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I feel ya – also seeking a career change, myself. Is going back to school for some other high-skill field a possibility for you? (doctors, lawyers, engineers, a

I feel ya – also seeking a career change, myself. Is going back to school for some other high-skill field a possibility for you? (doctors, lawyers, engineers, academia, etc.?) Unfortunately, at least in the US, there are very few other middle-class jobs that someone can get into without a lot of formal education and/or experience. Software dev is (or at least used to be) an extreme outlier in that regard, propelling people up the economic ladder after just a few months of boot camp. I think those days are over, so if you want a comparable quality of life, I think it will take a lot of reskilling and expensive education/credentials (both in time and diplomas) :( ------- In the meantime though, I will say this: As a software person, I've found it MUCH nicer to work for smaller to mid-sized companies vs big corporations. The salary isn't as good, but the work itself can be way more meaningful and impactful – everything you do directly impacts the product and customers, vs being a tiny cog in an insignificant wheel. None of the smaller companies I've worked for had the time, patience, or resources for endless Agile crap, for example. The codebases tended to be of mixed quality (sometimes they were homebrewed crap, other times they were OK consultant-written code) but overall, it's very much "not minutiae"... you have way more power over small-biz software like that, and there's a lot of problems to solve since your teams tend to be much smaller and your resources much fewer. All the problems are yours, but you are also empowered to make all the solutions. It's a much more satisfying feeling than "OK, I delivered 14 points this week, hope that shows up on my next review."

packetlost 2y ago
> Software dev is (or at least used to be) an extreme outlier in that regard, propelling people up the economic ladder after just a few months of boot camp. I think those days are over, so if you want a comparable quality of life, I think it will take a lot of reskilling and expensive education/credentials (both in time and diplomas) :( Those days have been over for awhile, now even the 4-year degrees aren't cutting it. It probably won't return to the way it was, ever. A combination of macroeconomics and market saturation are mostly to blame, regardless about what the AI grifters are selling executives these days.
magicalhippo 2y ago
> everything you do directly impacts the product and customers, vs being a tiny cog in an insignificant wheel. This is why I actively sought smaller companies when I was fresh out of uni. I knew I didn't want to be a tiny, insignificant cog in a giant machine, far removed from the users. At the place I'm at now I'm wearing many hats. I architect solutions along with customers. I implement them, and have a lot of freedom in how that's done, including tools. And there can be lots of interesting programming challenges in the details of this work, be it algorithmically, programming language-wise etc etc, which needs figuring out. If I have questions regarding some new feature I'm developing I can pick up my phone and call some of our customers to better understand their workflows and needs. Likewise I get very direct feedback, which I like. Most customers don't know what's possible and not, so if you design or implement a good solution it's not seldom you'll be perceived as a literal wizard. I guess I was somewhat lucky with the place I'm at. My team lead is easy going and doesn't micromanage. Our CEO said he learned quickly that the less he's in the way of us programmers the better, so he lets us do our thing unless there's something precarious. As you said, I could probably get paid better elsewhere. But I earn enough, and I enjoy what I'm doing so far. That said, it's not for everyone. You'll probably will need to be tolerant of less-than-great quality code, not mind juggling several things at once, and not mind talking to customers directly.

packetlost 2y ago

> Software dev is (or at least used to be) an extreme outlier in that regard, propelling people up the economic ladder after just a few months of boot camp. I think those days are over, so if you want a comparable quality of life, I think it will take a lot of reskilling and expensive education/credentials (both in time and diplomas) :( Those days have been over for awhile, now even the 4-year degrees aren't cutting it. It probably won't return to the way it was, ever. A combination of macroeconomics and market saturation are mostly to blame, regardless about what the AI grifters are selling executives these days.

magicalhippo 2y ago

> everything you do directly impacts the product and customers, vs being a tiny cog in an insignificant wheel. This is why I actively sought smaller companies when I was fresh out of uni. I knew I didn't want to be a tiny, insignificant cog in a giant machine, far removed from the users. At the place I'm at now I'm wearing many hats. I architect solutions along with customers. I implement them, and have a lot of freedom in how that's done, including tools. And there can be lots of interesting programming challenges in the details of this work, be it algorithmically, programming language-wise etc etc, which needs figuring out. If I have questions regarding some new feature I'm developing I can pick up my phone and call some of our customers to better understand their workflows and needs. Likewise I get very direct feedback, which I like. Most customers don't know what's possible and not, so if you design or implement a good solution it's not seldom you'll be perceived as a literal wizard. I guess I was somewhat lucky with the place I'm at. My team lead is easy going and doesn't micromanage. Our CEO said he learned quickly that the less he's in the way of us programmers the better, so he lets us do our thing unless there's something precarious. As you said, I could probably get paid better elsewhere. But I earn enough, and I enjoy what I'm doing so far. That said, it's not for everyone. You'll probably will need to be tolerant of less-than-great quality code, not mind juggling several things at once, and not mind talking to customers directly.