Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Life After Software Development?
An anonymous reader writes "I've been writing database apps for various industries as the senior developer or tech lead on a given project for most of the past 20 years. The last few years have become particularly taxing as I struggle to reiterate basic concepts to the same technically illiterate managers and stakeholders who keep turning up in charge. While most are knowledgeable about the industries our software is targeting, they just don't get the mechanics of what we do and never will. After so many years, I'm tired of repeating myself. I need a break. I need to walk away from it, and want to look at doing something that doesn't focus heavily on the IT industry day in, day out. Unfortunately, I'm locked to a regional city and I've just spent the majority of my adult life coding, with no other major skills to fall back on. While I'm not keen on remaining in front of a screen, I wouldn't be averse to becoming a tech user and consumer, rather than a creator. Are there similar Slashdotters out there who have made the leap of faith away from tech jobs and into something different? If so, where did you end up? Is there a life after IT for people who are geeks at heart? Apart from staying in my current job, is there any advice for someone who can't really risk the mortgage and kid's education on a whim?"
If you have experience on a given subject, coding or otherwise, there is a market for books and teaching. I happen to like coding and plan on keeping at it till my mortgage is paid off. Then I'll retire.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Apart from staying in my current job, is there any advice for someone who can't really risk the mortgage and kid's education on a whim?
"On a whim" is exactly what you're talking about doing: leaving what I assume to be a well-paying job, with absolutely zero skills outside your current position, to find something new (which, incidentally, is a process you're obviously sufficiently clueless about to be unable to figure out for yourself).
My advice? Do the responsible thing and stick it out until retirement or mortgage/kiddo's schooling is paid off, then take your walkabout.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Can you say "do you want fries with that?"
Try a different kind of development? - maybe Game Development? You man still deal with the same issues - but at least it's more light-hearted and the business rules of the app are still arbitrary but more fun.
It's a series of rules. It doesn't take much intelligence or creativity and pays pretty well. It can be taught very quickly. Learn to like copying and filling out forms. Bonuys, as a developer, you probably won't forge anything due to your own inability to recognize what someone can or cannot prove via provided documents. As a PREPARER, you aren't 100% liable for validating these documents, so it's pretty much boilerplate.
It's what I intend to do once I lose an important sense/appendage (as long as it's not both my hands and both eyes completely, in which case I'm fucked)
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
If you put what you wrote on the heading of your resume and sent it to some startup companies (or VC of those startups) you'll get attention.
Now, if your tired of telling people basic concepts because you're an arrogant ass, well, you'll get attention and be shown the door. If you're a person who has passion for good work, have done good work, and are willing to try something new with a similar passion, entrepreneurs will notice.
Whether the attention is good or bad is up to your attitude but put what you wrote in the header and you'll show you have balls, which is exactly what's lacking but needed most in many of the applicants I see for a startup company.
Spend a tour of duty with the Dark Side.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
We now live in a service economy. Micky Dee's is always hireing, and front desk jobs at La Quinta might be available in your area. But if you're over 45, look, just move under a bridge and get it over with.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
That's what I did. Of course I'm 62 and my savings allow me to do this, but I have to admit that it feels good.
I'd offer advice, but you mentioned "I've just spent the majority of my adult life coding, with no other major skills to fall back on". That's your problem. If a developer is not continually growing skills outside of just cutting code, they only be cutting code until the day they grow obsolete. Which is usually pretty quick.
Have you learned an industry? Learned how to manage a project? Developers can move into product development consultant or general management. But if you have 20 years experience doing the same thing over and over again...good luck.
If it's time to stop, it's time to stop.
However, it sounds like you're probably not quite a sprint chicken any more, so I'll point this out: there is a definite age ceiling in the tech world.
You can avoid hitting it quite so hard as long as you keep working in the field, but once you switch tracks, it can be a lot harder to break back in. The way a lot of management will see things, you left/got pushed out, and they can hire a younger, naive, and inexperienced dev who will write bad code that is hard to maintain in three times the time for half the price. (Note: all the MBA types will see in that sentence is "younger means energetic for half the price"). And if you haven't been working - they can say that the younger/cheaper guy is "fresh", whereas your knowledge is "dated".
Again - not saying "don't" - just saying, "be aware of the consequences if you take this leap."
Check your premises.
I've been struggling with the same problem myself. Any change is undoubtedly going to come with a decrease in pretty big income at least at first. There aren't that many jobs that pay as well as a programmer that you can just jump right in to. I recommend you find something you still have some passion about first. Ideas that have come across my mind are writing some books and opening a coffee shop. I've made minor progress towards both and realize its not going to be a change that just happens over night. Its going to take a lot of work for me to change my work but if I don't do anything about it now I'll end up stuck here forever. I like coffee and I like hanging out at coffee shops. Why not make coffee for a living? I like writing so I'm working on writing a book in my spare time to see how it turns out. Ultimately, if you aren't interested in what you're doing regardless of what it is you're going to find yourself in the same situation you're in now so find something you like doing and figure out a way to start a business around it. As a programmer, just think of it as yet another problem to solve and you'll figure your way out of the cage.
If you have been with that company for a long time, you might be able to take the position your boss has (well maybe not his exact position, but similar within the company). Being that you are tired of explaining things over and over to your revolving bosses, you could probably become one, and then you would no longer need to explain it anymore to him (though that doesn't mean you wouldn't need to explain it to the boss's boss... but usually at that level you start getting more into the "this is the problem, this is my solution, it will cost X amount of developer hours/$$$ and provides XYZ benefits").
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
> who can't really risk the mortgage and kid's education on a whim
If you have expensives to meet (and exceed for savings) then you can't drastically change your job/life without already knowing you'll succeed (too risky). What I, as a random internet user, suggest is to go frugal. Basically, reduce your spending as much as possible (at whatever rate your family can handle). Once you need less money, your savings will increase faster and you'll be able to meet your lowered expensives much easier. At that point in your life, switching careers on a whim becomes easier and less risky.
As for staying at your job, why do they need to know all the mechannics, that's your job not theirs. With your 'never will' attitude, you're already setting yourself up for failure on that front. Stop repeating yourself: think hard and come up with different ways to explain things. I know you can do it, you know the topics, find different words and make stories.
If you're tired of listening to idiots, why not start a company. Then you're in charge. There are many downsides to this but it solves your immediate problem.
You could also get into mobile app development. That can be done as a solo gig.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
Been there.
Done that.
Now I raise pigs on pasture.
Shepherding pigs is more fun.
Love it.
Dear Slashdot,
I've spent my entire life doing one thing. I have no marketable skills except doing that one thing. I like doing that one thing, and that alone. I hate my job because it also involves doing something other than that one thing.
I want to stop doing that one thing, or anything related to it, but still make the same safe, secure, decent amount of money doing something else. But I have no idea what that something else is, and I don't want to take any risks finding out.
What do I do?
Answer:
You're fucked.
Seriously, open your horizons some (management or technical sales is where many geeks go when they reach this point), or be willing to take risks. But the magical safe, secure, job you are looking for does not exist.
You missed the part where he doesn't want to risk the mortgage and kid's college fund.
Up not out. You can be the manager who excels at the technical side of things.. And try to learn not to suck too bad at the social side of it.
I'm 55 and have been involved with software development since the late 1970's.
I'm done!
I'm thinking an ice cream truck.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
YOu arne't going tlo take a leap AND keep the mortagae and college..unless you have someone who is willing to support you. Rich uncle? investors into a private business?
In the mean time, take a pay cut, get a city or state programming job.
It's boring, the tech is boring, but I work 40 a week. This has finally given me time to pursue other interests. Currently I'm learning to play the bass with the goal of getting a gig after a year.
BY boring I don't mean I'm not doing anything, I'm actually quite busy but there isn't any real challenges since it's older tech.
Also, I get actual vacation time and sick time and no one whines that I took time off.
Alternatively, you can get a coding job in a completely different industry. I have worked in pretty much every major industry. Finance, health care, avionics, robotics, tape libraries, etc...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
We are lucky that we have one that pays well! The grass is always greener. I bet your bosses deal with the same BS that you do, maybe a different day or different topic, same BS. The grocery kid at the store has the same problems, just a different set of glasses. Gotta make paper. I'd suggest that you go out and buy yourself a BMW, maybe that will cheer you up. At least you get to use your brain, unlike most of the rest of the working world.
I used to be an IT guy. Went from phone jockey to DB developer over about 8 years. After seeing what happens to people who are in IT for a long time, decided that I didn't want to turn into one of those people, so I dropped out, and started my own business. But with it came a tremendous amount of risk. I'm glad I did it, but with the qualifier, "is there any advice for someone who can't really risk the mortgage and kid's education on a whim?", I've gotta say that you probably should just stay put. Any career change is going to come along with a significant amount of risk.
Or, you could do what I did, and radically change your lifestyle, reducing your risk. If you're willing to give up the trappings of the typical consumerist lifestyle, you can get by on significantly less than most people in the US think they need to live comfortably. Get rid of the mortgage, fancy cars, overpriced gadgets and new clothes. Learn to be happy living with much less, and suddenly, the possibilities expand greatly. Of course, most people don't do it, but if you do do it, then you can really do whatever you'd like to do, and not worry about "risking" your lifestyle, since you would have already thrown that out the window.
I don't respond to AC's.
Kill yourself. There is no life after software development.
HAND.
Been there, done that.
A few years ago I quit a good job because I was tired of the same thing, day in, day out.
Decided to try my hand at different things, collapsed economically, got depressed, felt I was useless and then...
I got me a job (lower paying) as IT Manager again. Guess what, I'm happy because I know what I'm doing, I feel good because I know the ins and outs of the job and it is, frankly, a piece of cake.
So take a vacation, cool off and get back to the good job you have.
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey
Go elsewhere. The United States, and the United Kingdom are infected with a style on management that is trained to be incompetent, right from 'management school'. Go elsewhere, and enjoy a whole new lease of life, working for people who are not brain damaged by some oddball right wing management philosophy from a university department of 'management science'. Anyone in management who has not done the job of their juniors, does not belong there. How can you possibly manage people, whos detailed skill set, you clearly do not understand. Having worked all over the world, I have definitely found this phenomenon to be peculiar to the USA (in particular), and also to Great Britain. I am amazed at just how stupid some of these people are. It really is incredible, that anyone should choose to employ people with 'business degrees' in any level of management. These people are incompetent at best, and techinally worthless. A total liability.
I went from managing the GUI and color pipeline QA department for a company that made large format printing software, to managing a print shop. I've never been happier.
I was glad I found a way to use the skills I spent so long developing, and re-focusing my energy in an area I really, really enjoy. The skillsets don't really overlap all THAT much, but enough is similar that it was a comfortable transition. Remember, the software you're developing DOES something, and to be a good developer, you must have a fairly deep understanding of whatever that something is. If you can find a way to enjoy the industry you're writing software for, it's a logical switch.
The one thing I'd strongly suggest regardless of what you leave to do, and that I myself need to be better at, is keeping your old skills up-to-date. You'll always need a trade-skill, and if you can show that you contributed to projects to keep your skills active, it won't be as hard to put on your developer shoes again as it will if you don't even open your IDE for next 5 years.
for a software company with products aimed at software developers. Your experience provides great credibility in that role. From there move into product management.
That's the route I took. Much more interesting than the daily development grind IMHO.
I've always thought of myself as a "programmer", but having worked since '87 with computers for some pretty big companies and ever-larger projects and teams, I found I acquired a few useful skills that I didn't even realize until someone started asking me the right questions.
In short, you can't interact with businesses and enterprise-level systems development without learning a whole host of skills that have nothing to do with hammering a keyboard to produce or debug code.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
1) Move up the management chain. Stop moving up when you can't take the bs. You don't code anymore. You are still paid well. You have to reduce your reliance on technical skills and switch to people skills. It is messy. I find it hard because the goals are harder to understand. People don't act in their best interests and so doing something illogical (e.g. not allowing an employee to build a better solution because the current solution is owned by someone with more influence than you have) is the better choice if you want to keep your job. It is really hard to avoid becoming the dilbert manager when a dilbert manager decides your fate.
2) Move into sales or marketing. Again you have to tone down your technical skills in favor of people skills. If you move into writing white papers you can keep some of the technical skills but you will need to understand people well enough to influence them. It takes getting used to. I didn't like it at first but so far it has been easier than coding, a little boring but I feel my work is useful to the company and customers. If you move into technical presales you typically get a bonus but you also have to travel a bit more.
Learn how to communicate more efficiently. There's potentially opportunities at you company to train to become a process re-engineer. You can basically take what you already know about the company and help other individuals figure out better procedures to do their jobs. Along the way finding areas where your software lacks and fixing those as well.
This takes a step back, because you have to realize that your current processes are not necessarily "normal" and that there may be a lot of insanity in them. You won't see it, because that's how things have been done around there for years, so it's "normal" now. Figure out how to reset yourself and then start building business cases to change things. That'll transition you out of being a coder into something else.
Dude, you're an adult, you're not going to like your job every day, and you're not going to like everyone you work with. I'm working on finishing a project I hate, for a client who is a complete dick right now. But, he's the dick that pays my bills, and I manage to keep the work interesting by doing it different ways, rather than repeating the same thing over and over again.
There's really no way around repeating yourself. It's one of the evils of this industry. The thing I've found that works is talking about things in terms of electricity and plumbing. Some of it doesn't really fit, but it's a metaphor that people can visualize. The problem with explaining software mechanics to people is that there's no pipe to envision, no wire to point to, and the guts of the thing exist in the ether where they're shielded from perception.
Another thing that works is to make yourself less approachable. Not being rude per say, but people won't ask you a lot of questions, if you're not forthright in answering them. Or, if you give them an answer in terms you know they'll never understand. At the company I work for, the team in England is notorious for doing things like that. Even to other programmers. When dealing with technical people, you're asking them, at that point, to rewire something without telling you. But, if you're talking about non technical people, they won't understand a word of it; which means they'll find you less useful for answering questions, which means fewer questions.
If they ask you to do something stupid, do it. If they ask you to do something that will break your product, do it. It's not your job to do the job right. It's your job to do what the idiots in management want you to do, even if they don't understand what they're asking you to do. This isn't art, it's production. And you're not a highly skilled person doing a job. No, you're a very expensive piece of software that delivers what they want. So there's no point in questioning it.
As far as life after software development... there's always entrepreneurialism. You probably know enough to make a fair amount of money doing it. But it's not the kind of thing you can just go out and do. You'll need to find an idea, plan, and execute it. So you've probably got time if you're not in a hurry.
This signature has Super Cow Powers
I was a software developer for 6 years and decided that there was no way that I was going to retire as a programmer. I chose to go back to school and am currently in my 2nd year of pharmacy school. I have 5 kids and am piling up student loans - this is not for the faint of heart. I realized that I have a very long time to work before retirement and so I thought that this would be a good plan. Good luck in making a decision.
You could teach. It would give you the satisfaction of bringing up snotheads into a world where they will hopefully contribute. You won't get paid diddly for another 20 years.
Or you could be a technical manager, but if you haven't been one by now, you probably don't have the charisma to cut it.
If you are clever (read insightful), you could write a book, but you'd have to be really special to have it sell, and the peak for computing books was during the late 80s/early 90s.
Or you could go freelance, but that is very risky.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Apart from staying in my current job, is there any advice for someone who can't really risk the mortgage and kid's education on a whim?"
There's a reason the monetary system is debt based. You just found it.
Deleted
Been there, done that. My solution was to go after an advanced degree. If you're in a major city, there must be at least one college/university with a decent computer science department that would allow you to take classes on a slow schedule. They would broaden your view, create good outside contacts, make your days tolerable, and give you ideas for new directions that you could actually (not theoretically) go in. You're not trapped any more than you want to be ... your imagination is your ticket out. (BTW, I'm 54 and about to finish a PhD.)
Burned out back on 2002, while working on a small software company I co-owned. I was 34 at the time. Sold my half of the company, went on to finish college, and later completed a PhD. I am a professor at a university now. The entire transition took me 7 years, but I enjoyed being a student again. I do not make as much money as before, but have enough to live, enjoy the workplace, can work from home or with my own odd schedules, like to work on my research projects, life is more balanced in general, and interacting with the students and teaching is interesting. I have found age is not an issue in academia as it is sometimes in industry. My advice to you would be: do not worry too much how you wil make a living, but rather be concerned to be doing what you love. I've not seen many educated people starving, but I have seen plenty of educated people regretting their life choices and wishing they had the guts to do what they dreamed to do with their life.
this guy needs a hobby something awful.
i think he needs to take a 'vacation to reality'.
step 1. try to live on minimum wage for 2 months. i give him 4 days before he breaks down and buys a pizza or goes to a movie or something else financially disastrous to the ordinary person.
step 2. fill out interviews for jobs in other areas, like, say, cashier at Target. make bets on how long he says in an exasperated voice "ive sent out dozens of resumes and nobody is calling me back!"
step 3. actually go to job interviews. see how the 'clueless idiots' in management seem like when they dont actually depend on you - when you are just some expendable blob for them to use.
after all that i think he might change his opinion. he might be able to get a job with less hours, but he is not going to run off without thinking.
Burn out is what happens when we keep doing the same thing without feeling like we've made a difference. What you are feeling is completely normal and it's not something that you can ignore and work through (without drugs). Those who keep doing something ineffective are less fit than those that try something else. It's the result of behavioral evolution.
I've been where you are (3 years past the burn out point in a testing job), so I know what it's like. Don't trivialize your feelings. Don't act rashly.
The first step is to take stock of your life and see what you really need. Think big and come up with several plans. E.g., what if you sell the house and move into a rental in another city? Can you get rid of one or more cars or downsize? How important is retirement to you? I know quite a few knowledge workers who are doing contracting and consulting into their 60s and 70s for a fat hourly.
The second step is to take stock of your skills and contacts.
* Making a good impression on people means that you are often welcome when they move elsewhere. E.g., my old supervisor, who wrote me a letter of recommendation, moved to a higher-up position in another company. Remember that people know people know people know people.
* Development skills are applicable to a lot of different jobs. You have to be analytical, understand and apply complex concepts, plan well, etc. These skills translate well to many different fields. E.g., one ex-IT worker turned these skills toward catering and did very well because his grasp of logistics and planning meant that he was more dependable and adaptable.
The third step is to learn how to run a business. Your skills could see you being a contractor, a consultant, or running a multi-person business, either in or out of IT. At the least, you can use those skills to fine tune your personal finances to save a little more money.
The fourth, and final, step is to start looking for something that will work for you. Most jobs aren't advertised. Some short-term contracts have an excellent hourly but require travel. A more fulfilling job may pay less. Working 6 months a year at twice your current hourly pays the same and leaves you with 6 months of free time.
Your skills as a developer will do a lot to help you make the transition. This is just another project you need to plan and execute.
While retaining your job. Scott Adams worked at Dilbert tirelessly until it was at a point where he could support himself with it, but that tipping point happened only after a lot of long days of hard work.
What do you do for passion? Whatever you do, be excellent at it and money will follow.
Are you sure you are an expert ?
If you think so, start a blog about your expertise. Try to write what you know, and share your knowledge. The more you share, the more you learn.
You'll learn how to communicate your knowledge, which is a very important skill.
You'll probably learn a lot of human skills in the process, because these skills are not common in the computing world.
If you have nothing to share, it means that you don't know your value.
In 6-12 months, you'll probably get some audience, interested in what you explain.
At your work, try to negotiate 4 days of work per week, and extend your capabilities outside of your work. Your work is just the security you need, so don't sacrifice everything for your pleasure.
I spent 25 years in IT, coding, sytems engineer for Sun, IT Manager for mobile phone company, consulting and lastly independent contractor writing python (fun), but had enough and wanted to live in a semi rural area out of the city. Bought a property (mortgage) spent 3 years (whilst contracting) making > 1000 concrete slabs to build a water lily and Koi farm, built a house (bigger mortgage), had a second child, got rid of tonnes (literally cut it up by hand) of steel on the property. Then we opened the business 4 years ago. For this first 3 years after we opened I continued to contract part time to pay for further building etc.... Last year we opened the online store (using my IT background here too). Stopped doing contracting just over 12months ago. I am now spending some of my time playing with Arduino to build a wireless based sensor and control network for the lily farm, (including security). Having fun and no where near as much stress. However its taken about 7 years and a serious amount of hard work both physical and ongoing contracting. For a while we really had no spare money at all - everything was poured into the business. All of this has been risky. Think about it, starting a whole new retail business during a major economic downturn.
Would I recommend any one else do it. Probably not, unless you have a clear vision, expect what ever you do to take twice as long as you would like, and it could all just fail. But if you want to re-invent yourself you have to take some risks. But then I always have in my career choices (not all things worked out)
Cheers
T
I had 15 years in IT (Systems Admin, network design, etc). And walked away from it. I found another industry where my skills would be applicable, advertising in my case, and jumped into it.
I've found that my skill set helps when trying to make things live online that aren't stupid or annoying.
I recommend you take a look around and see what's out there. Maybe you just need to change the context/business sector you're in to one where your skills are needed and can have an impact.
Reeses
I did software development for 10 years and then I went totally sideways and started a company which retails and caters liquid nitrogen ice cream. When I realized that I could make killer ice cream with a show, then I stuck with it until I could live off it. I suggest you do something similar. Do a cool business that you get a kick out of from the start, so you have the enthusiasm to make it into something bigger. I have a few pictures at http://www.puremagicicecream.com/
My advice: switch to coding in Javascript. You'll feel a lot more like a user and less like a programmer ;-)
Why the fuck did you have kids & buy a house?
Sure the work is less intellectually stimulating, but it is also less stressful. More likely than not you have the skill for it. You are less likely to have to pull long hours (QA has much more definable deliverables than development). Because you are older, you can brush off the egos of the younger developers who think of you as glorified IT personal. It's more utilitarian and less creative, but it sounds like you are sick of being on the hook for the deliverables. So the stage of your career when you thought of development as creative work has long passed.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Don't take this wrong, but you could always do something more manual as far as labor goes.
Paint houses.
Dig ditches.
Flip burgers.
Toss dwarves.
Teach Canadians about beer.
Become a chauffeur.
Rob banks.
There are lots of things which are WAY more satisfying at the end of a day/week than coding will ever be. Unless you code fun things like trojans or adware and the like.
So no matter which road you choose, I want to personally wish you the very best of luck in finding something which will suit your financial and mental needs.
most..... depressing... post..... EVER. (Dude needs a BJ)
You problem is not necessarily with software development, but with IT. IT is just one part of software, and sometimes it's the most annoying and ridiculous part.
Having to explain to people how to use effective technologies to efficiently do work only to have them insist that we do things circa 1960's-70's computing techniques. Entrenched people develop strong application-centric user patterns and then drag all the new users down with them by forcing everyone to use broken systems because it's some kind of sick tradition or technological religion.
C.O.T.T.S., is a term I wish would die! die! die!. If you ask to do something database-custom don't force me to program it in VB inside MS Excel. And, stop asking me why I'm doing it this way or that way. If you knew what you were doing you wouldn't be asking me to do it for you in the first place. If I have to make it custom EFFICIENTLY it's not going to be C.O.T.T.S.. If your budget for the whole project is only $500 bucks then you get C.O.T.T.S. and nothing custom.
People who start off by asking for you to program the multi-user front-end equivalent of the database for the US Library of Congress catalogue and then get mad when you explain to them that they only have Access 97 and need a server for that. Then they realise they don't know what a server is and that's threatening so they want it to work in Access 97 instead. But it needs to be massively multi-user Hmmm....where's my hammer.....
People who think spreadsheets are a database. They have a database server but all the enterprise data are in numerous files scattered throughout the office on various drives. The server only has 'pubs' db on it or is used for 40 other databases that only contain one big table each. Those tables are not proper relational normal form.....ever. Table names include 'all_client_data_2001', 'all_client_data_2002', 'all_client_data_2002_autumn', 'all_client_data_2003_february' .
People who think Word processor is a database....
People who think the words 'process automation' mean spending money on labor to manually process files with a GUI application. "Yep, that's 1 down. Only another 800 to go. What did that take, 30 minutes? Let's see 30 minutes multiplied by 800.......Aw !F79k! "
Being forced to use the wrong tool because that's what everyone else does. "You must not use a wrench for those bolts. Use this screw driver instead. That's how we've always done it.", every six months they will come and ask why their things are slow.
Being told that a 'protocol' has been decided upon for doing a particular task and seeing that is is being done incorrectly
but within the bounds of the skill set of the managers. (circa 1960s-1970s flat files )
'I.T. professionals' who can't use a command line....but are in charge of the whole operation.
Same I.T. Pros who only know how to use one operating system and can't do interconnect.
The list goes on and on.
Game dev? Are you kidding? Why not recommend he try out for a professional football league, too? The skills overlap between database dev and game dev is just about zero. AI, rendering pipeline, networking, performance tuning, low-level optimizations, realtime considerations, simulation issues, etc. etc. etc. are not coming out of a burned-out dba. You've got to be at the top of your game, full of energy and ready to climb the proverbial mountain. Game development isn't something you just stumble into, at least at the level that one can afford to pay normal suburban bills. (e.g. working for a game studio vs. spending 3 months coding a free iphone app). I worked on two PC Gamer Game Of The Year titles approx 15 years ago and it would take me probably 2 years to get back up to speed (re)learning algorithms, libraries, and the state of the industry.
Finally, the only people who would say game development is "fun" or "lighthearted" are those who have never done it. Working in a game studio is just about the most stressful environment I've ever encountered (and one of the lowest paying) and I've been coding professionally since 1980, building Apple ][ games in 6502 assembly.
Sorry to be so brash, but this thread needed a dose of reality.
.....an (fake) incompetent Manager and earn better money while smiling at frustrated coders explaining the mechanics of their work to you.
It is not without risk, but you can always hire out yourself and your tech skills as an independent consultant.
The advantage is, you don't have to, and are not expected to, drink the Kool-Aid at your job. You don't have to believe the B.S. management is telling you because you will be probably be gone when your contract is up. You don't have to solve all their problems, or live with the ones they are not solving, for the same reason.
The disadvantage is, there may be times you are between jobs and those times can be fairly unpredictable in timing and duration. Also, in an economic downturn, consultants are the first to go.
PMP is a globally recognized certification, true. And yes, experience is an asset, if it's in project management.
Managing software development projects is way easier than actually doing the development work yourself.
1. No, it's not.
2. If you've spent 20 years as a programmer and suddenly switch to an entirely different role, whatever that role might be, I doubt you're going to find it significantly easier than what you've spent two decades practicing and perfecting.
2a. But lots of people think it's easier. Until they try it.
3. No, it's not.
look like a hero when your projects are completed in less time than you originally budgeted
If this happens, yes, you'll look like a hero. It's really difficult.
A lot of people also assume that they can inflate the cost estimates, come in way under budget, and look like a super hero. Not necessarily. In many companies, what you've effectively done is tie up hundreds of thousands of dollars (if it's a small project. Millions or tens of millions if it's medium to large) that could've been used to fund another project that got killed last year because it didn't fit in the budget.
Project management can be a lot of fun and very rewarding, but you have different kinds of stress to deal with. Developers who go all prima donna on you. Buggy code. Scope creep. (That's the killer.) Inaccurate requirements. Changing requirements (because the regulatory requirements governing your industry changed). SMEs who turn out to be horribly wrong on their estimated work breakdown structure. Stakeholders who argue. Stakeholders who can't clearly define what they want. Vendors who suck so badly that you end up suing them. Etc.
Not meaning to put anyone off. But honestly, I've seen a lot of techs who look at project managers and think they have it easy, and then get a nasty shock when they try it themselves.
I understand where you are coming from. My issue personally isn't so much with managers, but dealing with globally shared codebases, politics, and working for megacorps where you can't write anything interesting without convincing an architect that it was his idea first.
I have been considering a move towards data analysis type jobs at non-tech firms. These generally aren't jobs in an IT group, and you do data mining or build models that forecast sales and other things. From the few people I have talked to, you get an assignment, and you have free reign in how you get it done, whether its an excel spreadsheet, R, SASS, or whatever you come up with. The only downside is that you are often working with a bunch of cobbled together scripts, vb excel and whatever. Personally I have a much better time working with shitty code and making it pretty (by my definition of pretty) than sitting around in circle jerk code reviews having my code picked apart because I didn't use enough abstract factories or put an ORM somewhere irrelevant. You get to stay technical, so if you want to go back to your old role, you still have the option
is there any advice for someone who can't really risk the mortgage and kid's education on a whim?
realistically, no. you are probably well paid ... you are in IT, which pays well compared to other trades, and a senior one at that. jumping into a new field and making anywhere close to that is a stretch of the imagination.
it's very hard to even switch specialization even within the IT field. i recently made the switch from enterprise middleware to mobile development. it was hard. i essentially had to spend a year teaching, and proving myself with self-published apps.
even if you are willing to take a large paycut to start as a newbie somewhere, you don't fit into well-defined categories. folks are looking for seasoned professionals that bring experience and knowledge with them, or young upstarts that will make up for their lack of experience with ambition. with your age (i assume) and existing knowledge base, you don't fit into the upstart group, and you won't have the exp if you switch specialization.
can seasoned professionals learn dynamically as younger folks? if a seasoned professional, if anything ... and i find myself coming to the conclusion often that java is the answer to all software development problems. there's one data point for you, anyway.
It sounds like you're mostly fed up with dealing with management and that you've decided in your mind that its not possible to find a place without clueless management. Considering just how in-demand developers are right now, I'd encourage you to look around. When you are interviewed, interview _them_ and get a good feeling for what the management is really like. There are certainly places that don't have clueless management.
My feeling (as an entrepreneur, and someone who struggles with this a lot) is that you're more likely to find that in a smaller company (where you get more say over the final product). Maybe at a startup that's well funded and has been around a couple years. Or just a small-medium business. There's also consulting and longer-term contracts. These days you really do have a LOT of options if you're a good developer. If there's not much in your area, consider remote work. Or starting a startup on the side (follow Hacker News religiously if so -- see news.ycombinator.com).
In short, call your headhunter (http://bartoszmilewski.com/2012/02/06/call-your-headhunter/).
If you actually _are_ tired of coding itself, that's an entirely different conversation.
Wish I had mod points, because I couldn't agree more. If you've been there that long, you might as well make the leap to management. Although it may not always seem like it, companies desperately need people in charge who know what they're doing. Demonstrate that you have the 'people' skills and know how to present to upper mgmt, and you're probably a shoe in.
I have a friend that was in the same situation a while back. They had been an expert for years with new managers rotating in every 12 months or so. Being new, the managers were terrible at understanding what was going on, and even more terrible at explaining to upper mgmt, which only served to make the rest of the group look bad. Finally after 3-4 years of this they just told their director they were considering their career options but what they were really interested in was being a manager as soon as a position opened up. The implied threat of course, is that they were willing to leave. This is the kind of thing that gets things moving. They were promoted within the month. So if I were you, I'd give it a shot, but take a look around and see what else is out there. If nothing else, maybe you'll get a raise or some perks while you're looking at other options.
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
Surely you should have been promoted to your incompetence by now. Maybe you already have.
The Windows development team always needs fresh blood.
I was a database app programmer (remedy systems) for far too long. I burnt out just as you are doing. I now teach kung fu. Now when I try to explain something, I get to hit the audience. There is nothing quite so enjoyable as being able to throw the customer to the floor.
Getting back on topic....what about considering academia - assuming your town has a university nearby. The money you will make is not as good as industry - so expect some level of pay cut but the chances of losing your job are a lot less than industry, most of the time at least. However you will get to work with us crazy academics and get exposed to a huge variety of different problems and issues.
As an added bonus, should you find that you do not like it, most universities have very good training programs so you should get the chance to gain some different skills and leave.
someone who can't really risk the mortgage...
I am going to jump off the tracks of the original post: huge mortgage debt for many people (in the USA, especially California) is a problem in the lives of many people (like me and the original poster). That this is actually a problem that can be addressed, can be solved, and can be greatly diminished for coming generations of Americans is the unrecognised American progressive political problem that should be solved over the next twenty years.
Problems with surges in the valuation of land and real estate in a Capitalist society is one way of describing what Henry George wrote about in "Progress and Poverty" in 1879. (The other writer of the time, looking at the same set of problems was Karl Marx.) Both writers sort of spotted the particular weakness in capitalism. I'll describe it in these contemporary terms: Reselling land and buildings for a profit raises the cost basis for the manufacturing and farm goods processing business. In other words, it raises the cost basis for the entire society.
The real estate cost basis of the US has been rising since 1939 (roughly), in contrast China had a real estate cost basis reset event that bottomed out near zero about 1972 when Nixon visited China. The problem with resetting the US real estate cost basis (lowering all real estate prices) is to not wipe out the owner's equity when selling and recover the buyer's down payment when she sells.
Remember Star Trek and any number of utopian stories? Getting caught in the mortgage jam is not a part of any of those stories. Mortgage debt is paralysis for people who want to move on.
I have been considering a move towards data analysis type jobs
Now that's a real possibility. "Big data" and the analysis thereof is a field in which there is high demand. A good way to start is to take the Stanford online class in machine learning. It's tough, but will give you an idea of what's possible and how to do it. You might be able to use the technology with your existing employer. Run a classifier to figure out which customers are likely to order something in the next month, and you'll have something they probably don't have now.
This requires math. At least calculus. It's not really that difficult mathematically, but you have to speak the language. (Personally I think the notation used by the machine learning people is awful. They have stuff like superscripts as indices, sometimes in the same equations that have exponents. Sometimes the math makes more sense in Matlab/Octave.)
My wife and I were very lucky on this. Her parents, ages 88 and 95, needed in-home care, and were willing to pay for us to move to their town to provide it, as we were nearing retirement, and I was transitioning to full-time tech volunteering. It turned out to be vastly cheaper to live here in Indiana than in Silicon Valley, especially with the jobs gone away in the current recession just after they started coming back from the previous recession. We now live in the inherited house and have a comfortable income, between retirement and inheritance.
The writer is in a very different situation, but also has options outside the conventional I assume that the writer has significant home equity after 20 years, and has some savings and investments socked away, some in tax-deferred retirement accounts. Consider, then, the option of moving somewhere vastly cheaper. Quite comfortable houses in our town are available for as little as $70,000. There is a university town nearby (Indiana University, Bloomington), and we have several colleges and university affiliates right here in Columbus.
If you would like a different challenge among the enclued, you could do much worse than to join my outfit, Sugar Labs (a partner of One Laptop Per Child) working on Free Software for education plus Open Education Resources for millions of children now, and ultimately a billion at a time. Our mission is to end global poverty and its many associated ills, using technology as infrastructure for everything else needed. But there are other options right around here. For example, the OpenMRS Medical Records System is being developed in part nearby in Indianapolis. Your database skills would be perfect for them, and they even pay. ^_^
The schools here are pretty decent, and I and my wife also have experience in homeschooling our son and daughter.
So there really are options. Look around, and ignore the naysayers who claim that it can't be done.
"A knot!" said Alice, ever ready to be useful. "Oh, do let me help to undo it!"
I don't want to be all Negative Nancy here, but the form of the final question, "Apart from staying in my current job, is there any advice for someone who can't really risk the mortgage and kid's education on a whim," sounds a lot like, "Any advice for someone who wants to jump, but isn't ready to jump yet?"
I can't tell you which path is yours, but the proper stocks/bonds mix should ensure an education for your kids. The sun will still rise if you stop paying the mortgage, for that matter. And yes, you'll still be able to rent, because as long as you can show up with first/last/security, nobody gives a damn about your credit, particularly if the only delinquency is a mortgage. And until that causes your credit score to tank, you have time to line up your new living arrangements and buy your new sailboat and move your family onto it.
Or maybe I'm just biased about the whole sailboat thing. I sent this from mine. Point is, dream big. Before you know it, they'll be stuffing you into a wooden box and covering you with dirt. Nobody will care if you actually served all 30 years of your debt sentence.
I would suggest industrial automation for a large plant, hardware distributor or panel shop. You would need to learn some ladder logic and get some electrical experience but it's not that hard to learn. The problems and scenery will always change, and your managers will always be on your side when it comes to making things work better and more efficiently.
Before we get to the details, an important sidenote: That 'constantly correcting mistakes' part that has you frustrated has a name: It's called consulting, and it pays thrice the rates of a developer. For that exact reason.
I do development for a living and am trying to push into consulting. However, I do also have a diploma in performing arts, and actually consider myself quite talented in that field aswell. ... It doesn't pay as well as software development, but it *is* a very good contrast programm. It can be a serious drag if you do it fulltime though, just as with every other profession on the planet. I don't perform on stage anymore, but I am a regular argentine Tango dancer, for the fun and alternative lifestyle that come with spending your spare time on tango marathons throughout central europe.
Here is my advice, from a performing arts backround and freelance software development:
I know the pain of constantly running into the same mistakes people do with every new customer. You have to make it worthwhile. Since you seem to be an experienced DB guy, I'd just start upping your rates until
a) the money you get is sufficient enough to bear the pain that comes with the profession or
b) your customers start dropping away and the workload becomes more bareable.
At the same time you should make the consulting part more of a profession of yours. If people don't pay for your time, they won't listen to you. What doesn't cost anything isn't worth anything and the customer who isn't willing to pay what your advice is worth, isn't worthwhile your time anyway. It would be a waste.
Now for the interesting part: ... which is kinda the same thing in this case.
While you gradually shift your career in the above mentioned ways - without dumping the baby with the bathwater - you should definitely get yourself what I call a constrast programm. Learn an entirely different skill, preferably something you admire but never really dreamt of of mastering. Think breakdancing or parcour is cool? Get into it. Im serious. Go out there and find an artform totally away from the screen and keyboard that will give a whole new meaning to your life. I discovered Tango 4,5 years ago and it changed my life radically in many ways benefitial to me and the people around me. Granted, I have dance training, but I've never experienced anything like the social and erotic aspects of Tango before. Definitely changed my life for the better. And my relation to the opposite sex
Maybe for you it's Paragliding, Kung Fu, a Religious Community, writing poetry or something else. What ever you do of the above, definitely start looking for your contrast programm now.
When you've found it you can still change your life around it and drop development if it still is a drag. I'm still in development and I'm staying for now - for the realtively safe cash and the fexibility it offers, but I know I can stop on a dime as soon as I'm fed up or simply focus on the fun parts and ignore customers or recruiters that are a PITA. ... If they don't pay the 650 Euro / day rate I ask from them that is. To give you an impression: I'm writing this on my MB Air from Berlin, where I'm staying for the Berlinale Film Festival, some nights of argentine Tango and doing some webwork for my customers back home, all the while being together with my girlfriend I met in Tango ... you get the picture :-)
Got out there and do some exploring again, you won't regret it.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Don't take mortgages.
Don't get kids.
Don't LIVE.
In an economic system that has it's IDEAL goal to concentrate 99,9999% or wealth/power into the hands of 0.0001% of the population (i.e. about 7000 people for the whole Planet) - you have to work hard and then IDEALLY die quickly after your productivity drops, i.e. at the age of about 50 years.
How will this resolve? By the way of Great Planetary Revolution - but we're not there yet. Think closer to 2050. And at any rate - chances to actually improve your sad position as a result of such revolution are about as high as getting into the chosen 7000 owning 99.9999% of wealth and power.
Ergo - the only meaningful choice for you is to STOP SLAVING for the rich (and STUPID as your admit). Get involved in the FREE SOFTWARE development. Stop paying mortgages. Forget about you family - you can't do anything for them anyway. Do something for the cause of Justice and evolution on Earth.
Vassili Leonov
In addition to either allowing yourself to go into another part of IT (I mentioned management or technical sales), or risk-taking, there is a third option: Be willing to take a pay cut, and it may be a large one. If you are willing to take a pay cut, you can perform a career switch. It's not at all uncommon for people to switch careers entirely, but matching a good IT salary is usually not an option absent serious (read: expensive and time-consuming) training.
In fact, I don't know of too many non-management salaried fields, period, that match what a decently-paid IT "veteran" can earn that do not absolutely a degree in the field. (As in, accountants, lawyers, certain kinds of engineers, and the healthcare profession can make serious coin, but it takes years to make that switch.)
That's what I did, one and a half year ago, when I found myself in nearly the same position as you are now. I literally felt a burnout syndrome creeping up slowly and that was for me the sign to change. Before you say you can't do that because of your family and so on: I have a 3 year old daughter and my university is 250km away and I don't get any financial support from the public hand. When I first got the idea, I didn't believe it was possible at all, but after some time and more thinking about it, more and more possibilities turned up for realization.
Most important, don't give up easily. What first seems impossible might turn out as a lovely new experience.
"I need a break. I need to walk away from it, and want to look at doing something that doesn't focus heavily on the IT industry day in, day out. Unfortunately, I'm locked to a regional city and I've just spent the majority of my adult life coding, with no other major skills to fall back on"
As someone who spent the majority of your working life in coding you will find a reluctance to hire you on in other areas, regardless of what skills you would bring to the task. The usual way out for aging IT techies is to become, but then again you probably don't display the necessary Machiavellian mentality to be a successive PHB. A realistic solution is to go into teaching coding.
--
definition: PHB
The usual way out for aging IT techies is to become a manager
Once the trap is sprung (a signed marriage contract) *then* a woman can let her inner Material Girl out.
This is why marriage is disappearing fast here in Europe. My GF can ask for stuff, and if it is a good idea, I will support. If she is full of @@@@ she has no leverage to *force* me to pay for any whims. If she wants something, she earns the money to buy it, and all is well with the world.
When I worked in NYC and San Francisco, I got to see first hand the extremely short leash that married women keep men on. I'm still in touch with a couple of the guys I worked with in Mountain View, and they bury themselves in work to avoid thinking about the prison marriage has put them in. I never worked in the UK but from what I've heard the situation is similar there. Maybe it's an Anglo-Saxon thing, the whole married man's burden ethic.
From what I saw the secret to keeping guys in line in the U.S. is getting every man shoehorned into a Marriage+Mortgage trap. They meekly fall in line and obey after that.
considering your position with mortgage and kids, but when I got laid off from my job after 20 years as tech support and systems admin, I decided to make a big change in my life. I joined the Peace Corps. It has certainly shaken things up.
I completely agree, the Anglo-American approach to management is a travesty. Quite honestly it bewilders me that it endures, in the face of pretty brutal evidence that it doesn't work vs. other management cultures. But ....
I'm sad to say I see the MBA type culture spreading into Europe as well. The sad truth is that the best managers here are heads down, and spend a lot of time in the trenches with the engineers, workers, and customers. But they are not watching their backs. The MBA-style managers have more time to spend politicking at company HQ, and over time, they start to weasel into influence. This is a mortal threat to the current high competitiveness of German companies but I don't see anyone taking it seriously.
Night classes will allow you to keep paying your bills while you test the waters of a new career. Look through the class catalog of a nearby university or community college, and plan out what courses or even new degrees you'd need for an acceptably paying move.
You're past mid-career, so any major change at this point will require major retooling of your resume, contacts, awareness, and mindset. You're entrenched in your field right now, and shouldn't expect to become ideally informed about another field from your self-research alone.
It is possible that even at your age, a new degree, an internship, and/or considerable volunteer work will be required for you to get your foot into some new door. You will be much better informed, and probably better positioned, after at least a semester's worth of classes, job hunting, and resume & cover letter revision.
Good luck on your search. I hope to follow you soon. All the best.
Your replies/responses are mind boggling.
Thank you, guys.
Casteism
I was lucky enough to find a new gig that utilizes unix sysadmin analytical skills in a different context. While it's still ops (more like app admin), it involves profiting on low latencies and proximity to certain data exchanges. And they're (insanely) profitable, but when systems aren't working properly the impact on profitability is pretty instant, and outages can involve pretty large losses pretty quickly. So.. No on-call, very little outsourcing risk, respect for operations team, technical and logical rigor in decision making, and actual bonuses. Can't complain!
ps: no state income tax neither. And rent for a detached cozy house with a garage and yard for less than 25% of take-home.
There has been some good advice here; hopefully some of it applies to your situation.
I am a little further down the road - 25 years development and the company went broke. Fortunately my skills were not just development - people skills (HR calls it "soft skills") can help you in your next step. You have them, but being a "techie" you do not recognize them; you may need someone to help you see them. For exampe as a lead lead on a project you have to coordinate, manage, others; do you coach / teach / mentor them?
Is there room to move in your current organization - talk to HR about pursuing courses in new tech or project management..
One question I have in reading your post - when was you last vacation? Take one and unwind with your family - read and reflect on some of the advice posted and discuss it with your spouse - she will have good insight.
you've got a high-level functioning ability to understand systems -- systems of equasions, systems of products, systems of procedures, and systems of tasks. there's a world beyond IT that is only beginning to benefits from IT-structured individuals. engineering's growing into it naturally, as you would expect it to be, so the best places to start today are engineering-adjacent.
for example, assembly. assembly lines for certain complex products can be restructured with programming concepts quite easily. think paralellism, locking, iteration, and reporting. I've started making that same move by starting my own such company. basically, now I'm programming humans to use physical resources, instead of computers to use disk and memory resources. it's totally different and exactly the same.
believe it or not, the most interesting part to me is the quality control. think debug tools, and life's amazingly simple.
so there must be some industry in your city that is learning to use programmers outside of the computer.
As a software developer, you've honed your skills to make things work and hopefully make things work efficiently. Management is a good route to go, possibly not even in the software industry, since the skills you need as a software developer hinge on you being able to find solutions to abstract problems. This is a very valuable skill as it seems most managers don't seem to have it. Working for a enterprise company means that your pay shouldn't go do much if it goes down at all. The other option is to look into office efficiency consultants. Being able to improve the workflow of a company to increase there income/productivity is a much needed skill as well. Of course, it will take time to find one of these positions, but if you want to get out of software they are viable career paths.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
Perhaps keep your networking with colleagues in other departments up as best you can.
Do as many lunches with them as you can, happy hour, whatever.
Then, if you feel you can confide in a few, let it be known you might be interested in doing something new, and to let you know if there are openings in their departments. Be patient. Hopefully you will have earned some cred with them, and good karma, and they will think to mention you if there are positions opening up in their depts...
So thoughts on stuff that isn't DB programing, but might be able to leverage your skills (if you find them tolerable):
Project management (DB projects, or any IT-ish projects)
Coordination roles between IT and business folks (the "Jump to Conclusions Guy")
My very boring story, very short:
1. Five years J2EE for a dotcom, then
2. Two years IT at Very Big health plan. Got known for being friendly (for a IT guy) and able to get along with another dept that did coordination with IT depts.
3. Coordination person at such a dept was retiring, and asked if I had ever thought about doing their job. Pondered for a week or two, then said "um, okay, sure!"
4. Coordination person asked for up-to-date resume. Gave it to their mgr. They put in the good word about me. I was put into the interview queue.
5. Got the job. Same pay range. Stayed in same company with very good benefits!
A little bit more wild:
1. Determine what actual income is a minimum you need to 'enjoy life' and provide for your family.
2. Look at _all_ jobs that are posted (dice, carreerbuilder, local paper's classifieds, whatever) and just see what kinds of jobs pay enough
3. Kinda do a self risk/reward analysis on if you think you'd be successful at any of those jobs, and apply for the ones that seem worth the risk.
VERY wild, burns bridge if you jump, but actually watched someone do this:
Even while you are working your current job: Apply for a job, and accept it. Pick a starting date. Then put in for a long vacation from your current job, vacation to start same day as 1st day of working the new job.
During your new job, within the vacation, decide if you want to stay. If you do, quit the other job. If you decide you don't like it, then quit, and go back to original job.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
National Park Ranger. I would totally do it. When I go on a hiking trip, sometimes there is an older guy manning the ranger station and I think that's not a bad way to retire. Or you could move to Mexico where your money is worth a little more and start a business or something. I know some people that did that. But you're tied to your location huh. Hmm.
simple, fast homepage with your links: http://www.ngumbi.com/
In my case, when I turned 40 I realized I had mastered software engineering. I went back to school for my master's and PhD. I also took Improv Comedy lessons and joined an Improv troupe. I started a writing group and became embedded in the writing community. I am now launching a new career in publishing. The answer, in my mind, is that you have demonstrated excellence in your field - you can probably do so in another. Go back to square one and think about what thrills you. Then (in the words of Master Suzuki) approach it with the Beginner's Mind. Take the time to immerse yourself and grow into that new realm. Become an expert. It will take time but it will be rewarding. And, it will stretch your mind in a new direction. This new mindset will improve everything from your work situation to your personal relationships. Remember, you were smart enough to become the best in your field - there are other fields that are less challenging that you can dominate. Pick one. Stick to it. And within a few years you will have options. Party On
I took time to learn something new (genetics and genomics) and found my skills were applicable and the work and learning very interesting. Don't expect to make this kind of real change in your life without seriously downsizing all the crap you don't really need (house, car, holidays etc.). These things are a large part of what is tying you to doing something you don't want to.
Korma: Good
I was in the IT Field not much money unless your a Chief or VP/Director. So i got into the energy business selling Gas and Electric and doing pretty good . Since the deregulation of power to residential and small commercial its has opened up to alot of opportunities. The markets that are opened up are TX , IL, MA , CT and NY, NJ. I go to www.affordablepower.net and explains how it works. There is a subdomain for the plans too . service.affordablepower.net
Teaching can be an adventure, too. Take a job teaching English overseas. Most only want a 4 year degree - any degree - as qualifications and the pay is decent, the food great...I've been teaching English in Korea for six years. I pay less than 5% tax and no US taxes. I make less than I did in the USA, but my take-home-pay and nearly tax-free status makes it very affordable. The cost of living is cheap enough in most places that I can save quite a bit of money
I hear you! I've decided this year to toss it in after 20 years in software engineering; I'm tired of the fact that nothing I do really makes any difference to anyone's life. It's just the same endless procession of one project after another - same old same old year after year. So - I'm applying for entry into medical school. I sit the entry exam at the end of March for entry in 2013. I figure at age 45 I've still got time to train and have a productive working life before I get sealed up in a box.
You need to something outside yourself to fill the void. Seriously consider getting involved with a charity or non-profit that is aligned with your interests. Volunteer at an animal shelter, deliver meals on wheels, help build hiking trails, organize car club events. Whatever gets you out of the house, out of the office, and involved with people can help.
Bill Gates,
is that you?
don't be fooled into thinking you can turn a hobby into a career and continue to enjoy it...
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/12/14/the-overjustification-effect/
unfortunately my wife dumped her day job and started her own business as an interior designer, so I am currently subsidising her business start-up since it's no more than a hobby which barely pays for itself. However, she can fit the work into the gaps between child care and house work. Hopefully when the economy recovers and work picks up, I can dump my day job and start my own business where I can pick and choose my customers and be subsidised by her!