I am in my early 40s and I have some savings. I would be really interested in the experience of people who have transitioned out of tech jobs (programming, management, whatever), what they have transitioned to, and how they've done it.
I've spent my 20 year career designing hardware for many startups and large companies. Some pretty complex things like Kidney Dialysis machines, surgical robotics and artificial hearts.
As a architect, technical leader and having a seemingly "important" role in these things one is not really taken care of in the way one would expect. A lot like the conversation we've all been having about the gutting out of the engineering focused culture in much of our formerly engineering led industries.
I've been working to build a small, simple business that does product design, architecture, engineering services and also has the ability to do injection molding, 3d printing, machining, prototyping, etc all in house, all right here in The SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco.
I'm not trying to solve the most complex problems, be the biggest or fastest growing. I'm just trying to be stable, reputable and reliable, a "small giant".
That’s why the most popular services are/have been free.
The whole point of technology is to make things easier and cheaper en masse.
I feel that it's no longer about making quality products, but more about milking money by any means, even if immoral and/or obviously (self-)destructive. It may have been like that for some time already, but I wasn't able to realize that before.
It seems to me as if we've become the machine that we wanted to build.
I would love doing something that's more "down to earth". Optimally, in some sector that is involved with treating people with respect - "as if" they were real human beings. An alternative would be working outdoors and being nearer to nature in general.
I very much like the idea of building the thing I want to, to the quality and aesthetic I want (eg no ads or dark monetization patterns), and selling directly to customer. It’s still early days but it has put me in a good state of mind.
Check out the Handmade online community [0] and/or attend one of our conferences [1] this year.
I’m biased because I’m the organizer for the conferences, but we genuinely share your line of thinking. Wouldn’t hurt to congregate with like-minded folks :)
But let’s not underestimate the power of independent organizing. We haven’t seen much of it in our industry because us worker bees are historically well-paid.
Not to be a downer, but I just don’t see how you could convince a business to go slower for the sake of a better technical foundation.
It's a nebulous proposition, I get that, because you can't precisely engineer an outcome. My hope is there's enough of us organizing together to trigger the right shifts.
We'll see.
If you start a business pick a place where economic prospects look good and the government won't ruin you or kill your market. Eg. I wouldn't start anything in any high tax country in Europe or California
All very practical, solving real problems, tangible, working with interesting tradespeople, attorneys, surveyors. There are a few interesting technical aspect to geek out on with legal stuff, codes, heating, plumbing etc.
It's hugely satisfying seeing results of your work, and keeping the rewards, and at the end of the day the sale price or rent speaks for itself. In tech, everything is a matter of opinion, there is so much nonsense about agile and frameworks and tabs vs spaces and whatever else, and at the end of the day the company/shareholders reap the benefits, not you.
A charity, academia (not researching yourself, but supporting research), local or national government, etc.
You don't like how business is done in your sector? Start a private company and change how the game is played.
I've been listening to some interviews lately with Todd McFarlane[0]. He talks a lot about why he created his various companies and why he could never take any of them public. In one example, he bought a $3m baseball as a loss leader to get into making toys for MLB. He made back his money many times over, but he never would have been allowed to if he had been accountable to shareholders.
I taught in Asia for a number of years, easy to find work there if you're a native English speaker.
Another option would be to take up a trade, painting house interiors is something that you can learn fairly quickly, don't need a lot of tools for, and can charge well for.
That being said, each sector has its downsides, trades are quite prone to the boom/bust economic cycle and there are no shortage of, shall we say, mediocre schools around
Another major perk: summer and winter breaks, adding up to roughly three months of the year. In particular, because the salary covers 10 months, you can do whatever you want in the summer (though it’s wise to spend some time prepping for the upcoming term). There are few other full-time jobs in America I can think of with three months off per year.
Because it’s a major investment for a college to hire a tenure-track professor, it’s best to get some part-time teaching experience first so you can find out whether or not you like teaching. I did this at San Jose State University, teaching a course on programming language principles and paradigms at night online during COVID while working full-time as an industry AI researcher. I had a wonderful time and I discovered that I enjoyed all aspects of teaching, even grading (okay, I didn’t enjoy dealing with cases of academic dishonesty, but that comes with teaching). If you have experience teaching in the workplace (for example, giving training exercises in Rust or git), then please empathize this in your applications. Community colleges aren’t solely for educating future transfer students; they are also a valuable lifeline for people looking to build their practical skills.
In my case I help people settle in Germany. It's just a website plus a few widgets that support the content. There's just enough tech to scratch an itch, but without the meetings, the sprints and the other corporate annoyances.
I started the website 7 years ago out of frustration with local bureaucracy, and it became my full time job 3 years ago.
I don't think that I was tired of tech. I was just tired of office life in general. I much prefer the chaotic, unstructured nature of self-employment.
Mentoring and coaching maybe the only thing that still drives me in (and around that, may turn all the other cogwheels too).. but noone needs/pays-for that either.
hah. Will do some e-foiling. Bake on the sun. Then.. will see then.
email in profile, if you feel like it
I'm at a director level position and I am just tired of the field and don't want to be an aging tech worker.
both seem to like it. one married a doctor she met during training, and is a surgical ICU nurse. the other works for the WHO and injects vaccines in the 3rd world.
Without knowing anything else, go to law school.
if you don't have something like that, see a career counselor, take some tests, think about whatchu want to do. don't say "restaurant or maybe a cafe" since those are going to be hard and will probably fail badly.
Harakiri!! :))
Otherwise getting serious the best approach would be to take a few alternative jobs part time, just to get a taste of the other side. Stacking shelves at Target. Truck driver, butt in the seat for 12-16 hours (illegal technically but if you don't do it you're out of the job), piss in a bottle, away from home for weeks at end. Sales, not hearing a word of kindness your entire existence only how you're missing targets and hang on a thread. Become a hermit and go live in the woods for a while.
You might be dreaming of grass being greener on the other side but my point is that it's mostly brown. Shitty brown, that is.
That sounds great, but unfortunately, it's not feasible where I live.
> You might be dreaming of grass being greener on the other side but my point is that it's mostly brown. Shitty brown, that is.
Kidding aside, I don't even think there is much grass in most places. Looks more like dirty concrete. Unfortunately, tech seems to be on track of getting there quick as well.