Working in tech without being constantly stuck behind a computer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Working in tech without being constantly stuck behind a computer?

#21

Post by cyberdrunk » Thu, Aug 27, 2020, 7:57 AM UTC

hazz99 wrote: post #20

cyberdrunk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably, although maybe you can get a job in such shop as a software guy first and learn the ropes there. Anyway, my bigger point is, if you hate focusing in front of the computer, then software engineering is not a career for you and you need to retrain for something else. But, it's very uncertain if you'll like that other thing. So, maybe it's best to just accept the drawbacks of the current career, as other caree…

This feels a bit defeatist. You could definitely go into software sales, evangelism, or move laterally into the management path without any extra formal retraining.

True. These jobs also have very real drawbacks, but there are certainly some people for whom the drawbacks are not that bad (better than coding 40h/week).

Re: Working in tech without being constantly stuck behind a computer?

#22

Post by 2rsf » Thu, Aug 27, 2020, 11:29 AM UTC

non-entity wrote: post #16

cyberdrunk wrote: post #15

If you hate sitting in front of a computer, you might retrain to be a hardware engineer (e.g. in robotics, aerospace etc.). They can sometimes spend a lot of the time building prototypes or testing the physical component in a lab (of course, there's plenty of hardware jobs where you just spend the whole day in front of a CAD, but you can filter them out during your job search). Unfortunately, this will still require…

Wouldn't that require going back to get an entire BSEE at least?

Not necessarily, I've worked on embedded products for many years and saw quite a few "pure" software engineers doing a good job.

Not everything in embedded or robotics is related to Electronics, and many things can be easily understood at a level adequate for development.

Re: Working in tech without being constantly stuck behind a computer?

#23

Post by nicbou » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 11:22 PM UTC

At least you're not spending time in meetings!

I used to be a software engineer. Now I run a website. I still work behind a computer, but I work a lot less overall. This leaves a lot of time for other activities. All you have to do is somehow launch a website that makes enough money to support you, which is about as easy as winning the lottery.

You could also teach what you know or sell software.