I quit the tech industry

[theglidd]

http://eev.ee/blog/2015/06/09/i-quit-the-tech-industry/

pretty interesting read on quitting a tech job.

even MMM gets in on the comments.

[AZDude]

Sounds like the guy just needs better balance in his life, or at least a plan on what to do post-IT career. I mean, good for him if he makes it work, but with no plan he might end up back in the field after some time off.

[zephyr911]

http://eev.ee/blog/2015/06/09/i-quit-the-tech-industry/

pretty interesting read on quitting a tech job.

even MMM gets in on the comments.

Sometime in 2016 or 2017 I hope to be writing "I quit the Department of Defense"... ;)

[ditheca]

Love MMM's post in the comments of that article. 

My own thoughts: I work in tiny IT department, and accepted a very low (for IT) salary that came with a package of regular hours, respect from executive management, and a reasonable workload.  Between my required duties, I have time to think, innovate, and code solutions that have paid off well for our small (~150 employee) company. As a side benefit, I get a lot of recognition for my innovations and special projects, and that recognition just resulted in a dramatic salary increase!

I wouldn't dream of working in a google, microsoft, or yelp environment that pays much better but comes with the baggage described in the article, but there are alternatives that are far superior to quitting your job without a business plan.

[zephyr911]

Sounds like the guy just needs better balance in his life, or at least a plan on what to do post-IT career. I mean, good for him if he makes it work, but with no plan he might end up back in the field after some time off.

That's what happened to me with DoD... twice. Then I figured out the investing part.

[ash7962]

Sounds like the guy just needs better balance in his life, or at least a plan on what to do post-IT career. I mean, good for him if he makes it work, but with no plan he might end up back in the field after some time off.

I'm not so sure about the better work/life balance aspect.  I'm also a software dev and I have had very similar thoughts as the author of the blog post.  I would say I have a better work/life balance than most jobs would afford.  We make an effort to minimize work done out of hours, no strict policies on leaving at 5pm, and the company is very flexible about taking time off or getting personal things done during work hours (anything from doctor/dentist/haircut appointments to going down to the CTA offices to straighten out an account issue).  What I'm saying is that I think my job is pretty good in terms of work/life balance, but I still feel how the author does.  Mostly the parts about not really caring about the problems at my job and never having the time or motivation to work on my own projects that I do care about.  My job is mentally taxing plus the mental energy I spend to make myself care about the problem enough to come up with a good solution.  After hours I generally only have enough brain juice left to handle the basic household/body maintenance tasks and maybe 1 project on the weekend.  Over the weekend I mostly recover enough to get back to it Monday morning.  Maybe I'm just not cut out to handle the normal 9-5 type job, but I feel like I'm slowly but surely being worn down and I don't think the amount of work is the problem.

[AZDude]

Sounds like the guy just needs better balance in his life, or at least a plan on what to do post-IT career. I mean, good for him if he makes it work, but with no plan he might end up back in the field after some time off.

I'm not so sure about the better work/life balance aspect.  I'm also a software dev and I have had very similar thoughts as the author of the blog post.  I would say I have a better work/life balance than most jobs would afford.  We make an effort to minimize work done out of hours, no strict policies on leaving at 5pm, and the company is very flexible about taking time off or getting personal things done during work hours (anything from doctor/dentist/haircut appointments to going down to the CTA offices to straighten out an account issue).  What I'm saying is that I think my job is pretty good in terms of work/life balance, but I still feel how the author does.  Mostly the parts about not really caring about the problems at my job and never having the time or motivation to work on my own projects that I do care about.  My job is mentally taxing plus the mental energy I spend to make myself care about the problem enough to come up with a good solution.  After hours I generally only have enough brain juice left to handle the basic household/body maintenance tasks and maybe 1 project on the weekend.  Over the weekend I mostly recover enough to get back to it Monday morning.  Maybe I'm just not cut out to handle the normal 9-5 type job, but I feel like I'm slowly but surely being worn down and I don't think the amount of work is the problem.

I am also a software developer and it really depends on the job. I have had jobs that wear me out, and a couple that allowed me time to focus on other projects. Its all about finding the right space that works for you. And when you find it, don't leave over a petty dispute... Just speaking from person experience there.

[stlbrah]

I concluded from a lot of the comments that some of those people wouldn't have as many problems if they tried some Dale Carnegie tactics.

"I've only been on my job for about 4 months, and I already feel that way. I had a huge argument with my boss yesterday and said to him (after explaining something elementary twice in our argument) "Forget it. I'm going home. This is ridiculous." As I type this, I'm anticipating being let go. "

I cringed reading that.

[ash7962]

...Maybe I'm just not cut out to handle the normal ... job...

This is probably one of the main reasons why I've always been frugal. The prevailing system of full-time employment is nothing but abject misery. I know that any day, there could come a point when I literally can't take another day of it, and I just have to stop working with no notice because I can't do it anymore. As a result, I've always viewed money as something that needs to be saved, because on very short notice, I might not ever be able to work again, and I'll need money to survive for the rest of my life thereafter. Early retirement for me is about survival. This approach contrasts sharply with most posters here who seem to view this as merely a lifestyle choice, as opposed to the only way to survive.

I can definitely relate to what you said.  I don't think I feel quite so strongly all the time, but there's definitely days/weeks/months where I feel like I'm barely hanging in there.  Even when I was a kid I hated the structured days and limited freedoms of school.  I'm so glad I found MMM when I did because otherwise I'd be facing another 40 years of full time work.  To some extent early retirement is how I will survive since I think I'd actually go a little crazy from working full time for a long period of time.  I just consider myself lucky that I started saving for early retirement before I got totally burned out from this job which will hopefully translate into a stash of at least half of what I need to be FI.  I think after that I might just move onto a part time job at least for a year or so then figure out if I can make what I have work, or if I should take another full time job for a few years in order to actually achieve FI.  Either way, I think my journey will be a bit different from the norm.

[Cougar]

 i cannot wait to quit tech.

 the pay is good, but if youre a responsiblie person; you could get a job where being on unoffical oncall 24/7 and putting out fires is a regular occurence; i know; i have that job. i worked a 1/2 day of my vacation one vacation day and 2 hours on another vacation and not one other person, who knew i was on vacation; offered to pitch in and offered comp time or even a thank you.

now, thats more the people i work with than the job; but a teacher doesnt have this problem.

and keeping up with the latest is on you, that gets really old after 20 years.

[AZDude]

If you work while on vacation its on you, no one else. N O - two most important letters in the alphabet.

[Cougar]

If you work while on vacation its on you, no one else. N O - two most important letters in the alphabet.

i grant that, but a couple years ago; a system went down over the weekend and i emailed to ask if someone else could handle it and it was actually their responsiblity; i'm a developer; not system admin; and the entire dept full of sys admins and supervisors didn't and i had to fix it on sunday; then got bitched out monday with the rest of them. since then, i do it as cya.
as long as i need a job, the job owns me; most dont see it that way; but i've gone 6 months without steady income and i'm not comfortable with that again until i'm fire.