Hacker News Reader

Comment by spicyusername | Hacker News Reader

I dream about it everyday.

I love building software, but I can't stand working in the industry.

It's such an unholy combination of bad corporate culture and questionable moral principals.

There was a part of me who dreamed of doing simple entry-level jobs instead of working in tech, so I got a part-time job cleaning hospital ER rooms on the weekends. Everything has been fine for the most part, but it has been made clear to me how easy it is to get fired at entry-level jobs. The pay is really pretty dismal and the stability really isn't there. Overall the experience has made me a lot more inclined to not leave money on the table. If there are things I can do to earn more and make my life more comfortable I just do them now.

> I got a part-time job cleaning hospital ER rooms on the weekends.

> experience has made me a lot more inclined to not leave money on the table.

Sorry for the dark humor, but I'm imagining you meant collecting the pocket change that fell out on the operating table.

None of that is specific to this industry. It’s far worse in others. Grass always looks greener elsewhere

When it comes to the shit imposed to the rest of society, and the shit imposed on office workers, it's worse in this industry.

I'd challenge you to point out specifics that are industry wide, not just one company that happens to abuse its employees.

Agile is used to create a perpetual sense of crunch since you are never more than ~2 weeks away from your deadlines.

No it’s not unless you’ve never interacted with people in other industries. It’s just as bad there, unless you have specific reasons for tech

Came here to say exactly this.

If people don't like building tech that's one thing.

But the problems most of this thread are discussing are just people and organizational problems.

If you want to live and make money you're probably going to have to put up with some level of bullshit.

Find the company with the least of it and enjoy the rest.

Yeah my job sucks shit too, I just make 1/3rd as much as MANGO software engineers.

Should’ve learned to program. At least writing python scripts with Claude has automated a lot of my job away.

Anyway, there’s a support group for your shitty job, it’s called the bar, and we meet daily.

This is the kind of attitude that keeps the world the way it is.

That makes no sense. They didnt provide any specific reasons they dont like the tech industry. All of their reasons can be applied to just about any industry lmao. The core issue is and always will be capitalism

From what I've observed, the big problem with working in tech is that you have all of the responsibility but none of the authority or autonomy. By comparison, in most service sector jobs you have no authority or autonomy but also little responsibility. In other engineering disciplines you have a lot of responsibility but also much more authority and autonomy.

> the big problem with working in tech is that you have all of the responsibility but none of the authority or autonomy

Very apt description of "Big Tech". That's why I decided to leave as well. This combination just creates a lot of stress and it was negatively impacting my health.

You really put it succinctly and very accurately, I imagine you read this somewhere?

In my experience, unless you are working with items which can kill people (medical, military) there is no responsibility. Developers can deploy any broken build with little consequences.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com