Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 221 posts

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#91

Post by lj3 »

HFTGuru wrote: post #65
voidz wrote: post #16

I became a full time father and results have been stellar. My boy is now one year old and turns out to be very clever... And very strong. He could crawl at seven months and started to learn how to walk at 11 months. His first word was 'hunger' (in Dutch, it sounds virtually the same) at two months, maybe it was imaginative but he was happy to eat after we we heard him say it, haha. Now he can also say 'mama' and 'pap…

I've been developing in C, in the finance industry as a high frequency trader as well as being a father. My son is home schooled and is typing elementary level sentences at 3 years old, he can also strum the guitar playing notes C D E F G A B on request. The down side is I work 10-12 hour days, but I get a performance bonus between 400k and 800k every year. I'm hoping I can retire in my late 30's, but I do miss out o…

Do you mind if I contact you offline so I can pick your brain about HFT and how you got into that? hn@lj3.me

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#92

Post by lylo »

It's a shame we won't hear from the people who left and never came back to IT. They're likely no longer here to answer your question! Nevertheless, it's interesting hearing people's stories.

At 25 (4 years as an engineer, games, DTP) I felt pretty burned out so I took a year out to travel the world. I saw incredible places, had new experiences, met people from a wide variety of backgrounds who I'd never have encountered in a provincial 9-5 office job. It was amazing. When I returned I moved to a new city and got back into tech, my passion for which had been reignited during my time out. I hadn't missed it, but I was keen to get into a new job in a new tech area and learn new things.

Burn out it a common problem in tech. If it were possible/affordable, taking a six month sabbatical to do something entirely different – travel, charity work, teaching, writing, whatever! –might be the best thing anyone could do to keep their passion and enthusiasm for tech burning. Maybe it's something you do every 4/5 years.

If you're good at your job, valued by your employer and have saved a bit of money, it might even be easier than you think...

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#93

Post by presidente20 »

davimack wrote: post #8

Well, personally, I tried to escape by going and getting a Master's and a PhD. Unfortunately for me, I didn't bother to really LOOK at academia as a career path, so when I finished and started looking into it ... well, it's pretty crap, being an academic, no matter which country you're considering. Also, academia only considers the work you've done post-PhD as being of any worth, so I'd be competing with kids who'd g…

I've been following the Money Moustache type approach for a while now myself. I highly recommend it, but the closer I get to the goal the more I realise I need something else constructive to do if/when I jack it all in.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#94

Post by toomuchtodo »

DoodleBuggy wrote: post #84
toomuchtodo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm buying a sailboat with my wife and daughter and sailing the world in 18 months (waiting for the last of my options to vest). Think about it! It's ~$60-100k to get the boat, and you can live on ~$24-30k/year doing it. There's a huge community out there of cruisers who do it full time.

Sounds fun. How long have you been sailing? Where did you learn how to sail? Is that what you plan on doing forever or is this a temporary excursion?

> How long have you been sailing? Where did you learn how to sail?

I took classes at a yacht club in March/April, so a little under a year.

> Is that what you plan on doing forever or is this a temporary excursion?

Who knows. Maybe forever? Maybe only for a few years? If you want to hear the gods laugh, tell them your plans.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#95

Post by satysin »

HFTGuru wrote: post #65
voidz wrote: post #16

I became a full time father and results have been stellar. My boy is now one year old and turns out to be very clever... And very strong. He could crawl at seven months and started to learn how to walk at 11 months. His first word was 'hunger' (in Dutch, it sounds virtually the same) at two months, maybe it was imaginative but he was happy to eat after we we heard him say it, haha. Now he can also say 'mama' and 'pap…

I've been developing in C, in the finance industry as a high frequency trader as well as being a father. My son is home schooled and is typing elementary level sentences at 3 years old, he can also strum the guitar playing notes C D E F G A B on request. The down side is I work 10-12 hour days, but I get a performance bonus between 400k and 800k every year. I'm hoping I can retire in my late 30's, but I do miss out o…

Personal opinion... You can always work a few more hours/weeks/months/years when your kid is an adult and living their own life but you won't ever be able to get those childhood years back. Also 50-60 hour work weeks are not healthy for you in the long term unless you are very vigilant with how active you are and take regular (every hour) breaks.

Also anecdotally I know several people who planned/hoped to retire in their late 30s/early 40s. None of them did and are still working now in their 50s and even one in their 60s. Mixture of reasons from health problems in the family to financial issues to just not knowing wtf to do when not working now their kids are adults and living their own lives.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#96

Post by toomuchtodo »

DoodleBuggy wrote: post #85
grecy wrote: post #44

I quit my Software Engineering job and am now spending two years driving my Jeep around Africa. I'm working while on the road, writing for magazines, selling photos and filming a YouTube series. I am having the time of my life, and am extremely happy I made the decision I did. IMHO, sitting at a desk is just not worth it. Life is too short. I'm meeting a ton of people who agree, and are living the kind of life people…

Nice Jeep, what was the total cost to have it configured like that?

http://imgur.com/a/OLK3o

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#97

Post by [deleted] »

grecy wrote: post #75
james_niro wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please next time take me with you

I have toyed with the idea of running some kind of "competition" where someone can win a couple of weeks on the trip with me. Fly into some airport, I will pick them up, tour them around a country or two and drop them off again. I have no idea if people would actually be into that, or stay away because I'm nuts. Serious question - would you go for that if I offered it?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#98

Post by beachstartup »

wil421 wrote: post #62
beachstartup wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you ever tried technology sales? i can turn on the social charm like a light switch but it requires significant effort so i wasn't able to do it long term but it might be a good transition for you.

How do you make the transition? I can turn on the charm and getting tired of corporate IT. I know a couple people who've done it but they always knew a former co worker who got them jobs. I was thinking sales or sales engineer.

interview for open positions. ask your friends if their companies are hiring. be honest, tell them you want to transition.

but ... i mean, if you can't sell yourself into a job, you're not going to be doing much sales.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#99

Post by munificent »

kickscondor wrote: post #67
iguanayou wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I left the tech world to teach high school. Two years in I felt the same as you do now. Five years in, not so much - and I returned to programming. I still like teaching and still do it part time, but would not want to be a full time public school teacher again.

I'm not sure if I would feel quite the same about high school - one time I showed up to work and there was a green construction paper heart in my mailbox that had YOU CAN HANDLE THIS SITUATION sloppily printed on it. No - you're right, this is all still fresh to me - second year has been even better than the first. Let me know if you ever write up your feelings, I would love to hear about your full experience.

You know, sometimes I could use one of those hearts at my job.

Re: Ask HN: What did you do after quitting the IT industry and how have things been?

#100

Post by voidz »

mbrameld wrote: post #61
cylinder wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask, would you consider your pre-fatherhood period as ambitious? If so how do you deal with deferring that ambition to be a full-time father? I sometimes feel like this might be the path I take, but I worry about regretting it later down the line.

Ambition isn't only related to a career. You can focus the same ambition on fatherhood and strive to continually progress as a parent.

This is very true, and a beautiful point to make. Thank you.
Post reply on HN