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Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

I know several people who have aligned their lives with what they love to do and found much more happiness. One switched from tech to law, one from tech to forestry, and another is a chef at a restaurant. I've also known people who switched and then switched back because they realized it was more about the money for them than the happiness.

That said, there is a bit of internal confusion in your message which talks about specific jobs vs tech and tech qualification. So if your issue is that you don't have a degree, consider going to school to get one and doing web development on the side to help fund it.

Finally, look at this question "I don't really have time to do side projects and build up a decent portfolio" very carefully. What do you do with your time? Are you putting in 60 - 80 hrs at the office? in what role? What do you do when you aren't in the office? That can often inform you where your passions are.

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I agree with both your points:

I switched from software development to law and am quite happy so far. I liked tech, but my job involves a lot more writing and personal interaction and that suits me. But I've met people who made the same transition and disliked it for precisely those same qualities. Even desk jobs vary widely in character and its worth introspecting to figure out what suits you best.

I think going to school is a great idea. I was too young to appreciate the unique social context of school when I was an undergrad, but after working for a couple of years I approached grad school very differently. School is really a wonderful place to meet intelligent people with diverse interests. It's a wonderful setting for dating and having relationships. It's a real opportunity to figure out what sort of work you'd like and enjoy. Especially for someone coming back from the working world, it's an opportunity to change your scene and explore things that make you happier. Yes, it's expensive and time consuming, but I think it can also be tremendously valuable for reasons that have nothing to do with jobs.

I'm in law school now, so I'm pretty interested in your experiences as a techie-turned-lawyer. Does your software development experience impact your legal work in any way? e.g. , do you work on any tech-related practice areas?

Well when I say go to school I mean online somewhere full time after work hours. I don't see any other way to take care of my responsibilities and go to school.

"Are you putting in 60 - 80 hrs at the office?" Sometimes. Over the last few months I've been working nights and weekends due to project demands. My client is west coast and I'm east coast so they have no problems calling me at 8PM with issues. I've also been behind on 'mandatory training' so I've been catching up on that on nights and weekends. I've given up 4 vacation days for the project also.

I basically work, go to the gym, and sleep. I've been allowed to work remotely lately which saves me 4 hours of commuting on most days. Lately those 4 hours have been consumed by client work. I'm also dealing with some health issues that make it hard for me to stay awake and/or focus. Skipping them gym just makes the next day much worse so I don't want to consider that right now.

That being said you're right that I should be able to still carve out some time to do other things.

IMO: 60-80hrs a week plus potentially hard exercise == Burnout.

Dont work a second more than 40hrs. If your project cannot handle only 40hrs per week, it needs to scale horizontally (more people). if horizontal scaling wont work (aka: Mythical man month) then the deadline was/is just wishful thinking.

If your case is actually burnout: I would take 2 weeks vacation immediately and ban computers during that time, maybe a beach somewhere tropical. Stop working overtime and drastically reduce your cortisol levels (drink black tea, no caffeine/coffee, deep breathing, cardio not weights, all the usual prescriptions for stress). Finally, invest some time into increasing your bandwidth. See: "Apprenticeship patterns" by Dave H. Hoover.

Best of luck.

In a couple of months your body should have reset. Start to address the deep roots of your issues. Try reading "the slow fix" by Carl Honore .

Most of this is anecdotal advice based off limited information. Hopefully it helps.

Thanks for the advice. I'm actually going on vacation in 28 days 9 hours and 23 minutes. Going to the dominican republic for 7 days computer and worry free. I also go to a therapist to help me deal with work/stress/depression.

why don't you get a 40 hour job elsewhere for now? that'll give you enough time on the side to learn web dev and then maybe in 6 months you can start applying to junior web dev positions? Or how about a junior QA job somewhere? move up into development later on?

I've been applying for various jobs for the past 2 years. I actually quit my current position a few times but they talked me into staying. I turned down the offer I had and that was the only offer I've gotten in the last 2 years.

You need a different job, anyjob, that pays you enough to live on but gives you personal time. What you're doing is not sustainable and they're taking advantage of you; you're helping them do it.

Find a different job, which is not your goal job, just something to live on that will give you some breathing space. From there, start your side projects or whatever else you decide you need to do to up your cred.

Even if you liked what you're doing, you still need to find a different job.

I really need to adjust my lifestyle for that to happen. As it is I can barely afford my house, cars, and student loan debt on my current salary. I've actually considered bankruptcy but I'm not sure I want to try that.

> I really need to adjust my lifestyle for that to happen.

It sounds almost like that's justification for not doing it. Instead, think of that process as lots of smaller first steps.

which saves me 4 hours of commuting

This is the first step. What about moving? Long commutes are killing your time while you are not working, and are basically "work-time". In a 16 hour day of non-sleeping hours, 4 hours is 25% of your day.

So, one strategy would be to move in order to get free time. Then, use this free time to develop a hobby/portfolio of new skills to leverage going forward. If this step is not feasible, then that def. think through the fundamental tradeoffs you are making.

But a 4 hour commute can ruin a good job, and can make a marginal one a negative ROI on your time for sure.

Basically I just quit going in unless someone tells me I have to. So far it works but then I end up working the time I would have been driving so it doesn't lead to more free time.

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