[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did yo...
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Ask HN: Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing
for work?
That's all. Savings are getting low, and I'm going to be
struggling to pay rent soon. I'm curious what other kinds of work
other former developers got into and if they like it. Cheers.
Author : throw81398475
Score : 128 points
Date : 2025-02-24 20:22 UTC (1 days ago)
| anonzzzies wrote:
| Doing up houses, doing electrics for houses in the town and
| making wooden doors. I do it for fun, but the latter two would
| make me bank; there is a massive shortage, most people suck and
| even when paid well they don't turn up anyway as someone pays
| more.
| bertjk wrote:
| Did you need licensing / training to take on electrical work?
| Do you market yourself as an electrician or more just a
| handyman that does minor electric jobs?
| anonzzzies wrote:
| I got my license in my gap year before uni a long time ago;
| it's not valid here, but in my country I got trained with a
| lot higher standards than where I live now so I can do
| anything besides actually hooking stuff up to mains. I helped
| some people out and they told others. Like said; there is a
| massive shortage of handy people and as this is not my day
| job, I have to say no a lot.
| user68858788 wrote:
| Very nice! I'd love to see your work.
| 4887d30omd8 wrote:
| I have a couple friends who were big outdoor types who became
| software engineers and then after making some money for a few
| years went and found more outdoorsy jobs (think forest service
| jobs).
|
| The point is not that an outdoorsy job is great for you, but that
| you may want to consider what kind of things make you happy and
| see if you can find a job doing something like that. These folks
| loved being outdoors before become engineers and were happy to go
| back to being outdoors for work.
| gunian wrote:
| forest service just had a huge layoff or so they tell me
| protests really made the barons mad i guess
| georgemcbay wrote:
| > think forest service jobs
|
| This is great advice for job satisfaction, but given current
| events this sort of move is unlikely to result in an increase
| in job security or ease in finding a new job.
|
| https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-forest-service-fires-340...
| gunian wrote:
| gotta have euthanasia plans in place gotta vet the pet
| traumas
| redleggedfrog wrote:
| Not me, but my buddy got out of software development and learned
| to be, as he describes it, "a bog standard electrician." He had
| money for trade school, and then apprenticed under an experienced
| electrician. Dude is in his 40's, so late career change. Makes
| double the money he did doing remote coding.
| betaby wrote:
| > Makes double the money
|
| Canada?
| ecshafer wrote:
| Certified electricians can make really good money, especially
| union. But that's really hard to believe. Is this somewhere
| like NYC or something that there is an edge. A remote software
| developer is typically in the $100-200k range in the US. I know
| union certified electricians in that range, but none in the
| $300-400k range.
| francisofascii wrote:
| There are plenty of developer gigs in the US with salaries
| less than $100k, or with contract hourly rates less than
| $50/hour. Especially if the job is remote or in a low COL
| area.
| lm28469 wrote:
| Unless we only talk about big tech companies there are more
| devs under 100k than devs above 200k, for sure, not even
| close. 300k as a dev you're in the lucky top 10%
| closeparen wrote:
| BLS quantifies this. $100k is 25th percentile. $200k is
| 90th percentile nationally, median in Sunnyvale-San Jose-
| Santa Clara.
|
| https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm
| more_corn wrote:
| My buddy did this. Apprenticed to become a low voltage
| electrician. Runs Cat6 for office builds. He did it for the
| reduced stress. He's a lot happier. He owns a home in SF on a
| single salary.
| Gooblebrai wrote:
| > Makes double the money he did doing remote coding.
|
| Yes, but I presume at a high physical cost in the long-term? (I
| mean, more than the physical cost of sitting in a chair)
| itsoktocry wrote:
| > _Yes, but I presume at a high physical cost in the long-
| term?_
|
| Why? Electricians aren't doing intense labour, and I'm 99%
| certain that being in a job where you move around a lot (as
| opposed to sitting at your desk) has long term health
| _benefits_ , without even getting into carpal tunnel syndrome
| and other RSIs associated with being at a computer.
| mjthrowaway1 wrote:
| I hire electricians regularly. Driving a grounding rod is
| physically demanding. Moving conduit and hoisting it
| overhead for long runs is demanding. Carrying tools around,
| mounting light fixtures...and this is for light commercial
| work. It's definitely not easy on the body and why older
| electricians want to transition in to design and
| engineering as opposed to field work.
| yumraj wrote:
| Honestly I wonder if he'll end up being healthier. Sitting in
| a chair has zero physical cost but very high health cost.
| jagtstronaut wrote:
| I've done some of my own electric work and the logic isn't
| dissimilar to what we do. Just way less abstract, way slower,
| and way simpler. I found it kind of interesting.
| torcete wrote:
| This hits home.
| austin-cheney wrote:
| After I was laid off from JavaScript work for 6 months a
| recruiter contacted me to write APIs using a commercial
| enterprise platform. Its been great. I did that for almost a year
| before they promoted me to operations for the project.
|
| I should have moved away from JavaScript work much earlier in my
| career. I had on reverse beer goggles. I love JavaScript and
| writing programs in the language, but the problem is that almost
| nobody in work force liked JavaScript. All the cool JavaScript
| applications in the wild tend to be hobby projects, because at
| work most people struggle just to put text on screen. Employment
| writing JavaScript always felt like a race to the bottom. If I
| could go back in time and give myself career advise I would
| recommend an MBA and a PMP and just ignore programming as a
| career. It is absolutely a wonderful skill to have for personal
| use, but you will always do better in a more structured work
| industry.
| artificialprint wrote:
| Projects managers are absolutely getting slaughtered right now
| selamtux wrote:
| i try to create 3d printing service with laser cutting/engraving
| without success.
|
| i try to register as driver for kind of uber with motorcycle but
| no success.
|
| now i am trying to develop set of applications for specific
| market to platform as a service probably it will end up trash can
| without success :)
|
| one of my friend from another profession change his career to
| driver as "uber eat", (we have different brands for it) at least
| his doing ok.
| popularrecluse wrote:
| I never stopped developing. After getting laid off in April 2023
| after 13 years as first a full stack then mobile dev, I just
| started working on things that interested me. I did apply and
| interview a few times, but I started to realize that pushing 50
| and being as cynical as I now am, I'm pretty much unemployable as
| an IC.
|
| So I released my application to the App Store this month, and
| while savings are dwindling, things are starting to finally move
| into the other direction now.
| jamesrr39 wrote:
| I have heard this a few times from different people/places, but
| why is it the case that at 50+ it is harder to find work?
| Assuming a regular retirement age, there are still many more
| years left in the career than a typical tech employment lasts.
| neofrommatrix wrote:
| Bias
| cschep wrote:
| Could be bias, could also be that we just can't fake it
| anymore?
| bilbo-b-baggins wrote:
| One reason is there's literally many times fewer roles for
| someone with 20+ years of experience.
|
| And as time marches on, there's more and more competition for
| those roles.
| marssaxman wrote:
| I wonder how that could be possible? There are
| proportionally so few of us old-timers around to begin
| with, given how much smaller the industry was and how
| rapidly it has grown over the last 20-30 years.
| Fruitmaniac wrote:
| On the one hand, I was declined by Google multiple times but
| ended getting a $10k settlement in a age discrimination
| class-action suit.
|
| On the other hand, I just got hired at 55 and it wasn't
| difficult.
| joshuamcginnis wrote:
| I think landing (and keeping) a job in tech is challenging,
| whether you're a recent graduate or a seasoned professional
| with decades of experience. While the reasons for rejection
| may change with age, the key factors for getting hired remain
| the same: competency and collaboration. Demonstrating strong
| skills and being easy to work with will always be valuable--
| focus on these, and opportunities will follow. - a 40's
| something developer with 20+ years experience
| jongjong wrote:
| Because most founders who made it in the field, did so at a
| young age and so they are biased to view old people who
| didn't "make it" and are still coding as incompetent even
| though it has nothing to do with reality. Reality is that
| being good in the tech side does not correlate that mich with
| being good on the business side. They are almost independent
| factors aside from some low baseline requirement of
| competence...
|
| The baseline requirement of technical competence for extreme
| financial success in tech is so low that most big tech
| companies don't even hire rank-and-file engineers whom don't
| meet that requirement half-way.
| popularrecluse wrote:
| I won't be rehired anywhere near what I was making if I do
| find something, that's fairly certain. So I've put the onus
| on myself to generate the income I'm looking for.
| fifilura wrote:
| What do you think about making your salary your top
| priority?
| popularrecluse wrote:
| I think at this point self-determination has eclipsed a
| great salary from someone else as a priority. Plus I'm
| fairly certain I can have it both ways.
| Fruitmaniac wrote:
| I dunno. I'm 56 and got hired last year as an Android dev. But
| then, I'm not very cynical.
| popularrecluse wrote:
| Yeah I don't doubt there are roles out there if I really
| grind for one. I'm just happier now.
| beryilma wrote:
| > but I started to realize that pushing 50 and being as cynical
| as I now am, I'm pretty much unemployable as an IC.
|
| Well that's me. My theory is that it is not age that makes one
| unemployable in the software industry, but the unwillingness to
| put up with shit cooked up by bunch of 25 year old CEOs, CTOs,
| and the like.
| popularrecluse wrote:
| At my last gig someone that my team unanimously rejected as
| unqualified showed up one day the following year as our new
| technical lead and boss. It went about how you'd expect.
|
| Much later I told my skip boss about the kind of feeling of
| disregard that may have fostered as he pushed me for
| insights. And he remarked that it sounded like I had a chip
| on my shoulder. All I could come up with was 'guess I was
| born with it.'
|
| Yeah cynical. And much happier working on my own things that
| are meaningful and interesting.
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| I'm the same age, and I'm pretty sure the industry has
| substantially changed, not just me.
|
| EDIT: and by changed, I don't mean improved. I was a huge
| advocate of agile and eXtreme Programming early in my career,
| and I even worked in shops where it seemed to be really
| having good results. Now I see everyone using SCRUM and...
| it's garbage and I want to gouge my eyes out in the meetings.
|
| I see a lot of talking but not a lot of code getting written.
| And where the code gets written, it's always a pile of ego-
| boosting needless complexity.
| fm2606 wrote:
| I switched into software dev full time at 50 and took a new
| software job at 52. I'll be 55 y/o this year and I highly doubt
| I will switch jobs again, I like the org and the work.
|
| Prior to that, starting at 45 y/o I was a part time dev and
| full time firefighter-paramedic (14 years total). Covid scared
| me to becoming a FT dev.
| danbmil99 wrote:
| Started a new company.
| gremlinsinc wrote:
| I'm living out of my car, door dashing and Uber in Southern Utah.
| Saving up to rent office space for my computer (I don't have a
| laptop)...
|
| I lost my mom, marriage of 18 years, Grandma, and sanity a bit
| last year... but I'm doing great mentally now, just need
| financial to align, I'm trying to enroll in WGU for CS and then
| ai/ml masters and I want to double major with psychology...I want
| to work with therapy ai things as I've hacked my growth with ai
| to amazing results...
|
| I'm going back to school to get higher paying jobs and be more
| sought after... and loans can float me rent for the duration of
| school...
|
| I've got an RV I can live in (loaner from a friend) but nowhere
| to park it...I want to outfit it with solar panels but that's
| pricey.
| secondcoming wrote:
| Wouldn't it be cheaper in the long run to just buy a laptop?
| theonething wrote:
| > I've hacked my growth with ai to amazing results...
|
| Would love to hear more about this if you're willing to share
| uxcolumbo wrote:
| That resilience you're building up is going to pay dividends.
|
| Wishing you the best.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| In my case, I decided to retire. I didn't _want_ to retire, but
| it wasn 't as if I had a choice.
|
| I've kept working, but I write free software, for folks that
| can't afford people like me.
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| How I wish I could do this. Mortgage is paid off but everything
| is still so expensive, at 50 I can't plot a way through the
| next 30-40 years without starving.
|
| I want to write software. But these days jobs don't want to pay
| me to write software. They want to pay me to write JIRA
| tickets. JIRA tickets about fixing other people's code. I keep
| trying again and again, but the industry has completely lost
| any magic for me.
|
| Meanwhile I can pump out hundreds of lines a weekend on my own
| free software projects and actually feel like I'm getting
| things done.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| _> Meanwhile I can pump out hundreds of lines a weekend on my
| own free software projects and actually feel like I 'm
| getting things done._
|
| I can relate. It's sort of "Hell is other people." I work
| _very_ effectively on my own.
|
| I realize how fortunate I am, that I could afford to retire.
| I don't have as much money as I would, with another ten years
| under my belt, but I should be OK.
|
| It absolutely _stuns_ me, that young folks are getting paid
| more out of school, than I made, in my entire career, and
| have less to show for it.
| _benj wrote:
| I'm usually hesitant to share but I've been doing commodities
| trading.
|
| There's a humongous amount of BS out there about trading or day
| trading but the fact is that people do it and make it, and my
| best friend being a consistently profitable trader for the last 4
| years didn't help my skeptic case...
|
| At any rate, turns out that the challenge of trading is less of a
| technical or financial one. Sure, one needs to understand stuff
| like price action and market structure and such, but the core of
| the thing is kind of like developing this complete disregard
| towards money. Making and losing money can't mean anything or
| have any emotional impact, one needs to just see numbers,
| statistics and trust on one's strategy.
|
| I'm not sure I'm comfortable recommending this to anybody because
| it requires a weird commitment to failing but still striving and
| it is hard but not in any way I was familiar with. It's hard in
| losing X% of my trading account and waking up next day with a
| clear head to do the same thing again.
| paulcole wrote:
| > Making and losing money can't mean anything or have any
| emotional impact, one needs to just see numbers, statistics and
| trust on one's strategy.
|
| I've known many poker players who end up taking this to the
| extreme and basically think of every hour of their life in
| terms of their per hour expected value at the table.
|
| Like, "Is it worth it to go to dinner with friends or should I
| play for those 2 hours instead?"
|
| There are definitely happy and well adjusted poker pros as well
| who can shut it off at the end of the day, but that's a learned
| skill that doesn't come easy to many.
|
| Maybe this is less of an issue with trading because the market
| has set hours?
| artificialprint wrote:
| I'm not a dev but I was a UI/UX designer and manager at 100
| people startup. Been fired and it since been exactly two years. I
| have not tried applying anywhere yet, so I'm trying to build
| something of my own and developed my first proper Saas.
|
| I started writing here about it
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43107456
| hakaneskici wrote:
| Good luck! Your SaaS website looks very nice. Are you doing
| sales or advertisements yet?
| artificialprint wrote:
| Thanks for kind words, not really promoting yet, just
| patching up some things before I can go ahead and pitch it to
| potential clients
| gentleman11 wrote:
| I actually haven't gotten even one interview in the last year.
| I'm wondering this myself. Maybe the ai screening software just
| doesn't like me. I'm in my 40s
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