That's all.
Savings are getting low, and I'm going to be struggling to pay rent soon. I'm curious what other kinds of work other former developers got into and if they like it. Cheers.
Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
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Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#2Doing up houses, doing electrics for houses in the town and making wooden doors. I do it for fun, but the latter two would make me bank; there is a massive shortage, most people suck and even when paid well they don't turn up anyway as someone pays more.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#3I have a couple friends who were big outdoor types who became software engineers and then after making some money for a few years went and found more outdoorsy jobs (think forest service jobs).
The point is not that an outdoorsy job is great for you, but that you may want to consider what kind of things make you happy and see if you can find a job doing something like that. These folks loved being outdoors before become engineers and were happy to go back to being outdoors for work.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#4Not me, but my buddy got out of software development and learned to be, as he describes it, "a bog standard electrician." He had money for trade school, and then apprenticed under an experienced electrician. Dude is in his 40's, so late career change. Makes double the money he did doing remote coding.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#5Not me, but my buddy got out of software development and learned to be, as he describes it, "a bog standard electrician." He had money for trade school, and then apprenticed under an experienced electrician. Dude is in his 40's, so late career change. Makes double the money he did doing remote coding.
> Makes double the money
Canada?
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#6Doing up houses, doing electrics for houses in the town and making wooden doors. I do it for fun, but the latter two would make me bank; there is a massive shortage, most people suck and even when paid well they don't turn up anyway as someone pays more.
Did you need licensing / training to take on electrical work? Do you market yourself as an electrician or more just a handyman that does minor electric jobs?
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#7This hits home.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#8Not me, but my buddy got out of software development and learned to be, as he describes it, "a bog standard electrician." He had money for trade school, and then apprenticed under an experienced electrician. Dude is in his 40's, so late career change. Makes double the money he did doing remote coding.
Certified electricians can make really good money, especially union. But that's really hard to believe. Is this somewhere like NYC or something that there is an edge. A remote software developer is typically in the $100-200k range in the US. I know union certified electricians in that range, but none in the $300-400k range.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#9After I was laid off from JavaScript work for 6 months a recruiter contacted me to write APIs using a commercial enterprise platform. Its been great. I did that for almost a year before they promoted me to operations for the project.
I should have moved away from JavaScript work much earlier in my career. I had on reverse beer goggles. I love JavaScript and writing programs in the language, but the problem is that almost nobody in work force liked JavaScript. All the cool JavaScript applications in the wild tend to be hobby projects, because at work most people struggle just to put text on screen. Employment writing JavaScript always felt like a race to the bottom. If I could go back in time and give myself career advise I would recommend an MBA and a PMP and just ignore programming as a career. It is absolutely a wonderful skill to have for personal use, but you will always do better in a more structured work industry.
Re: Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?
#10Doing up houses, doing electrics for houses in the town and making wooden doors. I do it for fun, but the latter two would make me bank; there is a massive shortage, most people suck and even when paid well they don't turn up anyway as someone pays more.
Very nice! I’d love to see your work.