Ash HN: Work After Tech

Something to ask yourself: does it have to be out of tech, or out of coding? Below are some options that leverage skills you've possibly developed.

* Writing technical books, columns. You can leverage your skills and teach them to others.

* Speaking engagements at conferences. This one requires some reputation, or reputation building, or social ins. It can be lucrative, and gives you the social aspect. Evangelizing a particular technology can go hand in hand with this.

* Fiction writing. As a consultant or senior dev you learned how to tell a story, or pitch a product/approach. That translates to fiction writing. If you are an avid Fantasy or Science Fiction reader then you could try your hand at writing what you love to read. It will take time to get good, just like when you learned programming or other tech skills. This also involves a lot of socializing during marketing, signings, etc. - especially if you are self-publishing.

* Transition into management. The skills you learned are in high demand for leading a team of engineers, and senior management is often looking for someone who's been an engineer and is looking to move into management.

* Change careers to something opposite - woodworking, etc., but keep your hand in programming by contributing to Open Source software. This allows you to build a reputation in the Open Source world as well.

Happy holidays and I hope this helps you in some small way

While not leaving tech, I’m just like you a contractor. I’ve negotiated to work 25-hour weeks and it’s done wonders for my mental energy.

It has also allowed me to spin up a second, non-tech venture (a print shop) with little to no stress since my 25-hours a week is more than enough to keep us afloat.

If you are able to swing a part-time or freelance situation, really try to do that first. 10 hours a week as a software contractor is probably more money than 50 hours for the average job. Spend the rest of your time hiking, repairing motorcycles, or whatever else you please.

No experience but with Brexit I imagine being a tradie of some kind eg a plumber would be good. I know someone who went coder->builder and was very happy with it.

How about learning a trade?

I have never worked in IT, but I transitioned to forestry after a similar burnout. Currently it is more of a side gig for mental balance, but I vividly remember the period I worked as a full time brush cutter and tree planter. It pays poorly in my country (though this somewhat depends on the season). But having spent an entire year almost exclusively outdoors in any weather, I really hesitate going back to a full time white collar / indoors job.

Forestry jobs can be really demanding physically, but it sure is an eye-opening (and lung-opening) experience. I would probably still do this full time, but I found out that I have a low tolerance for brush cutter noise and vibrations and, well, now I suffer from tinnitus.

But, again, it was still worth it.

I estimate that in our epidemic of white collar burnouts, people will start looking into trades more seriously again. No "teach yourself framework X in 24 hours" in these fields, but slowly, gradually, over the years, you may evolve into a true master of a chosen skill. It just takes time and patience.

And, as a tradesman, your work involves using and coordinating your entire body all day long. As compared to the world of desk jobs - what luxury!

As others said pick up a trade, you'll take a pay cut initially but if you work towards opening your own business you might be alright. Make sure you really want it. I worked in kitchens for a while and pay is shit and work is really, really stressful and hard, I'd not recommend that path.

I used to go to the subway down the street from my house. There was this old strange employee that at first gave me the creeps, but eventually we became casual friends. On his last day before retirement he gave me the book he wrote. It turns out this guy was a millionaire and had a very diverse set of skills.

His book said that even though he was an accountant, stock broker, song writer, etc he preferred to work in the restaurant business because he liked working with the public and being social.

What I learned from him is that you really aren’t your job. Even if you have to work at subway to enjoy life, don’t think less of yourself ;)

When I was a kid (some 15 years ago), I remember people like you would wait till early 30s and then setup a software house, which is basically a small contracting firm, where you use your accumulated contacts to get contracts and hire junior and mid level people to work for you. Is that sort of thing not done anymore?

There are lots of great ideas and thoughts from the others here, so I won't focus on the same things that have already been mentioned.

You mention a few different issues, feeling burned out, health, and not finding the work interesting. I think you should focus on those three individually rather than trying to find a single silver bullet.

First, take care of your health. You can start by doing some simple things: eat better, have a better sleep schedule, go on more walks and slowly build up to what you expect from yourself and feel that you're missing in this regard. It doesn't have to be spend 2 hours/day at the gym starting tomorrow.

Second, with regards to feeling burned out, think about what your ideal situation looks like. If you had unlimited money, what would you fill your time with? Next, think about if you had a lot of money but still couldn't have the security of financial independence/freedom. What would you do for income? The point here is to determine two things: 1) what's enough for you and 2) what your passions are. It's ok to do things type not passionate of to sustain yourself/family, but you'll eventually feel burned out trying to get more than enough. Determine what enough is and to what end you'll do things that aren't your passion.

Lastly, about not finding your work interesting. This is totally normal. It's hard to find your passions interesting over decades. Passions change over time and that's ok. Are there things you do like about your job? My previous point about thinking about your passions applies here. It may be you hate the environment or dislike being told what to do. I love writing software, but dislike a lot of things about modern "industry best practice".

Hope you find what you're after and enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Life is too short and you never know how short it really is.

I know a lot od developers from CyberCraft https://cybercraftinc.com who have moved out of tech. Few of them become enterpeneurs, there are also some literate managers. Perhaps, you can try freelance first and free time to look for anything you really like.

I have to ask how you got £130k as a contractor in the UK? I know London pays more but that much?

To me, the key question is not "what career do I want?" but "how do I want to spend my time, and in what environment?"

I work in entertainment, in LA, and the day-to-day reality is nothing like what I imagined when I started my career (and I don't like the city). If I'm being honest I spent too long falling victim to the Sunk Costs Fallacy.

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/

So I've started to think about this the other way around. I want to live somewhere 1 hour from a major city, 1 hour from a national park, with all 4 seasons, with a job market that has lots of interesting opportunities. My career will simply be secondary to that.