Anyone broken free from professional life? Warning: rant

What kind of basic concepts?

Some shoes are fucking annoying to be fair though.

Probably stuff like how to write scalable, performant, easy to read and easy to maintain code and how to interface safely (oh-er!) with other parts of whatever technology stack is being used.

On topic, It's interesting to think that becoming some kind of programmer could be seen as 'breaking free of professional life' but whatever works, works.

I thought the basic concepts of software development are that it takes three times as long and costs three times as much as seems reasonable, and doesn't actually work very well in the end anyway.

Yes. Whilst the tech bros run off with your money.

That's just because Sales guys promise the Moon on a stick for £1000 and then BAs and PMs with no idea end up creating a project that's more like the galaxy on a stick.

runs off with the money

It feels that way to me. The grass was definitely emerald beautiful green when I got to the other side. I love my new career, where I get to learn constantly while not taking on massive life or death or legal risk.

Yes, I am a bit obsessed with building software and writing code that is very human readable, maintainable etc, down to class names, file naming an structure etc. I then comment my code where something is not obvious. I agree totally, programming is not really about being a syntax genius, but about the humans and teams and how you get the whole human system working.

It is all about solving a business need. If you can avoid developers and find a solution off the shelf then great, but there are a lot of niche business needs that need that iterative process of development which costs a lot of money, takes a lot of time, miscommunication of needs (inevitable when the programmers are not subject matter experts) etc. The programming itself is easy. Solving the business need in a way that end users find intuitive is hard as you effectively have two teams of specialised people who need to learn from each other and build a solution.

It's interesting to think that becoming some kind of programmer could be seen as 'breaking free of professional life'

This kind of hit me! I felt like I had totally broken free after trading a full time job for a... full time job? I think it's indicative of a sense that you've transitioned from a job where you have to be a "professional" to a job where you can be yourself, whether that's in how you express yourself through your work, how you schedule your work week, your wellbeing or something else entirely.

Damn

This. Also, your job should align with your aptitudes and interests.

http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html

I have always been a maker. I like working to my own schedule and getting into an undisturbed flow where I am deeply engrossed in what I am doing. Some people prefer to spend their day in meetings, and engaging with colleagues directly. If you are an extrovert stuck in a job where you are forced to focus on a task without enough human interaction, or an introvert stuck in a job where you have to interact with people all day, you will become miserable.

Handed in my notice yesterday.

Anyone that's on the Depression thread may have spotted some of my posts but over the past 12months have ended a 17yr relationship and relocated out of London after a breakdown, 2 months off work and a phased return to 4 days a week.

Work is the final piece of the puzzle. Had about 10 days off in late January - really demotivated and struggled. Went out for several long walks to clear my head and work through it and came to realise I have had 5-6 years of career drift. Work for an amazing volunteering charity, heading up the Comms team. Wonderful people, fully believe in the organisational values and mission (helped co-write them!) but have never felt particularly fulfilled or motivated in the here or in my past few roles. Just have been getting my head down and getting on with things, leading to a cycle of burnout, switching jobs and the cycle starts again.

Have a 3 month notice period. The plan is to do some form of freelancing/consultancy 3 days a week and find something non-screen based, more social, local and active the rest of the time. If it all goes wrong can always temp/pick up a short term contract but a combination of several things over the past 5-10 years has led me here - bored, unfulfilled and demotivated. No longer in a relationship so don't have to worry about the financial implications on others and so can be brave and take the leap into the unknown.

Sounds like you have a great plan - good luck, one day I dream of doing similar. Hopefully being more engaged at work will lead to the rest of life taking care of itself.

Sounds like a solid plan. Sorry to hear about the relationship ending but hat off for daring to do your thing. Onwards and upwards!

Thanks both! Not freaking out just yet and will keep dipping in here for advice/tips/support etc.

Anyone work within the Electric vehicle, conversion field?
As much as I like working in the cycling industry, it’s getting a bit…routine.

@Libraio

Much obliged. @Libraio do you mind if I PM you some questions?

Wow, huge changes. All power to you, sounds like you're gaining some control and autonomy.

Anybody worked in academia then left, not for industry, but for a normal job (whatever that is..). Postdoc here missing the 1 and a bit year I worked as a bike courier between postdocs.

I left post PhD to become a headhunter for profs and institute directors. Academia adjacent but without many is stresses

No, but I know there's a very active academia thread where you might get some good results.

@stenus both I and my wife are looking to leave academia; she's working on getting a gardening qualification, I am at night school trying to qualify for an nhs psychotherapy post. At the same time we are also thinking of taking leave and moving to portugal. Anyone moved to portugal?

I just got back from 2 years in Spain, drop me a message if you think that could be relevant.

thank you, lucky you! (I hope!)

10 years with my company and it looks like i'll be facing some form of redundancy soon. I think there's a thread on redundancy so i'll hit that up for some tips but in the meantime i need to think about next steps. Although i believe i've done some of my best work in the last 3-4 years I've also felt trapped in an industry i'm uncertain about. I'd like to explore what other work options might be viable for me, are careers advisors still a thing or would a life coach be the person to speak with?