Ask HN: What could I do besides programming? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What could I do besides programming?

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I've been a developer for 20 years now, but in recent years I haven't gotten much done and I don't seem to enjoy programming anymore at all. I like the theory, but once it gets to the gruesome details I can hardly muster the willpower to wade through all the documentation and setup boilerplate.

So I wonder if it is time to admit that I am not a developer anymore.

I am just not sure what else I could do. Where can I go from programming? I have a family to support so I can not take a low paying job, unfortunately.

I have plans to do some writing, but I wouldn't count on it earning money in the foreseeable future.

Teaching might be another option, but I worry that it would present the same problem as programming to me.

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Were you involved in the hiring process much? If so, you could definitely do well as a recruiter. Hiring is a difficult process for many companies and having a recruiter with a strong engineering background helps create much better funnels for candidates. You will also have a much easier time getting responses from potential candidates because you will be able to say more interesting things about a company's tech in your cold emails instead of the generic copy/paste templates most engineers get in their inbox.

No hiring experience. I would be interested in that, although it seems as if nobody really knows how to do it.

You usually can't go from a lucrative career where you have a lot of experience to an unrelated career where you have no experience without taking a big paycut. If you need to maintain your salary, it'd be much, much easier to figure out how to fix your burnout.

Failing that, you can possibly maintain your salary with a lateral move to a role that deals with developers without doing any development directly - most likely product management. This move is most likely to be successful at the company you're currently with, because they already know you - it's harder to change companies and functional roles simultaneously without taking that salary reduction.

Turns out this is a common problem for programmers long in the tooth.

Former pro-athletes often move into the ranks of coaching or Front Office Management. The same idea applies to programmers, you can either find a way to leverage your expertise-- or get out of the game entirely.

Here's a good read, "In search of the fabled elephants' graveyard of software developers over 40" > http://www.infoworld.com/article/2617093/it-careers/it-caree...

If you like the big theoretical approach, you might want to go into an architect or principal engineer roles. These typically involve higher-level considerations of systems design, data flow, etc. without delving into the tedious boilerplate (that's for lowly devs! /s)

Of course if you want to get out of programming altogether, you could try writing a book about your experiences or whatnot and market it as a career advice.

Or you could live my dream and go back to school for chemistry and become the High Priest of LSD

It's never to late to reinvent yourself.

What are some of your hobbies? Sports? Art? Gardening?

Your could coach little league sports or produce art or start a landscaping company. Wether it brings enough money to support you and your family is a different issue, but theres no reason you can't plan the transition while your still a programmer.

You could go back to school and get a law degree or teaching degree.

I was saying just yesterday, if I ever left programming for whatever reason, I'd start a small remodeling company. I enjoy it that much and it's so far away from programming, it might rest my mind for a bit.

Suppose there is a 50/50 chance that teaching presents "the same problem as programming". That's better than the certainty that programming presents "the same problem as programming". And part of the problem of programming may be that it's "old hat" while teaching would, even in the worst case, be a novelty that sucks.

Good luck.

True about the odds for myself, but I wouldn't want to be responsible for destroying some kid's enthusiasm for coding.

Still, I might look into it. Salaries are not that great for teachers, but maybe sufficient.

My experience around kids is that an adult has to go out to the extremes to destroy a child's enthusiasm. More common is that the child sensibly decides that a subject is not for them all on their own.

> ... but in recent years I haven't gotten much done and I don't seem to enjoy programming anymore at all.

Maybe fix the "haven't gotten much done"? You might need to switch jobs to one where you can get stuff done. That might fix the "don't enjoy programming anymore" part, too.

Sales, Training or Recruiting. Doubt you can make the kind of money you do now, but it's definitely different.

You can be an consultant as programmer skills like communication, problem solving are transferable.

You should take some time off if you can afford it. Like, a few months at least. Try all new things you can think of during this time and you will definitely find something that interests you enough to switch to.

that's what i'm about to do for the same problem ... except i have just one year of experience !

I caution you to take such a break so early in your career. There are a lot of things to be learned at this stage and you can get valuable knowledge from your experienced colleagues.

How about creating a blog about something non-programming that you love and improving your writing skills?

Or how about creating an online course through one of the education platforms.

I'll definitely try blogging, and I have thought about online courses, too. I expect it would take a while to make an income from that, though.

Developer advocate/outreach? Project manager?

Technically a good idea, but difficult since my enthusiasm for programming has become so low.

I think that, viewed the right way, your weariness of programming would be helpful. You know what burns people out and makes them unhappy, and both of those jobs involve preventing those things from happening.

As a developer advocate, you really just need to be a people person. You need to be willing to understand what makes people happy or frustrated and bring that back to decision-makers at your company. You, of all people, should be able to relate fairly easily.

Possibly, but somehow I would have to convince somebody to let me try.

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