Last job killed my love of IT, management beat it out of me. Wonderful company, demotivated by my manager from the first week. Couldn’t be a nicer guy, smartest tech I’ve ever met, Peter Principled his was into management.
Never been paid that much, took about every Friday off on PTO, total WFH, can’t say what my benefits cost but it wasn’t $100/mo. in total. My last job was half the pay and benefits, was so much happier. I think of that every time I read a comment about why companies need to pay more to satisfy us. Everyone should have a look at this. Had ALL that at my penultimate job, NONE at the most recent.
I feel so weird, especially at this time of life with a solid resume, interviewing for PT work at Lowe’s. Thinking I’ll be happier than a pig in shit spending 4 hours a day, just walking around helping people, doing what ever bullshit I’m asked to do. Looking to see how it goes, see if there are ways to work myself up to FT, better schedule, supervisor, whatever.
Thought about “retiring” to work in a hardware store to keep busy and fit, but not for a decade+. Excepting my credit card bills, and what my wife sends home to the Philippines, she makes enough to cover everything. Won’t take much to take the edge off.
I love hardware and tools and plants, about everything they sell. Hoping to learn a lot as well. Helping people is really satisfying to me, and I’m excellent at handling customers. LOL, I’m best with the angry ones, sometimes get them apologizing. :)
Need a sanity check, am I losing it!? Been through the worst depression of my life the past few years, hoping this will break me back into a normal state of mind.
EDIT: Got the job! Holy shit, the assistant manager is just like me! Dropped out of tech to take a minimum wage job at Lowe’s 8 years ago, now he’s at $90K. We’ve even done much of the same work in the IT space. “I did DSL for Bellsouth when it was new!” “Yep, did my time as a cable internet guy.”
Seems to be a lot of space and opportunity to move up. I’m going to knock this out the fucking park!
BONUS: Clerk at the shady gas station overhead me telling my neighbor about quitting IT and getting hired today. Guy ask me what I did in IT, gave him a run down. “Yeah. I was a web dev for 20-years, couldn’t take staring at a screen any more.”
Man my local bicycle shop is looking for mechanics, and I’m like…could I afford that instead of my current desk job?
I’m qualified; I’m pretty good mechanically, except for wrapping bar tape. I’m slowly getting better at it, but I’m definitely not to the professional standard a bike shop would want. But I’m sure they’d make me practice that.
There’s only one way to find out
not crazy, I’m 26 and have been daydreaming about quitting my “cushy” wfh tech job and going back to being a grocery store cashier for at least 2 years now. wfh is so isolating for me, and my adhd time management shortcomings spike my anxiety. I’m too tired to be interested in personal code projects, server hosting, or linux in my off time, and my office now has a background sense of dread rather than the safe gaming space it used to be.
I just want to show up, at the same time every day, be friendly to people and help them with small tasks, and then leave work at work after at the end of the day. a consistent schedule, friends, and not having tech forced on me 24/7 would do wonders for my mental health, not to mention boons to physical health needing to move around every day. I just can’t afford to go back to minimum wage right now
Oof. I can kinda relate. Any way you could do the tech stuff part time, and be a cashier part time? I have seriously considered finding a part time role in my current line of work to just make enough money to live, and then doing something else part time that doesn’t eat my soul.
You could try a hybrid job as a less “risky” option.
I personally like it and I usually work 2 days (sometimes 3 days) from home every week.
Gods I FEEL you! Same, same and same. I can’t afford to do this either, but did it for my sanity.
Tried more for my physical health, marching and kayaking for miles around the woods and swamps. Just couldn’t get the human connection.
I’m hired and I SANG today while canoeing! We shall see.
You’re not crazy. If you’re making enough to live on and you’re happy, then I’m not sure what else a person could ask for.
For my part, I have a decent job in healthcare, making a good salary by any measure, but it’s emotionally strenuous on the best of days and I dream of quitting to go start a flower farm. The bad days are utterly soul-sucking, so I absolutely cannot do this kind of work for another 18 years (when I’ll turn 54 too), so I fully intend to do similarly to you once I am financially secure enough. Definitely not retail for me though; I got enough of that in my college days. 😛
My story is literally the opposite. Working at places like Lowes and the shitty coworkers and management was my drive to finish school and get a better job.
Every job can suck because of people who suck. Retail is definitely NOT better. I ain’t saying it’s worse, but it ain’t better.
I had a similar arc, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about going back.
I worked retail for two years post highschool. Looking at my coworkers, some of whom were in their 40s/50s and still at pretty low level positions, made me go to community college and then a four year school.
14 years later working on software (dev, highly engaged/invested PO, now PM) and I either have a more clear-eyed worldview or a my company is starting to fall apart. I’m very over our command and control leadership that’s been touting the next new framework only to continue to command and control in that framework and then claim “that framework was actually bad, this new framework is good”. The battling between teams building basically the same things, but for their niches of the world, “how I want it” coming every which was as opposed to thinking about what we should be solving, everything being the top priority, actions mattering more than results, etc. Layer in process debt that goes back to the 1950s and technical debt going back to the 1980s. I know younger companies don’t have the later two problems, but from lurking in dev related communities for years everything else seems pretty common.
At my retail job the worst I had to deal with was the occasional grouchy customer, which just meant calling a manager to deal with it if I couldn’t. We’re doing the best we can to stash away money. We’ve started doing math to say, “we might have to work longer in total, but if we were to take lower paying jobs at <age> this is what our finances would look like”.
Controversial but when it actually IS essentially just “for spending money” part time work, is retail that bad? You have the psychological benefits of seeing new people, having consistent relationships, helping others, physical activity, a routine, and anything else that working may bring to your social calendar. Oh and waaaay less responsibility and pressure.
Cause it is essentially working for mental health reasons instead of financial. It is a lot easier to walk away then as soon as mental health is compromised!
I think the people hating on retail haven’t developed people skills because they’re young or simply can’t. I can flip an angry customer around in a few minutes, have them eating out of my hand.
The secret sauce? Treat like as what they are, a human being coming to you for help, not pain-in-the-ass customer #43 for the day. Even the ones that start out angry quickly catch on that you’re on their side and doing your damnedest to help. If you’re fake, they can smell it.
I’m glad you have that particular skill, but it absolutely has very little to do with irate customers. That’s more like what makes it a shitty day at the job vs having a shitty job.
Also idk how much variety of people you have had to meet in your career but I venture to guess they are all generally the same socioeconomic backgrounds, education, etc. When you work with the public it is different, the pool is larger and more random, you may learn new ways people can be fucking weird.
People skills might be part of the equation, but that also applies to IT/dev work too - especially if you find yourself in any kind of lead (tech and/or managerial) position.
I think hesitancy you’re seeing comes down to earnings potential and the fact that our society tends to look down on “low skill” work, especially retail.
If you’re financially stable enough to actually throw hands with that one customer (who will show up in your life eventually), then yeah, I can understand that.
High Tech Low Life… Gas Station Clerk Freelancing as Web Dev with 20 yrs of experience.
As a religious studies researcher both sysadmin and hard labor give me joy because they’re solvable problems and working with my hands
This thread is really making me doubt my career path. At 20, should I even bother going into tech/IT if I switch to a trade later on?
Stick with IT! There’s nothing inherently bad about the space, lots of room to move around and do different things, make solid money. 20-years of anything will burn you out unless you’re not very bright.
Do what pays the bills while you figure out what sort of trade work you might enjoy, look for paid training/apprenticeship spots, low voltage automation controls is a tech field that interacts with the trade a lot, I’m a maintenance tech and interact with our controls guy all the time.
If you’re 20, YMMV but for me, please get into a trade.
Just be smart and plan your exit. Your body will only take so much so trade until your body has enough then get into teaching whatever trade you got into.
My neighbours son is doing this now. HVAC career is done he’s in teachers college now to start his second career.
FWIW this is my plan now too. I’m pretty much done with IT. I’m investigating teaching now, or being a porter at a hospital.
The vast, vast majority of people don’t quit their job or their employer, but their boss and coworkers.
Don’t underestimate how much healthy relationships at work matter when you spend so much of your time there. Yes, in tech jobs as well. So stick with IT if you like it, but don’t stick around in a bad environment. Especially if you plan to have a family in X years, because then it gets a lot harder and riskier to jump ship and change your situation.
It’s also okay to want to take a break from a stressful career with a less stressful one. I took a break from teaching at a university to take care of therapy animals, and at year 1.5, I’ve really finally feel recharged.
You’re living the dream… and I’m right behind you.
Just hit 58 and I’m still working in tech (not IT any more, but adjacent). In March I’m going to tell them that I’ll be working fewer hours. Not asking, telling.
It’s their choice whether I work zero hours or some number that’s less than the 80 I’m currently putting in. I’ll either have 3-day weekends or 7-day weekends.
I noticed when I do volunteer work I look forward to getting my hands dirty and the physical labor involved. I quip to my wife that I’m going to go be a mailman or learn a trade, etc., but I’m semi-serious. 20+ years of ups and downs and it feels like IT is valued in general less and less. Even if a company does everything “right” like the video describes… a lot of companies are still quite toxic to work for overall. It’s compounded by the fact that changing jobs in the field is painful now with multiple interviews required, etc. in a very crowded pool of talent.
Do it. It’s not like it has to be permanent if you end up not liking it.
83k?? I’ve been in IT for 2 years and I’m about making that much. Would more money help? Maybe job hop to a company that fits your vibe better?
More money just makes it harder to leave. It’s like testing your pain tolerance.
If you told people tomorrow that they could live without worrying about losing their place to live with a reasonable amount of food. Assuming they could buy the necessities of life with a few niceties… most people would stop caring about money and worrying so much.
What society is doing to people, turning them into monthly bill calculators is ridiculous and stress/fear inducing. These are imaginary bullshit systems we’re forcing people to become experts on.
A big chunk of it is to ensure that the top of ladder stays the top, so they distract distract distract.If I could survive comfortably and support my family while helping people fix and improve their living spaces at Lowe’s, that sounds like a wonderful way to live…
Find a place that doesn’t feel like torture with a management team who isn’t shitty. My first job in IT was for DXC, a massive MSP with 100k+ employees. I was applying for new jobs 3 months in because I saw it was unsustainable for me. Just before my 1 year I got an offer. I now work for a smaller ~250 person company with a management style that doesn’t make me anxious or stressed. I also do woodworking as a hobby and built myself a desk, coffee bar and bench. I firmly believe that the right job can let you have your cake and eat it too. It’s just a struggle and a job in itself to find the good cake in the first place.
Dude, if you’re happy and can survive, you made the right move.
Working in IT has me questioning my entire existence. In many ways, I envy you.
As someone who just got his A+ certification and is looking for his first job in IT, why do/did you feel this way?
I am doing a career switch from marketing/SEO which was…! Manipulating everything for people to sell shit and my job is beholden to whatever the FUCK Google wants to do today? No thanks!
I worked in email marketing for JP Morgan for a few years. Most miserable job I ever had. All work from home and super short hours but I couldn’t live with all the information manipulation that was going on. It’s ridiculous how much personal info people give up online without even realizing it and that was 10 years ago. I can only imagine how bad it is now.
Yeah, I’m sure on the email side it’s ridiculous!
Well at least now you can work in a hands-on environment and hopefully use your marketing skills to manipulate your management chain into doing what’s right for you or the company.
That’s what I’m excited to do is hands-on stuff. I’ve built my own PC and have sort of torn my wife’s Mac apart when troubleshooting a heating issue. Doing things with the CLI or remoting in will be cool too!
If you enjoy tech, keep going for it. There’s nothing inherently shitty about the work, at any level, and it pays. As with any career, we sometimes burn out.
Thank you! I think it’s a career right up my alley and I’m excited to land my first gig - hopefully in the next couple of months.
It depends A LOT what kind of IT career you do. If you are a sysadmin with a shitty manager/company you’ll hate it. If you do helpdesk you’ll hate the whole human race.
But you can become devops, SRE, cloud engineer, architect, so you get all the fun at tinkering without the bullshit (most of the time, no job is perfect).
Well, I’ll have to start out in help desk but I’ve done CS as a temp job before and it was kind of fun. I don’t want to do help desk forever though, and I understand just how DUMB some people can be. Like, wow… 🤣
I dunno, I’m excited to get started in it and I don’t know what I want to specialize in yet.
My experience is that ITs role is to manage organizational liability, not helping people. Perhaps i am naive, but i wanted a job in tech so that i could help support other people in doing amazing work. You do get to do that, but it needs to be constantly framed from that point of organizational liability in order to effect any change. Different orgs have different risk appetites and cultures that make that change easier or harder.
tbh i would still start a carrer in tech, i do not want to dissuade you from such. For me i was better able to navigate the day to day bullshit after i learned what they are actually paying me for vs the dream i had in my head.
That depends on what you do.
My job is mainly to keep things rolling and improve them, but also support to a certain degree.
Our support team’s job is obviously to help people.
Not much of what we do is motivated by liability. But I work in the public(ish) sector.
Thank you for that info. I’ll keep it in mind. I’ve worked for various corporations for over 20 years, so I know they all are about self preservation.
That’s literally the plot of Stardew Valley. Leaving the world of digital work in favor of something more tangible is a dream come true for many of us.
Thank you for sharing this! I was a software engineer for over 10 years and was let go with most of my department in June. I’ve been coasting on SUB payments, enjoying the temporary freedom, and learning sooo much about myself. I’ve been applying to similar jobs, but the longer I’ve been away from that world, the less I want to go back to it. So much of me wants to run to a job I always wanted growing up - a barista, and restart my photography business which I had to drop as it was too much to balance with a full-time job. I’ve been mentally stuck the last few months trying to figure out what I want to do… it’s nice to read something from someone in a slightly similar situation who is also considering a completely different path. I wish you the best of luck on your new journey, and I hope you find happiness in whatever work you decide on!
I had what should have been my dream job. I absolutely hated it and everything about it broke me and made me suicidally depressed. I took a lower paying job without all the responsibilities and long commute. I was surprisingly happy there.
For a while, I felt bad that I’d “demoted” myself. Then I reshaped my thinking to the following: I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. I can do whatever the hell I want. Never cared again.
Not crazy at all, but just be forewarned that dealing with the public will make you long for the computer screen again!
When I worked at Lowe’s, dealing with the public was the only good part of the job.
