I’m in this exact position and I don’t know the next steps forward. I’m on a sabbatical because I burnt out after a massive project but the expectation is that I come back and lead another massive project.
I’ve yet to decide if that’s what I actually want or if there is another solution out there. Is leaving the only real solution?
I went through this and ended up becoming (through a long and twisted path) a maintenance super for an apartment building near my house. Maybe an overreaction but every day is a blessing compared to the mental anguish I experienced making corporate software
Would you be willing to share your story? Feels like it would be something a lot of folks would take peace in reading. Only if comfortable though. Thanks! :)
It’s not really a story with a beginning and an end, but I guess I just got so fed up with how anxious the industry was making me. I put up a good fight for over 10 years at different companies and in different roles, but just couldn’t find the right place.
So I quit and became a bartender for about a year. Fun, but the hours are horrible. Then while doing that I got my massage licence, mostly just on a lark. Then I worked at a candle factory for some years, and found I enjoy that kind of work. Apartment maintenance was mostly a compromise I made, because apartments are a much more stable career than manufacturing in Seattle.
So now I’ve got my toolkit and I debug and maintain all day just like I used to, but in meatspace instead of virtually. I like being a part of my local community and work with a great team. Some days I touch poop, but I never feel like my brain is being taken over by useless facts about software that just makes people’s lives worse.
Out of self interest, can you please vindicate a feeling of mine? If a tenant in a carpeted but bottom floor apartment calls at 11pm saying the in-unit laundry room is flooding, what/who would you bring when you go out?
thank you for sharing. im planning to leave software for the same reasons.
were you able to reclaim the space in your head that your software salary took away? like, are things clearer? do you feel like you "own" your thoughts and brainpower again? do you have more mental energy at the end of the day to pursue your own interests?
if i take a 75% pay cut, i really hope i can have my brain back again.
Yes, things are infinitely clearer. I think I underestimated just how much space in my brain I needed to keep up with my own company’s software, let alone keep up with the state of the art in AI, source control, IAAS, AWS services, Linux patches, etc.
My brain is full of knowledge about technical things still, but all the know-how I have about what caulking to use in which scenarios is going to be useful 30 years from now. The know-how I used to have about my teams proprietary sorting algorithm used to be invalidated almost daily. That is a lot of mental overhead to keep all those diffs
Close your laptop no more than 8 hours after you opened it. Never work on weekends. If they need more hours worked than that, then they can hire another person to work them. If they fire you (they won't) then I guess you have your answer.
> the industry is taking a big turn toward stack ranking and implicit or even explicit 996 expectations.
I don't think this is actually happening. Maybe a few high profile businesses trying to burn through and exploit inexperienced workers are doing that, but there's a whole lot of businesses out there that aren't run by sociopaths. You just don't hear about 'em on the news.
literally three principle engineers i know have done or are doing this. im planning to leave software entirely which is insane, but it has been making more and more sense for me personally.
i cant help but think there will be a mini exodus from big software companies, and im curious what thatll do to the industry.
I’ve yet to decide if that’s what I actually want or if there is another solution out there. Is leaving the only real solution?