Advice on switching career path

[Trees]

Hey guys,

So I am a 35 year old developer and I am considering moving out of IT. The main reasons are:
1. Tired of learning new tools and frameworks every few years.
2. Want to save my eyes and back.
3. Disillusionment in general with being a modern day grunt.

Although the pay is good, the amount of work required in these corporate positions is excruciating. Like now I am doing C#, Angular, React, SQL, Docker, blah blah. The lower paying jobs are better in terms of required skills but I still have to sit in front of a screen for 8+ hours a day. So I am looking at alternate careers. I know people have entered dev in their 30's but has anyone left IT and entered another field in their 30's?

 

[RedViking]

EVERYTHING is digital. So you are not going to get away from sitting in front of a screen for 8 hours.

Unless you mean you want to start working with your hands, like building kitchen cupboards.


Alternatively, invest in a good chair with lumbar support and a sit/stand desk nd get glasses with a tint blocking out the blue light.
Get up for a couple of minutes every hour.
Exercise.
Eat healthy.

 

[Priapus]

EVERYTHING is digital. So you are not going to get away from sitting in front of a screen for 8 hours.

Pretty much this, to be honest. We are well on our way to The Fourth Industrial Revolution. So it's all digital from here on outwards.

Get up for a couple of minutes every hour.
Exercise.
Eat healthy.

This is also very important.

 

[AlphaJohn]

Hey guys,

So I am a 35 year old developer and I am considering moving out of IT. The main reasons are:
1. Tired of learning new tools and frameworks every few years.
2. Want to save my eyes and back.
3. Disillusionment in general with being a modern day grunt.

Although the pay is good, the amount of work required in these corporate positions is excruciating. Like now I am doing C#, Angular, React, SQL, Docker, Messaging queues, blah blah. The lower paying jobs are better in terms of required skills but I still have to sit in front of a screen for 8+ hours a day. So I am looking at alternate careers. I know people have entered dev in their 30's but has anyone left IT and entered another field in their 30's?

Certified SAP R/3 Sys Admin with SCO Ace, MCSE, RHCE with 3 year Damlin Diploma in coding, reporting in.

At 39, just completed a major SAP migration and went F my life and left. Took 6 Year vacation and traveled the world, from US to Europe and Asia. Got stuck for a bit in New Zealand and completed my "Holiday" with a years stay in a guest house on the beach in PE. I was ready to call it quits, Secret be told I actually did "quit" life.

Something came along and I needed to help a friend out. Started a job as a factory worker, designing stuff and cutting em with a industrial laser cutter with normal 9-5. That 3 month help is now 5 years and no end in sight. My current annual income = previous monthly income yet I can not be happier. Its way more rewarding to design a physical object and see it come to life than any of the crap I did before. Best is when "bell" rings I go home and work disappears.

I have way more free time and the lack of urgency is something I can not explain. No boss breathing over my shoulder, no calls at night, just shear bliss.

Money is not everything, life is worth waaaaay more.

 

[cguy]

Perhaps try a different type of development? Usually if a project is more involved (longevity ~10+ years before it is retired), the stack remains relatively stable.

I literally don’t use any of those tools you listed. Almost entirely C/C++, Python and some R, and very few external libraries. The emphasis is on going deep into the domain, and building a fast, robust, lasting solution (set of applications).

There are still tons of things to learn, but very little of it is throwaway “this will be obsolete when the next new thing arrives”, type of work. Because of my expertise in the domains I’ve worked in, I very much drive what gets built as opposed to doing what others tell me to do.

It sounds as though you work on web or mobile apps given your stack. Perhaps try move away from this completely.

 

[LinuxMan]

Certified SAP R/3 Sys Admin with SCO Ace, MCSE, RHCE with 3 year Damlin Diploma in coding, reporting in.

At 39, just completed a major SAP migration and went F my life and left. Took 6 Year vacation and traveled the world, from US to Europe and Asia. Got stuck for a bit in New Zealand and completed my "Holiday" with a years stay in a guest house on the beach in PE. I was ready to call it quits, Secret be told I actually did "quit" life.

Something came along and I needed to help a friend out. Started a job as a factory worker, designing stuff and cutting em with a industrial laser cutter with normal 9-5. That 3 month help is now 5 years and no end in sight. My current annual income = previous monthly income yet I can not be happier. Its way more rewarding to design a physical object and see it come to life than any of the crap I did before. Best is when "bell" rings I go home and work disappears.

I have way more free time and the lack of urgency is something I can not explain. No boss breathing over my shoulder, no calls at night, just shear bliss.

Money is not everything, life is worth waaaaay more.

What an awesome story, money is definitely not everything.
Best thing I did was start my own business in 2009, haven't looked back since.

 

[AlphaJohn]

Best thing I did was start my own business in 2009, haven't looked back since.

Funny enough that was the option I was looking at while I was "stuck" in New Zealand. Starting a dev co with a friend. Noticed that the reasons I hated IT was more so when running an IT company so I left.

Thinking about it now, I am prouder walking into an MTN store and seeing my handy work than any of my code used daily by millions of people around the globe.

My advice to OP:
If you can afford it, take a break,
If not just change scenery,
and make sure its what you want.

 

[RedViking]

Funny enough that was the option I was looking at while I was "stuck" in New Zealand. Starting a dev co with a friend. Noticed that the reasons I hated IT was more so when running an IT company so I left.

Thinking about it now, I am prouder walking into an MTN store and seeing my handy work than any of my code used daily by millions of people around the globe.

My advice to OP:
If you can afford it, take a break,
If not just change scenery,
and make sure its what you want.

And here I am working for New Zealand the last more than decade (from South Africa), hoping to get a chance to travel there one day.

Quit my 10 year old job in 2019 and partnered with a friend and started our own company.

My monthly salary should exceed my yearly salary from the previous job in a year or two from now.

Although I still work pretty hard, the reward is so satisfying and seeing client being happy and impressed with the work. Also really great to be able to grow and employ others giving them a chance of a career.

Hopefully once we have enough staff I can start settling down on the hours and do more management.


However, starting a business is not for everyone. Your employees "come to work" , put in 7- 8 hours, leave and go home. Enjoy public holidays and go on leave.

You on the other hand will need to work 18 hours a day if it must and there is no such thing as public holidays and leave. That becomes a luxury once the business is successful , and even then , it is pretty damn hard work.

 

[Ancalagon]

Work is work is work. You get work that is a little more enjoyable and a little less enjoyable, but at the end of the day, work is work. You won't always like it. Find a job that pays the bills.

I think, in today's culture, we have the myth of the perfect job. The job that you would LOVE to do. I don't think such jobs really exist, and you shouldn't waste time searching for them.

What you can think about, is what sacrifices you are willing to make. Maybe you are willing to sacrifice some money and standard of living, in that case, you could switch careers.

If you are not willing to sacrifice money and standard of living, then your best bet is to stay in IT, sadly. Nothing else will pay you as much at your age and with your experience. If you switched, you could expect to earn less for a few years, with the possible exception of moving into a managerial position in which your skills still count for much.

Don't make the mistake of switching to another development job that you think could be less stressful. A friend of mine did this. He found that the money decreased but the stress stayed the same. Years later, he can't get his salary back up to where it was.

 

[Trees]

Valuable insight here, thanks peeps. Some can relate and some just bite the bullet. Yes, work is work at the end of the day.

 

[prod]

Don't make the mistake of switching to another development job that you think could be less stressful. A friend of mine did this. He found that the money decreased but the stress stayed the same. Years later, he can't get his salary back up to where it was.

Opposite happened in my case, more money and less (way less) stress

But yes, some luck was involved!

 

[Trees]

Certified SAP R/3 Sys Admin with SCO Ace, MCSE, RHCE with 3 year Damlin Diploma in coding, reporting in.

At 39, just completed a major SAP migration and went F my life and left. Took 6 Year vacation and traveled the world, from US to Europe and Asia. Got stuck for a bit in New Zealand and completed my "Holiday" with a years stay in a guest house on the beach in PE. I was ready to call it quits, Secret be told I actually did "quit" life.

Something came along and I needed to help a friend out. Started a job as a factory worker, designing stuff and cutting em with a industrial laser cutter with normal 9-5. That 3 month help is now 5 years and no end in sight. My current annual income = previous monthly income yet I can not be happier. Its way more rewarding to design a physical object and see it come to life than any of the crap I did before. Best is when "bell" rings I go home and work disappears.

I have way more free time and the lack of urgency is something I can not explain. No boss breathing over my shoulder, no calls at night, just shear bliss.

Money is not everything, life is worth waaaaay more.

Inspiring story. 6 year vacay
Yes money isn't everything.

 

[Trees]

Work is work is work. You get work that is a little more enjoyable and a little less enjoyable, but at the end of the day, work is work. You won't always like it. Find a job that pays the bills.

I think, in today's culture, we have the myth of the perfect job. The job that you would LOVE to do. I don't think such jobs really exist, and you shouldn't waste time searching for them.

What you can think about, is what sacrifices you are willing to make. Maybe you are willing to sacrifice some money and standard of living, in that case, you could switch careers.

If you are not willing to sacrifice money and standard of living, then your best bet is to stay in IT, sadly. Nothing else will pay you as much at your age and with your experience. If you switched, you could expect to earn less for a few years, with the possible exception of moving into a managerial position in which your skills still count for much.

Don't make the mistake of switching to another development job that you think could be less stressful. A friend of mine did this. He found that the money decreased but the stress stayed the same. Years later, he can't get his salary back up to where it was.

I was actually thinking of switching to a less stressful dev role with reduced pay.

 

[RedViking]

I was actually thinking of switching to a less stressful dev role with reduced pay.

Before making a drastic change, and possibly sit without a job or career. I would first make some adjustments.

As you said, consider a less stressful role.
Change in working hours.
Doing something else besides work etc.

Yes you are always going to have to learn new things, but this should be fun and part of growing.

In my line of work , Building Information Management, you basically end up studying and learning new things every day. Every single project is different. Every client is different. And as we grow as a company, there is just so much to learn. For now we are only on Architectural Homes, soon Hospitals and then Skyscrapers.

Learning and studying will never stop.

But hell I enjoy it.

The problem is learning something and it doesn't take you anywhere. You are not working towards something. You just study to keep the job flowing. There is no reward. That needs to change.

 

[AlphaJohn]

I was actually thinking of switching to a less stressful dev role with reduced pay.

LOL thats how I ended up with the SAP job....that almost killed me. Left a Pharma co to go do something less stressful. Little did I know about the ERP migration 4 years later at the time.

 

[RedViking]

@AlphaJohn what was New Zealand like compared to the other countries? Sorry for the bit of off-topic. Seeing that you got stuck there, was that just because of the job or because you enjoyed the country?

 

[GrootVoet]

Hey guys,

So I am a 35 year old developer and I am considering moving out of IT. The main reasons are:
1. Tired of learning new tools and frameworks every few years.
2. Want to save my eyes and back.
3. Disillusionment in general with being a modern day grunt.

Although the pay is good, the amount of work required in these corporate positions is excruciating. Like now I am doing C#, Angular, React, SQL, Docker, blah blah. The lower paying jobs are better in terms of required skills but I still have to sit in front of a screen for 8+ hours a day. So I am looking at alternate careers. I know people have entered dev in their 30's but has anyone left IT and entered another field in their 30's?

Your problem is the golden handcuffs. IT pays very well compared to the effort of other jobs but it's a rat race like non other. Have you considered specializing in a particular field or going into IT architecture maybe?

 

[AlphaJohn]

@AlphaJohn what was New Zealand like compared to the other countries? Sorry for the bit of off-topic. Seeing that you got stuck there, was that just because of the job or because you enjoyed the country?

NZ People and country was great, its the weather that got to me.
In fact its the weather that is the reason I am still in SA. I went to PE for a December break from NZ to get some sun light. Got stuck in SA, well I also met my SO in PE and she has something to do with me still being here.

My only issue in NZ was the Ex Pat's cause all they could ever do was talk about how bad SA is. Kinda like Circle jerk, instead of moving on with their lives. So only advice if you move there is avoid Ex-pats.

If I ever move again I would most probably pick AU 1st cause they have weather that match us a tad better.

 

[Trees]

Your problem is the golden handcuffs. IT pays very well compared to the effort of other jobs but it's a rat race like non other. Have you considered specializing in a particular field or going into IT architecture maybe?

You sir are right - I took a look at salaries outside of IT and we are really spoilt.

I have thought about devops if that is what you are referring to?

 

[The_Ogre]

I'm interested in this thread.

I'm also gatvol of the software development industry and am looking to get out. My problem is there's nothing that I'm good at, other than IT