Ask HN: Is This Good Bye?

I've been writing code on a mostly daily basis since I was 8 yo. First Basic on the C64, on to Assembler and Pascal on the Amiga, C/C++ on PC; followed by Ruby, Python & Perl, which lead on to Smalltalk, Lisp and Forth. And so on and so forth. I've written more code than I wish to remember.

Since then I've worked in all sorts of roles and companies in different countries. From freelancing to consulting to startups to established product companies. From fullstack GUI to backend to frontend to tech lead and product development.

It all started out as a passion for solving problems, improving other people's lives by helping them use computers to solve their problems. And I got to the point where I was really, really good at it. So good that I needed more leverage to do my thing.

So I've been pushing that angle for quite a while now. Being very clear about wishing to work more with people and processes than writing code all day. And I feel like I have a lot to give, a lot of hard won experience and empathy, a lot of observations and reflection on the general dysfunction in the industry.

But the hiring process has frankly gotten so dysfunctional and disrespectful lately that I'm considering throwing in the towel and switching tracks completely. It wasn't always like this, I remember a time when you could sit down and have a nice, relaxed conversation and then you were hired.

It's like the clueless suckers who ruin everything in this world in the name higher profits have infiltrated the entire software industry, and I would frankly rather starve than help them reach their goals.