Ask HN: Moving away from FAANG: Other areas of dev work? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Moving away from FAANG: Other areas of dev work?

14 pointsthaen8 comments

I've been a dev for 20-ish years, working mostly in Java and Python. I work for a large FAANG-ish company on problems related to large distributed software systems. By most measures, I'm pretty successful, "Sr" in my title and whatnot.

But lately I'm suffering the burnout/apathy/midlife-crisis that seems so common, and I'm wondering if a big shift might be warranted. This last weekend, I was thinking that exploring some other area of engineering might be interesting. Right now, something physical sounds interesting: structural, electrical, mechanical etc. (Heck, right this minute, even carpentry sounds good.) I have near-zero experience with these worlds.

The salaries for these positions are all half of what I'm making now or even less, which might be fine if I was sure that I'd be into it, but I'd like to get sure.

I'm thinking a "baby step" toward an alternate career might be to go work on the software that powers them, where the structural/electrical/mechanical engineer is the customer, using software or physical products that I'm writing code for. Ideally, I'd work at a place where I could interact with customers directly, though I realize that may not really be how things work. My thinking is that I could get some exposure to those worlds without totally retooling and taking that risk.

Does that seem crazy? What opportunities might be available that I haven't thought of? Anyone worked in these industries or for these companies that has experiences they might want to share?

After nearly two decades of FAANG, I left to work for a nuclear company, and I love it. Not all of my skills are utilized here, but my brain is growing in new ways. It's thrilling to work with people whose abilities are so different from my own, on problems which I believe to be among the most important I could be working on.

One piece of advice is to not over-romanticize such a switch. Every job has its frustrations and irritants and drudgeries. Changing careers does not cure burnout or apathy, if the source of those feelings is inside you.

Perhaps consider contract work as a way to get started.

At the risk of being over-sentimental, I reflect on something Steve Jobs said, about being fired from Apple:

The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter into one of the most creative periods of my life.

My son is at the other end of the spectrum having just graduated with a BS in Computer Engineering and started his career as Software Engineer I. He is working as a software engineer at a company that designs and manufacturer's sensors used in factory and warehouse automation. Creating the software to do interesting things with sensors is a growth area for them, but it is still primarily a hardware company.

If that kind of thing sounds interesting let me know.

I would say that instead of outright quitting, putting more time towards interest may be a better idea. I did it with wood-working; I had a garage and bought some tools and setup a workbench.

At first I made small fixes to the house and then small tables and stools. I am still at that stage trying to refine my skills and haven't attempted anything too big but that alone has provided much therapeutic relief. Have used Youtube for learning; attended some classes but they can get expensive fast so it is mostly Youtube for me until I feel ready to tackle bigger projects.

I am in a similar situation and I noticed that I have been leaning harder into my Rust side project lately. I realized I could turn it into an actual product and make a business out of it. You could try something like that.

how about selling software ? You don't have to write code but you could interact with prospective customers, do demos and close deals. Base Salary would be a bit lower but you could make it up with total compensation based on commissions on top of the base. There are lot of consultative sales roles where cold calling is not required but you would mostly field inbound queries.

Reach out to me if you’re interested in working at Garmin

You could post a paid job ad on HN. Replying like you did risks looking like recruiter spam. I’m not saying you are doing that, just that there are other legit ways to let people know about opportunities on HN.

Fair enough. Just threw it out there quickly as it may resonate with what op was looking for.

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