Ask HN: Did anyone leave Software Engineering as your profession? If yes, why?

I'm currently on my first break after 6 years with no job lined up and I'm not sure I want to go back to software.

Unfortunately I don't have any answers but as the other responses point out software is a gilded cage because it would be very hard to get anywhere near an equivalent salary doing anything else.

I had become increasingly disillusioned with software, mainly the maddening bureaucracy, problematic management and lack of teamwork over my previous two jobs. But I also had something of an existential crisis when I realised I think that so much of what we do is just rewriting or updating apps to use the new hot tech in order to have something to do. I feel like so much of what's exciting people at the moment are solutions in search of problems, if StackOverflow can run on a few servers to serve an incredibly high traffic site why do we need k8s and serverless and firebase and microservices and kafka and whatever else (granted I have no idea what most of these things are or do)? Why in the name of God do I need an entire build pipeline and SPA framework to deliver some static HTML to users? I feel like Rust is interesting and potentially worthwhile but I don't have much interest in the domain of problems Rust excels at. Granted all this is coloured by the burnout I'm recovering from.

I think I will probably end up going back to software, maybe as a contractor, but I'm tempted to try something new. My belief is that it would be easier to do something socially meaningful in another field but even in scientific research most work is pointless and the reward/funding system is entirely dysfunctional.

I took a break for a couple years at one point, also about 4-5 years after I started. I went and threw boxes around warehouses for UPS, then I did a year of law school, then I realized that software wasn't so bad, so I came back to it.

But I came back with different goals. I wasn't pushing myself to be the best engineer in the world... I just did the work. I wasn't trying to make software used around the world... I just took jobs and did my best.

And I found that with a more relaxed attitude, I was better. My work was better, my performance and satisfaction overall was vastly improved. And my career went to a better place. I still don't have the passion for it that some people do, and won't miss it when I retire. But I have solid skills, a solid work ethic, and a solid career.

This isn't for everyone, but after working as a software dev for 3 years I went to law school. Because I had a technical background, I was immediately pegged to be a patent attorney. I know, most software developers hate patents, but most of the work is not as evil as it seems in the press.

There are often real disputes, between real companies, on patented ideas that are incredibly similar. Having a solid technical foundation is necessary to fully understand what's going on. As a patent litigator, you generally get to work on 2 or 3 cases at a time, often involving different technology, and you get to become the expert in them. I personally worked on Bluetooth, H.264, and crazy image processing algorithms, among many others. The downside of course, is that while you deal with tech and learn about it, you're now on the outside. You don't make anything, and the job is stressful, but for the right person, it can be a good fit.

I've thought about it many times, but it's hard to walk away from the money. I'd have to start at zero in any other field, and to reach even half the salary in another standard professional career, I'd have to go to school for a few years. If I had any business ideas or an entrepreneurial spirit, I could try to set out on my own, but that's unlikely. In lieu of going insane from the tedium and politics of a software career (not that other careers are any better in this regard), I take a lot of time off; usually about a year every three years. I always go back to software, though, because it's easy. I'm tempted to do something completely different for a quarter of the salary, like become a dive instructor. Beats sitting behind a desk writing the same web app for the 50th time and dealing with sprint planning meetings.

I was burnt out as a programmer a long time ago. Using my IT knowledge I moved into the field of business analysis and then on to project management. After a while I got tired of the politics so I switched to working as a network / operations engineer. More recently I went back to university to do post-grad research in model based software engineering and now freelancing as a consultant / project manager.

I have never felt that I had to stay stuck doing something that I no longer enjoyed. For me learning new material (and enterprise scale networks was a big challenge) and facing new challenges has always been more inspiring than merely picking up a fat wage. The biggest problem being that, for most people, their spending increases faster than their income. Exercising a small bit of restraint and having some savings opens up so many great opportunities and adventures.

I can understand the fear of starting from zero. But that doesn't need to be the case. What I have always done is to focus more on domain knowledge and then segueing from one area to a adjoining one. Technical knowledge, alone, quickly becomes outdated. But domain knowledge continues across multiple generations of technology.

Not sure if everyone feels this way, but I kind of hate "software engineering". I feel like once the logic or core principle is figured out, the rest is just the chore of implementation. It's like the fun part is visualizing how everything should work in your head, then you have to do the boring part of typing it all out, debugging, dealing with stakeholders etc which forms 90% of "software engineering".

I'm a lot happier now that I can outsource some of that work to other people. Maybe in the future some of the boring 90% can be automated away, but the human factors remain.

I moved to sales & investing after 10 years of coding. I still write code every day, but only for myself. For me, programming is beautiful if I am in control of the product getting built. It's a complete package and the creative aspects is what gives me the thrills. Being a code monkey does not.

My old VP Engr quit and opened a falafel shop. Still going strong after 20 years.

A friend I know went from software engineering to civil engineering for difficulties in finding work. But I find many more that do the opposite, go from civil to software.

I was first inclined into software before deciding on civil in college after the dot com bubble burst.

I recommend all software inclined engineers do anything but software. Software Programming is a very powerful tool in most industries but is least required in the software industry.

So I recommend you pick up another skill. And start working on it from a software perspective.

I’ve gotten bored multiple times and changed companies, organizations, teams, or worked more on my promotion to change the nature of my work.

Try to see if you can find a more interesting domain to apply your skills in. For me, moving to a senior role offered a more interesting scope and facing more design work and advising mixed with some coding, mentoring, etc.

If you’re tired of the field entirely, maybe there are non technical roles where you can apply a set of your skills in something like management.

I quit software for mainly two reasons: the constant squabbling about what framework of the day to use and the lack of training people have. I know it may sound petty, but when people doesn’t even know how to use the current framework, why on earth should the add more they don’t know anything about?

Surprisingly common to feel like this. You've done 4 years. Hope you've been saving hard. You should be able to take a year out and rest up and see what takes your fancy - you might find after a good break your interest in software is rekindled.

p.s. I believe all software engineers should be factoring in a year out for every five years worked.

Did 10 years at 4-6 companies, from startups to big co. Felt like most coworkers were big pussies who couldn’t even change their own car oil. Their time is just so valuable. I was always handy, did all my own auto/home repairs, etc. so took the leap and started buying distressed properties as-is in “bad” neighborhoods. Learned a lot about evicting squatters, keeping homeless and druggies from trespassing and loitering, fixing roofs, replacing leaky cast iron plumbing, repairing refrigerators and stoves, fishing romex up 3 floors, renting to millennials, gentrifying a street, etc.