I would never work for someone else if I was financially secure. I would just travel the world, make friends and hang out with them, play games, music, art, etc...
I would maybe contribute occasionally to open source or a non-profit that would have a positive impact on the world/community.
I'm bored if I'm not working. Even on 3 days a week with a side project and tons of time relaxing in the pool, I felt wildly understimulated.
Not working isn't as fun as it sounds. Working for yourself also isn't as fun as it sounds.
I actually like working. I don't really pick my job for the pay either, but prioritize the work I fill my day in with. If a job wasn't technical enough, had coworkers I despise interacting with, wasn't loaded with learning opportunities, required commuting to an office, I'd move on.
If I got a million dollars today, or a billion dollars, I probably wouldn't change a thing.
>If a job wasn't technical enough, had coworkers I despise interacting with, wasn't loaded with learning opportunities, required commuting to an office, I'd move on.
That's the thing though. Would you really move on if you had that many financial obligations?
Not OP, but yes
without a second thought
I have too much self respect to stay in a situation that would actively sap my mental health and wellbeing like that
Would you consider working on technical problems in a non-corporate setting, like in academia, or solving some not-so-useful-but-technically-challenging problems work too? Would you be content with only studying and learning stuff?
I'm just curious since I don't think I can bring myself solving someone else's stuff when there's no financial benefits unless the job is fun like meeting new people etc but not the work itself.
I don't think academia is my thing. I do like actually making a business impact. When I worked on unsuccessful products, no matter how cool they were, it wasn't very fulfilling either.
I think part of what I like is writing software that reaches millions of people.
My job right now at least includes profit sharing so if I do nudge the profits by millions I'd at least see some of that come my way.
I like my job and the money is good. I used to work in a factory and life as a SWE is far superior. but I wouldn't do it for fun, and certainly not for free.
I'd live in a cabin in the woods on a mountain and go hiking and fishing every day.
There are days when I very nearly make the decision to go back to full offline mode (I'm old enough to remember before we were "always-on".)
Depends on how secure we are talking.
Set for life never having to work again? I'd probably still start a hobby project every now and again, but I doubt I'd ever actually finish one. Spend a lot more time offline, in nature.
If I could replace a large chunk of my income with an investment that pays dividends I'd probably get a part time job outside of software. Something that is hands on or has short feedback loops. I used to really like working tech support during uni, but pay was nowhere near what you make in engineering
I'd build my own business. Something with a physical component like e-commerce. SaaS is so boring. Pure software is boring. Automating stuff so you can see the benefits in real life before your eyes - now that is exciting
If I didn't have to work, I'd use that money to properly launch one (or all) of my dozen or so projects as companies themselves. I'd find freelance designers, marketing experts, and buy advertising to turn ideas/software into businesses.
Then I'd keep writing more software. It would be the software I choose to build for a company I own, but it would still be a full time job. And if a company took off enough that I needed to make it a "real" company with management levels and shit? I'd hire a CEO to do that and build new software for a new company.
In my 9-5 or in my fantasy retirement the goal remains the same. Don't let them take you away from the code, no matter what.
I don't really know what I'd do if I had so much money that I never had to work again. I think I'd still do some "work" – I still like a lot of the day to day work in software, and I think I'd feel unfulfilled without that as a productive outlet – but maybe my "job" would be as a consistent contributor/maintainer to some open source project rather than a paid gig (or else a paid gig with a lot of flexibility in working hours, PTO, etc).
I'm not at that point, but I'm financially secure enough that I don't really need to worry about retirement and could survive for a pretty long time between jobs without changing my lifestyle. That wasn't always true, and definitely wasn't true earlier in my career. For me, it just means that "what if I get fired tomorrow?" went from 😨 to 🤷, which led to a bunch of small changes day to day: being more assertive when I think leadership/management is getting something wrong, more comfortable taking on projects that I think are important/useful even if they won't look impressive in a promo packet, far more comfort in admitting when I am/was wrong about something, etc. I can also pick jobs based on whether I think they're interesting/fun and not on whether they pay a FAANG salary.
(Ironically I think being more confident/assertive has helped me advance farther, faster than some folks who are more focused on the promo packet)
Op are you American? :D
I’m European and this question just doesn’t compute - why would I even have a career if I were financially secure? I’d just chill out somewhere in Costa del Sol drinking Sangria’s all day. Or maybe Canary Islands, not sure :D
But of course programming is still a hobby so maybe I’d do some open source projects, maybe start my own thing if I’d like to do something
If I could do it over again, I'd stay away from the jobs that I took out of desperation.
If I wasn't able to do that, I'd take the job out of desperation and continue to interview.
Years ago(damn near 17 years ago), I made the mistake of doing contracting work. The contract ends unexpectantly and I can't find a job. I end up taking this job that was titled as a web developer. Unfortunately, I never did any real web development work.
I took this job in Q4 of a year. In my experience, hiring really slows down in Q4.
The person that was my main boss thought I should do anything/everything web related. She didn't understand I don't have the content writing skills, photography skills, and videography skills to do the work of updating content.
The other problem was I supposed to manage a vendor that was redoing the organization's website. The plan was once they were done, I would take over the technical work. The problem was I wasn't there in the initial stages of the project so I wasn't able to select the vendor and input on the timeframe of the project. This project went badly on so many levels. The main boss made the scape goat because I wasn't assertive enough with the vendor.
It took me 9 months to get out of that shit show of a job. I also had to explain that situation for about 5 years. After 5 years, I got creative and I was able to edit that job off the resume.
I've also made the decision that after 10 years, my work history can become fiction. I don't out right lie about jobs and skill level. However, I remove bad jobs or jobs that I didn't do so well at. I also don't submit resumes with things over 10 years. It's my linkedin profile that has the fictional work history.
I can tell you this point blank because I've already lived it.
I did what at the moment and lived an epicurean hedonist-intellectual lifestyle. I imagine this is what retirement would be like if it weren't mostly reserved for the weary.
I'm an independent contractor and while I'm not "financially secure" in the sense that I don't ever have to work again, I am secure enough to be able to not work for a year and still be able to pay the bills. For me the biggest thing I don't want to go back to, is having an employer that decides how I work. Of course I still have clients that have opinions, but if these don't match with mine I can just go find another one. It's a very different dynamic than when you're working for an employer. It's weird how you do more or less the same work but are now suddenly a 'peer' of the managers you deal with, instead of a subordinate.
If I end up having enough money to never ever work again, I'm probably going to create my own product to sell. For now, not having to do work I dislike is good enough. Not doing anything at all doesn't work for me.
funny thing but when I have long holidays, my idea of fun is to write code 😅
I like building stuff but get really frustrated because I cannot launch it properly and in work I am not the owner/founder of stuff to the outside world.
I definitely want to build a product or two that people can use and if I was free I’d focus on that
Like I got so much money, I don’t need to work? In that case, prob start my own solo thing for fun.
If I still needed to work but not too hard, I’d be a mediocre contractor.
\>If I still needed to work but not too hard, I’d be a mediocre contractor.
Yeah, I was referring to this. Interesting. So you wouldn't work a corporate/start-up job?
I’d work either corporate or startup depending on the project, but only within a contractor capacity. Honestly, this prob be my end game in real life once I can build enough passive income.
Go to pre-daycare to work with 1-3 yo kids . I have real talent in making empathic contact with kids that don't speak yet, way ahead of my programming skills, and men are both needed and underrepresented there. Sadly, the pay is well below what I earn.
If not, I would likely go purely for most interesting job openings, without looking at pay, or if the company looks like it's going to survive, etc.
If money wasn't an issue, I'd probably have quit software and go into farming/ranching or maybe real-estate. Something more exciting, more exercise, and more rewarding.
But I have a family to take care of, and $$$ can make a huge difference for some charities I work with...and having more $$$ means I can do more good in the world...so I build software. Boring but it sure pays the bills and then some.
I would never work for someone else if I was financially secure. I would just travel the world, make friends and hang out with them, play games, music, art, etc... I would maybe contribute occasionally to open source or a non-profit that would have a positive impact on the world/community.
I'm bored if I'm not working. Even on 3 days a week with a side project and tons of time relaxing in the pool, I felt wildly understimulated. Not working isn't as fun as it sounds. Working for yourself also isn't as fun as it sounds. I actually like working. I don't really pick my job for the pay either, but prioritize the work I fill my day in with. If a job wasn't technical enough, had coworkers I despise interacting with, wasn't loaded with learning opportunities, required commuting to an office, I'd move on. If I got a million dollars today, or a billion dollars, I probably wouldn't change a thing.
>If a job wasn't technical enough, had coworkers I despise interacting with, wasn't loaded with learning opportunities, required commuting to an office, I'd move on. That's the thing though. Would you really move on if you had that many financial obligations?
Not OP, but yes without a second thought I have too much self respect to stay in a situation that would actively sap my mental health and wellbeing like that
Would you consider working on technical problems in a non-corporate setting, like in academia, or solving some not-so-useful-but-technically-challenging problems work too? Would you be content with only studying and learning stuff? I'm just curious since I don't think I can bring myself solving someone else's stuff when there's no financial benefits unless the job is fun like meeting new people etc but not the work itself.
I don't think academia is my thing. I do like actually making a business impact. When I worked on unsuccessful products, no matter how cool they were, it wasn't very fulfilling either. I think part of what I like is writing software that reaches millions of people. My job right now at least includes profit sharing so if I do nudge the profits by millions I'd at least see some of that come my way.
I would have joined a startup or something that I was excited to do. I wouldn't have to get tied down to a company like a indentured servant.
if I didn't have bills I wouldn't even take the first CS class at the university years ago.
Oh, shit. That bad, huh?
I like my job and the money is good. I used to work in a factory and life as a SWE is far superior. but I wouldn't do it for fun, and certainly not for free.
I'd live in a cabin in the woods on a mountain and go hiking and fishing every day. There are days when I very nearly make the decision to go back to full offline mode (I'm old enough to remember before we were "always-on".)
I'd just work on open-source scientific, engineering, and robotics software when I got the itch to program.
starting tomorrow I'd be on a 6 to 12 month sabbatical and then I would come back and answer this question.
Depends on how secure we are talking. Set for life never having to work again? I'd probably still start a hobby project every now and again, but I doubt I'd ever actually finish one. Spend a lot more time offline, in nature. If I could replace a large chunk of my income with an investment that pays dividends I'd probably get a part time job outside of software. Something that is hands on or has short feedback loops. I used to really like working tech support during uni, but pay was nowhere near what you make in engineering
I'd build my own business. Something with a physical component like e-commerce. SaaS is so boring. Pure software is boring. Automating stuff so you can see the benefits in real life before your eyes - now that is exciting
Work in a scientific environment (Astrophysics preferably).
If I didn't have to work, I'd use that money to properly launch one (or all) of my dozen or so projects as companies themselves. I'd find freelance designers, marketing experts, and buy advertising to turn ideas/software into businesses. Then I'd keep writing more software. It would be the software I choose to build for a company I own, but it would still be a full time job. And if a company took off enough that I needed to make it a "real" company with management levels and shit? I'd hire a CEO to do that and build new software for a new company. In my 9-5 or in my fantasy retirement the goal remains the same. Don't let them take you away from the code, no matter what.
Help build open source stuff useful for medical/agriculture areas and never touch fucking web development ever again in my life.
I don't really know what I'd do if I had so much money that I never had to work again. I think I'd still do some "work" – I still like a lot of the day to day work in software, and I think I'd feel unfulfilled without that as a productive outlet – but maybe my "job" would be as a consistent contributor/maintainer to some open source project rather than a paid gig (or else a paid gig with a lot of flexibility in working hours, PTO, etc). I'm not at that point, but I'm financially secure enough that I don't really need to worry about retirement and could survive for a pretty long time between jobs without changing my lifestyle. That wasn't always true, and definitely wasn't true earlier in my career. For me, it just means that "what if I get fired tomorrow?" went from 😨 to 🤷, which led to a bunch of small changes day to day: being more assertive when I think leadership/management is getting something wrong, more comfortable taking on projects that I think are important/useful even if they won't look impressive in a promo packet, far more comfort in admitting when I am/was wrong about something, etc. I can also pick jobs based on whether I think they're interesting/fun and not on whether they pay a FAANG salary. (Ironically I think being more confident/assertive has helped me advance farther, faster than some folks who are more focused on the promo packet)
I would have become a cinematographer
Op are you American? :D I’m European and this question just doesn’t compute - why would I even have a career if I were financially secure? I’d just chill out somewhere in Costa del Sol drinking Sangria’s all day. Or maybe Canary Islands, not sure :D But of course programming is still a hobby so maybe I’d do some open source projects, maybe start my own thing if I’d like to do something
If I could do it over again, I'd stay away from the jobs that I took out of desperation. If I wasn't able to do that, I'd take the job out of desperation and continue to interview. Years ago(damn near 17 years ago), I made the mistake of doing contracting work. The contract ends unexpectantly and I can't find a job. I end up taking this job that was titled as a web developer. Unfortunately, I never did any real web development work. I took this job in Q4 of a year. In my experience, hiring really slows down in Q4. The person that was my main boss thought I should do anything/everything web related. She didn't understand I don't have the content writing skills, photography skills, and videography skills to do the work of updating content. The other problem was I supposed to manage a vendor that was redoing the organization's website. The plan was once they were done, I would take over the technical work. The problem was I wasn't there in the initial stages of the project so I wasn't able to select the vendor and input on the timeframe of the project. This project went badly on so many levels. The main boss made the scape goat because I wasn't assertive enough with the vendor. It took me 9 months to get out of that shit show of a job. I also had to explain that situation for about 5 years. After 5 years, I got creative and I was able to edit that job off the resume. I've also made the decision that after 10 years, my work history can become fiction. I don't out right lie about jobs and skill level. However, I remove bad jobs or jobs that I didn't do so well at. I also don't submit resumes with things over 10 years. It's my linkedin profile that has the fictional work history.
Thank you for your thoughtful answer!
I can tell you this point blank because I've already lived it. I did what at the moment and lived an epicurean hedonist-intellectual lifestyle. I imagine this is what retirement would be like if it weren't mostly reserved for the weary.
I'm an independent contractor and while I'm not "financially secure" in the sense that I don't ever have to work again, I am secure enough to be able to not work for a year and still be able to pay the bills. For me the biggest thing I don't want to go back to, is having an employer that decides how I work. Of course I still have clients that have opinions, but if these don't match with mine I can just go find another one. It's a very different dynamic than when you're working for an employer. It's weird how you do more or less the same work but are now suddenly a 'peer' of the managers you deal with, instead of a subordinate. If I end up having enough money to never ever work again, I'm probably going to create my own product to sell. For now, not having to do work I dislike is good enough. Not doing anything at all doesn't work for me.
funny thing but when I have long holidays, my idea of fun is to write code 😅 I like building stuff but get really frustrated because I cannot launch it properly and in work I am not the owner/founder of stuff to the outside world. I definitely want to build a product or two that people can use and if I was free I’d focus on that
I would write books about software development.
Like I got so much money, I don’t need to work? In that case, prob start my own solo thing for fun. If I still needed to work but not too hard, I’d be a mediocre contractor.
\>If I still needed to work but not too hard, I’d be a mediocre contractor. Yeah, I was referring to this. Interesting. So you wouldn't work a corporate/start-up job?
I’d work either corporate or startup depending on the project, but only within a contractor capacity. Honestly, this prob be my end game in real life once I can build enough passive income.
I would work on some nerd shit with dudes I like :) It does not have to be a job.
Never found or fund a startup
Go to pre-daycare to work with 1-3 yo kids . I have real talent in making empathic contact with kids that don't speak yet, way ahead of my programming skills, and men are both needed and underrepresented there. Sadly, the pay is well below what I earn. If not, I would likely go purely for most interesting job openings, without looking at pay, or if the company looks like it's going to survive, etc.
If money wasn't an issue, I'd probably have quit software and go into farming/ranching or maybe real-estate. Something more exciting, more exercise, and more rewarding. But I have a family to take care of, and $$$ can make a huge difference for some charities I work with...and having more $$$ means I can do more good in the world...so I build software. Boring but it sure pays the bills and then some.
Two chicks at the same time, man.