Ask HN: Has any one successfully pivoted away from tech?

28 points by _jdzr 3 years ago | 28 comments

Looking for advice from those who've successfully left tech. I've been in for 3 1/2 years (since graduating). In large part my career has felt like it has been failing upwards. Recently, I quit my job and have gotten to a point where I'm starting to think I'm not cut out for this. A few comments on this:

1. I'm not really progressing far into interviews, especially in the technical portions.

2. Some simple tech questions are now throwing me through a loop.

3. With the negative feedback I've gotten my motivation has basically reduced to 0.

4. I've traditionally struggled with logic tasks and have had to take more time than my peers to solve them.

5. I've had a hard time connecting and relating to co-workers and team members.

My resume reads nicely: https://github.com/arrjayh/arrjayh-resume/blob/master/hickok_resume.pdf and I fortunately get lots of interviews but they pretty quickly fizzle out after 1 or 2 technical assessments.

I'm considering/looking into the trades. I'm hoping there might be a trade where I could leverage some existing skills, but I find that unlikely. Would love to get some feedback from any one out there that has pivoted or at least considered it.

julian_sark 3 years ago |

System Architect/Admin here, great resume.

Not yet. Been applying to a wealth of non-tech jobs, salary be (almost) damned.

No dice. I've even been herding sheep in my holidays, to learn whether I could do that for the next 15-20 years. Still unsure.

Why go this route? Because after 25 years of IT, I have a deep dislike for the whole mess that is the self-serving, disingenuous, marketing-riddled, self-referential cesspool of corporate IT.

Alas, while I'm good at legal stuff, communication, information researching etc. it appears I'm type cast to be a keyboard warrior. I get a gazillion of admin, consultancy and coding offers, but not anything else ever.

Albeit this experience is from Germany, a place that's still crazy for it's maddening love of requiring many funky pieces of government-sponsored paper to get into any vocation that isn't guarding doors.

badpun 3 years ago | |

> Because after 25 years of IT, I have a deep dislike for the whole mess that is the self-serving, disingenuous, marketing-riddled, self-referential cesspool of corporate IT.

Why do you think other industries are any better? "self-serving, disingenuous, marketing-riddled, self-referential cesspool" pretty much fits any large-scale human activity. The exceptions are rare and ephemeral.

julian_sark 3 years ago | | |

I had that sneaking suspicion, yes. Hence the sheep.

mattewong 3 years ago |

Yes. I was a CS major. My resume wasn't too different from yours. I got tired of being narrowly focused. Went back to b-school for various reasons, among them, to get a "clean slate" in terms of job opportunities-- ie to avoid being pigeon-holed. It worked, and it was expensive, but the jobs on the other side made it worthwhile. So my journey was: tech, business school, wall street.

From what I can tell there are many opportunities if you are "tech + X", where X is real experience in a (non-tech) industry. In my case it was finance, and once I had a few yrs experience with that, I had lots of choices because every firm wanted someone who both understood their business and how to use technology to supercharge it. Funny enough, 15 years later, I decided to do something different again... and went back to tech.

andmikey 3 years ago | |

I’ve just graduated in Computer Science and I’m trying this pivot as well, but without the b-school (yet). ~2 years of tech work experience during my degree and I realised tech just doesn’t work for me right now. Starting in a much more generalist business role soon where it’s really helpful to have tech knowledge. Glad to know it’s worked out for you :)

mattewong 3 years ago | | |

Good luck. For me it was good to get at least a few yrs of tech experience before pivoting. it definitely was helpful later, some for the technical experience and maybe more for understanding the dynamics of how decisions get made by technical teams (including how politics comes into play). When you are part of the "business" that is the "customer" of the technical team, that experience can give you huge value that your peers may not be able to offer.

baremetal 3 years ago |

I was in software engineering for 13 years. Took a couple years off. Moved away from the bay area to idaho and bought farmland. Walked up to a jobsite and got a job framing so i could learn to build my own house, started at $12/hr. Two years later and now i make $50 an hour and own my own business. And i collect rent on the farmland every year.

Ive never been more fit in my life. Which was also a goal of mine. Its like going to the gym all day, or an adult jungle gym. I dont know that i would want to do it for more than 5 years though. So i anticipate starting other businesses at some point in the near future.

I have no debt or dependents though. I cant recommend this path to someone who does have either of those.

thelastgallon 3 years ago | |

I am interested in this transition, would you have time to connect? Email on my profile.

pyuser314 3 years ago |

There are tons of rewarding companies (probably smaller) that would never ask those interview questions.

jonny_eh 3 years ago | |

Here's a list: https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards

dmfdmf 3 years ago |

When I was in engineering I saw a lot of engineers (ME, EE, etc) pivot to sales/marketing and do well. Their education and experience allowed them to help match client's needs with the companies products without getting into the nuts and bolts.

rootsudo 3 years ago |

"5. I've had a hard time connecting and relating to co-workers and team members."

Yeah, me too - I connect only on hobbies, but as I get older, I don't really externalize what I do.

Take a break, that's why you quit - enjoy life, see what you want to do. :)

_jdzr 3 years ago | |

| but as I get older, I don't really externalize what I do.

How has this changed the team dynamics- do you get an overall sense of a disconnect from the rest of your team? I've never been one to share my hobbies, maybe I need to be more vocal about the things I do outside of work.

rootsudo 3 years ago | | |

Most likely they won't care, and hold it against you / talk about it behind your back.

If you can get your peers to a place outside of work so they can be themselves, it works better, since it's more caring and in a group not in "work."

LewisVerstappen 3 years ago |

I'd think harder before pivoting. Very few people are just naturally good at technical interviews.

What have you done to prepare?

_jdzr 3 years ago | |

I've worked through portions of this book: https://www.techinterviewhandbook.org/ -- I'm hesitant to invest too much time into studying these kinds of questions due to the inconsistencies I'm seeing across companies and their interview processes. In the last month over ~15 interviews the questions have been all over the map.

Hermitian909 3 years ago | | |

> In the last month over ~15 interviews the questions have been all over the map.

While I wasn't in your interviews, my experience is that this feeling disappears as you get better at these skills. I know that's also been the feeling over dozens of other engineers I've helped practice for these interviews.

My experience from the interviewer side of things is that candidates often aren't strong enough to see the small number of core concepts backing these questions whether it be certain data structures and algorithms or more general architectural know-how. This occurs because their knowledge of those concepts is usually very surface level.

Steven4554 3 years ago |

I think this is a common pitfall for a dev to fall into. Looking at your CV failing upwards is not a bad thing, it's only a bad thing if you don't enjoy what you do and can't see a future in. Having also been in a situation with negative (or non existent) feedback, the lesson that it taught me was self preservation is crucial. Try not to let you get you down, the work environment is full of bias, oversight and mismanagement. Just because it is a tech, with "prestigious" work, does not mean it is immune to it.

The tech interview is also something I struggle with. I've avoided this some what by not going to hyper sexy companies where they feel justified to treat you like a cog. This can actually be a good sign that you don't want to work there, remember you are interviewing them too. Again tech interviews, much like work, are easier when you actually are interested in what they are doing.

I would advise to try and take a break, go on a holiday, possibly to the point you are bored. The most difficult thing can be to actually figure out what you are interested in and what you enjoy. It's not bad if you want to pivot to something or go back to school, it's just bad if you are doing it out a sense of panic, can't clearly see a future and just want to change.

hellohowareu 3 years ago |

Do you enjoy working as a SWE?

I'm not a super great SWE-- I'm just a full stack javascript-oriented developer (With experience in a few other languages). Since I am already familiar with full stack apps, they're getting a little boring for me (since they're mostly CRUD, with some customized processing thrown in).

However my current company is letting me train in DevOps: stuff like kubernetes, helm, terraform. I am really appreciating the opportunity to learn new skills and grow my career. And, it will likely result in a promotion & higher pay.

The reason I ask if you enjoy SWE, is because you might be able to transition into DevOps, or Software Sales for example-- or some other SWE adjacent role, which uses your SWE skills.

If you don't enjoy SWE & the tech industry, then that's another story.

That said, learning trades is a great idea-- for one thing, you'd be interdisciplinary: a combination of tech/SWE experience & trades experience may be a highly valuable combination-- for example, you might come up with new product/service ideas. Or you can consult with trades businesses about their IT / Business processes, for example.

Looking at your resume-- I think it's awesome you have a CS degree. I kinda wish I did-- I don't have a technical degree but I am considering getting one just to improve my career a bit.

That said-- I failed a Amazon interview (for Solutions Architect-- i really wasn't ready for that sort of role without some training) and for a Google interview (for solutions engineer-- but now that I am training in DevOps I felt that the Google Solutions Engineer role isn't technical enough for me, and I don't think it even pays as much as my current role or a potential future role I could have as an Infrastructure-oriented/experienced SWE).

If you want to work in Tech, I'd say two things: 1. keep trying and 2. consider applying to and/or training for adjacent roles

Other than that... yeah, trades could work out too :shrug:

et-al 3 years ago |

> I'm hoping there might be a trade where I could leverage some existing skills, but I find that unlikely.

Plumbing. But you still gotta deal with shit all day. ;)

It's easy to think the grass is greener elsewhere, and I'm also guilty of it. E.g. I hear of traveling nurses making bank and sometimes wish I went that route.

However, don't let a toxic work environment ruin your taste of the industry. For me, there's great pleasure in building things with a tight feedback loop, and I skeptical that more manual jobs would offer that with comparable pay and benefits.

anewpersonality 3 years ago |

Why not switch to product management?

_jdzr 3 years ago | |

It's an option and I ought to take a closer look into it. That being said, due to my point 5, I think it might be a tough fit. Having to drive and manage a product with people you don't get along with sounds like it could be difficult and not rewarding.

8bitsrule 3 years ago |

If you're comfortable with people younger than yourself, and it'd be rewarding to share your experiences with (those of them who are also motivated), education might be an option. You could try it out somewhere appropriate, your GPA will help. (I suspect that there are many smaller schools looking for well-qualified educators.)

It'd give you time to consider if it's for you, and a more relaxed time to consider what other options are best-suited to you.

FlopV 3 years ago |

Tech to an ecommerce business.

Your tech skills and systematic approach will correlate very closely with digital marketing.

readme 3 years ago |

i got burnt out once so I joined the military

8 years later everything is pretty great and i work in tech again

if you're in half decent shape one option is to become a military officer

_jdzr 3 years ago | |

I've heavily considered this but I think the commitment/life style would interfere too much with what I've already established for myself- would hate to spend less time with my pup.

readme 3 years ago | | |

lots of people have pets in the military, and they have a post veterinarian

if you're going away temporarily, you can usually leave the animal in the care of the post vet

but if you are going away for a long time maybe you'd have to find someone to take care of your pet

i didn't personally have a pet, but i watched other people's pets a couple times

anewpersonality 3 years ago |

Switch to fintexh