

Ask HN: Alternative jobs to take a break from being a developer? - tiredofcodingya

I love coding, but I&#x27;m burned out and want to switch to something else for a while.  Something that will bring some more meaning to my life.  Or even just give me a break from the stress of being a software developer.<p>But I have a family to feed, so I can&#x27;t just take a year off and travel or do anything crazy.<p>What&#x27;s a good alternate career path I could take for a while to get a breath of fresh air?
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tapan_k
The answer depends on what you mean by "for a while". If its a few months or a
year or two, it does not matter what the alternative career path is, as long
as you do land a job that pays enough for you to support your family. If you
are looking for alternate career paths for more than a couple of years, why
think of this as temporary? Just switch to a different path and reevaluate
when you stop having fun. Check this list to see which of the following helps:

1\. Take a week or two off. Go on vacation. Maybe you just need a short break.

2\. Find a new job as a developer. The change in environment (people and/or
technologies that you work with) may do the trick.

3\. Switch to a PM role for a while.

4\. If you think being a developer is no longer fun, consider a career change.

Whatever you do, do not wait too long for the problem to fix itself. Do
something now, before you start to drain out and find yourself unable to
muster the energy and enthusiasm to come up with a solution.

~~~
tiredofcodingya
Thanks for the suggestions, that gives me a lot to think about.

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plikan13
I worked in a department store filling shelves for a couple of months and I
actually enjoyed it. The work is boring, but what happens inside your mind
belongs to yourself, all day long. Made a nice change for prostituting my
brain. The social interaction is nice too. You would be amazed how many old
people come to department stores just to have a word with another living soul.

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27182818284
> come to department stores just to have a word with another living soul.

That hits home. I have periods in my life where I have had less of a social
life, and during those I definitely found myself going to the grocery store
more. Reading your comment I realize just how much of that was to see other
folks. Same with the coffee shop

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jasonkester
The simple answer is to work as a developer for half the year then take the
other half off to go do whatever gives your life that meaning. It's simply
more cost effective to do it this way than to try to find a "meaningful" job
that you can pick up with zero experience that will still bring in enough to
support your family.

Incidentally, if there exists a job orthogonal to your skill set as a
developer that you can jump into and make upwards of half your current salary,
that's a good sign you're not billing enough today.

~~~
tiredofcodingya
I love this idea. And it sounds like I'm not charging enough, heh.

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lumberjack
Teaching is incredibly rewarding. Depending on your qualifications you might
find an institution willing to put you on their payroll but if not you can
always advertise yourself as a private tutor.

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tonteldoos
I was semi-involuntarily faced with the same situation this year. Giving a
meaningful answer will depend on situational things, ie:

\- How old are you? \- How senior are you in your profession? \- Are you the
sole provider for your family? \- How much savings/equity/etc do you have
floating around? \- What other skillsets do you have that you could leverage?

The problem (I found, anyway) with 'alternative careerpaths' are that they
either require some sort of previous experience (to get them, or earn a good
wage, depending on where you live), or the ones that don't will have 1e10
other people lining up for it (again, depending on where you live).

It may be more productive to find a way to cut down on expenses and tap into
savings, and try and learn something new, or get in touch with your inner geek
again. A side benefit might be getting to spend more time with the kids/wife,
or discover a talent or skill you didn't know you had.

My experience has shown that I don't want to get out of development, but
having to do seemingly meaningless drivel for other people sucks the life out
of our profession. I'm going to try and actively keep that spark alive going
forward (not sure yet how, but at least it's a start).

I'm happy to chat privately if you're interested...

~~~
tiredofcodingya
Thank, how did things end up for you? Did you find anything particularly
helpful during that time?

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kephra
Its winter soon, at least here.

Time to maintain motorbikes or sailing boats. Do you know any craft, e.g.
sewing, that could be used to make money in that market. Motorbike saddles,
tarpaulins, seats and cushions are things I produce when tired from coding.
Hand crafted quality sells well, and builds up a customer base that is even
more loyal then a mainframe service contract.

Especially the biker scene has the tendency of regular up or outs. Some bikers
move up, others move out, when ever a club closes, or is patched over. Same
happens to good quality saddles also. So even if you do not sell to the Angles
right now, they will might ride your saddles in 10 or 20 years, and they will
be top paying customers.

Same same but different with sailing boats. Even if one can not move a
tarpaulin from one boat to an other, like you could do with a Harley saddle,
the sailors themself move up or out regular. They either buy a bigger boat, or
quit sailing. Selling quality ensures a loyal customer, who tells his club.

You'll soon be invaded by wanna be customers every winter, if done right. Do
not take to many, keep it to a maximum of 2-3 month of 20 hours work per week.
Some of the sailing club customers might even become software customers next
summer.

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rayalez
If you have some time - you could create a udemy course based on what you
know. Making screencasts is very fun and will provide you with a stream of
passive income.

Other than that - I think it's hard to give an advice about career that would
be both fun and wouldn't require a lot of skill to start with.

But if you are willing to invest time and effort - writing, painting, and
computer graphics are the thing that I massively enjoy in my free time. I bet
you could use your programming skills in 3D graphics as well.

Also - some sort of internet marketing. It isnt usually considered fun or
worth doing among programmers, but it can actually be fun and profitable, and
obviously a useful startup-related skill that you can utilize to make/sell
your own products if you ever want to.

~~~
mkaziz
What do you mean by internet marketing?

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czbond
I understand whole heartedly - I've been there. If you are a family provider,
and don't want to get too far out of your comfort zone (every personality is
different) - you could look at consulting, software consultants, software
architecture, sales, etc. These would provide a rough average income of what
you're earning now. Or, as an aside - you could also teach yourself a new
skill or do a side job at night/weekends. Find what you are yearning to do,
and incorporate it. Are you feeling isolated coding too much? Find a more
extroverted position, etc etc.

~~~
tiredofcodingya
> Find what you are yearning to do, and incorporate it.

Maybe that's where I've been failing. Nothing I've done lately has been
inherently meaningful. May I ask what you ended up doing?

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readme
Do what I did: join the Army as a linguist. Now I have served 1 out of the six
years of my commitment, and I've learned Arabic while I got paid for it with
all my living expenses taken care of.

Also when I get out I can go back to school and I'll have a huge leg up on
government jobs. OTOH, if I can become a warrant officer I'll just stay in.

Yes it's risky/dangerous. I can't deny that. But I can say for sure it will
get you in shape and builds a lot of discipline and character.

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partisan
Man, I can really relate to this. I sometimes consider taking a development
job at a small, non-IT company. Just an easy, get-it-done type of place. The
kind of place where the users will love you for saving them from spreadsheets
and access databases and their manual processes. Job satisfaction without the
other stuff for a while.

So I guess what I am saying is that maybe you can find a place where you can
continue on your career path while saving your sanity.

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tiredofcodingya
That sounds nice... Know of any places like that?

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partisan
I don't think these types of places are the ones you find on HN. They're more
likely mom and pop places, family run and really just waiting to benefit from
automation.

I did consulting at an HVAC company that had the vibe I am describing. I am
not saying these positions are abundant, but if you check craigslist,
depending on where you live, you might find these either under the software/QA
jobs or under the computer gigs sections.

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atmosx
When I'm tired, I do gardening. But where I live I'm happy to have a lot of
sun, most of the time and my place kind of in the suburbs so whole thing is
perfect for gardening / taking care of plants, flowers, etc.

EDIT: Sorry didn't read the question well enough. Gardening isn't an _good
alternative career path_ to programming IMHO, just a nice distraction. Even
helps you _think_ about programming and/or other problems.

~~~
tiredofcodingya
Wow, that sounds awesome. Thanks :)

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azurelogic
Project manager, front end designer, QA, or DBA maybe? Depends on your
background and passion.

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mknits
You could try writing your experiences in a book.

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mc_hammer
deliver pizza or bartend, good tips :)

