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I quit the tech industry

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Re: I quit the tech industry

#251

Post by s_kilk »

themartorana wrote: post #101
yc1010 wrote: post #11

I have been working for myself for last 8 years after completing my masters, in hindsight financially I did not do too badly (tho there was some great and ups and incredible downs!) and it is NICE working from home and watching your kid grow (tho there are quite a lot of distractions!!! says he who is procrastinating reading HN :D ) BUT if I was offered a job with guaranteed employment and steady wages and (gaaasp pe…

Good lord, 53% tax plus 23% VAT plus utilities tax plus monthly healthcare premiums plus...? I'm a bit of a socialist living in the U.S. - I believe in higher taxes on higher earnings and universal healthcare - but what in all that is holy do you get for your tax money??

>> but what in all that is holy do you get for your tax money??

Frankly, not much. I was born and raised in Ireland, and left a few years ago from Scotland. In comparison to Scotland (and the UK in general), the quality of public services in Ireland is a joke.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#252

Post by krisdol »

czechdeveloper wrote: post #151
angrybits wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in a Teradata shop in a major financial institution and the hours are reasonable and the work is borderline relaxing. There is a nice middle ground between 20h/wk and the startup meatgrinder if you seek it.

For me 20h/wk is middle ground between fulltime and not having to work at all.

It literally is in the middle between fulltime and not having to work at all, so it's not just you.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#253

Post by mikemarsh »

"I hate dread. What a completely useless emotion."

Funny you should say that, since the sense of dread seemed to motivate this decision pretty heavily. Seems like the emotion was pretty useful as a sort of "burnout immune system".

Re: I quit the tech industry

#254

Post by reitoei »

agentultra wrote: post #180
reitoei wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did exactly this. Was contracting for 8 years in Dublin, commuting almost 3 hours daily. I was making good (but not amazing) money. Then the kids came, and that 3 hour commute became 3 hours that I could spend helping my wife or spending time with my kids. Got offered a full-time job in the tech industry with (gaaasp pension!) outside of Dublin, 5 minutes from my front door, with better salary, bonuses and healthca…

A pension? I've never heard of a pension in tech (though I am from a different country than you). I've never heard of companies taking part of their earnings to invest in the well being of their people. The most I have heard of are perks like ping-pong, a free beer once in a while, and conferences. They often even give you a computer to work on! And a chair to sit in! (I kid you not, these are often listed as perks i…

A mid-sized software/services company in Ireland.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#255

Post by larrys »

probablyfiction wrote: post #17

This is what burnout looks like. Unless Yelp has a toxic work culture, it's likely the author brought it on themselves by pushing too hard. After several months, the author will probably start thinking about work again, and begin the job search once more. Not to say that the author's points are invalid; it's a terrible feeling to have to spend your most productive hours working on someone else's problems. He or she m…

"it's likely the author brought it on themselves by pushing too hard."

Or being in a job or a situation that didn't fit them and they exceeded their capabilities or their ability to deal with stress.

Yelp, or for that matter any job, is not an elementary school that you are assigned to that you can't change because you are 6 years old. It's a job. People have all sorts of capabilities that allow them to work or not work at a particular career or company.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#256

Post by colund »

johan_larson wrote: post #34
probablyfiction wrote: post #17

This is what burnout looks like. Unless Yelp has a toxic work culture, it's likely the author brought it on themselves by pushing too hard. After several months, the author will probably start thinking about work again, and begin the job search once more. Not to say that the author's points are invalid; it's a terrible feeling to have to spend your most productive hours working on someone else's problems. He or she m…

Generally speaking, if you have to pay people to do it, there is something nasty about the work. It's strenuous or dangerous or dirty or degrading or stressful or boring. If it were actually fun, people would be doing it for free. (Exceptions, anyone?) We programmers are quite lucky. At its worst our work is only frustrating. And we are well compensated, usually. Don't get me wrong; programming itself can be lots of…

The work doesn't scale and do more things and handle more customers if you don't hire more people and develop better systems

Re: I quit the tech industry

#257

Post by themckman »

lighthawk wrote: post #158
probablyfiction wrote: post #17

This is what burnout looks like. Unless Yelp has a toxic work culture, it's likely the author brought it on themselves by pushing too hard. After several months, the author will probably start thinking about work again, and begin the job search once more. Not to say that the author's points are invalid; it's a terrible feeling to have to spend your most productive hours working on someone else's problems. He or she m…

> it's likely the author brought it on themselves by pushing too hard. Don't fall into the trap of thinking this. It is the case some of the time, but not all of the time. When I first started working in tech in the mid-90s, it was only a year or two before I was considering going back to school in music or to get an MBA. Since about 2004, I've known that I would like to abandon the tech industry. It is now 2015. I h…

  I've talked to several developers over the years that dream of being a groundskeeper.
A little about this. I worked plenty of my summers at a country club (my dad is a superintendent) and there is something to the work. There's some really shitty jobs (how about weed-eating the the creek banks in 90 degree temps and 90% humidity?), but mowing grass can be really enjoyable. When working at nicer clubs there is a certain amount of pressure to cut straight and even lines on greens/fairways/tees which is a nice little challenge and rewarding to look back on when you've done a good job (its art). Being out in the sun and working your body a little bit makes a man feel good and you're done around 3 (you start at 6).

It's funny how when we're young we'll look at a job like that with a sort of scorn as if we've got better things to do, but then as you get older you long a little for those nice summer days of cruising up and down the fairways, just you and your machine.

I don't think I'm ready to quit tech anytime soon as I do enjoy it and feel like I might eventually make some lasting impact somewhere, but thinking ahead towards "retirement", there's something appealing about the idea of heading down to the local country club, filling out an application and collecting my $10/hour to cut rough 3 days a week.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#258

Post by Kurtz79 »

johan_larson wrote: post #34
probablyfiction wrote: post #17

This is what burnout looks like. Unless Yelp has a toxic work culture, it's likely the author brought it on themselves by pushing too hard. After several months, the author will probably start thinking about work again, and begin the job search once more. Not to say that the author's points are invalid; it's a terrible feeling to have to spend your most productive hours working on someone else's problems. He or she m…

Generally speaking, if you have to pay people to do it, there is something nasty about the work. It's strenuous or dangerous or dirty or degrading or stressful or boring. If it were actually fun, people would be doing it for free. (Exceptions, anyone?) We programmers are quite lucky. At its worst our work is only frustrating. And we are well compensated, usually. Don't get me wrong; programming itself can be lots of…

> Generally speaking, if you have to pay people to do it, there is something nasty about the work.

No, generally speaking, it just means that the work you do has some value for the people paying for it, since they need it done and they lack the skill, the time or the will to do it.

It says nothing about how fun or stressful or nasty the work is for you (it might be fun for you and boring for someone else).

Re: I quit the tech industry

#259

Post by xacaxulu »

JDiculous wrote: post #159

The author's rant is not specific to the tech industry at all, it's the case for practically all full-time jobs. Full-time jobs generally suck. Spending the bulk of every weekday in an office doing what you're told is not fun. If it was, then people would do it for free. Day to day work is generally unglamorous and boring. I think part of the blame is that tech employers permeate this notion that one must "love" thei…

I routinely interview for jobs (even when not really looking) and for each one I ask 'how progressive is your company regarding remote work'. If they waffle, I walk immediately. It's time to imprint recruiters with the notion that great talent won't be constrained by offices.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#260

Post by reitoei »

Delmania wrote: post #98
reitoei wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did exactly this. Was contracting for 8 years in Dublin, commuting almost 3 hours daily. I was making good (but not amazing) money. Then the kids came, and that 3 hour commute became 3 hours that I could spend helping my wife or spending time with my kids. Got offered a full-time job in the tech industry with (gaaasp pension!) outside of Dublin, 5 minutes from my front door, with better salary, bonuses and healthca…

> Got offered a full-time job in the tech industry with (gaaasp pension!) outside of Dublin, 5 minutes from my front door, with better salary, bonuses and healthcare. Things can work out well (and I really don't mean to sound patronizing here) with patience and a bit of luck. While it seems to have become the trend to rail against traditional 40 hour/week jobs, the stability they can offer it extremely enticing to pe…

With kids and a mortgage, my perspective definitely shifted. I could have continued on doing what I did with the contracting, but I know for a fact that my family life would have suffered as a result. Having a 40 hour a week job is great because it gives me the ability to plan better for my family, in terms of time and money.

Yes, it does feel 'transitional' but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I really like the company that I now work for, and I still have time to work on 'side projects' at home whenever I feel like it. It's also a hell of a lot stressful. I have the ability to 'let go' of work stress a lot easier than ever before.

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