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Comment by py_or_dy | Hacker News Reader

I'm pretty burned out too with my work (mostly web dev stuff). I've been meaning to get "AWS certified" or learn Kubernetes, but like you, it all seems so crazy to me. I used to love old school "linux administration", but this new wave of tech gives me no interest.

Curious how you get an offer such as this? I've thought about changing job roles, but I really suck at leet coding so I've never really bothered. I figured that as a 40 year old male, no one would hire me for a role unless I was already experienced. Is that not the case?

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Feeling the same. Tired of web stack. Don’t want to do Kubernetes. Don’t want to do ML. All I want is descending to lower level programming. Rust would be nice. C would do too. LLVM IR might be my ultimate language. I don’t waste time on Leetcode. I spend most of my free time on side projects on GitHub which helps me build up a portfolio for my next job. I also watch MIT courses to learn system programming. I don’t care about earning a degree. Just watching it for the pleasure of it.

Have you considered applying for entry level jobs of a different domain? As long as you are ok with a pay cut, there is not such thing as over-qualifying.

Would you mind sharing a link or two to these courses?

MIT 6.033 Computer System Engineering, Spring 2005 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6535748F59DCA484

MIT 6.172 Performance Engineering of Software Systems, Fall 2018 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUl4u3cNGP63VIBQVWguX...

I feel what is underpinning this thread is a job dissatisfaction issues from the ratio between "using other people's software" vs. "writing software for others". The former is inevitably frustrating as I'd become a consumer of software, rather than a creator. Kernel programming, and low-level system engineering in general is more aligned with the latter where you have more creative freedom and less constraints from other people's abstractions. It's like driving an automatic vs. manual car. The latter is just more fun, despite its inefficiency.

Enjoy the courses!

Thanks a lot. Will give this a shot pretty soon!

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