7 ms·

I'm disappointed that the list focusses entirely on technical roles and ignores careers completely opposite to software development. I think a programmer would

I'm disappointed that the list focusses entirely on technical roles and ignores careers completely opposite to software development. I think a programmer would make a good mechanic, electrician, or plumber from the debugging skills alone.

marcinzm 6y ago
It seems to focus on roles where your former software engineering experience is useful and your years of experience translate to starting at a non-junior role. There's innumerable jobs where problem solving is useful however starting a career over from scratch (including pay wise) is very painful. Plus, practically speaking, the article is already 20+ jobs long, adding the dozens of other careers that require logic (including doctors, lawyers, carpenters, etc.) would make the article so long as to be pointless.
pansa2 6y ago
Yeah, half of these careers are just “software developer with a different job title”.
- draw_down 6y ago
  And worse pay
twblalock 6y ago
Good luck trying to leverage software engineering experience to move into the trades like plumbing or mechanic work. You'll probably be laughed at, and then you'll start at the entry level just like everyone else.
- xchaotic 6y ago
  IMO a bad idea anyway - as a software dev, even a bad one, you can create more value for more people at the same time. As a plumber you're only fixing one thing for one person at a time so there's a hard limit on how valuable that is.
  - objektif 6y ago
    "Value". I mean yes you can if you are antirez but lets stop glorifying software developers as most of them dont provide any value to anyone except themselves. Plus fixing 30 kitchen sinks a month is a lot of value to me.
    - tyrust 6y ago
      >as most of them dont provide any value to anyone except themselves How do you explain software devs getting paid without providing any value?
      - jkhaui 6y ago
        C'mon, let's be real... most devs are working on features/products that will never see the light of day. Or they're restyling the company's "contact us" form for the thousandth time. The market is not efficient. A software developer being paid $100k doesn't mean they're providing the world with $100k of value. it just means they convinced management/HR to pay them $100k for turning up 250/365 days. I suggest checking out "bullshit jobs" by David Graeber :)
        marcinzm 6y ago
        And most plumbers are fixing clogs that a five year old with a rooter could fix thus providing no real value. See what I did there?
        erklik 6y ago
        > it just means they convinced management/HR to pay them $100k for turning up 250/365 days. I mean isn't value based on what you can convince someone else to pay for the service/product. Are Mac's really valued at 10 grand or whatever, but rather simply what they've convinced someone to pay for that. Also, isn't that the same for plumbers for example? Plumbers being paid around $150/hr (this is what is the going rate for a good plumber in Australia) are providing the world with $150/hr of value. It just means that they convinced the customer to pay them $150/hr for turning up to their house and taking a look at a leaky tap, one that could be fixed in about 5 mins.
bryanrasmussen 6y ago
In high school they gave me a series of tests that concluded I was in the highest 1% of the population for linguistic comprehension and the lowest 3% of the population for spatial comprehension; I believe I have improved the second metric since then but I still doubt I would make a good mechanic, electrician, or plumber. A side note, people are often surprised by the bugs I find.
deleted 6y ago
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marcinzm 6y ago

It seems to focus on roles where your former software engineering experience is useful and your years of experience translate to starting at a non-junior role. There's innumerable jobs where problem solving is useful however starting a career over from scratch (including pay wise) is very painful. Plus, practically speaking, the article is already 20+ jobs long, adding the dozens of other careers that require logic (including doctors, lawyers, carpenters, etc.) would make the article so long as to be pointless.

pansa2 6y ago

Yeah, half of these careers are just “software developer with a different job title”.

draw_down 6y ago
And worse pay

twblalock 6y ago

Good luck trying to leverage software engineering experience to move into the trades like plumbing or mechanic work. You'll probably be laughed at, and then you'll start at the entry level just like everyone else.

xchaotic 6y ago
IMO a bad idea anyway - as a software dev, even a bad one, you can create more value for more people at the same time. As a plumber you're only fixing one thing for one person at a time so there's a hard limit on how valuable that is.
- objektif 6y ago
  "Value". I mean yes you can if you are antirez but lets stop glorifying software developers as most of them dont provide any value to anyone except themselves. Plus fixing 30 kitchen sinks a month is a lot of value to me.
  - tyrust 6y ago
    >as most of them dont provide any value to anyone except themselves How do you explain software devs getting paid without providing any value?
    - jkhaui 6y ago
      C'mon, let's be real... most devs are working on features/products that will never see the light of day. Or they're restyling the company's "contact us" form for the thousandth time. The market is not efficient. A software developer being paid $100k doesn't mean they're providing the world with $100k of value. it just means they convinced management/HR to pay them $100k for turning up 250/365 days. I suggest checking out "bullshit jobs" by David Graeber :)
      - marcinzm 6y ago
        And most plumbers are fixing clogs that a five year old with a rooter could fix thus providing no real value. See what I did there?
      - erklik 6y ago
        > it just means they convinced management/HR to pay them $100k for turning up 250/365 days. I mean isn't value based on what you can convince someone else to pay for the service/product. Are Mac's really valued at 10 grand or whatever, but rather simply what they've convinced someone to pay for that. Also, isn't that the same for plumbers for example? Plumbers being paid around $150/hr (this is what is the going rate for a good plumber in Australia) are providing the world with $150/hr of value. It just means that they convinced the customer to pay them $150/hr for turning up to their house and taking a look at a leaky tap, one that could be fixed in about 5 mins.

bryanrasmussen 6y ago

In high school they gave me a series of tests that concluded I was in the highest 1% of the population for linguistic comprehension and the lowest 3% of the population for spatial comprehension; I believe I have improved the second metric since then but I still doubt I would make a good mechanic, electrician, or plumber. A side note, people are often surprised by the bugs I find.

deleted 6y ago

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