
Ask HN: If you were to switch career, what would you do? - NinjaX
	If you were to quit your developer job today and move away from the tech world for a little while, what job would you do? Or what domain would interest you?
======
neya
I would move to sales. Sales is the only skill that helps you make money
_fast_ , if that's your goal. What I really mean by that is as you get better
at Sales, you increase your "personal conversion rate" \- which I define as a
person's ability to convert someone into a paying customer.

When you're good at sales + you're already a developer, you can build your own
Saas and sell them (like most solo founders do, except excel them at selling
it).

When you're good at sales + you work for someone else, you can still get rich
fast by taking up a commission based job (most tech startups I know of these
days, provide around 10%).

~~~
gammateam
Sales isn't the only commission based job.

You should broader your point: percent based compensation can make you money
fast. Far faster than trading your fixed hours for money at a capped rate.

Trading time for money is doing a thing that doesn't scale.

~~~
smudgymcscmudge
What are some non-sales examples?

~~~
dvtrn
Anecdote:

A good friend made enough money he was able to quit his job as an engineer to
provide telecom consulting services directly to small healthcare providers in
the North Carolina mountains. Started a small phone company, hired a sales
guy, who closes the deal, my friend comes along and walks the company through
integrating.

He describes it as a hybrid between being a reseller and a managed service
provider, but 100% of their revenue is residuals from services his partner
sells, and they both live pretty comfortably and happily.

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13of40
Not realistic, but when I was 13 or so my father worked for the Forest
Service, and we spent a week at a cabin in a California wilderness one summer.
While we were out there, we ran into a young guy who was working a summer job
where he wandered around the wilderness, camping and taking notes in a little
book whenever he heard an owl. I've always wanted to get paid for something
like that. Of course you can't demand $200 an hour, and it probably gets scary
at night.

~~~
ac29
Sounds like the Conservation Corps: [https://www.fs.fed.us/working-with-
us/opportunities-for-youn...](https://www.fs.fed.us/working-with-
us/opportunities-for-young-people)

------
lnsru
I would be a carpenter or custom furniture maker. My childhood was spend
working with grandfather creating broad range of wooden products starting with
kitchen furniture and finishing with music instruments. As an electrical
engineer I could create new electrical tools my grandpa never imagined and be
way more efficient than he was. Also open source CAD tools open new horizons.

~~~
welly
Likewise. I'm already trying to make the transition. Honestly, if I didn't
have to write another line of code, professionally, I would be over the moon.

------
20years
I would teach kids in a more non-traditional, activity based way. No tests,
just real world activities and projects that they can apply to real life.
Unfortunately there are too many politics in the education system and teachers
can't fully teach in the ways I would want to. It's all about the numbers and
what looks good on paper.

I do some of this on a small scale now but I run my own project based
workshops or after school clubs in order to bypass the system.

Examples of clubs I have ran:

\- Learn how to build an automatic solar powered plant watering system

\- Learn how to build your own retro arcade system

\- Learn how to build a battle bot and battle it against other classmates bots

\- Learn how to program [name of game]. I focus on 1 game and try to cover
most of the basics. After they get the core game programmed, they are able to
customize it or program another game with the concepts they learned.

For most of these things kids utilize critical thinking, math, programming,
electronics and engineering.

------
stephen82
I wanted to ask the same question more or less the same way because I have had
enough with technology.

I know nothing else apart from fixing computers and I really suck at
programming, therefore I'm doomed to switch career.

Plus, I'm old for technology.

My problem is I'm an introvert who gets easily exhausted, both physically and
emotionally.

If I could only get hired as a hand crafted shoemaker
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tbwiv1NHR4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tbwiv1NHR4)
or as a carpenter that works again the traditional way of hand crafting...

I want to stop dealing with technology; just use my computer when I feel the
need to or so I can pay my bills; nothing else, nothing more.

~~~
mrfusion
Being an introvert is the worst. I feel like I’ve missed out on so many
opportunities.

~~~
TheMog
You can work around that - I'm an introvert and find dealing with people hard
work, but I'm still in a client facing consulting role right now and actually
enjoy it.

For me the trick is to avoid pretending I'm an extrovert, which is something I
feel a lot of fellow introverts are doing.

Put me in front of a whiteboard or on stage at a conference and I'm fine, but
I still tend to hide out in dark corners at parties.

------
Spartan-S63
If I were to change careers, I think I’d go into politics and become some type
of political operative. I like the process, I like the issues, I like the
strategy. It would flex a completely different set of mental muscles than my
software engineering job and to me, that would be quite a welcome challenge.

~~~
mrfusion
Developers are too naive for politics. It would spin your head so fast you
wouldn’t even know what hit you.

~~~
Spartan-S63
That's quite the condescending generalization you're making there. That might
not be your intention, but that's the way this comment came across.

~~~
mrfusion
Sorry. Yeah you’re right it is too much of a generalization. I’d amend it to
be developers I’ve met.

~~~
Spartan-S63
It takes something to realize you may have over generalized. Thank you for the
apology. I appreciate interactions like these on the internet as opposed to
animosity.

~~~
mrfusion
Well good luck to you. Reach out if you actually pursue this. Happy to help.

------
toyg
If I were unconstrained by economic imperatives to feed me and my family, I‘d
love to try my hand at writing for tv/movies - it’s one of the most creative
jobs around.

If I still had to provide, then I’d be curious about plumbing - the sort of
job that cannot be automated or offshored.

~~~
davesmylie
yup - the trades will be one of the last things to go automated (hopefully). I
think I'm gonna jump into one (from sysadmin), but still can't work out which.

Each of them has their trade-offs though - building is super rewarding, but
very hard on the body. Or becoming a sparky is probably more interesting, but
lots of climbing round inside in small tight spaces running wires etc. and
spiders. lots of spiders.

Plumbing.... also interesting, but you gotta be prepared to deal with other
peoples shit.

------
KozmoNau7
Nothing.

Let me explain. I would live with just the bare necessities, see the world at
my own pace, free of all obligations and demands, fix a bike here or there,
help out people wherever I could.

That's obviously unrealistic in this rat race society and the times we live
in, but perhaps that's part of the allure.

On a more grounded level, something in concert/stage production. I love live
music shows, festivals and theater productions. It's not nearly as glamorous
as most people think, but the stories you'll have are amazing and outrageous.

On a realistic level, I would stay within my current job profile (technical
product owner or some such similar title), but switch to a company working in
the area of improving the environment and lessening human impact.

------
jonstewart
I want to shift my career to focus on climate change over the next ten years
(though likely remain a developer, if possible).

~~~
bjelkeman-again
I did. The projects I work on now only involve dealing with mitigating the
effects/lowering the things that produce climate change. There is a lot to do
in this area and most organisations that work with it don’t have good IT
teams.

This can be good and bad. If they don’t understand IT then they don’t value
it, but if they get it then there are very interesting jobs to be done.

~~~
doitLP
Can you share your company or examples of others like it? Besides some non-
profits, I can't seem to find very many and it's something I'd like to do but
remain a developer.

~~~
bjelkeman-again
Check my profile. There are quite a few companies that specialise in things
relate to lowering our emissions. Solar, power networks, electric cars, heat
pumps, new types of transport (electric boats, trains, planes), urban
agriculture and more.

They are all going to need good control systems, machine learning for
optimisation and much more. Just some ideas.

------
rcarmo
I’ve started down that path somewhat. Having spent the past few years in an
advisory/post-sales/consulting role, my interest in using computers has been
stifled by idiosyncratic takes on enterprise architecture, and I just want to
_do_ stuff that matters to me.

As a start, I’m turning to creative hobbies that let me use computers in a
creative way:

[https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2018/12/22/2258](https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2018/12/22/2258)

------
maxxxxx
I would do something outside at least part of the time. Sitting at a desk the
whole time really kills me.

------
selimthegrim
I wonder how lucrative being a private investigator is these days.

~~~
lnsru
Insurance companies use them a lot!

~~~
dvtrn
People trying to game worker's comp, I'd imagine or something else?

------
dvtrn
Something involving food, maybe line cook/prep and work up? I love to cook at
home-and sort of miss the hustle and grind working in kitchens during college.

~~~
catacombs
This fascinating story from The New York Times --
[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/opinion/sunday/dinner-
and...](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/opinion/sunday/dinner-and-
deception.html) \-- dives into the daily work of a high-end waiter. The author
talks about the repetition of the work, and that seems like something I'd
really enjoy.

------
pier25
I think a realistic job would be industrial designer or architect. An
unrealistic one would be photographer or writer. Maybe working in the film
industry.

My self christmas gift was a some gear to start shooting short films as a
hobby that I will write, direct, photograph, and produce/compose the music. I
think that's better than spending my free time coding and being burnt out.

------
ken
Isn't it a bit presumptuous to assume everyone here is a software developer to
begin with? :-)

I _did_ switch careers this year, away from software development. I'm now
working as a stagehand in the theatre.

(I'm still working on Strukt and a couple other projects in my spare time.
Expect version 1.6.1 in couple days, probably.)

------
jackaroe78
Go back home & work on the family farm

------
rubiety
Whenever I'm frustrated, I entertain the thought of penguin farming in the
Falkland islands.

------
sitkack
Politics. We need folks that can think deeply, systematically and with
compassion.

------
matfil
Some form of agriculture is pretty appealing. More scope for being outdoors
during daylight hours, and (somewhat) more tolerance for people who prefer to
work alone.

The money side of things doesn't look great, though.

------
joelcollinsdc
Arborist/tree cutter-downer person. All the fun of climbing and crevasse
rescue skills combined with being able to use a chainsaw attached you your
belt. The videos in YouTube look fascinating.

~~~
selimthegrim
[https://www.baileysonline.com](https://www.baileysonline.com) sells good
arborist starter kits. Excellent pricing and customer service.

------
johnchristopher
I am in a weird IT/marketing/devop/instructor position right now. Today I was
pondering different what if I had begin a nurse degree (my intention was to go
into ER or pediatric) or had stayed with pychology. I am glad I didn't follow
through with journalism though.

I'd like to be able to tinker with farming machines. But I don't enjoy being
around people who work in that field (unintentionnal pun).

I think I'd like to work in the woods or in environnental oriented NGO. I must
find a way to concile both.

------
byoung2
I would write. Im not sure if that means novels, short stories, movie scripts,
or something else entirely. It would be interesting to be a travel or food
writer.

~~~
zephyrfalcon
That doesn't sound like it would make a lot of money though (as in, a living
wage), unless you are highly successful...

~~~
gchq-7703
Money isn't the be all and end all to some people, you can live cheaply if
need be and still have fun.

~~~
byoung2
In fact I know a travel writer who travels the world and writes articles for
magazines. If my writing could just pay for my travel that might be worth it.

------
TheMog
High performance driving coach. I've done some of that as a volunteer for a
car club I'm a member of and I really enjoy it.

Downside is that if anything, there's even more travel than I have with my
current job.

Another option I tend to look into from time to time is sourcing and
inspecting classic cars and motorcycles for overseas (ie, non-US) buyers.
That's something that I've done occasionally as well, but it's very cyclic
work.

------
finaliteration
I’d like to be a criminal defense lawyer, especially in the realm of vacating
wrongful convictions that are based on unconstitutional rulings/Brady
violations or helping those who are innocent and should be exonerated based on
DNA or other evidence.

Every so often I debate going to law school part-time. But I feel a little
trapped by my tech career and how much I’ve done and progressed so far.

~~~
nullterminator
I'll second this, I've also debated law school time to time. Every time I
start to get disillusioned with tech (the vast majority of tech jobs do
nothing to improve the world or help people) I consider criminal defense.

------
chx
I got incredibly close to be able to become a dance movement therapist. I
spent more than 500 hours in a self experience / education group and even lead
a group session myself obviously under supervision. But dance education is
required by the ADTA and I don't have that so I won't become one, alas. Now,
that would be a pretty big change, wouldn't it?

------
intrasight
Forest ranger

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perfunctory
I would like to try something new but Im afraid I wouldn’t be able to switch
careers entirely - software development is the only thing I know how to do.
Part time is much more feasible though. I can make a comfortable living by
doing dev three days a week. For the rest of the week Im considering
volontereing for some climate change cause.

------
cmuguythrow
I am a product manager currently thinking about trying a career in software
development. I have coded for a few years on the side but never
professionally, and my computer science background is limited to basic
algorithms/leetcode. Wondering if any developers here think a PM background
would be a boon for a new dev.

~~~
albertgoeswoof
If you’re already managing a product, why not start committing code to that?

~~~
cmuguythrow
My company will not allow that unfortunately (I have already tried), I would
need to move to a different company to try something like that

------
theomac84
If I were to switch my first career would be mechanic. It doesn't pay like it
used to according to many I have talked with but I love working with machines.
My dad was a mechanic at one point and I never lost interest in seeing him fix
stuff that I thought couldn't be fixed.

------
borski
I would write, sing, and play music. It's what keeps me happy, outside of
work.

------
MrMember
I'd love to be a pilot. I've wanted to be a commercial pilot my whole life but
when I was getting ready to go to college the job market was absolutely
terrible. It isn't a whole lot better today.

------
yellowapple
I'd love to get back into music at some point. Not sure which direction within
that I'd specifically want to pursue, but it's something I sorely miss doing.

------
i5h4n
Would want to try my hand at cooking, although not really sure if I would
enjoy high-pressure restaurant cooking as much as I do for myself & my family.

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hoorayimhelping
I'd design and shape surfboards and skateboards and do the graphics for them.
Something that can't scale that I have to do one at a time.

~~~
mrfusion
I’m actually designing and building a SUP. I’d love to hear your design and
graphics ideas. Email me if you want. (In profile)

------
xfitm3
I wouldn't mind being an electrician, refrigeration tech, or maybe home
automation (like crestron).

------
Ocerge
Forest Ranger, specifically in the PNW

~~~
mrfusion
Any idea what the first steps for that would be? Sounds amazing.

~~~
Ocerge
I’ve spent a marginal amount of time thinking about it, but my first thought
would be to go back to school for forestry at a big state university and go
from there.

------
saikatsg
Either a Chef or a Film Director :)

------
dmoy
Teaching. So realistically still tech, because teaching CS or EE would be
easiest transition.

------
3riverdev
Small engine repair, classic truck/car restoration, or used parts/salvage
sales

------
snowwindwaves
business or finance combined with original passion of electrical engineering.
I probably will still go that direction as I find that those who control the
money are in control and I am tired of being a peon subject to other's deals.

~~~
amelius
Ok, but if you do please think of the peons below you. Thanks!

------
BerislavLopac
Writing. I still might.

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RBerenguel
Bespoke shoemaking. Did that for a while, really enjoyed it.

------
s09dfhks
Rotary engine mechanic

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gtt
Before anything else, I'd actually took a sabbatical.

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sawmurai
I would do my SSC and become a strength coach.

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moltar
Woodworking, Import/export

