20 ms·
Ask HN: Devs/data scis who pivoted to a new career in 30s/40s, what do you do?
I see posts every once in a while about engineers or data scientists choosing to leave the space to a new one.... I also often hear how hard it is to do so.
For those who made a successful transition, what did you move to? What advice do you have in hindsight?
- WarOnPrivacy 2y ago> about engineers or data scientists choosing to leave the space to a new one You mentioned leaving space and leaving career. In my mind these could be different things. What are your thoughts about potential destinations?
- rapfaria 2y agoIt's crazy how prevalent this is among my peers. Do any other careers have so much pivoting?
- WarOnPrivacy 2y ago> It's crazy how prevalent this is among my peers. Are your peers about the age as the OP? Kids and age (each) can change how we feel about job demands.
- Nextgrid 2y agoI wonder if it’s just self-selection. If you play your cards right, IT can (could?) pay so well that you can afford to take a subsequent pay cut when transitioning to a new career. In a career that doesn’t pay as well this is impossible so people don’t even consider career changes as they can’t afford to take the hit.
- spicyusername 2y agoI think most other careers don't pay you enough to be capable of choosing take a 50-90% pay cut mid-career and still retire on a reasonable nest egg. I also think working for most corporations is pretty lackluster, and after the early career honeymoon phase wears off many people start to feel quite unfulfilled. Working with your hands, or in support of helping other people, is very intrinsically rewarding work. There are reasons society gets away with paying public school teachers so little, and only some of them have to do with the public's distain for taxes, hah. IT professionals are typically the kinds of people who are happy to learn something new, so I'm not too surprised to see the people with the financial means, the disposition, and the mid-life crises search for a new life path.
- jvanderbot 2y agoMost folks change entire careers 3-4 times in their life. It's only in engineering that we somehow decide that "engineering for this team using their tool" is somehow a new "career" when we do "engineering for that team using that tool". To an outsider, you're just a programmer. No career change at all. I think there's just enough variety in our field that we don't leave much.
- sanderjd 2y ago> Most folks change entire careers 3-4 times in their life. Is this true? It doesn't seem true to me. Are there data / studies on this?
- lizknope 2y agoI can only think of about 3 people that completely changed profession. I'm 48 and I could list hundreds of people that have been engineers, scientists, doctors, and lawyers since they finished college and are either still doing the same type of job or retired.
- jvanderbot 2y agoMost folks aren't professionals. If you are a farm laborer for a few years, then a hair stylist, then a cook - that's two career changes. My professional white-collar wife has done 3 changes already and we're barely middle-aged. I've done 2 myself (factory worker -> Researcher -> Engineer). My Mom has done about 5-6. My dad 1. My mother in law has done at least 5, and my father in law at least 3. My brother has done 2 (soldier -> sales -> design). My 4 bros-in-law have done at least 3 each (all starting with soldier). Sis in law has done 0. My sisters are 3,2 and are still young. Does my story cancel yours? no, but the story isn't clear either.
- sanderjd 2y agoHow many of these things are "careers", though? To me, many of these examples sound like doing a bunch of different jobs, not careers. Was being a factory worker a career, or was that a job you were doing before you started your first career as a researcher? But I do think this thread is making me realize that this is probably a boring dispute over what "career" means.
- mlyle 2y agoLeft a career as a developer/entrepreneur/executive for teaching at a private high school. No real advice: it wasn't intentional; something that I just drifted to. It's really fulfilling but not lucrative.
- base698 2y agoWhat kind of work did you do to become a teacher? Extra school?
- WarOnPrivacy 2y agoOur rural county requires a Masters for FT. Subs need to be bathed and not be banned 1000' from a school.
- rcfox 2y agoI don't know about other countries, but in Canada, you need a one or two year program to become a teacher, at least for public schools. Were you able to "drift" into this because your country has fewer regulations, or is it that private schools are less restrictive?
- Projectiboga 2y agoIn America, private schools are almost unregulated. They get "accredited" by a group that evaluates indeoendent schools. So basically anyone w college degree or beyond with no serious criminal history can teach.
- throw9078686 2y agoThis is very inspiring and just plain cool. Thank you!
- DustinBrett 2y agoI went the other way and pivoted to being a dev when I turned 30. Before that I was in IT which basically meant fixing computers, which meant replacing power supplies and reinstalling Windows.
- bongodongobob 2y agoHow did you break through? I've been trying to land a dev job for years but I keep getting passed on due to my heavy IT infra experience and they seem to think I'm overqualified, but in the wrong area. "Hm, why would you want an entry level dev job? It says here you have years of director level experience." I don't want to be in management but they seem to think I'm a flight risk or something.
- gonzo41 2y agoLook for backend style work. Your infra experience is an asset, look towards cloud infra and all the programming stuff around that. Dev work ain't no panacea, there's a lot of CRUD work, and even when you get to do cool stuff like build data warehouses it's still just fancy CRUD work.
- maliker 2y agoI pivoted from tech consulting (logging user issues, basically) to dev by taking a contract programmer role. It was in a non-profit org that didn't really understand software, and I built them a prototype in my own time which got me in the door. Then I worked up to engineering manager, a move I would not recommend (back to logging user issues).
- Lyngbakr 2y agoI had a somewhat similar experience moving from science to data science/engineering. A PhD meant I fit your description of "overqualified, but in the wrong area". Those days were hard and hugely demoralising. Until my résumé landed on the desk of someone who'd made the same career change, I was SOL.
- withinboredom 2y agoDumb down your resume. Mine's currently missing an entire decade, leaving out entire details for the things that are there, etc. If you keep running into an "employment experience" issue but you actually do know what you are doing, a dev I know used to be a maths teacher, created an LLC with a dumb name and created a consulting website. Then after a couple of years of no leads, simply listed themselves as an employee at said LLC on their resume. They are also one of the best devs I've ever had the pleasure of working with.
- cjk2 2y agoWell you can move into anything but it depends if you want to get paid or not for it? I've mostly followed the money.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- cwiz 2y agoHard science?
- sanderjd 2y agoThis is what I want to do. By far my favorite roles in my career have been when I get to work with deep domain experts in some research-oriented niche. I'm in one of these right now (in the clean energy space) and it's awesome. It's very motivating for me to collaborate with them and build tooling to accelerate their work. But it also makes me feel that, even though I'm in my late 30s, when I grow up, those people I love working with are who I want to be. It may or may not prove to be unrealistic, but my plan is, after my kids are a bit older and we have saved a bit more liquid assets and have refinanced to a lower mortgage payment, to enter a graduate program for something interesting, and maybe keep working on software part time while I do that.
- adamc 2y agoI'm old and more likely to retire than start anew, but that's something that still calls to me. Got a doctorate in anthropology but wasn't entranced by academia. But science itself is interesting. In retrospect, I think I should have gone with physics, but... my dad did that, and it's a tough gig in many respects. (Governmental research funding is very inconsistent.)
- lnwlebjel 2y agoWhen you're retired, and don't need the funding, there are plenty of under- or un-funded research projects that can be done. The right professor would likely be open to collaboration/guiding work like this, particularly if your PhD augments the skill set of their group/lab. You don't need them necessarily, but it might help to bring you up to speed with publishing (assuming that's your goal - and if you're doing research, I think it should be. You want the work to persist after you if possible). Proposer and funders are pretty good at figuring out good use of limited resources, but they just can't fund everything and there are many un-turned stones.
- larsiusprime 2y agoI left video game development for statistical mass appraisal of real estate for property tax purposes when I turned 40. No regrets. Completely the opposite of game development in every way.
- throw9078686 2y agoHow did you find the new opportunity/space? Was it an easy shift?
- larsiusprime 2y agoMy path was anything but conventional. I had to leave game development because my seven year old son suffered a tragedy which completely disabled him. Game development is simply too volatile and risky a career for someone with that kind of family obligation. As for the transition, I had accidentally achieved some recognition as a researcher of land economics through various blog posts. This attracted the attention of a new friend who was inspired by my work to put a startup together, seeing real estate mass appraisal as the most important missing piece for policy reasons, but also a potentially great business idea. Investors agreed with him and a startup was formed. This gave me an alternative to game dev when I needed it most. As for the actual work transition, I had a lot of subject matter to learn which we facilitated by hiring experts from the field, including former IAAO researchers (that’s the relevant standards body) as well as local appraisers. I’m still learning but a lot of my skills transferred. The biggest difference is this is typically a pretty low tech field so many essential skills are soft — all the tech in the world doesn’t matter if you can’t explain things in simple terms to a citizen. As I like to say “Prepare for a property tax protest defense, not a PhD thesis defense.” The other big difference is cost structure and expectations and competition. Game development is essentially selling one of the hardest kinds of programs to write, to the world’s best served audience, under maximum competition, for the lowest prices. In local government you can charge what felt to me like large prices and still be genuinely considered cheap compared to what existing vendors charge. And people are used to software that doesn’t work and customer support that never responds. So if you can exceed expectations that is an edge here. But many tech people have failed in this field, because they can’t master the soft skills and they can’t communicate simply; that part is deceptively hard.
- lr4444lr 2y agoAs someone who has obligations to provide for a family in the USA, I can't imagine leaving dev work without an absolute clear passion and burning drive to do something specific. Giving up a six figure income I use to feed and house my family that demands I use my brain while sitting in a comfortable indoor environment, doing nothing more physically taxing than use a keyboard? Sure, I have fantasies from time to time about doing something with more dynamism in meatspace, but let's get real: it's a fantasy. I can't imagine recommending anyone with a stable career in data work upset that apple cart unless they already have a clear aim in mind, which they think about day and night - not with the unsureness of this post.
- apwell23 2y agowhy do you consider leaving though? just for variety?
- neutronicus 2y agoNot the person you're replying to, but, personally, because my career is a Sword of Damocles. There are projects, the time-scale is like a year, they can fail spectacularly, and it can be perceived as (may actually be) my fault. Projects from years ago can be understood, in hindsight, to have been fucked up. I fantasize about quitting and driving a bus, going home everyday having no doubt that the day's work met expectations. Giving my son a bath without feeling compelled to sneak away for another edit-compile-debug cycle. It's becoming increasingly evident to me that I just want to stockpile savings against what feels like an increasingly inevitable crash-and-burn of this career. Be it GenAI, my own ADHD and lack of follow-through, whatever. And when that day comes, just do something I can't fuck up
- analognoise 2y agoIt sounds more like a perspective issue than anything. Dev work is becoming more unstable - we’re now being sacrificed quarterly to appease the Shareholder Omnissiah - even the best of us. The old deal was that “if you were good or smart you’d always have work” isn’t true anymore. Instead we have to just accept chronic instability - but we do have a choice! …just stop doing extra. Stop it. Control yourself and re-evaluate what’s important. It’s a hard cycle to break, but I believe you can do it. Then if you get laid off or a project crashes, just shrug and onto the next one. How can they really apply pressure to anyone if you’re subject to random layoffs? Eventually it will be your turn, so just chill to heal burnout, then instead of extra cycles for your job, do something you enjoy, maybe build a shelter in the woods somewhere, learn to live off the land, find a local source of body paint for your war band, learn to weld so you can build a mad max roadster in the coming wasteland apocalypse you know this isn’t coming out like how I expected; on closer inspection I also have a lot of anxiety about this “new normal” apparently?
- dr_kiszonka 2y agoI have no advice, but I am curious what new careers you are considering. (One successful transition I have seen was getting an MBA from a prestigious school and moving into leadership.)
- apwell23 2y agoWhat kind of leadership did they move to. Most leaders in tech space don't seem to have an MBA.
- sanderjd 2y agoDepends on the size of the company. Most big companies, even in tech, do have people with MBAs in most of the executive roles. Not front-line people managers that is, but leadership, decision-makers.
- ryandrake 2y agoYea, take it from someone who tried to do this: (MBA from reasonably good top-10 school) 1. The degree itself, even from a top school, doesn't guarantee you anything. It opens a few doors in finance (Investment Banks) and consulting, but you still need to fight your way through them. Wall Street also doesn't really like career changers, so it's already an uphill battle before you even enroll. 2. Silicon Valley doesn't seem to give even a tiny shit about the degree. In fact MBAs get regularly dunked on here at HN (as if the degree itself turns a smart engineer into a drooling dumbass, but whatever). So if your plan is to get an MBA to zoom back to tech to become a Director or VP or something, your plan is flawed. I wasn't successful at either of these paths, so I went right back to "Individual Contributor" software engineering after spending 6 months unemployed hopelessly looking for an investment banking job. So the degree ended up being a waste.
- apwell23 2y agoThats why i was intrigued by that comment. Bunch of my friends got an MBA because their employer paid for it but do the same job as dev like me years later. Still curious about "getting an MBA from a prestigious school and moving into leadership" how they did it.
- jvanderbot 2y agoYou mean leving programming? Can't help you there. But if you want to change subfields... I only know data scientists who come into my workplaces from other fields, and rarely know folks who move out into other fields. So these anecdata are heavily biased based on where I've worked. 1. Robotics has a huge gob of data every test, and parsing it is basically Sisyphean. Someone who can learn about, and educate others about, building proper observers and reporters into C++ codebases, and building proper dashboards with data coming out is always really valuable. From there it's a short hop into roboticsy systemsy things itself. But beware, large shops will have these silo'd. Think smallish labs for large companies. You do not want to get stuck building reports for product teams - stick to engineering teams. 2. Manufacturing, at the highest levels, is metrics driven, so again, getting in and helping to establish data-driven process refinements, then moving "down" the stack into the software is a good way to make your pivot into embedded systems or industrial IoT. But beware, large shops will have these very much silo'd. 3. Science / academia. A good analyst for a research lab is impossible to find, because of pay differentials. But if you can take the hit, and are willing to grovel a little, you can easily become the most valuable person in a large enough academic lab. The ones I've been adjacent to are Geophysics, Planetary Sciences, and Astrophysics. All really tough data problems.
- xtracto 2y agoI would love #3 in a remote setting. I have a PhD (CompSci), live in UTC-6 (Mexico) and would be happy to take a pay cut if it meant leaving the tech product production grind. The best job I've had was as a data scientist/ML-expert on a previous US startup that went down in flames. But it's pretty difficult to find those type of jobs willing to pay through Deel or Glob.Partners.
- jvanderbot 2y agoRemote is too hard for lab settings usually. Professors / RAs are neurotic people and need "butts in seats". Moreover, sending US grant money to Mexico is often really hard (I've tried). The exception is if you know someone who can work some angles. Try messing with scientific datasets and publishing a blog and seeing if you can replicate results or find new ones. If you can do that fluidly - you'll be a shoe-in for that type of work.
- dcdevito 2y ago[dead]
- apwell23 2y agoI tried teaching skiing for a while but pay was low and living conditions weren't good for my family. I am back to the grind being a software engineer but I don't have passion for it like I used to. politics at worked killed that. Recent AI hype like DevinAI are repulsive to me but i don't know what else to do.
- charlie0 2y agoI would not pivot unless I hit FIRE or can switch to a field that pays almost as well.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- gmcerveny 2y agoEarly 40s and I've been sort of backing into music with this 20 year arc: - Full Stack Dev - iOS Dev - 2x Music Tech Startup Founder - Music Tech Freelance Developer - Currently: Studying music theory, composition, and piano. I might go to grad school for music/media, continue to study art/music independently, or explore professional arts careers. I'm just constantly seeking alignment between my professional work and intrinsic motivations.
- nurple 2y agoBeen thinking of going back to college (maths) myself in my post-40s age, but I'm struggling a bit to convince myself that it's going to be the best way to meet my learning goals. The degree itself, at this point in my career, isn't all that important to me, but the social and networking aspects could be quite valuable. I'm curious if you've made similar considerations.
- gmcerveny 2y agoDefinitely. Even considering preparation for a graduate music program I had the option of taking fundamental music courses at nearby schools or studying with an independent teacher. Ultimately I chose to go independent. That let me start immediately and offered flexibility in my own daily schedule. The graduate program professors I spoke with gave no preference to undergrad vs just demonstrating knowledge.
- savorypiano 2y agoDo you think a university music program is needed to learn composition, or are there enough info out there to piece it together yourself (pardon the pun)? For reference, I am an employed self taught software engineer (learned from MOCs) and have played piano many years along with theory basics already. I haven't found many great resources yet, at least not in one place.
- jackdawed 2y agoI got burnt out as a SWE at a startup from stress and health issues. Bought a cafe and turned it into a bookstore cafe. Annual revenue is around 600k. Seller's discretionary earnings is around 220k. In hindsight, I should have done this earlier. Not having to deal with office politics, insane on-call rotations, stress. On top of that, it helped me qualify for E-2 investor visa, which is far less of a headache than OPT/H-1B. It was a major help having an experienced business broker/commercial real estate agent.
- the_real_cher 2y agoJust buy a cafe!
- seffect 2y agoI think they left out the “…” bit before the “profit!”
- miketery 2y agoCan you share more about how you went about this? How did you learn what’s needed to go through with this? Beyond knowing things like time value of money and the goal of making more revenue than costs.
- jackdawed 2y agoThe business sale was a transfer of assets sale, so the previous owner taught me everything.
- PheonixPharts 2y agoI left a another career to get into software in my 30s, but since you mention age, one thing worth recognizing is that very few careers are as age biased as tech. I worked in an industry were 40 was considered "young" and ever since I hit lates-30s in tech I've been the "old guy". I also knew plenty of people in my previous career that came from tech, and seemed to have no trouble transitioning (but that was post-dotcom). It may be "hard to do so" now because increasingly the white collar job market is getting tighter which means people aren't looking to hire non-traditional candidates since they can usually find an equivalent candidate with more experience. As other have mentioned, I think for most people the "hard" part is the change in income. Even with the decline in the tech space, tech workers still tend to get paid notably above other industries. I think the real question boils down to: why are you transitioning? If you're sick of tech, or can't find a job it's going to be harder. If you're passionately obsessed with a new career and can't sleep at night without being compelled to study that area, you'll probably do fine. It also, of course, depends on the market for that job. If you're interested in a space that niche and packed with people then it will be hard, if you're interested in a new booming industry then it will be easier.
- ryandrake 2y ago> one thing worth recognizing is that very few careers are as age biased as tech. I worked in an industry were 40 was considered "young" and ever since I hit lates-30s in tech I've been the "old guy". I was called "grandpa" by my office mates in a job when I was 35. You can't get away with that overtness with today's word-policing, but even if the words are banned, I think the attitudes have not really changed.
- nicbou 2y agoI run a website called All About Berlin now. I help people figure out life in a new country and navigate German bureaucracy. It was a passion project that kept growing. Eventually I figured that I could live from it. It didn't pay as well, but I would no longer have to set an alarm in the morning or attend all-hands meetings. This was about 4 years ago. I have no regrets. I had not realised how programming for a corporation utterly destroyed my passion. A few months after leaving, I started coding for fun again and never stopped.
- toddmorey 2y agoI love your site & it’s a fantastic resource!
- nicbou 2y agoThank you! After all those years I still love getting this kind of positive feedback
- 2color 2y agoThanks for making it Nicolas, All About Berlin is an immensely useful resource and has made the lives of so many newcomers to Berlin much easier.
- thiago_fm 2y agoYou are living the dream. Compensation is pointless if you make enough and is satisfied with what you have. Working like this can bring a lot of satisfaction because in the end you help a lot of people, like me (also a Berliner!). In a big organization it's very unlikely that you'll get that kind of satisfaction.
- nicbou 2y agoIt plays a big role for sure. I do concrete things and get direct feedback. It's very different from the abstract cloud-wrangling I was doing at my last job. I'm glad that the website helped!
- 2y ago
- fhub 2y agoNearly everyone I know who wanted to stop coding took a product manager role, founded a company or became an investor of some sort. All leveraging relationships and connections.
- beauzero 2y agoBought a farm and went to work for a state government. Still doing dev but having a lot more day to day impact and when I leave at 5 I am done. Went on a contract and decided I liked what I saw from work life balance. Has let me step aside and let my wife and kids pursue their career while I focus on keeping animals inside fences and doing the laundry because everyone else is working 60-70 hour weeks. And no, none of them are in dev. They saw, or didn't see because I was never around, why it was a bad life choice for them I guess.
- throw9078686 2y agoVery cool. Do you run a farm or has the purchase turned more into a rural home?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- makeitshine 2y agoI transitioned from software in my mid-20s to teaching and am now looking to transition back. Personally, I'd like something at the intersection of education and tech. I'm currently working for a startup doing backend dev, and it's ok, but I miss some elements of teaching.
- cosiiine 2y agoI decided to leave the world of engineering 1.5 years ago to pursue my passion as an artist. Although my salary was a very good, competitive US rate at senior level, my artwork brought in more income for 2 years straight. I decided that it wasn't worth burning my candle at both ends any more, especially with a young child at home. Something had to give, and it was the job. Now I still work like an engineer. I spend 4-5 hours a day programming and 2-3 hours managing my commitments and social media. My artwork is generative, so I use Javascript to build elaborate systems which yield visual artworks. The stuff I do is much more diverse now. I just spent an hour totally leveling a table I built recently. I needed a custom table for my Axidraw pen plotter, which I use to draw generative artworks. The pay is nothing, then a lot, then nothing. I'm white-knuckling it. At times it's very scary to not have a steady stream of income. But it allows me to be happy, and that's worth more than any amount of comfort.
- chucksta 2y agoI have been fascinated with generated art drawings recently. Care to share any tips that's led to your current situation?
- cosiiine 2y agoI bought a plotter and began using processing, then P5.JS to make things for it to draw. This was really just all for my own amusement and curiosity. Eventually I began selling the drawings I was making on Etsy, and gained some attention by posting regularly on Twitter under #plottertwitter. Now days, that still exists, but the action is also on Discord, Instagram, and Tiktok. Once I had a little bit of a following, Casey Reas reached out about doing a group exhibition with Feral File that he was curating. That was a big moment. The release was very successful, and I saw that this path could be viable. It took me another year to fully commit to full time art though. I think just immersing yourself and starting from the ground up is really important. Learn the basics, don't rush it, and educate yourself along the way. Study past plotter artists and pioneers like Vera Molnar and Harold Cohen. Find your style and iterate.
- 2y ago
- ItsBob 2y agoIn my case it was the opposite: I went from building infrastructure (mainly Windows servers and related tech) to becoming a software developer at 45. I lost my job at the start of the COVID stuff (Feb 2020?) and couldn't find another. No one would take my calls and I found out from some recruiters that eventually spoke to me that they were getting thousands of applications per job: one got over 5000 for a £300 a day contract! I got to the point I'd ran out of money, gov wouldn't help, was getting money from my parents to survive so I decided to lie on my resume. Now, don't get me wrong: I'd been programming since the 90s. I knew SQL server like the back of my hand and could programme .NET with the best of them but I'd never done it as a primary job (partly fear - didn't think I was good enough but turns out I was pretty fucking awesome at it :D) so I changed my resume to make it look like I had been doing it for years in various roles and got a job in 2 weeks! I'm now an architect and couldn't be happier... the money definitely helps. I'm looking to do my own thing though as I'm done with the corporate life. However, I can't knock it too badly: In 4 years I've gone from being in serious financial shit to paying off my mortgage a month ago :)
- wnolens 2y ago> so I changed my resume to make it look like I had been doing it for years in various roles and got a job in 2 weeks! I'm now an architect and couldn't be happier Amazing, congrats. Sounds like you deserve it!
- tlavoie 2y agoWent from software dev to infosec consulting here. Basically, one of the people I worked with at the prior job moved first, then asked, "if I knew anyone who might be interested." After not cluing in immediately, she asked again. "Oh... um, yeah! Let's chat." I still mess with code all the time, but mostly scratching my own itch, either for home or work.
- snakeyjake 2y agoThe thought of staring at an IDE window (it was Eclipse back in the day) all day made me want to start sniffing glue so I learned SolidWorks and relearned linear algebra and used my amateur radio experience to fake my way through conversations about RF and became an engineer working on synthetic aperture radar systems. Instead of shoveling frameworks on top of each other I started building real things that flew in pods on aircraft and got launched into space. Now it's been a while so I've transitioned into doing more meetings than engineering, but I get two months off per year so I go scuba diving in warm places a lot and that makes up for it. My only advice is to invest in yourself and never take a leap unless you can see what you'll be landing on. Both metaphorically and in the real world.
- LettuceSand12 2y agoAnyone went from software dev to GIS? How did you make the transition?
- johndavid9991 2y agoIt was not a complete transition, but I decided to build my own Software Development company instead of working as a software engineer for another company. I started this company along with 12 other co-workers. We are in our 30s, I am turning 34 this year. In the last three months, we have focused on training people. We have a team of 45 people now from overseas. The main reason for building this company is for me to have more control on my own time, that's the idea at first, but somehow my passion for software engineering has been rekindled. There is something about training people, I enjoy working with our developers and seeing them grow. I find it hard to switch to another industry or field of work at this age. Having your own family, with the kids and other responsibilities, makes it hard to reinvent yourself. You are not as free as before when you are still single and have complete control over your time.
- hnthrowaway0328 2y agoAny Data Engineer managed to go into low level programming jobs? Very interested.
- TimJRobinson 2y agoI moved into research at a Venture Capital firm. Mostly doing due diligence on companies, assessing new technologies, thinking about where the industry is going. I love it, was getting sick of the constant framework and language churn in programming and I enjoy having a wider view of everything happening rather than just working on one company/product.