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Ask HN: I'm tired of development. What should I do next?

3 points by bittired ↗ HN
(Edited: title changed to use the word "fuck", which is a great way to get more visibility on HN. Also I tl;dr'd it.)

What would you recommend for someone that has fully resolved to change their career from developer to X, but has no answer to the question: "What is X?"

If there are career counselors that could help, how would you suggest finding one that would give good advice? What books and/or tests would help for those that are in a similar situation, have fully decided that they are on the wrong path, and who have abandoned almost all hope?

13 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 33.2 ms ] thread
schrodingersCat
Do you like/tolerate teaching people? You could probably make a decent amount of money teaching people to code while not actually doing much of it yourself. If that's out of the question, you should ask yourself how physical you want your new career to be. If you're not afraid of manual labor, self employed plumbers and electricians make a killing and are always in demand (no sarcasm intended btw).
bittired
I have tried teaching in the past, but it isn't my strong suit. I enjoy manual labor, but I'm not sure I could do it full-time and know myself well-enough that I couldn't manage various teams, etc. to work my salary closer to what I have now. I'm not very outgoing. Plumbing would be interesting, and I've done some in the past, but doubt it would make enough, I'm not that handy, and managing the team and business would be tough. I like the idea of being a writer, but I don't write much before giving up for months and then starting on something new months later.
404error
What about sales?
bittired
Good suggestion for some, but those that know me know I would give away the farm and would be a poor salesman. I'm also not outgoing and don't enjoy seeing people and relationships as a means to an end.
404error
I'm with you on this, it was just a suggestion. I would probably walk in somewhere to sell something and walk out having been sold something else. :-)

Good luck and I hope whatever it is you end up doing you enjoy, I am in a similar situation.

jrn
Consider pipefitting in oil and gas, similar to plumbing better wages.
schrodingersCat
Nice. This is a great suggestion and timely. I hear that gas pipefitters in the Australian outback make ~200K a year if you're willing to travel...
jrn
Northern bc, or ab. 40+$ hour plus 150 a day loa.
totalforge
Logical paths might be connected to your development work. Clients, vendors, or other related companies might know you and be interested in hiring you.
bittired
Good idea for some. Unfortunately, I have not directly interacted with many outside of my team at each company, and all of those teams are developers and almost all still work in development.
bittired
Looks like maybe PG changed the title to removing "fucking". Sorry for the offense! Thank you for fixing it.