this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025

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It's my 54th BD, left a $83K IT job last summer, interviewing at Lowe's tomorrow. Is it weird I'm looking forward to it? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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."

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

If you thought demotivating management was associated with high pay and white collar work, Lowe’s will disabuse you of that notion.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 days ago (5 children)

Nah, not crazy. In my view anyway. In 2020 I left nursing in CA making close to $100k and paid zero for actually amazing insurance… to work part time at a bakery for roughly $23/hr in Norway. I was 39.

Sometimes we just have enough and we don’t need to keep chasing the dollars in favor of a simpler, cozier life.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

How did you move to Norway? Afaik you can't just show up to stay permanently.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

You’re right, it is actually quite uncommon for Americans to live here without special circumstances. My husband is in tech, and managed to get hired on here, and so we are here on his work visa. We can test for citizenship after 7 years residency and testing language and civics, which we plan to do in about 3 years. We know that we are very lucky.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Norway has much nicer benefits and lower cost if living than California

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Cost of living isn’t off by too terribly much haha. Our 2bd 1ba apartment is about half the cost that our 3bd 2ba duplex in Bay Area was. But we make substantially less. Also a hamburger, for reference, is routinely about $20 without fries, like for a Five Guys kind of burger. So we don’t eat out nearly as much. Healthier that way anyway. Lots of trade offs but ultimately it is the best and safest place I’ve ever lived.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

There’s only one way to find out

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Not crazy at all, but just be forewarned that dealing with the public will make you long for the computer screen again!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

When I worked at Lowe’s, dealing with the public was the only good part of the job.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

When I'm at a screen I wanna work outside and when I'm working outside I desperately want to be back at my cushy screen time jobs.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'm near my 40s, and have been working as software dev since finishing my masters. Few years back I started to go in the direction of more management less dev in a previous company. Saw it wasn't for me and went to work somewhere else working as a simpler dev role. A few years after and I'm starting to feel the need to change further even. I do love coding but the whole layer of tech debt and management and meetings is wearing me out and has made me lose my love for tech. I am just lost as to what I'd do instead. Cannot work on retail with my autistic ass and since WFH was allowed and accepted I am not planning to go back to an office anyway. Maybe woodworker or something would be enjoyable for me, but there's other constraints that won't allow me to change right now, lots of bills to pay and my wife is an entrepreneur so we can't really risk losing my stable position right now, with two small kids. Once they grow and get out of the house we'd likely move more country side, get some chicken to care for (we love animals) or something like that and maybe I can get space to do some wood work or whatever come to mind then.

So overall, no, you are not losing it, or maybe we are all losing it together. Same with depression, it's such a tough shit to leave behind. I'm still fighting with it but doing better lately, the job doesn't help at all...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Also a tech worker considering a major pivot. I have a fascination with electrical work so I'm wondering if taking on an apprenticeship might give me a chance to dip my toes in.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

High Tech Low Life... Gas Station Clerk Freelancing as Web Dev with 20 yrs of experience.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I am a programmer too. I absolutely loved it. I finally took a shot and changed my hobby into a stable good-paying job with a car, laptop, phone, whatever.

I quit a few years later. Almost exclusively because of the project managers. I was mentally exhausted because of the daily 8 hours of stress they gave me. I wasn't able to look at code for around 8 months.

I'm working on getting my drivers license back and am thinking of getting into package delivery. I have also been working on opensource projects and have actually been enjoying it again.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

Wayyyy ahead of you pal. Got into tech when I was a wee little lad, my dad would bring home computers from the work dumpster, hand me a screw driver and let me go at it.

When I was 11 I built a computer with my dad, and continued learning about tech and computers. I worked after school in middle school to help out the librarian, who had the job of looking after the laptops and computer carts.

Went into highschool and got into a Comptia± honors class, as the only freshman and the only person to get As in that class.

Fresh after highschool and 6 months into a computer job, I quit at the age of 19. Instead I went to pursue woodworking.

I had a great boss, and I was great at my job, but I was in computer repair. A dying industry and I was getting paid minimum wage, despite a lot of skill (microsoldering, logic board rework, macbook repair, liquid damage repair, etc).

Skill and knowledge that I studied for a decade, and I was being paid minimum wage. There were probably better opportunities but I wasn't interested anymore. The environment was just far too corporate, so I decided to start building my own business, woodworking, selling tools, and help teach.

Ive gone to tool events, tuned up a lot of tools, and given presentations and its 10x more fulfilling. Havent made a lot from the "business" but I'm happy.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (5 children)

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?

[–] zqps 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My uncle was a highly paid banker, and ran off to Australia to build his own farm. So it doesn't seem weird to me.

However I'm a little surprised by your old wages. $83k in IT at 53 seems low, and before that you were even at $42k? I thought US American IT paid really well. Or is that specific to California only or to developers only?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

I’m not that guy, but the term IT is extremely overloaded these days. People can say they are in IT working anything from a $20/hr help desk job to a $900k/yr AI engineer in big tech.

Industry, company, location can all have massive effects on salary.

[–] baggachipz 7 points 6 days ago

This is my goal as well. Been in software for 27 years (holy shit) and want to retire by 55. Only open question for me is health insurance.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

Good on ya mate. I retired, at least temporarily, from almost 30 years in IT today. I may do some part time consulting to pay for vacations in the future, but my FT days are over. I hope you enjoy being away from it as much as I will.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

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. 😛

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

you remind me of me in some ways. I can't do what you do though as my wife has a lot of medical issues and its all on my pay. I must find something.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

I dropped out of the IT game before I even started (dropped out of an IT qualification 20yrs ago), and can honestly say it was totally worth it.

Now I spend some happy evenings working on IT side projects related to my main career (entertainment) and it's fun. I even make extra cash doing freelance programming but because it's not my main hustle I get to choose to say no.

What I'm saying is while you are at the hardware doing what you enjoy, there is nothing stopping you from doing freelance IT work on the side, just look for the projects that inspire you. It's not all or nothing decision..

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

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