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Comment by wiz21c | Hacker News Reader

Do #1 as long as you need. For me it went like this:

- month 1 : feeling lost

- month 2 : feeling totally lost

- month 3 : starting doing things for fun, with the culpability of not working

- month 4 : starting to get bored... Staying home alone starts to be boring (it means your health improve 'cos you start wanting to do something again)

- month 5 : realizing that I can't repeat the last 10 years of my life. Som things must change

- month 6 : my guts tell me "you should go back to school"

- month 7 : I understand that listening to my guts is the only meaningful thing I can do

- month 8 : ok, going back to school.

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How is school going for you?

It's actually engineering (data sciences orientation). It's going OK but requires a huge effort (I'm way above the age at which you can ingest so much maths). So I have to be careful not to burn out again. But the deal is different: I work for me, I'll most likely succeed (I've made it through most of the exams with very good gradeq; I'm on the thesis right now), I don't have a toxic boss. So it's not exactly like a burn out situation. But I'll definitively feel relieved once it's behind me (hopefully in september).

Now I was fortunate enough to have enough money (and a powerful social system) to be able to do it. I understand I am very lucky.

And data sciences are super cool when you come from computer sciences. I definitely feel I'm learning something totally new. Data sciences is very far away from computers when you think about it...

If you don't mind me asking, what's your plan for after you get the degree?

Find a job :-) I still love computers :-) I may work in the research team that follows my thesis (got a strong offer); I'll do "basic" stuff but I understand they'll get an experienced colleague at the price of a student, so it's a bargain :-)

On my side, it'll mean start anew in an work environment I like, doing stuff where there's less customer management involved (so, for my personality, that means much less stress). I like customer relationship though, but not when it means: "tell the very unhappy customers that the crappy solution we sold them is the one they love (and explain that this budget overrun is under control)". I much prefer the relationship when it is : "ok customer, I think I understand your needs, let's imagine a solution together".

I've been in software engineering for 20 years and I don't think I've ever had to speak to an unhappy customer. That sounds like something that happens in small startups only (in larger orgs, devs should be fully insulated from this by product owners). In large orgs, often the problem is opposite - you're building something that no one really wants, so there are no interested customers to speak to.

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