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2 days agoI was unemployed for over a year. Recently got a job in SWE. I regret it. Waste of my life. It’s worthless work, I don’t do anything that matters to anyone but shareholders. Contemplating quitting during my probation period and learning a trade (it would be a no brainer if 10 years as an SWE at a desk for 16 hours a day hadn’t physically destroyed my body) or getting more involved in political activism.
In your situation, if you insist you want to get into tech, I would recommend applying to jobs that closely match your skillset and then spend some extra curricular time making friends with the in house programmers, finding ways to collaborate, and showing that having you spend time with them is valuable.
Thanks for your perspective! I absolutely don’t think trade work is easy, it can be extremely demanding, and I don’t think I’m physically capable of it now. My back was destroyed for a week after putting up ceiling panels recently. I’m not romanticizing it, just comparing it to most software development roles that involve finishing tasks that are not very useful to anyone and exist mostly in service of either shareholders or making things a little easier for their employees, often at the expense of the users. If you build a wall, that’s a real useful thing for some people. I’m sure there are a million other examples of jobs like that (care work, teaching, arts, governance, etc) but trades was the subset I personally wish I had done instead while I still had the physical fitness.