Moving on from developing (career thread)

Thesnipergecko · 25 Jul 2014 at 23:27

Hi guys

I've been a front and back end developer for over 15 years now and the last few years I have been struggling to be passionate about my work. I still do it as a day job, but that's all it feels like to me now is a day job and not a hobby/interest.

Has anyone else here moved on to another career path and hung up their programming boots? If so, what did you do and why?

AHarvey · 27 Jul 2014 at 13:01

Is it programming in general that you are bored of? Or just the specific area that you are working in?

With that experience you could teach it? Do you have something specific in mind?

Thesnipergecko · 27 Jul 2014 at 13:26

AHarvey said:
Is it programming in general that you are bored of? Or just the specific area that you are working in?

With that experience you could teach it? Do you have something specific in mind?

I'm at a bit of a loss, I actually have no idea what I would like to do next.

I've just finished working for a company I was with for 2.5 years and the work produced there was very basic. My main passion has always been back end development for ecommerce, which I have done very little of in the last few years so I am completely out of touch with it.

I've thought about going self employed and targeting email marketing for a passive income, but fear I don't have the sales skills required for that.

ZombieFan · 27 Jul 2014 at 15:25

I was a backend developer for over 10 years and have recently moved up the ladder to a team leader position. I still dabble a bit in code but much less than I did originally - now I mostly support the team however I can by getting involved with manageral things like working out who should be doing what, appraisals, mentoring etc.

I was very wary about a shift away from programming but it's been a very eye-opening experience. It can be difficult - especially when you've the team telling you one thing and senior management telling you another. But from a self-improvement point of view it's helped me massively. My confidence has improved loads and I'm much less anxious when it comes to presentations and group speaking. I also find it interesting to see how the business operates at a higher level - it makes it more obvious why certain things are done as they are.

Why I moved? Similar to you really. I wanted a new challenge away from development and was lucky that the oportunity came up within the team.

Dj_Jestar · 27 Jul 2014 at 20:54

Go join a start up and you'll have more passion than you ever had before. You'll also have more responsibility and control than you ever had before

Fallen god · 27 Jul 2014 at 22:14

Dj_Jestar said:
Go join a start up and you'll have more passion than you ever had before. You'll also have more responsibility and control than you ever had before

I kinda of did this recently, I don't have as much experience as you guys (only 3 years) I think it depends, I've personally found it disorganised, and I hate that. I had a lot of passion at first, but having to redoing working, totally miss management has killed it all for me.

I'm looking forward to leaving in 1-2 years once I've moved up to a more senior role where I currently at.

peterwalkley · 29 Jul 2014 at 10:40

Have you considered moving over to the systems design side such as architecture or business analyst ? Mid 40's developer here and I still code daily, but I do find I'm spending more and more time on the "big picture" stuff.