20 ms·

Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

• Discordian93 2y ago
  I do data annotation to train LLMs on coding tasks.
• anonzzzies 2y ago
  Doing up houses, doing electrics for houses in the town and making wooden doors. I do it for fun, but the latter two would make me bank; there is a massive shortage, most people suck and even when paid well they don't turn up anyway as someone pays more.
  • bertjk 2y ago
    Did you need licensing / training to take on electrical work? Do you market yourself as an electrician or more just a handyman that does minor electric jobs?
    • anonzzzies 2y ago
      I got my license in my gap year before uni a long time ago; it's not valid here, but in my country I got trained with a lot higher standards than where I live now so I can do anything besides actually hooking stuff up to mains. I helped some people out and they told others. Like said; there is a massive shortage of handy people and as this is not my day job, I have to say no a lot.
      • sq1020 2y ago
        Massive shortage in the US or are you somewhere else?
    • neverartful 2y ago
      In the US the laws vary considerably by state on what electrical (and plumbing) one is allowed to do without a license.
      • throwaway173738 2y ago
        There are often exceptions for homeowners working on their own stuff. Nothing exempts anyone from any permitting requirements though.
  • user68858788 2y ago
    Very nice! I’d love to see your work.
  • anonzzzies 2y ago
    For people still reading this (seeing by the upvotes); the way it came to be is that I always thought it was very weird for 'well off' people to do construction themselves if they can pay people for it, until we had our last house renovated; it was in a different country (we move every 6 or so years). We had the best team (everyone said) and we overpaid, but when I checked, I got more upset with how they were doing things and after a while I started helping after they left for the night. This frustrated them but I seemed to like it. So after the basics (the boring breaking + skeleton restoring) were done, we told them we wanted to break the contract. We did the rest ourselves. So now, next to writing code, I try to do some manual stuff 1-2 days every week.
  • neverartful 2y ago
    I voluntarily left the corporate world in spring of 2024. I already had a part-time handyman business going so I just took it full-time. I also started developing my own software product (soon to be released).
  • mattbrewsbytes 2y ago
    Tell us more about the doors - hobby woodworker here that buys more tools than builds projects. Do you run into code issues (not software but municipality)? For something like a door, how do you deal with weather extremes on 2 sides of the same surface? Like 30 degrees F on one side and 72 on the other. Are there specific wood species that are better suited for door making? I live in a subdivision with cookie cutter houses and a custom wood front door would be neat, assuming it passes wife and HOA approvals.
    • anonzzzies 2y ago
      I mostly do indoor, but outdoor has those issues. I usually try to work within code but here the fines are low and people usually just opt to pay the fine. And yes, my own outside door scrapes across the floor now after two winters and I need to fix it, but haven't found the time. But it looks so much better than the aluminium doors most people get.
  • chairmansteve 2y ago
    If you live in Phoenix, I need you!
• 4887d30omd8 2y ago
  I have a couple friends who were big outdoor types who became software engineers and then after making some money for a few years went and found more outdoorsy jobs (think forest service jobs). The point is not that an outdoorsy job is great for you, but that you may want to consider what kind of things make you happy and see if you can find a job doing something like that. These folks loved being outdoors before become engineers and were happy to go back to being outdoors for work.
  • gunian 2y ago
    forest service just had a huge layoff or so they tell me protests really made the barons mad i guess
  • georgemcbay 2y ago
    > think forest service jobs This is great advice for job satisfaction, but given current events this sort of move is unlikely to result in an increase in job security or ease in finding a new job. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-forest-service-fires-3400-workers-park-service-cuts-1000-2025-02-14/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-forest-service-fires-340...
    • gunian 2y ago
      [flagged]
    • MisterSandman 2y ago
      Not sure if you’re aware, but there are countries outside the United States
• redleggedfrog 2y ago
  Not me, but my buddy got out of software development and learned to be, as he describes it, "a bog standard electrician." He had money for trade school, and then apprenticed under an experienced electrician. Dude is in his 40's, so late career change. Makes double the money he did doing remote coding.
  • betaby 2y ago
    > Makes double the money Canada?
  • ecshafer 2y ago
    Certified electricians can make really good money, especially union. But that's really hard to believe. Is this somewhere like NYC or something that there is an edge. A remote software developer is typically in the $100-200k range in the US. I know union certified electricians in that range, but none in the $300-400k range.
    • francisofascii 2y ago
      There are plenty of developer gigs in the US with salaries less than $100k, or with contract hourly rates less than $50/hour. Especially if the job is remote or in a low COL area.
      • lm28469 2y ago
        Unless we only talk about big tech companies there are more devs under 100k than devs above 200k, for sure, not even close. 300k as a dev you're in the lucky top 10%
        • closeparen 2y ago
          BLS quantifies this. $100k is 25th percentile. $200k is 90th percentile nationally, median in Sunnyvale-San Jose-Santa Clara. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm
        • 2y ago
• torcete 2y ago
  This hits home.
• austin-cheney 2y ago
  After I was laid off from JavaScript work for 6 months a recruiter contacted me to write APIs using a commercial enterprise platform. Its been great. I did that for almost a year before they promoted me to operations for the project. I should have moved away from JavaScript work much earlier in my career. I had on reverse beer goggles. I love JavaScript and writing programs in the language, but the problem is that almost nobody in work force liked JavaScript. All the cool JavaScript applications in the wild tend to be hobby projects, because at work most people struggle just to put text on screen. Employment writing JavaScript always felt like a race to the bottom. If I could go back in time and give myself career advise I would recommend an MBA and a PMP and just ignore programming as a career. It is absolutely a wonderful skill to have for personal use, but you will always do better in a more structured work industry.
  • artificialprint 2y ago
    Projects managers are absolutely getting slaughtered right now
    • eplatzek 2y ago
      How so?
      • MonkeyClub 2y ago
        The people they would manage are getting fired, so they're also becoming redundant by consequence.
        • switch007 2y ago
          Project managers typically manage projects, not people
          • toomanyrichies 2y ago
            Sure but projects don't complete themselves.
• selamtux 2y ago
  i try to create 3d printing service with laser cutting/engraving without success. i try to register as driver for kind of uber with motorcycle but no success. now i am trying to develop set of applications for specific market to platform as a service probably it will end up trash can without success :) one of my friend from another profession change his career to driver as "uber eat", (we have different brands for it) at least his doing ok.
• popularrecluse 2y ago
  I never stopped developing. After getting laid off in April 2023 after 13 years as first a full stack then mobile dev, I just started working on things that interested me. I did apply and interview a few times, but I started to realize that pushing 50 and being as cynical as I now am, I'm pretty much unemployable as an IC. So I released my application to the App Store this month, and while savings are dwindling, things are starting to finally move into the other direction now.
  • jamesrr39 2y ago
    I have heard this a few times from different people/places, but why is it the case that at 50+ it is harder to find work? Assuming a regular retirement age, there are still many more years left in the career than a typical tech employment lasts.
    • neofrommatrix 2y ago
      Bias
      • cschep 2y ago
        Could be bias, could also be that we just can't fake it anymore?
    • bilbo-b-baggins 2y ago
      One reason is there’s literally many times fewer roles for someone with 20+ years of experience. And as time marches on, there’s more and more competition for those roles.
      • marssaxman 2y ago
        I wonder how that could be possible? There are proportionally so few of us old-timers around to begin with, given how much smaller the industry was and how rapidly it has grown over the last 20-30 years.
      • 2y ago
• danbmil99 2y ago
  Started a new company.
  • nathan_douglas 2y ago
    What line of work?
• gremlinsinc 2y ago
  I'm living out of my car, door dashing and Uber in Southern Utah. Saving up to rent office space for my computer (I don't have a laptop)... I lost my mom, marriage of 18 years, Grandma, and sanity a bit last year... but I'm doing great mentally now, just need financial to align, I'm trying to enroll in WGU for CS and then ai/ml masters and I want to double major with psychology...I want to work with therapy ai things as I've hacked my growth with ai to amazing results... I'm going back to school to get higher paying jobs and be more sought after... and loans can float me rent for the duration of school... I've got an RV I can live in (loaner from a friend) but nowhere to park it...I want to outfit it with solar panels but that's pricey.
  • secondcoming 2y ago
    Wouldn't it be cheaper in the long run to just buy a laptop?
    • zvive2 2y ago
      the person you're replying to is absolutely unhinged, sadly
      • abnercoimbre 2y ago
        You found this out by reading nearby comments? Or is there more lore from other HN threads?
      • gremlinsinc 2y ago
        you sound like a person I used to date who my therapist says is definitely a clinical narcissist... love bombing, devaluation, isolating from family members, transactional and conditional, and discard. edit: I ask because I used to have the domain zvive and use that username... so a little personal for the user to use zvive2.
  • theonething 2y ago
    > I've hacked my growth with ai to amazing results... Would love to hear more about this if you’re willing to share
• ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  In my case, I decided to retire. I didn't want to retire, but it wasn't as if I had a choice. I've kept working, but I write free software, for folks that can't afford people like me.
  • cmrdporcupine 2y ago
    How I wish I could do this. Mortgage is paid off but everything is still so expensive, at 50 I can't plot a way through the next 30-40 years without starving. I want to write software. But these days jobs don't want to pay me to write software. They want to pay me to write JIRA tickets. JIRA tickets about fixing other people's code. I keep trying again and again, but the industry has completely lost any magic for me. Meanwhile I can pump out hundreds of lines a weekend on my own free software projects and actually feel like I'm getting things done.
    • ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
      > Meanwhile I can pump out hundreds of lines a weekend on my own free software projects and actually feel like I'm getting things done. I can relate. It's sort of "Hell is other people." I work very effectively on my own, but the scope is limited. Big things require teams. I realize how fortunate I am, that I could afford to retire. I don't have as much money as I would, with another ten years under my belt, but I should be OK. It absolutely stuns me, that young folks are getting paid more out of school, than I made, in my entire career, and have less to show for it.
      • cmrdporcupine 2y ago
        When I left Google 3+ years ago I was at first delighted to find I still really loved writing code, because I felt like work had drained it out of me. And then, yes, I found, wait, I actually need to work in a team because like you say there's a limit to how far you can get by yourself. To do big things you need more people. So I gave up on my fantasy of solo working or somehow retiring, and returned to work. Only to spend the last 3 years increasingly frustrated. At least Google dumped insane quantities of money on me, so the frustration was worth it. Plus free food. Now I'm just frustrated and not nearly as wealthy.
• _benj 2y ago
  I’m usually hesitant to share but I’ve been doing commodities trading. There’s a humongous amount of BS out there about trading or day trading but the fact is that people do it and make it, and my best friend being a consistently profitable trader for the last 4 years didn’t help my skeptic case… At any rate, turns out that the challenge of trading is less of a technical or financial one. Sure, one needs to understand stuff like price action and market structure and such, but the core of the thing is kind of like developing this complete disregard towards money. Making and losing money can’t mean anything or have any emotional impact, one needs to just see numbers, statistics and trust on one’s strategy. I’m not sure I’m comfortable recommending this to anybody because it requires a weird commitment to failing but still striving and it is hard but not in any way I was familiar with. It’s hard in losing X% of my trading account and waking up next day with a clear head to do the same thing again.
  • paulcole 2y ago
    > Making and losing money can’t mean anything or have any emotional impact, one needs to just see numbers, statistics and trust on one’s strategy. I've known many poker players who end up taking this to the extreme and basically think of every hour of their life in terms of their per hour expected value at the table. Like, "Is it worth it to go to dinner with friends or should I play for those 2 hours instead?" There are definitely happy and well adjusted poker pros as well who can shut it off at the end of the day, but that's a learned skill that doesn't come easy to many. Maybe this is less of an issue with trading because the market has set hours?
    • _benj 2y ago
      Well... I trade futures which are open 24/6, but then again, my strategy mostly trades around specific dates when economic reports are released so, when there are no new economics reports I don't have anything to do... but it certainly varies from person to person and from strategy to strategy. But you are right, trading certainly makes one A LOT more aware of risk/reward just in general life, which can be good or bad. Also, it is very easy to gamble instead of speculate, that is to trade something one "hopes" would work vs. trading something that has a statistical percentage of working, and the difference between the two is purely emotional, because one can convince oneself of quite literally anything! Come with a bullish bias and everything looks bullish... take a step back and reconsider and see how easy is for one to see what one wants to see.
• artificialprint 2y ago
  I'm not a dev but I was a UI/UX designer and manager at 100 people startup. Been fired and it since been exactly two years. I have not tried applying anywhere yet, so I'm trying to build something of my own and developed my first proper Saas. I started writing here about it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43107456 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43107456
  • hakaneskici 2y ago
    Good luck! Your SaaS website looks very nice. Are you doing sales or advertisements yet?
    • artificialprint 2y ago
      Thanks for kind words, not really promoting yet, just patching up some things before I can go ahead and pitch it to potential clients
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• MrMember 2y ago
  I'm contemplating becoming an aircraft mechanic. I've always loved planes and I still sometimes wish I had chosen to become a commercial pilot. There's a "crash course" school near me that's designed to get you the FAA A&P certifications in eight months. I'd be taking a significant pay cut at the beginning but after 5ish years I'd be back up about to where I am now.
  • ilkhan4 2y ago
    I've thought of taking a similar path myself. Which school are you looking at?
    • MrMember 2y ago
      US Aviation Academy. I've read that the quality of instruction and level of learning is pretty low and requires a lot of self study but I'd just be using it as a vehicle to get the A&P certifications as quickly as possible.
• iszomer 2y ago
  QC testing rack servers hot off the assembly line and repairing things when necessary. The entire testing suite can take anywhere between 1-2 days across SKU's, depending on customer specifications and requirements. I can't name names but I can say that I touch DGX H200's and their peripherals on a daily basis.
• mbonnet 2y ago
  Friend of mine got into long-haul trucking.
• supportengineer 2y ago
  When this happened to me in 2001, I moved into operations and support type of roles. There's PLENTY of opportunity to code whatever you want and it's usually well appreciated.
  • xerox13ster 2y ago
    I’ve been in the industry for a decade as a dev that can’t seem to get out of support roles because I wanted to do what you describe at the start of my career and now I’m only seen as support and I’ve NEVER found a support org that, heh, supported my development efforts like that first job did.
• xucian 2y ago
  did some contract work in 2022-2023 and since then I started to go all-in ai-enabled web apps, even learned front-end (svelte), something I didn't ever think I'd get into. but to have the highest amount of leverage on the possibility space, you have to be fullstack web, even if that's not your main "job" I'm still grinding, haven't "made it" yet, and try to keep my remaining stash afloat by trading options. I also moved to my hometown just so I can minimize my burn rate. I'm more or less flat. I don't make, but I also don't lose money. I would, however, accept part-time contract work (I'm a generalist with leadership tendencies), if I can find it. someone suggested looking around HN threads (but not in the jobs section), so far nothing notable
• tanujsh979 2y ago
  True!
• Gnarl 2y ago
  Although I love IT and I've been a Java consultant for 20+ years, I'm getting out because the IT business has become absurd. I'm 51 now. Instead I've certified as an Auriculotherapist (that's fancy speak for ear-acupuncture). I chance discovered auriculotherapy about 10 years ago by its potential to reduce stress by modulating the nervous system. And its been my passion since. The ear is way more than some funny cartilage sticking off your head. Its a complete map of the body with every part treatable via microscopic points on the ear surface. Kind of like a "keyboard" into the bodies "operating system". So the IT business going batsh!t bonkers was my cue to jump out and start a new healthcare business. I regret nothing and feel that I'm now actually helping people. And people aren't getting less stressed these days. Good luck to all when the genAI slop code needs fixing and there are no experienced dev's left.
  • rozab 2y ago
    When the AI startup culture gets so snake-oily people are jumping ship to practice ear acupuncture, that's when we should be worried
    • Gnarl 2y ago
      @rozab Made me laugh, though I can't quite figure out whether you're bashing AI-startups, ear-acupuncture or both ;D
      • mnky9800n 2y ago
        you should make an ai enabled ear acupuncture device.
  • dennis_jeeves2 2y ago
    >IT business has become absurd. I'm 51 now. Absurder, you mean >Instead I've certified as an Auriculotherapist (that's fancy speak for ear-acupuncture). Out of curiosity, what do you earn?
• sillywabbit 2y ago
  Wildlife photography was fun for a while. If you avoid baiting the animals, it sortof becomes a game, figuring out where they live and how to get close without scaring them off. Making any significant money off it seems unlikely though.
  • jebarker 2y ago
    I always wonder why more people don't use wildlife photography as a more challenging alternative to hunting.
    • sillywabbit 2y ago
      If you're doing something for fun, cheating just ruins the experience. If you're doing something for the result, or for a trophy, cheating becomes more appealing.
      • deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      • sillywabbit 2y ago
        I really hate cooking.
        • zippyman55 2y ago
          Cooking can be fun. Take a simple recipe and refine it until you are an artisan. I made little pizzas at work. It was fun but I upped my game significantly. I only needed a toaster oven, a rolling pin, store bought dough. But used high quality ingredients. The fun for me was in the refinement to perfection.
    • cityofdelusion 2y ago
      At least where I’m from, the vast majority of hunters do it for consuming the animal. Trophy hunters here are pretty rare as that’s more of an (very) expensive luxury rather than sustenance. There is definitely overlap in base stalking skills and many people do both, but they are very different activities.
• know-how 2y ago
  [dead]
• TZubiri 2y ago
  A startup I can't get a job, so I start a company. Not sure if it's super backwards.
  • RealityVoid 2y ago
    Nope, makes a lot of sense. Not applying your talents is a waste, (doubly so if you enjoy it) and investing those talents into something that can give dividends at a later time is worth it. Good luck!
• mark_l_watson 2y ago
  I am in my mid-70s now and for the first time in my life I can’t find part time work. I have had three really good leads in the last four or five months but in each case there was no job unless I accepted a full time position. Sadly at my age, I don’t have the energy for full time work, so it is what it is. My wife is happy I am not working, and she literally would not accept it if I tried a full time gig, even just for a year or so. One thing that I do is that I keep writing code in my favorite languages Common Lisp, Haskell, Racket, and Python (Python only for deep learning). I also still write.
  • solumunus 2y ago
    There are many full time jobs in SWE where you can easily get away with doing part time hours. Get a full time role and just do less?
    • itishappy 2y ago
      And collect a full salary? That sounds rather like admitting there's an SWE bubble, and I can't imagine indicates good things for the future job market...
      • 0_gravitas 2y ago
        It's highly unlikely anyone is producing for all X hours in their work-week, especially in a "thinky" field, there has to be some time for the mind to digest and breathe. For many people this usually happens in the midst of chatting with coworkers, clicking through HN, or staring off longingly into a space that isn't there, passively thinking about a side-project, etc. Why pretend like this digestion time doesn't exist/must happen in an office?
        • dvaun 2y ago
          Ditto. This isn’t exclusive to programming. Everyone that I know who has worked in any office environment has downtime.
        • 2y ago
• bluefirebrand 2y ago
  I'm very fortunate to have a job right now because having an income is better than not having an income However, the company is sliding downhill imo, there have been constant layoffs and eventually I am sure I will be caught in one of them I'm really not happy about the idea of searching for a new job again, in this new "AI assisted morons" stage of bureaucracy I'm strongly thinking about trying to pivot to independent consulting. I know it's a tough path to follow and I'm nervous about it, but I have 15 years of experience now and I know I can probably do more with it than most companies will ever let me
  • DanielHB 2y ago
    When times are though qualified independent consultants can more easily get gigs than an unemployed person can get a full-time job. From the point of view of companies they like the versatility of being able to let go of consultants if things are going down or if workload dries up.
    • bluefirebrand 2y ago
      Yeah, this is along the lines of my thinking as well Just gotta start figuring out this "networking" thing
      • DanielHB 2y ago
        I know a couple of people who work as independent consultants, they have a few local recruiters that arrange the gigs and get like 10% of their pay.
        • bilsbie 2y ago
          Are these special recruiters or will most do that deal?
    • ulfw 2y ago
      I wish that was true. I haven't found work as a consultant in years as no one has budgets or can get approval for one
• infamouscow 2y ago
  The free lunch in the SaaS space is (finally) over, both literally and metaphorically. What people ought to be doing is moving to remote, rural, and low cost-of-living areas that have been completely ignored by investors and techies for decades. We live in a post-covid world. Starlink works great. There are simply no excuse. Clinging onto the vestiges of Silicon Valley circa 2014 is a fools errand and has been for multiple years. It's time to start opening mocking people for being delusional. Interact with your new rural community, and really understand their problems. You can start sprinkling technology in to help and expand from there. These markets have been ignored for a long time because their treasures are not shiny enough for VCs to pay attention to—not because there isn't tremendous opportunity to do some good and making a living. The people following this advise aren't complaining about the job market, quite the opposite.
  • selimthegrim 2y ago
    Believe me, I tried, but when the local economic development person’s [1] idea of a peptalk is to tell you how many Nvidia remote employees moved into your state before, and after the pandemic, and how most start ups die here having raised between half a million and 1 million when with Section 174 you need a million to pay your taxes, that kind of sticks a fork in it. [1] Currently bragging about leading a $50 million venture fund for the state which only matches private capital investment. Also, their previous star achievement was a 14% return over 26 years on some company Fender bought.
    • infamouscow 2y ago
      Just wait until you have competitors that want to put you out of business. If this is too difficult to overcome, you're not going to make it.
      • selimthegrim 2y ago
        Well, yes, but you have to convince people to do business with you first instead of people like Axon and Nuance who can afford to lose money and charge $.10 an hour. I’m just saying I’m located in a very challenging investment environment.
• g939763 2y ago
  I breed, train and sell horses. So I do construction, which started as a need to build structures for horses, and then turned into side gigs. It's easy as an engineer with a maxint salary and -tism to enter the construction field, because you have the discipline and the skill to read and retain manufacturer's manuals and code. I mean I have one of those autistic recalls for multimillion line codebases, I can probably remember what pitch requires ice and water shield, or nailing patterns, and such. A lot of respectable construction outfits don't, don't bother, or rely on your ignorance to do a shoddy job. Because of -tism, my work started baseline good and only improved with time, like that scene from game of thrones "many maesters whose chains are heavy with healing links have attempted it and failed, yet you succeeded. how?" "I read the books and followed the instructions". the maxint part means that you can easily outfit yourself as a pro from the very beginning. I bought a coil nailer before I even laid my first shingle, I bought a bunch of scrap material to shingle a sheet of sheathing as if it was an entire roof in my workshop, I then did it over and over and over again until I was satisfied with the result. by the time I started on the run-in which was my first roofing project I burned $$$, but got an excellent result. by the time I was doing it for other people I had a solid understanding of the failure state space, so I could make strong claims about results. this is not an approach that most apprentice builders can afford to take.
  • bilsbie 2y ago
    Is the horse side not profitable enough on its own?
    • g939763 2y ago
      I've literally written a dozen of answers, that I then removed, because that question that you asked goes in the direction of life planning and life goals, it turned into a kind of personal exploration, but also I can talk horse for hours. because this place is trolled by ais and dimwitted copy cats, whenever I hit some deep truth in the many answers that I've written, I'm reluctant to just post them to public like that, so I'll be brief and somewhat superficial: horse business is very volatile, as is it can provide me with a modest living, as I get better I get better control of volatility, but then I encounter some global effects, that I didn't think about. For example horse business was booming during covid for obvious reasons, but then we had an economic downturn, and last year on top of that we had drought, so everyone I know is hurting. but a lot of volatility is inherent: you can buy someone's field puppy at discount, who is otherwise papered, well broke and sound, put him through few months of tuning, and then hit jackpot because two people got into a bidding war, going way above the value. on the other hand there's all kinds of events that can eat away at horse's value, vet visits, freak accidents, and the longer you hold him the higher the probability. in the most catastrophic cases the value goes to zero. getting good margins takes a lot of experience. there comes I believe a point of certainty, where you've been doing it long enough, you've settled in your niche, you have a global view of risk profile, you have mitigations in place, you're no longer faking inner stability in front your heard, you are living it, when things just work, I'm not quite there yet, but I'm sure I will be.
• dkkergoog 2y ago
  [dead]
• jmcgough 2y ago
  Medicine. It's significantly harder than software engineering in terms of the lifestyle and demands on you, but I've never been happier or more fulfilled. A lot of the skills translate over, other than perhaps the actual coding.
  • RealityVoid 2y ago
    So did you start med school? How old are you? It takes a long time to get to practice, so I'm wondering what is the full story here.
    • jmcgough 2y ago
      In my 30s, quit my last startup about 2.5 years ago. Have been an EM scribe the last two years which has been amazing clinical experience. Did my premed coursework a decade ago when I did neuroscience. Just needed biochem, and about 800 hours of self-study for the MCAT. Interview two weeks ago, fairly optimistic about this cycle but if not, I think next cycle will go well. Everyone focuses on the amount of schooling and training that this requires. I am happy when I am helping people and constantly learning new things, and I'm already doing both. There are a lot of other options than just med school, tbh you can make as much money with way less schooling as an anesthesiology assistant.
      • barrenko 2y ago
        This is awesome, I got interested in biochem via AI. And the idea of being AI-assisted doctor sounds much healthier than being an AI-assisted coder.
      • prashp 2y ago
        I would be curious to hear your opinion on this when you are closer to the end of your residency program. The way medical education programs are structured is inhumane, no amount of money would convince me to go through it in its current form (assuming a north american perspective). Source: most of my family are in medicine.
  • xyst 2y ago
• robomartin 2y ago
  > I'm curious what other kinds of work other former developers got into and if they like it. Speaking in general terms, age discrimination in tech (not just software development) is, in my opinion, a really serious problem. It's like society discards you after a certain point in time, even though you are likely more capable than most younger candidates. I am going to point the finger squarely at YC on some of this, simply because they could be an important part of the change this attitude would require. If I were to characterize the high-altitude view of YC funded startups, I'd say it's a college campus. Sure, of course, there might be a few corner cases here and there. PG even has an essay where he says the ideal age is between 22 and 38. I think I read that only about 2% of funded founders are above 38. Well, that's bullshit. Again, society discards you because of a biological clock having nothing whatsoever to do with your capabilities. Let's put it this way: I can't think of a single "older" founder that would have even thought about the down-right disgusting idea of a startup that treats factory workers like cattle and --even better-- nobody in that age group would think it sensible to actually promote this in social media. Anyhow, getting back to your question. I have friends who have tried it all. Lie on their resume. Die their hair. Serious dieting and exercise. Take lower pay. Etc. The vast majority do not make it past the Zoom interview. That is, if they ever get one. These days researching people is very easy. Which also means you get to see how old they are. If that isn't used to disqualify, the zoom call certainly does it. Of these friends, most chose to pursue personal interests or simply retire. On of them had been investing in real estate most of his life. He decided to manage his properties. Another friend, who ended-up with no retirement or savings to speak of due to a nasty divorce, ended-up finding a job in the oil fields in New Mexico. He sits in a trailer in the middle of nowhere, by himself, 24/7. Every couple of hours he gets in his truck and does the rounds --checking measurements, turning valves, filling out forms. He is making $250K a year for that. Here's a guy who is an extremely capable technologist who was discarded by society (well, at least the tech side of society) and is now in the desert living in a trailer. This is horrible. Yeah, sure, he is making a lot of money. He is also as miserable as can be. If he was mentally weak I'd be worried about all sorts of things, from becoming an alcoholic to suicide. Thankfully that isn't his case. You can make a lot of money and still be miserable. It's interesting how society has been up in arms over the years about providing opportunity for different groups (choose a classification) and yet, age discrimination in tech largely remains untreated...a perfect crime, if you will. I don't know what to tell you. Widen your search space to uncover opportunities that might have nothing to do with tech. Better yet, perhaps look for something where the entry point isn't necessarily tech based but your tech capabilities will give you the ability to become invaluable. It's like being the person at the office who knows how to write Excel formulas and VBA code. At some point everyone needs you around.
• mentos 2y ago
  Heavy marine construction with my brother driving steel sheeting and pouring concrete caps hah
• cahoot_bird 2y ago
  2023 had a lot of trouble finding a tech job and even local meetup devs told me of layoffs, got into restaurant work where I had worked several years ago in college, because they remembered me. Mostly physical job, I don't have to work the fryers which in some ways is kind of nice, and it's super low stress, just takes a lot of energy and leaves me drained in most of free time In my experience It's very hard to get back in once you've been out of tech a while. Not because you can't code, but it becomes harder if not impossible to convince someone you can and current oversupply.
• trod1234 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • ATMLOTTOBEER 2y ago
    What even is this comment? Some weird combination of doomer x shaving ad
    • username135 2y ago
      Im still trying to figure it out
    • jstrebel 2y ago
      This is an AI-generated post where the first part is the hook for the second part, the ad.
      • trod1234 2y ago
        If you believe that, then you have shown objectively that you have lost your touch on reality and can't recognize other people at all, least of all when it matters. What is done in small things that don't matter is inevitably done in important things where everything is on the line. It goes to the character of a person. I had hoped moderation would remove your post for breaking the rules, so I held off responding until now in following eschewing flamebait. It seems they chose to not enforce the rules here. I'm a person, and no AI would generate a response like mine, nor could it following so closely to rational principles and supporting what is said sequentially, contextually and while maintaining with consistency. Any person with a bare minimum level of reading comprehension should be able to see this. These properties as well are important to determine falseness, like your statement, where it fails completely. You call it an AI generated ad, but name one other other immediate and significant action OP can take that will provide a significant reduction of cost savings that is not well known. You don't provide this, or your reasoning instead choosing nullification without basis which is reputational based on your credibility which isn't good here. False statements and accusations are worthless, and when you believe in those same statements despite them being false that borders on definitions of delusion which is strongly associated with mental illness. Intention towards false statements and accusations that would deprive others would classify this response of yours as malice, if its not delusional. Perhaps you can explain a bit more of your reasoning, maybe you mispoke?, just so there is no miscommunication. This is not intended to harass, unlike the many downvotes I received for offering value to OP, and those actions have a knock-on effects of preventing any kind of responses for a time, which many are aware of. Its quite a convenient system for malevolent and collectivist groups to stalk and be able to squelch others. If there is no response, or the response is not appropriate I may not answer but I'll leave this with you: You should be more careful in your day to day interactions with other people, and follow the rules, and if you actually have a problem, seek help. Ignorance is a sin.
• gtani 2y ago
  Don't give up on mainline, but branch out to small/medium bus ops. You have to go to as many meetups as you can, perfect your elevator pitch, make github and online presence look nice, etc. One niche, there's lots of people looking for help coding stock/futures trading apps in sierra chart, ninja and multi trader, etc. These are in c++, c#/framework, python, mostly. On the latter, work your network, seek out busines owners/managers who are in need of IT/web/database/email list type work and have people vouch for your tech cred/integrity (very important)
• ipatch 2y ago
  there's nothing wrong with the trades, if you don't mind working with your hands. i've been working as a electrician for the past couple of years, and it allows you to work at various places while the work is never really same, and you're not sitting on your ass for hours on end. it's definitely not for everybody.
• nickd2001 2y ago
  In 2001 I arrived in Canada having quit my US tech job, during dot-bomb, just after 9-11 with everyone waiting to see what'd happen next. Not many IT jobs out there then. Never mind, plenty hospitality jobs in Whistler :) Did couple of seasons there. Felt sorry for stressed out IT guys that came to fix the hotel's systems ;) Min wage, but tips too, and free stuff people left in rooms. Endless supply of free tea which I'm partial to ;). Lived cheaply - sardines'n'pasta, omelettes (yeah eggs were cheap then) , porridge. Had savings from tech work which was a cushion, but didn't break into them massively. In the end, returned to UK , had to be a bit sensible, got back into tech as jobs started to appear again. Was great fun working on a ski resort, albeit a bit rootless / transient too, wouldn't wanna do it for ever. Now its "been there. done that", I wouldn't return. When you've worked in tech, getting a basic job to tide you over in a "normal place" can be tricky becaue people think you're over-qualified and won't stay. At a ski hill, there are like, former lawyers as lifties. No-one cares. They're just happy if you aren't a stoner ;) People don't think beyond one season. A few people though end up managing hotels and stuff then can hop to something else. So for some its actually a good career move. For others they kept the wolf from the door with free lift pass. I'd recommend this to anyone for a season or two, if they've not already done it :)
• DavidSk8 2y ago
  [flagged]
• readyplayernull 2y ago
  I'm moving into embedded programming, haven't found a job yet but I'm building a hackable smartwatch that runs Linux and has a dedicated microcontroller for video and wireless. I'm kind of burned-out as fullstack, now working with a physical product is very rewarding. I'll probably continue thru the path of wearables and home automation, creating my own devices.
  • phlipski 2y ago
    Finding good embedded developers is tough. I think this is a stable career path. There's a lot of "python jockeys" out there, but ask them to port something from their laptop to an MCU/MPU (think ESP32 or Raspberry Pi) and 95% of the time you'll get a blank stare....
• superkimchi 2y ago
  I gave carpentry a shot but I only lasted a week on the job. I was super fortunate to meet a crew of guys that were willing to show me the ropes. I was able to learn quickly and it challenged me. I really enjoyed stepping outside of tech, but the reality of working for $20/hr hit home pretty quick. To the best of my knowledge there aren't many places in the United States where you can realistically support yourself on an income like that. At least not long term. I also nearly lost my marriage (not joking). I'm back in an office now working in a contract tech role that involves a little bit of coding on the side and it's alright for now I suppose. It isn't glamorous, but I'm happy to be working to be honest. I wanted to respond to your post because I found that cold calling and networking was the way to go for opening doors. I needed to talk to real people and build personal relationships. It took time and some surprisingly interesting opportunities opened up here and there. No one gave me a hard time about looking for work. I met a lot of people who were more than willing to take time out of their day to talk to me. It took a long time to get back into a full time role - about 6 months. I also applied to a couple hundred jobs online but that approach didn't lead to much. The couple of interviews that I did get weren't even genuine. I deleted my LinkedIn account and never looked back.
• patterner 2y ago
  for months i've been trying to find a job. just keep applying and doing software things. learning new, refreshing old. i don't expect to ever work again. i don't have any other skills.