Having been coding for nearly 25 years now and being in engineering management for the past couple of years (still actively coding 30-50% of my time), I'm feeling increasingly tired of tech. Software development, more specifically. I'm quite capable of both producing software myself _and_ managing teams producing software.
Have you pivoted from software engineering/engineering management into a different career altogether in your 30s, 40s or beyond? I'm keen to hear your story, and perhaps glean some ideas/suggestions.
I'm more than happy to go back to school or do training courses part-time to learn whatever I need to.
blowsand•3mo ago
A question I’d ask you is, are there other things that really call out to you? If you could do anything as a career, or at least in a phase of your career, do you have deeply felt answers?
I’ve made the “anything but tech” move before and regretted it after a period of decompression and perspective reset.
mactavish88•3mo ago
I'm possibly somewhat burnt out - not entirely sure - but the reason I say so is that it's hard to tell what actually calls to me right now, whereas 5-10 years ago I felt I had a much clearer picture. Nowadays I'm skeptical of the idea that following any passions of mine would result in a better overall quality of life.
It's tough to find something that's both fulfilling _and_ pays the bills. I'm nowhere near "rich", but I'm fairly certain being poor will decrease my quality of life substantially - regardless of how fulfilling my work is. Right now I'm stuck leaning more in the direction of the thing that pays the bills.
In your experience/journey, what tech-adjacent careers have you become aware of? I'd imagine it's easier to pivot into something "tech-adjacent" than something completely different when one is in their 40s/50s.