Comment by samhuk | Hacker News Reader

Comment by samhuk | Hacker News Reader

Didn't get laid off but resigned around a month ago after a long stretch of non-stop work since I was basically a kid (worked through college, university, and straight after O_o). Basically for a little break and to focus on doing some real intense OSS. Been a wild, challenging, and rewarding 1.5 months so far. Applied to a couple places that were working on some interesting things, some even related to my own OSS, reached out by AWS but I wasn't willing to relocate to Sweden so I broke that off. I did my first "leetcode interview" a few weeks back and did quite well I think for someone who A) has only done around 5 leetcode problems for fun ~5 years ago, B) comes from a Physics, not CS background, C) is a quick learner and solver, not rote-learning BFS and DFS kind of guy.

7 YOE in web dev, full-stack.

Leaving this here if anyone has any remote work for me :)

EDIT: For anyone accessing my site, I apologize in advance for slowness or crashes, it's hosted in my residence on a puny server sitting behind me :( I've been meaning to cloud it for a while now but I kind of like the DIY of it all.

Similar to you, I left my job about a year ago after working non-stop for 25 years (worked through college, software development, architect, director, eventually C-level, all at the same small company). My break was to focus on spending time with my children. It has been very rewarding. Initially, I thought I would take 6 months off and then get back into an IC role, but after a year, I am in no rush. I have played the interview game with a few companies in the last few months, but so far have not found an inspiring place yet. There still seem to be plenty of opportunities with small companies out there.

When I left a year ago, I thought that it was likely that the industry would start to slow down within those 6 months. I have been watching everything happen with mild curiosity. I am fortunate that my wife has a healthy career, so looking for any work has been low-stress.

Thank you for sharing. You are certainly at a different point in your life and career (I am but only a humble developer), however it was very nice to read your story about spending more time with your children.

I share that feeling of observing the industry. I think that some of the recent sentiments are a bit overblown about the tech industry. Some seem to think that it's all going to blow up because a few thousand FAANG rest-n-vesters got let go. (side-note: I know that not all who got made redundant were of that type, just adding flare!)

Good luck with your search.

I think I will be soon in the same boat and happy to hear that your time was (at least partially) rewarding.

I have 13 years of non-stop work for big tech and I cannot wait for the day I resign. Hopefully, sometime in the next 3-4 months. :-D

It is better to be unemployed if you can afford it.

Thank you. Good luck with the future. It's a big leap of faith.

Similar story to mine, 7 YOE backend dev, working non-stop since I got into college, Hope that at least you got some rest.

Hi and thank you. The more I think about it, the more I find it kind of nuts that I worked non-stop for ~10 years of my formative life all the while completing a Physics degree without taking a little break apart from annual leave here and there.

All the best with your future!

Your website doesn’t load.

It loads for me.

Seems to load now

Fine for me in firefox, at least gives me a white page with menu items.

Ah, sorry, I have edited my original comment. TL;DR it's a very little server sitting right behind me, and gets easily stressed.

For remedial points, claim it's on a raspberry pi. Slowness due to React but you're re-writing it in Rust.

Then everyone would think I'm just a ChatGPT bot trained on HN ;) /s

Great! When can you start?

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