7 ms·

Rather than look for another job I retired at 63.5. My job was long hours, high stress, high visibility, continuous deadlines and changes that never ended at a

Rather than look for another job I retired at 63.5. My job was long hours, high stress, high visibility, continuous deadlines and changes that never ended at a large non FAANG company. Compensation was OK (not FAANG but OK for where I am). Everything I or my team shipped worked great; but lots of things with these challenges never shipped for political/idiotic reasons. So much budget was wasted on Exec whims and fantasy. I just grew tired of the frustration. If I were younger I would have left and gone to the local competition or even moved somewhere. But enough was enough after almost 6 years here. I still write code but now its just for me to support my generative art. I still hear stories from my former team; not missing the nightmare at all.

bastardoperator 5y ago
I'm fortunate enough to be paying off my house next year and strongly considering an early retirement. Granted I'm in my 40's, I just yearn to work on something I can poor my heart and soul into even if it fails. My dream is to write a video game and the only thing prohibiting that is lack of time. I've done an IPO, I've worked for FAANG/MAMAA, I've done keynotes at conferences, I've been an IC, Manager, Director. I feel like I've got everything I've ever wanted out my career and I don't know where else there is to go. At this point I just want to take everything I've learned and apply it to something I own, full time. That's the next dream I guess. It's a scary thought, but working for other people for another 20 years seems just as scary.
- marcyb5st 5y ago
  I relate so much to this. Currently working at Google and I'd like to work on something that I care about. However, I still am in my early 30s and I don't think I have enough saved to do that yet even considering that GOOG went almost 6x since I was hired.
  - robbmcm 5y ago
    This thinking is a profound illusion I fell into. You might be surprised how far that money goes. And you also have the skills for more money to come in easily. You also probably spend way more than you need to survive. Particularly if you don't have a family. You get one life. Take the leap.
    - marcyb5st 5y ago
      Thank you so much for the kind words. I definitely have some thinking to do about it and you're right! Eventually I will have to take leap.
- YZF 5y ago
  I'm a little bit older than you, similarly positioned financially, somewhat different career path. I actually tried my own thing when I was younger and it didn't work out... And later it's always so hard to leave. The more you got the more you want ;) Job sometimes drives me crazy but sometimes I get great stuff done. Lucky for me I've mostly worked for/with nice/good people. If you think you got a handle on the business side of things I'd say go for it! That's always been the barrier for me, I think I can handle any technical challenge, but that's not good enough for a successful business...
- kleiba 5y ago
  Funny. I'm in my 40s also but decided on a career in academia (CS) when I was younger instead of the tech industry. What a mistake. I recently lost my job to due to a lack of funding and I'm a pretty difficult hire now: academia is done for me, if you haven't made it to professor by my age, you're obviously worthless. But for an industry job, I'm facing the dilemma that I'm formally highly qualified but have no relevant (industry) experience to show. That is, I'm too mature for a junior position but too inexperienced for anything else. To make things worse, I left the states over a decade ago, and thus have no relevant network there. Not that I have a network outside academia over here, either... I'm so far removed from your situation (being able to pay off your house and thinking about retiring) that it's not even funny. My wife and I were only able to buy a tiny town house last year (< 1000 sq ft, shared walls with two other townhouses left and right), and will hopefully find some job that will allow us to pay off our loan over the next 20 years.
TheRealWatson 5y ago
I love software engineering and working with other coders. That said, the second I'm able to retire comfortably, I won't bat an eye. I might still decide to work on something but very not primarily software. Maybe I'll teach, work on something more manual or do volunteer work. Thankfully my wife doesn't read HN.
- YZF 5y ago
  My wife always tells me I'll drive her crazy if I retire. One piece of advice is "retire comfortably" is a moving target. I could probably have retired 5 years ago "comfortably" and now I can retire "more comfortably" and yet it's probably not in the book (yet).
- ipaddr 5y ago
  I hear this a lot. Curious what languages did you program in?
tqi 5y ago
> but lots of things with these challenges never shipped for political/idiotic reasons. So much budget was wasted on Exec whims and fantasy. Curious - was this a new(ish) phenomenon, or was this something that you experienced throughout your career and decided it wasn't worth it anymore?
- coldcode 5y ago
  Our 40 years you see everything. This last employer was known for this sort of thing, yet still successful despite their best efforts to mess everything up.
ricardobayes 5y ago
Any art you could share? I'm really interested.
- dml2135 5y ago
  Second this!
  - coldcode 5y ago
    I post art every day on my twitter at https://twitter.com/digconart https://twitter.com/digconart
    - rterrin 5y ago
      Hey, this is really good!
    - ttty 5y ago
    - mathgenius 5y ago
      Have you seen this: https://twitter.com/jonathanmccabeX https://twitter.com/jonathanmccabeX ?
antisthenes 5y ago
Congratulations on successful retirement. Hopefully you can have a healthy and interesting retirement and enjoy your family and loved ones to the fullest. Honestly, probably should have done it sooner if you could have. As a 30-something, most of my peers are not planning to work past 60, and most are planning to retire in their 50s. Unfortunately that seems to be a privilege of a certain level of job income and not all of my peers will be so lucky.

bastardoperator 5y ago

I'm fortunate enough to be paying off my house next year and strongly considering an early retirement. Granted I'm in my 40's, I just yearn to work on something I can poor my heart and soul into even if it fails. My dream is to write a video game and the only thing prohibiting that is lack of time. I've done an IPO, I've worked for FAANG/MAMAA, I've done keynotes at conferences, I've been an IC, Manager, Director. I feel like I've got everything I've ever wanted out my career and I don't know where else there is to go. At this point I just want to take everything I've learned and apply it to something I own, full time. That's the next dream I guess. It's a scary thought, but working for other people for another 20 years seems just as scary.

marcyb5st 5y ago
I relate so much to this. Currently working at Google and I'd like to work on something that I care about. However, I still am in my early 30s and I don't think I have enough saved to do that yet even considering that GOOG went almost 6x since I was hired.
- robbmcm 5y ago
  This thinking is a profound illusion I fell into. You might be surprised how far that money goes. And you also have the skills for more money to come in easily. You also probably spend way more than you need to survive. Particularly if you don't have a family. You get one life. Take the leap.
  - marcyb5st 5y ago
    Thank you so much for the kind words. I definitely have some thinking to do about it and you're right! Eventually I will have to take leap.
YZF 5y ago
I'm a little bit older than you, similarly positioned financially, somewhat different career path. I actually tried my own thing when I was younger and it didn't work out... And later it's always so hard to leave. The more you got the more you want ;) Job sometimes drives me crazy but sometimes I get great stuff done. Lucky for me I've mostly worked for/with nice/good people. If you think you got a handle on the business side of things I'd say go for it! That's always been the barrier for me, I think I can handle any technical challenge, but that's not good enough for a successful business...
kleiba 5y ago
Funny. I'm in my 40s also but decided on a career in academia (CS) when I was younger instead of the tech industry. What a mistake. I recently lost my job to due to a lack of funding and I'm a pretty difficult hire now: academia is done for me, if you haven't made it to professor by my age, you're obviously worthless. But for an industry job, I'm facing the dilemma that I'm formally highly qualified but have no relevant (industry) experience to show. That is, I'm too mature for a junior position but too inexperienced for anything else. To make things worse, I left the states over a decade ago, and thus have no relevant network there. Not that I have a network outside academia over here, either... I'm so far removed from your situation (being able to pay off your house and thinking about retiring) that it's not even funny. My wife and I were only able to buy a tiny town house last year (< 1000 sq ft, shared walls with two other townhouses left and right), and will hopefully find some job that will allow us to pay off our loan over the next 20 years.

TheRealWatson 5y ago

I love software engineering and working with other coders. That said, the second I'm able to retire comfortably, I won't bat an eye. I might still decide to work on something but very not primarily software. Maybe I'll teach, work on something more manual or do volunteer work. Thankfully my wife doesn't read HN.

YZF 5y ago
My wife always tells me I'll drive her crazy if I retire. One piece of advice is "retire comfortably" is a moving target. I could probably have retired 5 years ago "comfortably" and now I can retire "more comfortably" and yet it's probably not in the book (yet).
ipaddr 5y ago
I hear this a lot. Curious what languages did you program in?

tqi 5y ago

> but lots of things with these challenges never shipped for political/idiotic reasons. So much budget was wasted on Exec whims and fantasy. Curious - was this a new(ish) phenomenon, or was this something that you experienced throughout your career and decided it wasn't worth it anymore?

coldcode 5y ago
Our 40 years you see everything. This last employer was known for this sort of thing, yet still successful despite their best efforts to mess everything up.

ricardobayes 5y ago

Any art you could share? I'm really interested.

dml2135 5y ago
Second this!
- coldcode 5y ago
  I post art every day on my twitter at https://twitter.com/digconart https://twitter.com/digconart
  - rterrin 5y ago
    Hey, this is really good!
  - ttty 5y ago
  - mathgenius 5y ago
    Have you seen this: https://twitter.com/jonathanmccabeX https://twitter.com/jonathanmccabeX ?

antisthenes 5y ago

Congratulations on successful retirement. Hopefully you can have a healthy and interesting retirement and enjoy your family and loved ones to the fullest. Honestly, probably should have done it sooner if you could have. As a 30-something, most of my peers are not planning to work past 60, and most are planning to retire in their 50s. Unfortunately that seems to be a privilege of a certain level of job income and not all of my peers will be so lucky.