I work for a small non profit.
I get to actually do work and make the world better. I don’t have to deal with endless egotistical BS.
I get paid plenty. It’s just half what I’d make at a corporation… god forbid!
I also used to run a small non profit business part time. But I quit because it became saturated with tech bros who wanted to make it into a bullshit corporate factory to satisfy their won delusional egos. My original partner were awesome, but they all left to start families.
Any suggestions as to how to get a job at a non profit?
the same as any job. have expereince
Ask me in 6 months. Got laid off in July. Severance runs till November. I’m not sweating it at the moment, and I’m enjoying the breath of air while I have it. Next month begins the search.
I’ve already told myself that I’m not going to break my back to get back into tech. And a couple of things that I think would be interesting to try.
I got my A+ cert and was actively looking/interviewing for entry level IT. This was after leaving my SEO career. I was substitute teaching for some supplemental income and found that I enjoyed it tremendously and I connected with the kids who were always happy to see me in their schools.
I looked at the tech industry and decided nah, it’s too unstable and saturated. I am currently in a master’s program for elementary education and I am so excited! I just want to do something that will help others.
I retired young. I had joined the US military at 18 years old and signed up under an IT profession. It started as a jack-of-all-trades IT job (if it touched a computer network, we managed it), but as the years went on, they started specializing us. Because if you’re a jack-of-all-trades, you’re a master of none, and the military wanted subject-matter experts. My final job was basically a server administrator, although they never fully adopted to the specialization change, so I was still doing odd IT work outside of my job requirements until I left the service.
After 20 years of service, I qualified for retirement from the military, which I jumped on. I was grandfathered into the old pension program, which means I get about half my base pay every month for the rest of my life. The military also kind of broke me (physically and mentally), so I’m 100% disabled according to the VA, even though I don’t look like it. That comes with it’s own free lifetime medical and dental plan, along with pay that’s twice as much as my pension every month.
So… I decided to take an early retirement at 38 years old and actually spend some time enjoying my life for once. The military was constant stress and focus on the mission. I didn’t get to spend much time focused on my own life because I was constantly being moved around the world at the whim of the govt. So now I’m settled down and just enjoying not having any responsibilities except what I choose to focus on.
I did try to find other IT work when I left the service. But I couldn’t get a call back from anyone, even through the military’s transitional internship program. Eventually, Google reached out to me, but their “internship” was to give me free access to their online training programs on Coursera for 6 months. They never called me back after that.
Eventually, I realized I didn’t need to work to survive. I wasn’t filthy rich by any stretch of the imagination, but my passive income was enough to live comfortably on without working another day of my life. All my basic needs were being met and I had enough extra each month to squirrel away a little bit for a rainy day. So I chose that path. It’s been just over 3 years since I retired and I’ve never been happier.
If you get bored, look into VR&E, and don’t forget about your GI Bill if you still have it. Both will get you get ‘free’ school and give you another monthly stipend while you’re learning.
Learn a completely new skill and get paid while you’re doing it.
Well, I guess I sort of have?
I’ve been an automation engineer for my whole career. Transitioned to software engineering at a big company. That lasted like a year. I hated it the entire time. The stupid scrum/agile workflow shit, the politics, the drama. It was very very cushy, pay and hours wise. Very low responsibility and truly if I was good I could do my work quickly and then just fuck around. Long lunch breaks, early days, etc.
But I was totally miserable. I’m back to automation now :)
I have a question for you actually, so I am looking at potentially doing a apprenticeship at a place that does precision machining and they would basically pay for college (assuming I get the role) because I would be working and doing school on and off for a bit of time each but I’m not sure about it.
I would be learning plc stuff mostly i think and is an automation degree and I’m interested in it because it is all under the umbrella of mechatronics.
I basically have 3d printing as a hobby on a custom 3d printer i built that I like and I have spent a lot of time helping my dad and brother work on cars and house repairs and know a small amount of some electrical things but not much and I know some engineering things but not much, so its like I have the interest but I don’t yet have the skills, I’m sure I could learn them but its a question for me to know if I want to head that direction or not.
I guess I’m curious what things you like about automation, I don’t know anyone in it and it was unexpected to see someone randomly in a comments section here doing it.
The other thing I would do is after or in the middle of the apprenticeship I wanted to also start a computer science degree at a online school called western governors university and it seems about as ideal of a school as I could imagine without the downsides of typical online schools and to me it still seems worth it to learn more computer science things even though people say the area is saturated, as long as I chose the right niche to go into, I think there are plenty of niches available that still skill benefit from these things for a long time as well as probably some unexpected future ones.
I’d say that was a lot of what I was interested before I got into this. Car work, house stuff, fixing small appliances and machines. It really piqued my interest from a young age and that’s still by and large true today.
Without getting on too high a soapbox here, I’ll say that job opportunities for me have been plentiful in this career path, and I’ve gotten to work in a lot of different places. We even moved permanently from the US to the EU because of it.
I feel automation is more stable and more hands on than comp sci or software, but that comes with more in-office or field/plant work and less working from home or the beach. The actual work is a lot of PLC/SCADA/HMI stuff, lots of importance in understanding complex electromechanical systems and how they need to work. Of course, like any field, there’s good and bad jobs in it. It does fit the way I like to think and work quite well though.
I think comp sci could be a good field too, like you said: depends on the niche. But it, like many other things, will be around in some capacities for a long time
That’s pretty awesome that you were able to move to the eu, its good that you mention its the way you like to think because that’s how I was thinking about it too lol.
20 years in IT (server administration) and I’m just tired of it. Starting a coffee shop next year and leaving IT behind.
Best of luck!! I think about doing this myself.
Thank you. I have been spending the past 6 months planning and organizing the structure, equipment, recipes, brand, ect… Giving myself another year to finalize and settle funding I think is a decent goal. I just hope the economy doesn’t tank so bad that coffee goes out the window.
As a lead software engineer: I engineered an exit with severance and unemployment compensation after the company was acquired by VC and I coasted a bit. Basically stirred the pot enough to be on a couple shit lists without getting fired, so when the workers had to suffer because the CEO couldn’t hit his sales numbers after gutting the sales department twice, I got put on the layoff list.
After burning through unemployment and some savings, I’ve landed as an IT business analyst at a giant company. I’m still technically freelance, but that’s just how they hire. I make about 20% less, but am still comfortable. It’s also the easiest job I’ve ever had by far. I talk to vendors, I meet with people, and I spend most of my time building the simplest little tools to reduce toil for others. I make up my own timelines. My boss is already asking if I want to be a manager.
I haven’t left yet, because I have no other marketable skills.
My only marketable skills are lying and ignoring reality, but I’m not willing to be a politician
No, but I’ve started thinking about getting a plan B ready (despite being in very stable circumstances). I am a late arrival to tech, but came to this field because I’m genuinely interested in it and want to immerse myself. It’s not my background and trying to catch up and keep up is tricky, but it has been interesting.
Yet, with what tech is trending towards (chat control, government IDs required to participate online, talk of banning adblockers and VPNs, the ever expanding reach of FAANG or whatever the acronym is) I’m not sure whether I can keep the enthusiasm up. What attracted me to tech was the scrappy underdogs in FOSS, the people standing up to the monopolies…but I’ve been losing some of my initial optimism.
AI is just the latest development in the saga, which puts question marks on the viability of a career in tech, as well as providing sort of poisoned chalice of convenience to somebody still starting out. I want to know and learn whatever I can myself, but my peers are ahead and using AI. Whenever I use AI I can feel my patience, curiosity and satisfaction atrophying.
Great question! I’m in the same boat, want to leave the tech sector entirety, after 25+ years of software development. I’m not happy about the direction tech is going for a while now. All the enshittification and forced AI bullshit makes me want to leave.
However as I defined myself as a tech enthusiast all my life I find it hard to reinvent myself. What other skills do I have? I can make some really good coffee. But apart from that? Idk
I’m 100% with you. Beyond making coffee and integrating systems I don’t have much else (family aside). Sure, I can throw up databases and virtual servers for days, reroute packets and secure connections like its second nature (been doing it for decades), but I feel kind of done with it.
Maybe one day I can sell my house and open a feed store or lawn mower repair shop in the middle of nowhere, but I don’t see a career change that doesn’t involve a complete reset.
I did. Went and did security at a remote location for an extended period of time.
Turns out I hate being in the middle of nowhere more than what I was doing before that. It was a great experience but I’m never going away for that long again.
I’ve left several jobs for greener pastures. In all cases, I learned a bit more about what I like and don’t about tech and non-tech (and big biz vs small biz, etc.). I went from tech to aerospace manufacturing, back to tech, to utilities, back to tech and then started my own company. I was shocked at how far behind some companies are from a tech perspective. I was pleasantly surprised at the slower pace. I thought the best talent was swooped up by tech (probably because they pay so much more). In the end, having more control, even if I’m paid a lot less, is preferred.
I don’t have a job
I have not yet, but I have a few years to go before I retire. I plan on coaching weightlifting. I might come back part time - I’m a gov employee, and they allow you to come back part time which means I’d be getting paid on top of my retirement. I’m not sure yet. If coaching works out well then I’d be happy doing that full time. Maybe even open a gym.
