
Ask HN: Those who left software development for a different technical field? - mr_hscker
I dont hate programming per say, but I hate everything that comes with the job. I hate the work, developers, the culture among developer teams. I also despise the leetcode interview. I know that good DS&#x2F;A skills are important. I know why they exist and are so popular. I know that there are plenty of jobs that don&#x27;t use them (but the reality is that the best paying and most interesting do). But at end of the day, I&#x27;d rather spend my time learning and working on cool projects than boring myself on some algo site so that I can compete with a bunch a quasi-competive programmers.<p>All that said, I still do enjoy programming and work on a number of cool projects for myself. I&#x27;ve started to wonder if I should do something else for a living and relegate programming a hobby I can still enjoy on the side.<p>There are plenty of stories of people going from programmer to some business position, whether that be management, sales, BA, etc., but I&#x27;m not really interested in any of that stuff. In fact, I think I would hate that more than programming. I&#x27;ve been interested in other fields since a kid, programming just won because of accessibility reasons. I&#x27;ve always enjoyed natural sciences (through school, I struggled in math, hated language arts classes, but always excelled in science). I also contemplated a couple going into a other engineering fields as a teen that I&#x27;ve retained an interest in. There are also some IT domains that look interesting (honestly I&#x27;d probably be a better network engineer that software engineer), but I don&#x27;t think I could stomach starting at the bottom of that field. I expect a pay cut if I switch fields, but entry-level IT pays pennies.<p>I dont think I&#x27;ve ever heard of anyone doing anything like this. Googling only shows people doing the opposite going from <i>X</i> to software development. Everyone wants to be a programmer these days. Maybe it&#x27;s the money and prestige.<p>Has anyone made a transition from software to some other technical field?
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neuroticfish
You and I are in the same boat, except I've grown to hate not only the
culture, but programming too. I've not heard of former devs breaking into
other technical fields, but I have heard of them getting into stuff like
farming, construction, or trades (electrical, plumbing, etc.). I wish I hadn't
spent my 20s dwelling in anxiety. I wish I had moved around, become a trail
guide, or got into scuba diving, or even joined the coast guard. Sadly the
best I can hope for nowadays in my 30s is to program in a domain I don't
totally despise.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
My VP Engineering quit and opened a Falafel joint.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Sounds more fulfilling than a stand ups to be honest. Better stories too.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
He's very happy. Best falafel in the Midwest (did a tour and charted every
recipe, then created his own).

Keeps his crew for years - the normal term is months, especially in a college
town. He's brought his management experience from Engineering teams to food
prep and cooks and servers, some of who've never been treated like
professionals and peers in their lives.

Does catering too, and supplies restaurants with 'snack packs' which are very
popular around here.

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silverreads
I just left cloud software development to be the jack-of-all-trades only
computer person at a local shop. I love it. I spend all day helping people
instead of fighting jira.

~~~
_bxg1
I have a related experience: a few years ago I built a website for a local
music store, and I still do the occasional maintenance task for them. Their
gratitude and happiness with the product has made it one of the most
fulfilling technical projects I've ever done.

Advantages of being "the technical person" for a non-technical
project/business/etc:

\- You get out of the insular, one-upsmanship-steeped technical culture

\- You can implement things exactly the way you want to

\- You're probably much less abstracted away from the people you're actually
helping

It's the third thing that I think is most important. In most tech jobs you're
either gently swindling your customers through A/B tests and "conversion
metrics", or you're doing "tech for tech's sake" which can be fun but
ultimately feels empty. It feels really good to directly help real people.

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withinboredom
Not me personally. I have two friends that did.

One is a project manager for a small construction firm. Last time we had lunch
together he told me the industry is ripe for some good software, but the
owners don’t want to buy it. He started working on a free and open source
tool.

The other ran so far away from software none of us are sure where he went.
He’s vanished off of all social media and only occasionally answers texts.

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GeertB
I know of one programmer who went from writing software to building cars,
rockets and a solar grid. I hear he's doing quite well.

~~~
derwiki
When did Carmack get into solar???

/s

~~~
dvtrn
Come on, Carmack isn’t interested in solar. Not when we can literally mine the
energy straight from _Hell_ , do you know how many btus we’re talking about
here?

...I’m now being told trying to extract energy from Biblical Hell is a bad
idea?

~~~
dbetteridge
Is Hell based heat exchange a second law violation? Ignoring the obvious
angry, cold demons

~~~
dvtrn
Downvoters aint ever played Doom, hah.

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econcon
I am a programmer but I prefer physical object business.

During Corona self isolation, I started creating and selling filament:

I documented the journey here: [https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-
filament-at-ho...](https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-
home-for-cheap-6c908bb09922)

The price of filament is still going up.

Since selling filament I am working partime, mostly doing maintenance
(updates/patches) existing application.

~~~
Nextgrid
Is this viable in the long term? Why can’t the major plastic manufacturers
push you out of business thanks economies of scale and lower prices?

~~~
econcon
I never think about what will happen in future, tomorrow I might as well fall
under the bus and die. Planning way ahead doesn't help me, I just jump into
whatever I find interesting then ride the tide till it's no more.

You can also check on YouTube there is a Canadian I think? Company called
ProtoPasta which also makes filament in small shop.

Filament market I think, isn't big enough for the large companies to dominate.

And other thing is logistics, I make locally I can offer cheaper rates to
local buyers shipping locally.

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fireandforget
I went from Software Engineer to Solutions Architect a few years back, and
can't be more happy.

a) You are still coding somewhat, but just prototypes. It is fun to use the
APIs your company builds and help customers with it b) You learn a ton about
business. I would call this position more professional consultant, since in
the right company, you learn about deals, how much a company pays for what and
what value they get out of you

You finally work with people and not nerds who never grow up. You can touch
code, but also learn soft skills and make connections. Personally, the money
was equal if not better. You finally work on the profit center of a company
and not the cost center. After I switched to Solutions Architect, I come here
every now and then and be so happy not to do this fulltime anymore. I don't
care what you build at the weekend anymore.

I am also more free after work. There is no special new tool I need to learn
after the job to get a job in 3 years from now. The people skills I build with
my wife, kid and friends are so much more valuable now. So socializing
replaced hacking on a new project. Which also did good for my mental health.

~~~
larrykubin
Did you switch within the same company? I have made attempts to apply to
Solutions Engineer and Developer Advocate roles to match how my personality
has changed over time, but have found that no one responds to my resume /
applications, even when I have spent several years teaching, consulting, and
building content and demos on the side to supplement my engineering experience
and prove I can do the job. I immediately get responses and enthusiasm when I
apply as Senior Software Engineer, but it seems people are skeptical of why I
would want to change to Solutions Engineer or Developer Advocate when the
title is not already on my resume.

~~~
fireandforget
No, and I had the same responses. I applied at 12 Solutions Architect roles,
and 1 company replied and offered the interview process.

I actually don't know how people choose Solutions Architects. One tipp would
be to go on LinkedIn, look for the Solutions Architects at the company you
apply for, and ask them how they got hired or just look at their CV.

Right now it can be that the market is dried up and this sales role is
especially hard, since many fields don't have active customers any more (or
won't get new ones in quite some time)

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cmsyspref
Life is short, do what makes you happy is what they say, right?

I've begun the transition from sysadmin into nursing to hopefully a NP
certification. Maybe I can blend my background of cloud security and
Kubernetes with medicine somehow. Or not.

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6510
Here is a cool suggestion:

I love doing manual labor for the physical challenge. In many such jobs the
apps are crawling into the work flow. I'm sure they exist but what I've seen
is lots of management and programming effort not producing the smoothness
possible. I'm entirely convinced now that one cant get the design anywhere
near perfection without experience doing the work. (where ofc substantial
experience is better than some)

A manager together with an intelligent person with substantial development
skills can design an UI where things that happen more frequently are easier to
do. Then in the real world low frequency tasks may require 8 other people to
wait 30 seconds while you tap buttons. It is not a big loss but it feels
wrong. With some tasks it would be more convenient if you could operate the
phone with one hand.

In my current job it may seem like time for a task is limited so we do a half-
arse job. If it later turns out we do have time we want to get back to it but
we cant. Checking a box means the job is done (we drink coffee in stead) no
one would dare explain to the managers how the real world works. To them a job
that takes 100-306 min always takes 203 min. Explaining a hundred tiny
annoyances is waaaaaay to much work. Imagine a conversation about sessions
that expire after 30 min while 5% of the tasks take slightly longer.

Also common is a complete lack of context with the current task. If the app
knows I'm hammering floor boards with nail type 42 it can anticipate a need to
order more nails. This feels empowering while navigating to the nail section
of the supplies section then scrolling over a list feels as if it interrupted
your actual work.

You can only do perfection if the entire feedback/testing loop takes place in
the head of a single person. If one has a lot of experience one can sometimes
encode the tricks of the trade.

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legerdemain
From first-hand experience working in Silicon Valley, I've seen some people
move into independently wealthy "landed gentry" lifestyles, and certainly some
younger people who left tech jobs to attend law school, but few or no people
who left software for a different, but still remunerative career.

------
rohi
How about becoming a primary or a secondary school Math teacher?

~~~
dvtrn
I also want out of tech; I started 15 years ago as a help desk analyst, now
I’m an Engineering Manager. The burn out is real, the golden handcuffs are
real and I’m just tired of being in this _kind_ of work, thoroughly sick at
what I’m seeing in the tech industry from a career perspective, tired of
standups, tired of sprint planning, tired of retros, scrum, “technical
recruiters”, the resume skill rat race, interviews, interviewing...[trails
off]...

As recently as _this morning_ I was talking to a friend who teaches pre-calc
at local high school and tutors part-time independently about potentially
making this very career pivot, to the point where I’m legitimately looking at
financial aid and scholarships to potentially just go back to school and get a
BSc in Maths and Physics so I can go be a school teacher and geek off with
kids about science like I do with my nephew whenever I’m babysitting him and
we spend hours playing Kerbal Space Program

~~~
burntoutfire
Uhh my understanding is that, as a teacher, you're mostly policing a bunch of
youngsters who are not happy to be in the classroom with you. If you get a
couple of pupils who are into what you're teaching it's considered a blessing,
otherwise it's squeezing water out of a stone.

~~~
isbvhodnvemrwvn
Not to mention you can't just teach what you want, you have a program to
follow. You will also be judged by various test results, so you can't focus on
the few bright people in the class, you have to address the rather long tail
of under-performers.

~~~
TomMarius
Not every teacher has a choice, but perhaps this one does. There are good
schools.

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scarface74
Get some hands on experience with cloud computing - either AWS or Azure - and
leverage you’re combined skills of development and cloud to get a role in the
cloud consulting department of either Microsoft or Amazon. No algorithms
studying required. Pay is good, abc permanent remote work is possible.

Pre-Covid there were a lot of other consulting roles available, but they seem
to have dried up.

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droptablemain
I am a software engineer for 10 years, and have been dabbling in audio
engineering / recording / mixing for the past couple of years. I haven't made
the transition, but I wouldn't rule it out in the future.

I'd probably never stop coding though. It would just be a matter of switching
from pro to hobby, and vice-versa.

~~~
throwaway9482
Sonic Pi might interest you if you don’t know it already. It’s an alternative
to DAWs where you use ruby code to make music

Here’s a demo [https://youtu.be/KJPdbp1An2s](https://youtu.be/KJPdbp1An2s)

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Gibbon1
I write firmware for micro-controllers and deal mostly with engineers, techs,
other sane code monkeys, and an occasional customer. My occasional dealings
with actual mainstream software developers is generally unpleasant.

I would suggest firmware or some other job where software is part of the
product not the product.

~~~
sheepybloke
I agree 100%. Sometimes, it's not the type of work but the people you're
working with. In the embedded space, you work with a lot more electrical and
computer engineers, who, in my opinion, are "generally" a lot more tolerable.
My worst experiences so far in both my career and in school were when I had to
work with straight CS people. There's a certain personality that gets pulled
in to it that can be toxic and hard to work with.

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giantg2
"Maybe it's the money and prestige."

Do you have any examples of prestige?

I wish I had either one. I have never recieved any prestige in my career. The
money is ok, but there are trades that pay more than what I make, especially
if you factor in cost of living.

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pezo1919
Not answer for the exact question, but I am trying to own a project and a
software engineer and its much more bearable than a common job with the issues
it comes.

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smabie
Have you considered finance? Pay is good and the work is can be challenging.

~~~
person_of_color
Opportunity cost high: MBA.

~~~
smabie
That's not true, most people don't have MBAs in finance.

