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Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

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Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

#141

Post by juve1996 »

yrgulation wrote: post #45

Move in to management. The reason tech sucks is mainly due to non technical managers who think writing code is the same as laying bricks, constantly breathing on developer necks and nagging about progress. The world needs more tech experienced managers to replace the supervisor types that barely understand the words they use.

I went from a technical role to presales/product marketing roles. I could've went into product management but I avoid "pinch point" roles (roles where you have to make multiple stakeholders happy, which means none of them will be.) I make a bit less than the ones who stayed as devs.

And yet my life is way easier. Most of my meetings are fun, involve expensed dinners, some light travel to interesting places (but not all the time.) I can work remotely and live wherever I want. My colleagues are not extremely overworked, most are laid back but effective.

Tech isn't what I grew up with and never will be again. The magic is gone. Most of the shit I would work on was boring and uninteresting. And frankly, I wasn't a 10x dev. I was never going to be that one who could dictate what I worked on. I wanted to have a life outside of code. It has been one of the best decisions I've made.

Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

#142

Post by justinram11 »

anotheryou wrote: post #129

Just on the vacancies and 300+ applicants: Writing a good and "personalized" cover letter gets me a really decent interview rate I think. I'd be up to read yours and make suggestions. Just let me know here. My usual receipt: - start with a custom paragraph. Why are you a match and why do you like this company. - 1-2 copy+paste paragraphs about relevant skills (at most a buzzword or two added) - ending with a curious…

This. Currently hiring and if I can tell they took the time to read the job post and ask an interested question I'll usually do an intro interview

Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

#143

Post by weatherlite »

ptr wrote: post #140
weatherlite wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think C++ is the thing for me... we will see how it goes. Java is plan b.

Good luck! Try not to get stuck on extreme details; C++ is a very rich language but most people that work with it have pretty rudimentary knowledge, you’d be surprised.

Thank you! Can u explain further your point on learning a language from different angles? Or in general what is your strategy to remain relevant in tech?

Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

#144

Post by smr88 »

weatherlite wrote: post #135
smr88 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally can't see a career in a particular programming language. There are so many programing languages out there. Wouldn't it be better to get expert like knowledge in some specific area. For example becoming an expert in distributed systems for the automotive industry. You would then participate in design and implementation of a distributed system. I think this would narrow down the needed knowledge, however l…

There are so many languages but C is still out there and so many young people don't wanna touch it. As for the domain knowledge it transfers quite well I think. If u did some c++ for a database how bad does your knowledge decay if you go to the auto industry? I don't wanna be argumentative very happy to be corrected here I really want feedback on this decision.

Maybe we misunderstood us here a bit :-) I didn't mean that your C++ skills are decaying when you switch to automotive industry but before that you we're a C++ database developer. My thought was that instead of learning a particular programming language, become an expert in e.g. database systems. Maybe I can give you some personal information about stability of C++. Answer: in my opinion it depends on the industry. We are writing software in C++ for machines which will be used for the next 20 years. In our case, knowing C++ very well is a plus because our systems have to live long. For example some time ago we needed a software developer who has knowledge in C and assembly for the C51 microcontroller architecture for some old human machine interface. Nevertheless we're evaluating Rust for new projects. As you can see in my industry C++ knowledge is very stable but be prepared to learn a new language like Rust.

Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

#146

Post by SantiagoElf »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #133
SantiagoElf wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By taking more responsibilities and delivering beyound your pay scale. Prove that you can be trusted with deadlines, build a reputation for relentless on time delivery and take responsibility. You will be suprised - that if you start taking OWNERSHIP of what you do - how fast people will come to you and literally beg you to be in their projects.

>By taking more responsibilities and delivering beyound your pay scale. Is that a healthy advice for someone struggling with Burnout/depression like OP? And I beg to differ. Taking on lots of work is by no means a guarantee to management promotion everywhere. Often management positions go by means of connections, and are awarded subjectively to the favorable people management likes most, not to the most productive pe…

> Is that a healthy advice for someone struggling with Burnout/depression like OP?

Yeah, depression/burnout is not real. It's just how a person decides to deal with high levels of stress. Stress will not go away. Better deal with it by pushing through it either by working more, going on vacations, sex trips, donations to charity causes, etc.

In the industry I am in - I didn't know anyone, before I started, hell, I even didn't know anyone in the city I moved to. It's all a struggle, endless struggle, like life is supposed to be.

Of course, you need to have conversational skills, soft skills, be able to hold a conversation in different topics, be funny, witty, smart and charming in order to be promoted.

You definetly can get promoted based on your own merrits WITHOUT relying on connections that you had before the job.

The trick is to build your conenctions on the basis of your work, soft skills and charisma WITHIN the company you want to grow.

I am sorry, but with most things in life - climbing the ladder is a competition - success is not guaruanteed, and being good at programming is not the only requirement.

Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

#147

Post by bradlys »

Not even 40 but blames age for not getting jobs. Doesn’t want to do leetcode even though if you just did the damn work - you’d clear hundreds of thousands a year. Hates technology and comes on HN of all places.

If this is your perspective - switch industry and start taking orders at your local deli? You aren’t likely to have what it takes to stay in a rapidly changing industry that is trying to always evolve by its very definition.

Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

#148

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

meowtastic wrote: post #116
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PHP is pretty good despite the hate I suspect the "hate" is rather localized. I find the "Fishtank Graph"[0] to be a fairly good way to get my feet firmly planted back on the ground. That said, I don't like PHP, and avoid it, if possible. I use it for my backend work, and it does a great job, there. I just prefer writing apps in Swift. The "game-changer," for me, was retiring, and working on the stuff I want to wor…

Nice stats. Pretty surprising how Java's doing better than JS in overall market share, and growth.

Lots of infrastructure written in Java, and I suspect it still features heavily in school curriculum development.

Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

#149

Post by goodpoint »

ptr wrote: post #44

There are a lot of companies that don't primarily do web development, maybe look into that if you know or want to learn Java, C++? Telecom, automotive, finance, games, medicine, industry. These companies need a lot of developers and they're typically much nicer to work at. Better paid, much less stress.

> Better paid, much less stress.

I wish, honestly. A lot of business/safety critical software is written by developers around the world that are paid less than the average web developer.

All the way up to extreme cases like https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-28/boeing-s-...

Admittedly, that's an extreme case, not the average, but you get my point.

Compared to most industrial automation, flashy and colorful stuff is overrated and overpaid.

Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?

#150

Post by goodpoint »

torginus wrote: post #115
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #98

If you are depressed then see a psychiatrist. I would seek help before making any career moves under this cloud. I'm an average software engineer with nothing impressive on the resume. Persistence pays off.

> If you are depressed then see a psychiatrist. I'm not sure I'd agree with this advice. If the mental problems OP has originate from his circumstances, a psychiatrist is unlikely to be able to help him. But psychiatrists are usually in no hurry to admit that, so the experience is usually even more frustrating and demeaning than skipping the whole shebang. Yes I am speaking from experience.

Respectfully, breaking an arm while working in a steel foundry still requires a visit to the ER. It's not up to the ER to improve work safety.

The same goes for our minds.

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