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Very early in my career, I briefly took a non tech job to get out of one I hated. I say briefly because I quickly found myself in a job that surrounded by 100

Very early in my career, I briefly took a non tech job to get out of one I hated. I say briefly because I quickly found myself in a job that surrounded by 100 problems easily solvable with simple tech solutions, and started to do them- either because it saved me time or it was painful to watch other people do something painful slow when simple tools would do it— things like stitching together data files (basically a join) with a small C program because the ancient mainframe reporting system was limited in max char lengths from columns. It was very fulfilling to be in a non-tech environment where my impact on things was so immediately tangible and useful, instead of a place where direct benefits were rarely apparent.

seanw444 4y ago
Working software in a place that isn't mainly software is actually really great. I write the internal systems and occasionally work on the customer-facing websites and applications at a small local manufacturing company. Definitely better than my first job in RPA where I was constantly on a call with an uptight customer that gave vague descriptions of what they wanted, that then got upset when they had to call us 4 more times to fix what we built to their bad description. And it was nonstop crunch. No slowdown time in between customers and implementations. Just immediately on to the next one. Definitely painful.
- ornornor 4y ago
  > I write the internal systems and occasionally work on the customer-facing websites and applications at a small local manufacturing company. How did you find this gig? I think I’d enjoy working in this way with complete control over the dev process while making a very tangible difference in reducing employee toil. Just don’t know how to find that. And also how’s money?
  - seanw444 4y ago
    It's not 100% control over everything as I occasionally work with a contracted dev studio that's building a couple large utilities that would take me individually a very long time to complete. So I work with them occasionally (but very infrequently - enough that it feels refreshing to collaborate when it happens). I found it on Indeed. It looked just like any other "Software Engineering" job description on the listing, but when I came in for an interview, it was in a warehouse (with an office space) in an industrial zone, which had already intrigued me. Then the owner walked me through the warehouse and explained the products they sell, the machinery they use, the process of it all. Pretty cool to see where I fit in with my own eyes. They run their own server on-site, too, so I've kinda gotten to be a sysadmin as well. Which I also enjoy. Mixes up my daily tasks and keeps things fresh.
    - ornornor 4y ago
      Congrats, sounds neat!

seanw444 4y ago

Working software in a place that isn't mainly software is actually really great. I write the internal systems and occasionally work on the customer-facing websites and applications at a small local manufacturing company. Definitely better than my first job in RPA where I was constantly on a call with an uptight customer that gave vague descriptions of what they wanted, that then got upset when they had to call us 4 more times to fix what we built to their bad description. And it was nonstop crunch. No slowdown time in between customers and implementations. Just immediately on to the next one. Definitely painful.

ornornor 4y ago
> I write the internal systems and occasionally work on the customer-facing websites and applications at a small local manufacturing company. How did you find this gig? I think I’d enjoy working in this way with complete control over the dev process while making a very tangible difference in reducing employee toil. Just don’t know how to find that. And also how’s money?
- seanw444 4y ago
  It's not 100% control over everything as I occasionally work with a contracted dev studio that's building a couple large utilities that would take me individually a very long time to complete. So I work with them occasionally (but very infrequently - enough that it feels refreshing to collaborate when it happens). I found it on Indeed. It looked just like any other "Software Engineering" job description on the listing, but when I came in for an interview, it was in a warehouse (with an office space) in an industrial zone, which had already intrigued me. Then the owner walked me through the warehouse and explained the products they sell, the machinery they use, the process of it all. Pretty cool to see where I fit in with my own eyes. They run their own server on-site, too, so I've kinda gotten to be a sysadmin as well. Which I also enjoy. Mixes up my daily tasks and keeps things fresh.
  - ornornor 4y ago
    Congrats, sounds neat!