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I'm going to get downvoted to minus infinity but let me say this: consider also less techy firms. Or, companies that do have technology but aren't tech. I have

I'm going to get downvoted to minus infinity but let me say this: consider also less techy firms. Or, companies that do have technology but aren't tech. I have some friends having a blast working with agriculture, there's lots of technology involved, but it's as far away from the stereotypical startup culture as you can get.

gjsman-1000 5y ago
Another opportunity - there are so many small businesses who need a tech person, but have no idea what to look for or haven’t admitted their needs yet. If you show up saying you can develop apps and also manage servers, handle complaints, etc., they will often hand you a lot of responsibility to do things yourself. Not great for advancing as an engineer unless you actively challenge yourself, but I’m just suggesting that it’s a field out there. I did this for an education company. Been employed over a year, developed a few web apps for them, basically been handed keys to the kingdom, and they love my work.
ravenstine 5y ago
I think we overestimate the unpopularity of opinions auch as yours and the person you are responding to. Tons of HN users work for BigBoringCo after experiencing the typical startup and realizing they can't and shouldn't handle thr volatility anymore, and tons of developers work for non-techy firms because that's more problems can be solved. Most of my best times as a software engineer was when I worked at non-techy firms. When I worked at a local NPR affiliate station, I was able to both solve new problems and improve existing things without a lot of the buffoonery seen at a lot of hip tech firms. As a mid level developer at the time, I had lots of room to try things and could afford to fail, yet my seniors actually had time to help. A lot of people not happpy with their careers should consider non-tech over hip startups, Silicon Valley, and fintech. You will still encounter headaches, but you may also avoid a lot of the mental agony from the big tech world.
- awillen 5y ago
  In my experience on HN, people here actually really love hearing/learning about businesses outside of tech, particularly those that are introducing tech... agritech, etc. I run an ecommerce business, which is at best tech-adjacent (honestly I would say a farm using fairly advanced technology for their industry is more of a tech company than me using Shopify to sell dog treats online), and people love hearing about it. Honestly, part of why I left enterprise software was because I found a lot of the SMB customers I worked with really inspiring. They were doing something... real/physical/tangible, and of course the ones who were looking at our software were the smart, tech-savvy types who I could relate to. While I have very little desire to go back into enterprise software, sometimes I do get pings from recruiters hiring for companies that do stuff like agtech, and I think that working on something like that (as opposed to making software for call centers, which I have done) might be worth getting back into the working world for.
  - kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
    > honestly I would say a farm using fairly advanced technology for their industry is more of a tech company than me using Shopify to sell dog treats online LOL! Quote of the day. And it’s true. Farmers got techy before most other industries. I remember seeing farmers around 1990 getting weather and crop reports online daily, when most families hadn’t yet bought their first PC, let alone connected to a BBS.
- noogle 5y ago
  How does the compensation compare? Aside from finance, does any other industry pay as well as SV and startups?
  - cardosof 5y ago
    It may vary a lot of course but I'd say it's generally worse... And the difference gets brutal if the startup gets successful and you get to exercise stock options. However, money isn't everything... Mental stability is priceless.
- luckyscs 5y ago
  My favorite tech job was when I intered for a fire department doing fire mitigation inspections and ended up building them and appointment scheduling system in my spare time, as well as put together a geomapped report of the programs mitigation efforts to present to the county.
FpUser 5y ago
>Or, companies that do have technology but aren't tech. This is how I make money. I create products that serve real needs of real businesses / people. Bit of warning - I am not a direct employee for those businesses, I have my own company that does product design / development and contract as such. Still I get much satisfaction looking at my products doing something real
necheffa 5y ago
I have to say, as someone working in a stable non-tech company, it isn't all roses and unicorns. The code base is absolutely awful, mainly because a lot of non-technical people have hacked it together. And there is never time or money to attempt some kind of cleanup. It gets exhausting having to repeatedly say "we are going over budget due to unforseen complications as a direct result of low quality code". It gets exhausting having to constantly rework solutions to fit the boneheaded design decisions made with zero forward thinking.
- tssva 5y ago
  None of this changes when you work for a tech company except technical people hacked together the absolutely awful code base.
seanw444 5y ago
I think this was the solution for me. I'm working mostly as a solo dev at the moment, on the codebase that automates the production systems of a manufacturing company. I'm totally comfortable with everything here, except for lower than normal pay. Work is actually something to semi look forward to. My previous job was Generic Startup 7,923™ with a company-provided snack table, and company-provided lunches once every week. The other devs there were decent people. My boss certainly expected too much though. Now I know what not to look for in a job.

gjsman-1000 5y ago

Another opportunity - there are so many small businesses who need a tech person, but have no idea what to look for or haven’t admitted their needs yet. If you show up saying you can develop apps and also manage servers, handle complaints, etc., they will often hand you a lot of responsibility to do things yourself. Not great for advancing as an engineer unless you actively challenge yourself, but I’m just suggesting that it’s a field out there. I did this for an education company. Been employed over a year, developed a few web apps for them, basically been handed keys to the kingdom, and they love my work.

ravenstine 5y ago

I think we overestimate the unpopularity of opinions auch as yours and the person you are responding to. Tons of HN users work for BigBoringCo after experiencing the typical startup and realizing they can't and shouldn't handle thr volatility anymore, and tons of developers work for non-techy firms because that's more problems can be solved. Most of my best times as a software engineer was when I worked at non-techy firms. When I worked at a local NPR affiliate station, I was able to both solve new problems and improve existing things without a lot of the buffoonery seen at a lot of hip tech firms. As a mid level developer at the time, I had lots of room to try things and could afford to fail, yet my seniors actually had time to help. A lot of people not happpy with their careers should consider non-tech over hip startups, Silicon Valley, and fintech. You will still encounter headaches, but you may also avoid a lot of the mental agony from the big tech world.

awillen 5y ago
In my experience on HN, people here actually really love hearing/learning about businesses outside of tech, particularly those that are introducing tech... agritech, etc. I run an ecommerce business, which is at best tech-adjacent (honestly I would say a farm using fairly advanced technology for their industry is more of a tech company than me using Shopify to sell dog treats online), and people love hearing about it. Honestly, part of why I left enterprise software was because I found a lot of the SMB customers I worked with really inspiring. They were doing something... real/physical/tangible, and of course the ones who were looking at our software were the smart, tech-savvy types who I could relate to. While I have very little desire to go back into enterprise software, sometimes I do get pings from recruiters hiring for companies that do stuff like agtech, and I think that working on something like that (as opposed to making software for call centers, which I have done) might be worth getting back into the working world for.
- kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
  > honestly I would say a farm using fairly advanced technology for their industry is more of a tech company than me using Shopify to sell dog treats online LOL! Quote of the day. And it’s true. Farmers got techy before most other industries. I remember seeing farmers around 1990 getting weather and crop reports online daily, when most families hadn’t yet bought their first PC, let alone connected to a BBS.
noogle 5y ago
How does the compensation compare? Aside from finance, does any other industry pay as well as SV and startups?
- cardosof 5y ago
  It may vary a lot of course but I'd say it's generally worse... And the difference gets brutal if the startup gets successful and you get to exercise stock options. However, money isn't everything... Mental stability is priceless.
luckyscs 5y ago
My favorite tech job was when I intered for a fire department doing fire mitigation inspections and ended up building them and appointment scheduling system in my spare time, as well as put together a geomapped report of the programs mitigation efforts to present to the county.

FpUser 5y ago

>Or, companies that do have technology but aren't tech. This is how I make money. I create products that serve real needs of real businesses / people. Bit of warning - I am not a direct employee for those businesses, I have my own company that does product design / development and contract as such. Still I get much satisfaction looking at my products doing something real

necheffa 5y ago

I have to say, as someone working in a stable non-tech company, it isn't all roses and unicorns. The code base is absolutely awful, mainly because a lot of non-technical people have hacked it together. And there is never time or money to attempt some kind of cleanup. It gets exhausting having to repeatedly say "we are going over budget due to unforseen complications as a direct result of low quality code". It gets exhausting having to constantly rework solutions to fit the boneheaded design decisions made with zero forward thinking.

tssva 5y ago
None of this changes when you work for a tech company except technical people hacked together the absolutely awful code base.

seanw444 5y ago

I think this was the solution for me. I'm working mostly as a solo dev at the moment, on the codebase that automates the production systems of a manufacturing company. I'm totally comfortable with everything here, except for lower than normal pay. Work is actually something to semi look forward to. My previous job was Generic Startup 7,923™ with a company-provided snack table, and company-provided lunches once every week. The other devs there were decent people. My boss certainly expected too much though. Now I know what not to look for in a job.