20 years in IT (server administration) and I’m just tired of it. Starting a coffee shop next year and leaving IT behind.
Best of luck!! I think about doing this myself.
No, but I’ve started thinking about getting a plan B ready (despite being in very stable circumstances). I am a late arrival to tech, but came to this field because I’m genuinely interested in it and want to immerse myself. It’s not my background and trying to catch up and keep up is tricky, but it has been interesting.
Yet, with what tech is trending towards (chat control, government IDs required to participate online, talk of banning adblockers and VPNs, the ever expanding reach of FAANG or whatever the acronym is) I’m not sure whether I can keep the enthusiasm up. What attracted me to tech was the scrappy underdogs in FOSS, the people standing up to the monopolies…but I’ve been losing some of my initial optimism.
AI is just the latest development in the saga, which puts question marks on the viability of a career in tech, as well as providing sort of poisoned chalice of convenience to somebody still starting out. I want to know and learn whatever I can myself, but my peers are ahead and using AI. Whenever I use AI I can feel my patience, curiosity and satisfaction atrophying.
Ask me in 6 months. Got laid off in July. Severance runs till November. I’m not sweating it at the moment, and I’m enjoying the breath of air while I have it. Next month begins the search.
I’ve already told myself that I’m not going to break my back to get back into tech. And a couple of things that I think would be interesting to try.
Great question! I’m in the same boat, want to leave the tech sector entirety, after 25+ years of software development. I’m not happy about the direction tech is going for a while now. All the enshittification and forced AI bullshit makes me want to leave.
However as I defined myself as a tech enthusiast all my life I find it hard to reinvent myself. What other skills do I have? I can make some really good coffee. But apart from that? Idk
I’m 100% with you. Beyond making coffee and integrating systems I don’t have much else (family aside). Sure, I can throw up databases and virtual servers for days, reroute packets and secure connections like its second nature (been doing it for decades), but I feel kind of done with it.
Maybe one day I can sell my house and open a feed store or lawn mower repair shop in the middle of nowhere, but I don’t see a career change that doesn’t involve a complete reset.
I’ve left several jobs for greener pastures. In all cases, I learned a bit more about what I like and don’t about tech and non-tech (and big biz vs small biz, etc.). I went from tech to aerospace manufacturing, back to tech, to utilities, back to tech and then started my own company. I was shocked at how far behind some companies are from a tech perspective. I was pleasantly surprised at the slower pace. I thought the best talent was swooped up by tech (probably because they pay so much more). In the end, having more control, even if I’m paid a lot less, is preferred.
I did. Went and did security at a remote location for an extended period of time.
Turns out I hate being in the middle of nowhere more than what I was doing before that. It was a great experience but I’m never going away for that long again.
I haven’t left yet, because I have no other marketable skills.
My only marketable skills are lying and ignoring reality, but I’m not willing to be a politician
As a lead software engineer: I engineered an exit with severance and unemployment compensation after the company was acquired by VC and I coasted a bit. Basically stirred the pot enough to be on a couple shit lists without getting fired, so when the workers had to suffer because the CEO couldn’t hit his sales numbers after gutting the sales department twice, I got put on the layoff list.
After burning through unemployment and some savings, I’ve landed as an IT business analyst at a giant company. I’m still technically freelance, but that’s just how they hire. I make about 20% less, but am still comfortable. It’s also the easiest job I’ve ever had by far. I talk to vendors, I meet with people, and I spend most of my time building the simplest little tools to reduce toil for others. I make up my own timelines. My boss is already asking if I want to be a manager.
I retired young. I had joined the US military at 18 years old and signed up under an IT profession. It started as a jack-of-all-trades IT job (if it touched a computer network, we managed it), but as the years went on, they started specializing us. Because if you’re a jack-of-all-trades, you’re a master of none, and the military wanted subject-matter experts. My final job was basically a server administrator, although they never fully adopted to the specialization change, so I was still doing odd IT work outside of my job requirements until I left the service.
After 20 years of service, I qualified for retirement from the military, which I jumped on. I was grandfathered into the old pension program, which means I get about half my base pay every month for the rest of my life. The military also kind of broke me (physically and mentally), so I’m 100% disabled according to the VA, even though I don’t look like it. That comes with it’s own free lifetime medical and dental plan, along with pay that’s twice as much as my pension every month.
So… I decided to take an early retirement at 38 years old and actually spend some time enjoying my life for once. The military was constant stress and focus on the mission. I didn’t get to spend much time focused on my own life because I was constantly being moved around the world at the whim of the govt. So now I’m settled down and just enjoying not having any responsibilities except what I choose to focus on.
I did try to find other IT work when I left the service. But I couldn’t get a call back from anyone, even through the military’s transitional internship program. Eventually, Google reached out to me, but their “internship” was to give me free access to their online training programs on Coursera for 6 months. They never called me back after that.
Eventually, I realized I didn’t need to work to survive. I wasn’t filthy rich by any stretch of the imagination, but my passive income was enough to live comfortably on without working another day of my life. All my basic needs were being met and I had enough extra each month to squirrel away a little bit for a rainy day. So I chose that path. It’s been just over 3 years since I retired and I’ve never been happier.
what do you count as tech?
Everything since the invention of the wheel.
I don’t have a job
I work for a small non profit.
I get to actually do work and make the world better. I don’t have to deal with endless egotistical BS.
I get paid plenty. It’s just half what I’d make at a corporation… god forbid!
I also used to run a small non profit business part time. But I quit because it became saturated with tech bros who wanted to make it into a bullshit corporate factory to satisfy their won delusional egos. My original partner were awesome, but they all left to start families.
Any suggestions as to how to get a job at a non profit?
I have not yet, but I have a few years to go before I retire. I plan on coaching weightlifting. I might come back part time - I’m a gov employee, and they allow you to come back part time which means I’d be getting paid on top of my retirement. I’m not sure yet. If coaching works out well then I’d be happy doing that full time. Maybe even open a gym.
