Ask HN: Alternative jobs to take a break from being a developer?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8613301

22 24 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I love coding, but I'm burned out and want to switch to something else for a while. Something that will bring some more meaning to my life. Or even just give me a break from the stress of being a software developer.

But I have a family to feed, so I can't just take a year off and travel or do anything crazy.

What's a good alternate career path I could take for a while to get a breath of fresh air?

mc_hammer• 12 years ago

deliver pizza or bartend, good tips :)

czbond• 12 years ago

I understand whole heartedly - I've been there. If you are a family provider, and don't want to get too far out of your comfort zone (every personality is different) - you could look at consulting, software consultants, software architecture, sales, etc. These would provide a rough average income of what you're earning now. Or, as an aside - you could also teach yourself a new skill or do a side job at night/weekends. Find what you are yearning to do, and incorporate it. Are you feeling isolated coding too much? Find a more extroverted position, etc etc.

tiredofcodingya7• 12 years ago

Find what you are yearning to do, and incorporate it.

Maybe that's where I've been failing. Nothing I've done lately has been inherently meaningful. May I ask what you ended up doing?

azurelogic• 12 years ago

Project manager, front end designer, QA, or DBA maybe? Depends on your background and passion.

tapan_k• 12 years ago

The answer depends on what you mean by "for a while". If its a few months or a year or two, it does not matter what the alternative career path is, as long as you do land a job that pays enough for you to support your family. If you are looking for alternate career paths for more than a couple of years, why think of this as temporary? Just switch to a different path and reevaluate when you stop having fun. Check this list to see which of the following helps:

1. Take a week or two off. Go on vacation. Maybe you just need a short break.

2. Find a new job as a developer. The change in environment (people and/or technologies that you work with) may do the trick.

3. Switch to a PM role for a while.

4. If you think being a developer is no longer fun, consider a career change.

Whatever you do, do not wait too long for the problem to fix itself. Do something now, before you start to drain out and find yourself unable to muster the energy and enthusiasm to come up with a solution.

tiredofcodingya7• 12 years ago

Thanks for the suggestions, that gives me a lot to think about.

jasonkester• 12 years ago

The simple answer is to work as a developer for half the year then take the other half off to go do whatever gives your life that meaning. It's simply more cost effective to do it this way than to try to find a "meaningful" job that you can pick up with zero experience that will still bring in enough to support your family.

Incidentally, if there exists a job orthogonal to your skill set as a developer that you can jump into and make upwards of half your current salary, that's a good sign you're not billing enough today.

tiredofcodingya7• 12 years ago

I love this idea. And it sounds like I'm not charging enough, heh.

mknits• 12 years ago

You could try writing your experiences in a book.

atmosx• 12 years ago

When I'm tired, I do gardening. But where I live I'm happy to have a lot of sun, most of the time and my place kind of in the suburbs so whole thing is perfect for gardening / taking care of plants, flowers, etc.

EDIT: Sorry didn't read the question well enough. Gardening isn't an good alternative career path to programming IMHO, just a nice distraction. Even helps you think about programming and/or other problems.

tiredofcodingya7• 12 years ago

Wow, that sounds awesome. Thanks :)

kephra• 12 years ago

Its winter soon, at least here.

Time to maintain motorbikes or sailing boats. Do you know any craft, e.g. sewing, that could be used to make money in that market. Motorbike saddles, tarpaulins, seats and cushions are things I produce when tired from coding. Hand crafted quality sells well, and builds up a customer base that is even more loyal then a mainframe service contract.

Especially the biker scene has the tendency of regular up or outs. Some bikers move up, others move out, when ever a club closes, or is patched over. Same happens to good quality saddles also. So even if you do not sell to the Angles right now, they will might ride your saddles in 10 or 20 years, and they will be top paying customers.

Same same but different with sailing boats. Even if one can not move a tarpaulin from one boat to an other, like you could do with a Harley saddle, the sailors themself move up or out regular. They either buy a bigger boat, or quit sailing. Selling quality ensures a loyal customer, who tells his club.

You'll soon be invaded by wanna be customers every winter, if done right. Do not take to many, keep it to a maximum of 2-3 month of 20 hours work per week. Some of the sailing club customers might even become software customers next summer.

tonteldoos• 12 years ago

I was semi-involuntarily faced with the same situation this year. Giving a meaningful answer will depend on situational things, ie:

- How old are you? - How senior are you in your profession? - Are you the sole provider for your family? - How much savings/equity/etc do you have floating around? - What other skillsets do you have that you could leverage?

The problem (I found, anyway) with 'alternative careerpaths' are that they either require some sort of previous experience (to get them, or earn a good wage, depending on where you live), or the ones that don't will have 1e10 other people lining up for it (again, depending on where you live).

It may be more productive to find a way to cut down on expenses and tap into savings, and try and learn something new, or get in touch with your inner geek again. A side benefit might be getting to spend more time with the kids/wife, or discover a talent or skill you didn't know you had.

My experience has shown that I don't want to get out of development, but having to do seemingly meaningless drivel for other people sucks the life out of our profession. I'm going to try and actively keep that spark alive going forward (not sure yet how, but at least it's a start).

I'm happy to chat privately if you're interested...

tiredofcodingya7• 12 years ago

Thank, how did things end up for you? Did you find anything particularly helpful during that time?

lumberjack• 12 years ago

Teaching is incredibly rewarding. Depending on your qualifications you might find an institution willing to put you on their payroll but if not you can always advertise yourself as a private tutor.

rayalez• 12 years ago

If you have some time - you could create a udemy course based on what you know. Making screencasts is very fun and will provide you with a stream of passive income.

Other than that - I think it's hard to give an advice about career that would be both fun and wouldn't require a lot of skill to start with.

But if you are willing to invest time and effort - writing, painting, and computer graphics are the thing that I massively enjoy in my free time. I bet you could use your programming skills in 3D graphics as well.

Also - some sort of internet marketing. It isnt usually considered fun or worth doing among programmers, but it can actually be fun and profitable, and obviously a useful startup-related skill that you can utilize to make/sell your own products if you ever want to.

mkaziz• 12 years ago

What do you mean by internet marketing?

plikan13• 12 years ago

I worked in a department store filling shelves for a couple of months and I actually enjoyed it. The work is boring, but what happens inside your mind belongs to yourself, all day long. Made a nice change for prostituting my brain. The social interaction is nice too. You would be amazed how many old people come to department stores just to have a word with another living soul.

tiredofcodingya7• 12 years ago

Hah, interesting perspective. Thanks :)

27182818284• 12 years ago

come to department stores just to have a word with another living soul.

That hits home. I have periods in my life where I have had less of a social life, and during those I definitely found myself going to the grocery store more. Reading your comment I realize just how much of that was to see other folks. Same with the coffee shop

readme• 12 years ago

Do what I did: join the Army as a linguist. Now I have served 1 out of the six years of my commitment, and I've learned Arabic while I got paid for it with all my living expenses taken care of.

Also when I get out I can go back to school and I'll have a huge leg up on government jobs. OTOH, if I can become a warrant officer I'll just stay in.

Yes it's risky/dangerous. I can't deny that. But I can say for sure it will get you in shape and builds a lot of discipline and character.

partisan2• 12 years ago

Man, I can really relate to this. I sometimes consider taking a development job at a small, non-IT company. Just an easy, get-it-done type of place. The kind of place where the users will love you for saving them from spreadsheets and access databases and their manual processes. Job satisfaction without the other stuff for a while.

So I guess what I am saying is that maybe you can find a place where you can continue on your career path while saving your sanity.

tiredofcodingya7• 12 years ago

That sounds nice... Know of any places like that?

partisan2• 12 years ago

I don't think these types of places are the ones you find on HN. They're more likely mom and pop places, family run and really just waiting to benefit from automation.

I did consulting at an HVAC company that had the vibe I am describing. I am not saying these positions are abundant, but if you check craigslist, depending on where you live, you might find these either under the software/QA jobs or under the computer gigs sections.

Ask HN: Alternative jobs to take a break from being a developer?

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