Former devs who can't get a job, what did you end up doing for work?

I am in my mid-70s now and for the first time in my life I can’t find part time work. I have had three really good leads in the last four or five months but in each case there was no job unless I accepted a full time position. Sadly at my age, I don’t have the energy for full time work, so it is what it is. My wife is happy I am not working, and she literally would not accept it if I tried a full time gig, even just for a year or so.

One thing that I do is that I keep writing code in my favorite languages Common Lisp, Haskell, Racket, and Python (Python only for deep learning). I also still write.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2023 had a lot of trouble finding a tech job and even local meetup devs told me of layoffs, got into restaurant work where I had worked several years ago in college, because they remembered me. Mostly physical job, I don't have to work the fryers which in some ways is kind of nice, and it's super low stress, just takes a lot of energy and leaves me drained in most of free time

In my experience It's very hard to get back in once you've been out of tech a while. Not because you can't code, but it becomes harder if not impossible to convince someone you can and current oversupply.

I'm very fortunate to have a job right now because having an income is better than not having an income

However, the company is sliding downhill imo, there have been constant layoffs and eventually I am sure I will be caught in one of them

I'm really not happy about the idea of searching for a new job again, in this new "AI assisted morons" stage of bureaucracy

I'm strongly thinking about trying to pivot to independent consulting. I know it's a tough path to follow and I'm nervous about it, but I have 15 years of experience now and I know I can probably do more with it than most companies will ever let me

I breed, train and sell horses. So I do construction, which started as a need to build structures for horses, and then turned into side gigs. It's easy as an engineer with a maxint salary and -tism to enter the construction field, because you have the discipline and the skill to read and retain manufacturer's manuals and code. I mean I have one of those autistic recalls for multimillion line codebases, I can probably remember what pitch requires ice and water shield, or nailing patterns, and such. A lot of respectable construction outfits don't, don't bother, or rely on your ignorance to do a shoddy job. Because of -tism, my work started baseline good and only improved with time, like that scene from game of thrones "many maesters whose chains are heavy with healing links have attempted it and failed, yet you succeeded. how?" "I read the books and followed the instructions". the maxint part means that you can easily outfit yourself as a pro from the very beginning. I bought a coil nailer before I even laid my first shingle, I bought a bunch of scrap material to shingle a sheet of sheathing as if it was an entire roof in my workshop, I then did it over and over and over again until I was satisfied with the result. by the time I started on the run-in which was my first roofing project I burned $$$, but got an excellent result. by the time I was doing it for other people I had a solid understanding of the failure state space, so I could make strong claims about results. this is not an approach that most apprentice builders can afford to take.

I'm contemplating becoming an aircraft mechanic. I've always loved planes and I still sometimes wish I had chosen to become a commercial pilot. There's a "crash course" school near me that's designed to get you the FAA A&P certifications in eight months. I'd be taking a significant pay cut at the beginning but after 5ish years I'd be back up about to where I am now.

I'm moving into embedded programming, haven't found a job yet but I'm building a hackable smartwatch that runs Linux and has a dedicated microcontroller for video and wireless. I'm kind of burned-out as fullstack, now working with a physical product is very rewarding. I'll probably continue thru the path of wearables and home automation, creating my own devices.

I gave carpentry a shot but I only lasted a week on the job. I was super fortunate to meet a crew of guys that were willing to show me the ropes. I was able to learn quickly and it challenged me. I really enjoyed stepping outside of tech, but the reality of working for $20/hr hit home pretty quick. To the best of my knowledge there aren't many places in the United States where you can realistically support yourself on an income like that. At least not long term. I also nearly lost my marriage (not joking).

I'm back in an office now working in a contract tech role that involves a little bit of coding on the side and it's alright for now I suppose. It isn't glamorous, but I'm happy to be working to be honest. I wanted to respond to your post because I found that cold calling and networking was the way to go for opening doors. I needed to talk to real people and build personal relationships. It took time and some surprisingly interesting opportunities opened up here and there. No one gave me a hard time about looking for work. I met a lot of people who were more than willing to take time out of their day to talk to me. It took a long time to get back into a full time role - about 6 months.

I also applied to a couple hundred jobs online but that approach didn't lead to much. The couple of interviews that I did get weren't even genuine. I deleted my LinkedIn account and never looked back.

Medicine. It's significantly harder than software engineering in terms of the lifestyle and demands on you, but I've never been happier or more fulfilled. A lot of the skills translate over, other than perhaps the actual coding.

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

QC testing rack servers hot off the assembly line and repairing things when necessary. The entire testing suite can take anywhere between 1-2 days across SKU's, depending on customer specifications and requirements.

I can't name names but I can say that I touch DGX H200's and their peripherals on a daily basis.

In 2001 I arrived in Canada having quit my US tech job, during dot-bomb, just after 9-11 with everyone waiting to see what'd happen next. Not many IT jobs out there then. Never mind, plenty hospitality jobs in Whistler :) Did couple of seasons there. Felt sorry for stressed out IT guys that came to fix the hotel's systems ;) Min wage, but tips too, and free stuff people left in rooms. Endless supply of free tea which I'm partial to ;). Lived cheaply - sardines'n'pasta, omelettes (yeah eggs were cheap then) , porridge. Had savings from tech work which was a cushion, but didn't break into them massively. In the end, returned to UK , had to be a bit sensible, got back into tech as jobs started to appear again. Was great fun working on a ski resort, albeit a bit rootless / transient too, wouldn't wanna do it for ever. Now its "been there. done that", I wouldn't return. When you've worked in tech, getting a basic job to tide you over in a "normal place" can be tricky becaue people think you're over-qualified and won't stay. At a ski hill, there are like, former lawyers as lifties. No-one cares. They're just happy if you aren't a stoner ;) People don't think beyond one season. A few people though end up managing hotels and stuff then can hop to something else. So for some its actually a good career move. For others they kept the wolf from the door with free lift pass. I'd recommend this to anyone for a season or two, if they've not already done it :)

did some contract work in 2022-2023 and since then I started to go all-in ai-enabled web apps, even learned front-end (svelte), something I didn't ever think I'd get into. but to have the highest amount of leverage on the possibility space, you have to be fullstack web, even if that's not your main "job"

I'm still grinding, haven't "made it" yet, and try to keep my remaining stash afloat by trading options. I also moved to my hometown just so I can minimize my burn rate. I'm more or less flat. I don't make, but I also don't lose money.

I would, however, accept part-time contract work (I'm a generalist with leadership tendencies), if I can find it. someone suggested looking around HN threads (but not in the jobs section), so far nothing notable

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.

Although I love IT and I've been a Java consultant for 20+ years, I'm getting out because the IT business has become absurd. I'm 51 now.

Instead I've certified as an Auriculotherapist (that's fancy speak for ear-acupuncture). I chance discovered auriculotherapy about 10 years ago by its potential to reduce stress by modulating the nervous system. And its been my passion since. The ear is way more than some funny cartilage sticking off your head. Its a complete map of the body with every part treatable via microscopic points on the ear surface. Kind of like a "keyboard" into the bodies "operating system".

So the IT business going batsh!t bonkers was my cue to jump out and start a new healthcare business. I regret nothing and feel that I'm now actually helping people. And people aren't getting less stressed these days.

Good luck to all when the genAI slop code needs fixing and there are no experienced dev's left.

A startup

I can't get a job, so I start a company. Not sure if it's super backwards.

Heavy marine construction with my brother driving steel sheeting and pouring concrete caps hah

Don't give up on mainline, but branch out to small/medium bus ops. You have to go to as many meetups as you can, perfect your elevator pitch, make github and online presence look nice, etc.

One niche, there's lots of people looking for help coding stock/futures trading apps in sierra chart, ninja and multi trader, etc. These are in c++, c#/framework, python, mostly.

On the latter, work your network, seek out busines owners/managers who are in need of IT/web/database/email list type work and have people vouch for your tech cred/integrity (very important)

When this happened to me in 2001, I moved into operations and support type of roles. There's PLENTY of opportunity to code whatever you want and it's usually well appreciated.

for months i've been trying to find a job. just keep applying and doing software things. learning new, refreshing old. i don't expect to ever work again. i don't have any other skills.

there's nothing wrong with the trades, if you don't mind working with your hands. i've been working as a electrician for the past couple of years, and it allows you to work at various places while the work is never really same, and you're not sitting on your ass for hours on end. it's definitely not for everybody.

Friend of mine got into long-haul trucking.

Started a new company.

Wildlife photography was fun for a while. If you avoid baiting the animals, it sortof becomes a game, figuring out where they live and how to get close without scaring them off. Making any significant money off it seems unlikely though.

This hits home.

> I'm curious what other kinds of work other former developers got into and if they like it.

Speaking in general terms, age discrimination in tech (not just software development) is, in my opinion, a really serious problem. It's like society discards you after a certain point in time, even though you are likely more capable than most younger candidates.

I am going to point the finger squarely at YC on some of this, simply because they could be an important part of the change this attitude would require.

If I were to characterize the high-altitude view of YC funded startups, I'd say it's a college campus. Sure, of course, there might be a few corner cases here and there. PG even has an essay where he says the ideal age is between 22 and 38. I think I read that only about 2% of funded founders are above 38. Well, that's bullshit.

Again, society discards you because of a biological clock having nothing whatsoever to do with your capabilities.

Let's put it this way: I can't think of a single "older" founder that would have even thought about the down-right disgusting idea of a startup that treats factory workers like cattle and --even better-- nobody in that age group would think it sensible to actually promote this in social media.

Anyhow, getting back to your question. I have friends who have tried it all. Lie on their resume. Die their hair. Serious dieting and exercise. Take lower pay. Etc. The vast majority do not make it past the Zoom interview. That is, if they ever get one. These days researching people is very easy. Which also means you get to see how old they are. If that isn't used to disqualify, the zoom call certainly does it.

Of these friends, most chose to pursue personal interests or simply retire. On of them had been investing in real estate most of his life. He decided to manage his properties.

Another friend, who ended-up with no retirement or savings to speak of due to a nasty divorce, ended-up finding a job in the oil fields in New Mexico. He sits in a trailer in the middle of nowhere, by himself, 24/7. Every couple of hours he gets in his truck and does the rounds --checking measurements, turning valves, filling out forms.

He is making $250K a year for that.

Here's a guy who is an extremely capable technologist who was discarded by society (well, at least the tech side of society) and is now in the desert living in a trailer. This is horrible. Yeah, sure, he is making a lot of money. He is also as miserable as can be. If he was mentally weak I'd be worried about all sorts of things, from becoming an alcoholic to suicide. Thankfully that isn't his case. You can make a lot of money and still be miserable.

It's interesting how society has been up in arms over the years about providing opportunity for different groups (choose a classification) and yet, age discrimination in tech largely remains untreated...a perfect crime, if you will.

I don't know what to tell you. Widen your search space to uncover opportunities that might have nothing to do with tech. Better yet, perhaps look for something where the entry point isn't necessarily tech based but your tech capabilities will give you the ability to become invaluable. It's like being the person at the office who knows how to write Excel formulas and VBA code. At some point everyone needs you around.

I do data annotation to train LLMs on coding tasks.

The free lunch in the SaaS space is (finally) over, both literally and metaphorically.

What people ought to be doing is moving to remote, rural, and low cost-of-living areas that have been completely ignored by investors and techies for decades. We live in a post-covid world. Starlink works great. There are simply no excuse. Clinging onto the vestiges of Silicon Valley circa 2014 is a fools errand and has been for multiple years. It's time to start opening mocking people for being delusional.

Interact with your new rural community, and really understand their problems. You can start sprinkling technology in to help and expand from there. These markets have been ignored for a long time because their treasures are not shiny enough for VCs to pay attention to—not because there isn't tremendous opportunity to do some good and making a living.

The people following this advise aren't complaining about the job market, quite the opposite.

True!