felt comfortable with the anonymity of the web?) - or is software development now the same?

Re: I've walked away from software development

#120

Post by luord »

I think this is an advantage of working remotely. That way most of the work interactions are strictly about the code[1]. All things considered, I get a mostly good deal: working on what I actually like to do, coding, while avoiding most of the bullshit.

So, I'm adding this as another reason to keep avoiding co-location as much as possible.

[1]: And, well, online meetings discussing what to code and how to do it; they're often pointless, particularly the daily ones, but bearable.

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