Career change away from Web Development?

spengos

spengos

spengos

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As title suggests, has anyone attempted to move into another career, having done web or software development?

I've been job hopping for a few years now and just can't seem to settle down and be happy. I find it stressful dealing with the politics in agencies and having to keep up with the tech in such a fast moving industry. I'll be 40 next year and I just can't seem to find the energy to be passionate about what I do anymore.

I've got to the point where I'm drinking quite a lot after work too and also eating lots of junk. I don't do any exercise anymore and I know if I carry on the way I am i'll be digging myself an early grave. Which isn't great as I have a young family.

I feel like I should try something different but I haven't a clue what I'd do. I have no degree and wasn't really interested in anything else at school. I have plenty of hobbies and interests, like most on here, but I can't see how any of them would make me money I could live on. I don't care about earning big bucks I just want enough to pay the bills and above all be happy and fairly stress free.

So has anyone managed to make the change to something new? If so, what did you do and are you any happier?
 
I went from Software Development into Support - started at 1st line and I am now an Infrastructure Engineer so it's definitely doable - I am happier, programming was a huge hobby for me but I didn't enjoy working on software that other people wanted me to create, I liked the freedom to create what I wanted.
 
Thanks for the reply. Think I might look into that. Support was actually where I started out. It was the first job I had out of college but I quickly moved into development in the same company and have never looked back, until now!

Did you find it difficult to get started and progress quickly? I wouldn't know where to start with something like that now.
 
I didn't find it difficult, but as a Software Developer I worked somewhere that I also did some of the more difficult application support stuff, so I was already used to support and I was working with things like LDAP/AD Integration, DNS, Certificates, Sharepoint etc plus I was a complete nerd.

I find support (past 1st line) quite similar to programming, you're a problem solver there to fix issues in systems, you simply don't code them from scratch. I do a lot of coding in support though, Powershell, Bash etc.
 
I know how you feel.

I used to work in graphics, but moved into development, mix of biz analyst, support and development. I keep slipping out of development into support, and I've had my filll of support. I'm moving more into DBA, SharePoint, as an escape from support, and give me some breathing room to decideb what to do next.

I miss the creative side of graphics. But got fed up of the lack of creative control, and In think the salaries are much better in IT. It's less stressful. As it's not subjective work. However now I miss doing anything creative. I'm a bit boredb with work In currently do.

Most jobs are political and playing the ladder in anything other than a small CV company or team.
 
I'd like to get back to more development. But where I am it's all very boring stuff and they never try any thing new.

I say this because you might just end up with different problems in an area you don't know. So it's not just the work but the type of people you work with that will make all the difference.
 
I got fed up with enterprise software development (in investment banks at the end)....the politics and egos. Moved into game development instead.

Less money obviously, but a far nicer work environment, interesting products. Office politics replaced with office nerf wars. Glad I did it.

There's *loads* of general back-end and web work that needs doing in the games industry these days, and you don't really need any gamedev experience to do it.
 
OspreyO said:
The problem with game companies can be the unpaid overtime and unrealistic deadlines. You can end up working every weekend.
Click to expand...

Really depends on the company, certainly now the industry has matured and the larger studios have to compete fiercely for talent the days when game dev = no life are pretty much a thing of the past. There are a few bad eggs around for sure but it's definitely not the norm.

I've done some pretty serious 90+ hour week crunch time in banking. Only crunch in games has been a couple extra hours a day for two weeks before a release, which I got time in lieu for.
 
ever looked into security? have a lot of guys in the company im in that have done e.g. web development and/or network engineering that have then switched into security once they got bored.
 
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