Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
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Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#2No. Plumbing is gross and wet. Carpentry, on the other hand...
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#3Very enjoyable comments here, no sarcasm intended. "Other jobs are even worse". In my experience, yeah, they are.
Personally as a data scientist I might as well be described as a digital plumber.
I wouldn't mind a real dirty job, but physical dexterity isn't my strong suit.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#4Yes, I have planned to become a carpenter or some other profession many times.
But, I have been blessed/lucky to be a one man show for many years and I had to stick with one tech stack and my learning only added not shifted out from under me. So when I made massive changes it was on my own terms.
The cost is mentally going against the trends/grain in the industry. My LAMP stack is now back in style, and I am grateful I never dumped it for something trendy.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#5If it helps, I had such a "1/4 life crisis" at around 29.
Tldr, trades can be fun, but are also physically demanding, get boring, don't pay as well as it might appear, and have a pretty low ceiling on growth unless you want to manage a fleet of tradesmen or something.
Sometimes I do still wish I was a carpenter. But realistically, software has so many of the same aspects as trades, but is changing so quickly there is always something to learn, it pays better, and doesn't depend on having peak physical health.
The biggest difference in terms of satisfaction I think might be that plumbers et al are more likely to be entrepreneurs, while well paid software engineers mostly work in big companies. Consider entrepreneurship within software before bailing to a completely different trade
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#6I fantasize about taking 6 months off before starting my next job and being a barista for a while. My guess is I'd appreciate my current situation a lot more :D
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#7I actually think it would be fun to "retire" and go to trade school to become an electrician. Not forever, just long enough to learn the trade. I practically have an EE degree, but since I only ever worked with low voltage, mostly digital circuits I still have poor electrical intuition for things like residential AC.
Realistically though, I think my secondary post-retirement career will end up being a teacher of some sort (high school or community college -- I'm mainly interested in teaching, not research, so university is largely out of the question).
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#8Plumber, no. Too dirty. But being an electrician would probably suit me just fine.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#9Yes, I have planned to become a carpenter or some other profession many times. But, I have been blessed/lucky to be a one man show for many years and I had to stick with one tech stack and my learning only added not shifted out from under me. So when I made massive changes it was on my own terms. The cost is mentally going against the trends/grain in the industry. My LAMP stack is now back in style, and I am grateful…
that is awesome. These are the types of dividends that I strive for. Well done.
Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?
#10No, I want to become a house painter or a gardener. I watch those super long house painting videos. And I'm ready to do it for FREE :)