
Ask HN: I need career advice to get out of tech - JoeCF
I need your advice on what to do. I&#x27;ve been working in high tech for way too long. I keep running into the same BS at different corporations about people currying favor for each other at higher levels and keeping others regressed at the &quot;lower levels&quot;. I&#x27;d consider myself somewhere in the middle and am frankly tired of dealing with the disgusting politics of it all. I am tired of not contributing enough to society or using my skills for something better.<p>I have a lot of skills...without going into a Napoleon Dynamite quote or listing them all off, just assume that I can do almost anything in tech (architecture, marketing&#x2F;branding, design, business, project leadership, team leadership, support, some dev, etc but not so much on finance, etc.). I have a lot of philanthropic experience using my skills to help people outside of tech. I&#x27;m persistent, intelligent, sociable and extremely hard-working.<p>I&#x27;m more interested in something where I can start my own business and invest time changing people&#x27;s lives. I&#x27;d love to do anything where I can create a lasting legacy. It doesn&#x27;t have to touch everyone, but the more the better.<p>Let&#x27;s say I have minimum investment capital at under $10k but unlimited time, skills and connections to help me out. I&#x27;d like to be able to support a family and grow whatever I work on. Obviously because of the type of work that I want to do, I will be willing to accept a lower pay (at least initially) than typical tech.<p>What are some ideas that you can think of to work on? Anything is fine...I&#x27;d love for a brainstorming session or to hear if you or someone you know has had this mid-life crisis and how&#x27;d it turn out?
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akg_67
As for BS, currying favor, stepping on others, disgusting politics, ... it
will be everywhere, doesn't matter tech or any other field, doesn't matter
for-profit or non-profit organization, doesn't matter paid or volunteer
positions, doesn't matter whether you are employee or business owner....

IMO, trying to run away to something else where none of these "faults" may
exist is fool's gold. Learn to play it or ignore it or live with it, that is
the only way to keep your physical and mental well being.

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chrisbennet
Sick of politics? Work for tiny companies or consult. Tiny companies don't
have enough "slack" for non-contributors to hide their inaction without the
effects being seen. There is also a small team dynamic that can be quite
pleasant. the last company I worked for as an employee consisted of 3 people,
all engineers.

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searealist
> I have a lot of skills...without going into a Napoleon Dynamite quote or
> listing them all off, just assume that I can do almost anything in tech
> (architecture, marketing/branding, design, business, project leadership,
> team leadership, support, some dev, etc but not so much on finance, etc.). I
> have a lot of philanthropic experience using my skills to help people
> outside of tech. I'm persistent, intelligent, sociable and extremely hard-
> working.

Nearly all the skills you listed are wishy-washy and the only concrete skill
you listed was _some dev_. In the immortal words of Napolean Dynamite: Girls
only like guys who have great skills. I guess that goes for companies as well.

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ydidntithnkftht
Throwaway as well here...

Wow- this is a really close fit for me as well. My resume has started to look
like I used it for target practice because I've been jumping around trying to
find a better fit.

~12 years of programming here for various companies large and small.

I don't have any advice for you but I would love to work with you on something
(not that I would expect that to happen).

Burnout and fatigue is real. Maybe someone else will respond with tips on how
to make this more tolerable in the mean time?

My wife and I are thinking about having kids and I'm wondering if that will
help me with the "legacy" desire (which is a VERY real thing for me.

Good luck in any case and I look forward to seeing the replies this gets...

~~~
sharemywin
If your going to start some kind of business do it before you have kids. I
can't promise success but I can tell you'll become a lot more risk adverse.

~~~
gdfer
Not to mention having WAY more time for it (assuming you're the type that
believes once you have kids, they deserve your attention & care more than
other things).

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fiiv
I hear you, OP. At my job, I work on building marketing software for large
insurance/utility/telecom companies with similar...shall we say
disenfranchisement.

Firstly a word of warning - as the user akg_67 has said, there is no escape
from the workplace politics. My girlfriend works in non-profits and currently
works at one that is trying to clean up supply chains in manufacturing
outsourcing countries. A commendable initiative, I think, but her workplace is
still full of the same petty stupid games as anywhere else. Her previous one
was about teaching girls skills and leadership, but you guessed it, there too
she was part of the same crap you're trying to escape.

But if you can overlook that, and want to work for a worthy cause, you will
need to network and meet other people who already work in this field. You will
need to surround yourself with those people and get into that.

Here's what I would recommend for that, something I am doing myself. Join an
org like ImpactHub (there are some in cities all around the world). It's a
nice co-working space but also exists to foster sustainable enterprise and
bring the community together of social entrepreneurs. They typically try to
find connections when you join based on your interests.

Speaking of interests, figure out what you're actually passionate about and
what you care about. If you really want to get out and do something
worthwhile, then figure out what you consider worthwhile.

Is it the environment? Privacy? Education? Fighting corruption?

Whatever your cause, if you narrow down what you are passionate about perhaps
it would be easier to find orgs or people that are like-minded and that share
in those causes.

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joeclark77
I think there's opportunities in manufacturing high quality goods, "made in
USA", even in small quantities. Tools, knives, furniture, machines... things
that will last. Check out reddit's r/BuyItForLife/ \-- a forum for people
looking for the best quality stuff. Read "Shop Class as Soulcraft" \-- with
the skilled trades there's a lot less BS, a lot less politics, because there
are honest objective standards for good and bad performance.

This is what I've been thinking about for my own life, anyway. YMMV.

~~~
wallflower
[https://vimeo.com/31455885](https://vimeo.com/31455885)

~~~
joeclark77
Thanks for the link, that's just the kind of thing I've been gobbling up
lately.

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saluki
y, there are politics involved at every company/office. It's part of "that's
why they call it work".

I would recommend settling in at your current job and use that to fund your
future startup and support your family. If you're working toward your own
thing you won't be as worried about promotions, climbing the ladder and office
BS.

Don't advertise to others this is what you're doing. And check your employment
contract and make sure you would own the IP of anything you do outside of
work/work hours/work equipment.

To start I would work on something small to start building revenue that would
eventually replace your day job. Work on something changing people's lives as
something you can work on ideas for along the way and start once you have
something in place supporting your family allowing you to leave your day job.

It's still hard, so test out and see what you can do working on things part
time, building up small wins and increasing your side project revenue, getting
more and more focussed on getting to the level where you can leave your day
job.

startupsfortherestofus.com is a great podcast, go the archive and listen to
all the episodes in order.

This is my favorite talk to get/stay inspired, @DHH at startup school 2008.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY)

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ivan_ah
If you want to feel like contributing to society, you could consider working
with a non-profit like:
[https://learningequality.org/](https://learningequality.org/) or
[https://www.khanacademy.org/](https://www.khanacademy.org/)

I'm sure there is still office politics, but the altruistic mission generally
keeps it down, as opposed to the pure-profit motive of corporations.

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spcelzrd
The real trick here is lower pay. I don't find meaning in my work life. It
exists just to fund my art life.

A close friend left his job to start his own tech consulting company. He loves
working for himself. Even if it's the same pay, he gets immense satisfaction
knowing all his work is for his company.

What would you consider changing people's lives? Teaching? Solving problems in
your community? Inventing a life-saving medical device?

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JSeymourATL
A couple of Stanford Professors have a good framework for thinking about this
very thing, Designing Your Life: Build a Life that Works for You.

NY Times review > [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-
thinking-s...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-thinking-
stanford-silicon-valley.html?_r=0)

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milquetoastaf
Work as a contractor, charge a lot of money - more than you feel comfortable
saying out loud but say it anyway. That way, you can work for shorter spurts
and just focus on getting shit done. Then, take the minimum amount you need to
sustain / enjoy life and donate the rest to either a well-regarded charity or
re-invest it in your community.

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romanovcode
You can be a contractor. This way politics will not matter/touch you since you
are on-off type of employee anyway.

Even if you build your own company there still will be a lot of politics. And
I don't really see how it is "get out of tech" related. You can hate and
ignore politics all you want, but the politics won't ignore you.

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cottonseed
Obligatory link to The Gervais Principle:
[https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-
principle-...](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-
the-office-according-to-the-office/)

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taway_1212
Literally millions of people are in similar position. If there was a
universally applicable solution to this, it would get flooded and quickly
become not so good anymore (see: the indie apocalypse in game development). In
my opinion, the best approach is to cultivate some passion and hope it will,
years down the road, grow into a something that brings income. If it works
out, you'll be a very happy man (getting to sustain yourself with your
passion), if it won't - well at least you'll be amazing at what you're
passionate about.

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Mz
If you are planning to bootstrap something, you might be interested in joining
this group:

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/business-
bootstrappe...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/business-
bootstrappers)

If you want to do something in the health tech space, you might be interested
in joining this one:

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/health-
techies](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/health-techies)

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la_fayette
Start a community garden and try to be self sustainable.

You could work on permaculture, terra preta, open source ecology and what not.

Build a community teach your knowledge. This propably changes a lot for the
local community.

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dyeje
If you're looking to start a business to avoid corporate politics then boy are
you in for a surprise.

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istorical
Smaller companies have less politics.

~~~
siegel
Unfortunately, that's not universally true. But a smaller environment MAY have
less politics and, even if it does, those politics may be easier to navigate.

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bsvalley
Skills are useless without a bit of creativity. You should look into that.

I know creativity and corporations don't get along very well but it'll provide
you answers to your questions above.

