
Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave software? - blackadder99
About Me:<p>I&#x27;m a mid-career developer, age 48.  I started programming in 1983 on a TRS-80 Model 3, then graduated to an Apple &#x2F;&#x2F;c, and fell into a Computer Science degree.  I&#x27;ve been a professional software developer since about 1996, with a couple of detours, including getting a business degree and doing project management.  I&#x27;m a good developer and have been successful in my work.<p>Nearly all of my professional development experience has been doing &quot;full stack&quot; web applications using a (much-evolved) Java backend with whatever passed for frontend at the time, starting with godawful applets, HTML, and Javascript in Netscape Navigator 3 and culminating in Vue.js and the madness that is Webpack.<p>I still love programming; the satisfaction of dreaming up a solution and making it work is strong, but I don&#x27;t love the software industry.  In fact, as time has gone by, I&#x27;m coming to hate it.  The obsession with youth, novelty, and the accompanying hubris (even ignorance) cause me to want to move to another industry and give up professional programming.  I also don&#x27;t see a path for personal growth that isn&#x27;t software development management, something for which I find no enthusiasm.<p>I&#x27;ve got a family and other interests and abilities, and hopefully about another 20 years of full-time work ahead of me.<p>Here&#x27;s the Question:<p>Why should I stay in software?<p>Is it just money?  Have you faced this decision, and what and how did you decide?
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ThrowawayR2
Web front-end/back-end took the brunt of the impact of the commoditization of
software developers and is rapidly on it's way to becoming the McJob of tech.
Everything you said is why I stayed away from web technologies as much as I
could in my career. Head over to work at a platform company (e.g. Salesforce,
Atlassian) where they care more about reliability and maintainability than
rewriting everything in the latest hot framework. Another option is to head
over to IoT, embedded development, or some other area of systems development.
Fundamentals still matter, evolution of technologies is benefit driven rather
than fad driven, and experience is considered a positive.

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mech422
If you're having to ask why to stay, and not why to go... perhaps it is time
to move on?

A wise man told me when I was really young, "Computers can be a great hobby or
a great career, but not both". As I get older, I see more and more people
burning out...

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ramtatatam
You can stay in software but move to more conservative industry, like oil and
gas. Lots of SCADA is JAVA based, some solutions have HTML based GUIs. And the
industry is centered around reliability, experience counts there.

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blackadder99
Thanks for the reply, this is an industry I hadn't considered.

Any suggestions for companies, job sites? I'm near Boston and not looking to
relocate.

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ramtatatam
I'm not based in US (I live in Europe). Long time ago I worked for Honeywell
(they do lots of industries and their headquaters are in US, their SCADA
products often need local software specialist who knows how to integrate it
with other systems- in my country I was the only person capable of doing
this), also Johnsons Control (not Oil and Gas but industry in general). Also
Rockwell, Siemens, GE - these giants are like FAANG in industry, with many
divisions in different areas of proper industry. And each of them want to be
'smart', not only to hang equipment on the wall. There is lots of demand for
software engineering there.

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rawgabbit
I went through a similar situation years ago. I have been working at a
Nonprofit for ten years now. Same insanity as when I worked at for profit
companies but more stability. I also love Salesforce.

