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Ask HN: I don't want to be a Software Engineer any more. What else could I do?

by trwhite on 9/3/24, 10:49 PM with 46 comments

• by purple-leafy on 9/4/24, 12:36 AM

  I’ve had the same thoughts lately, I think AI has made software lose its “magic” for me. That and the stress of delivery.

  Here’s what I did: I switched from 5 day weeks to 4 day 32 hour weeks. That has helped immensely. So you could consider that, or even a partial career break.

  If you do want to quit cold turkey, heres some roles you could transition into in the same ballpark:

  - DevOps

  - Tester

  - Firmware/embedded Engineer

  - Technical Writer

  - Data Engineer

  - Data Scientist

  - Statistician

  - Business Analyst

  - CAD architect

  - Startup founder (easier than you think to start a startup and get funding)

  Things I’ve considered that play well with a software mindset but require re-skilling

  - Electrical Engineer

  - Electrician

  - Carpenter

  - Gardener

  - Farmer

  - Welder

  - Barista

  What reasons have you found that make you want to stop being a Software Engineer?

• by lWaterboardCats on 9/3/24, 11:50 PM

  At this point in this industry and in my experience, the further up the chain you go, the more “SWE” becomes a tool in your belt rather than your career.

  The problems you solve for the business are using your tool belt. Even within software, there are sales roles, people management, subject matter expertise, vendor management etc…

  For those who have said similar things in my area, most of the time, the better question they ultimately had to ask themselves was “what kind of problems do I want to solve, regardless of the tools? Who do I want to help? What VERY SPECIFIC part of my job don’t haye? Are there parts of my day or events in my career that I genuinely loved?” The last couple of questions are there to help you focus on areas you want to focus less and more on, respectively. No matter the job, you’re gonna have parts you dislike and parts your like, the key is to maximize the things you like.

  I don’t mean to undermine the SWE industry standards and practices as a whole, but peeling this onion away, I assure you that you’re using a hammer that can be taken to any industry and will benefit you in general knowing how to use it.

• by aspyct on 9/4/24, 9:44 PM

  I thought about leaving, even went to 3 days a week IT, and 2 days something else. I was making some serious headway, but in the end...

  In IT, people are pretty chill. We share open source, we create new things all the time, we get to solve interesting problems. It's fun! The rest of the world is full of people with a... different outlook on how to interact with the world around them, to put it mildly.

  Now I'm back on 4 days a week, and I absolutely love it! Two afternoons off per week. It's not too much of a strain on the budget, yet gives me a lot of free time. It's really the best.

  Find a good team, stick with it. Do your job during office hours, and then do your other stuff on your side. We're lucky to have a stable, high paying and relatively ok for your (physical) health job.

  If you're really set on leaving, I'd highly encourage you to switch to 3 days a week and start a side business in anything. You can sponsor it with your IT salary, and then figure out what you want to do when you're ready.

• by pjkundert on 9/3/24, 11:26 PM

  Do you use Windows to do software development?

  I've talked to several people who described why they left "software development", and recently worked in a Windows development shop -- I'd leave the field, too, if I had to work like that!!

  If so -- try switching to development using a more traditional *nix philosophy, but make sure you have a seasoned mentor! You may just find that you actually love software development, but didn't know it because it was hidden under a pile of ... Windows.

• by xpl on 9/4/24, 5:36 AM

  Probably they don't read Hackernews anymore.

  I personally think re-learning into construction / architecture as a backup plan. IMO we are all living in overly costly and ugly houses, so maybe it could be improved at least a bit :)

• by Yawrehto on 9/4/24, 6:40 PM

  If you want to get far away from software, I'd recommend mathematics (as code is built on logic, the same thing math is), law (the first barrier to entering law school is the LSAT, which is basically a logical reasoning test, which says a fair bit about priorities), or philosophy (which requires many of the same skills, e.g., logical reasoning, precision, et cetera), none of which have been recommended yet (I'm especially surprised by 'mathematician' - it's pretty similar.) If I had to rank, mathematician would be easiest to switch into, followed by philosopher, then lawyer.

  Good luck!

• by markus_zhang on 9/4/24, 2:00 AM

  I have been thinking about this too but figure out I won't be able to do so due to my responsibilities.

  My advice: find the best paying SWE job you can find. Try to get $250k+. Do double job if possible, or better, a permanent one and a contractor one in another country. Maximize post tax income. Since you hate it, better get a maximum pay out of it.

  At the same time mininize your expense. Don't marry. Don't get a kid. Those are expensie items.

  Grind for a few years and call it the end. If you have a million liquid and a condo with some down payment, you are good for a long period of rest.

  Figure out the original question afterwards.

• by noflcl on 9/3/24, 10:51 PM

  You could become a home builder. . . I'm a home builder and rather be working on computers

• by gargalatas on 9/4/24, 2:05 PM

  For me AI helped me to implement all those things I was lazy to do all those years. Feel proud now! In the actual code writing it helped me a lot on writing boring unit tests. Sometimes it's just a hit of enter key to write the whole test with GH pilot.

  Just telling you all those things to maybe help you see AI differently and more friendly. Writing code and trying to follow all those new technologies is a very mind intense and stressful activity. Maybe it's just this. Changing career was never bad for anybody. You can always make a comeback if you change your mind.

  Maybe you try to become a product owner or something?

• by Turboblack on 9/6/24, 4:14 AM

  in my life i have become convinced that work does not bring happiness, no work at all will bring happiness, you are simply exchanging part of your life, your precious time for devalued money, therefore do not look for a favorite job, but a well-paid one, but at the same time, so that you do not want to puke from it. the main rule of job search is that the job should have a beginning of the working day, and end at a certain time. after the end of the working day, you are not obliged to pick up the phone from the boss. if you work until 4 pm, at 4:01 pm you should no longer be interested in anything that is happening there, the shift is over - you are already in your outerwear and leaving the building. do not invent reasons for yourself to stay at work, or to finish something, this will not be appreciated. no one cares who you work for, even if you are an astronaut, the only question will always be the amount for which you work. your time spent on this small planet is not infinite. appreciate it, love yourself. and you can work as absolutely anyone you want, no matter what profession. you work to support yourself, your family, your mother, your dog, your cat, you don't do it to impress anyone. nobody gives a shit. one day i quit everything and went to work in an open warehouse as a foreman-forkman, i calculated the work so that from 6am to 12pm we did all the work that had to be done by 6pm, from 12pm to 2pm we had a long lunch, and from 2pm to 6pm i slept, and they still paid me for 12 hours. i drove a forklift and i liked to crush and destroy. at the same time i am a teacher and a musician by education. everything is in your hands!

• by tithe on 9/3/24, 11:08 PM

  Personally, I enjoy detail-oriented activies, so software suits me just fine. But if I was going to switch to something else, I'd ask myself "What other detail-oriented industries could I thrive in?"

  * Restaurant / hotel management (specifically, the atmosphere and ambience of a space)

  * Architecture / architectural engineering

  * Real estate development / planning

  * Movie set dressing (!)

• by more_corn on 9/4/24, 11:21 PM

  How far do you want to go? I hear the Amish have no software engineers.

• by phendrenad2 on 9/4/24, 10:35 AM

  Beverage Originator at a boutique beer disbursement firm.

• by austin-cheney on 9/5/24, 1:11 AM

  Enterprise API/proxy development. I still have to program a bit at the job and I still write personal software.

• by fhd2 on 9/4/24, 6:01 AM

  You already got a bunch of answers in different directions here, I suppose what you could clarify is: Do you want to leave the industry (i.e. no longer be involved in software creation in any capacity) or just move away from writing code?

  I _could_ understand if it was the former. Quite a bit of the industry got pretty annoying, from my perspective primarily corporate and early stage startups. But there is for example many wonderful NGOs that build software that helps a cause. Less money in it, but I always find it incredibly refreshing to work with these kinds of people on their kinds of problems, pretty much zero BS.

• by 486sx33 on 9/4/24, 12:09 AM

  Take 6 months off, Travel, Find your passion, Write software for that industry or thing

• by airbreather on 9/4/24, 4:40 PM

  Maybe you did not really want to be one in the first place.

• by leed25d on 9/3/24, 11:01 PM

  Practice this phrase: "Would you like to supersize your meal?"